tricks

September 13, 2008 4:31 PM

Teach me or help me find fun tricks to entertain my friends. I'm looking for any kind of trick, specifically psychology ones. Anything "magic" and fun or even just plain silly.

I currently have a few tricks but would like to extend my knowledge.

A few that I know now are:

-Blowing mysterious steam out of my mouth (condensing the air with pressure)
-Asking people the colour of white objects and then asking what cows drink (they usually say water)
-Writing down 7 and then asking them to think of a number (usually 7)
-Two coins on a shot glass of which the other person should pick up and drink from without touching the glass (the coins touch the glass)
-placing chopsticks in weird patterns and asking what number. (the number is in my fingers, not the chopsticks.)


I have more but I want to see what other ones you all have

posted by Knigel to food & drink (18 answers total)

This works. Especially in bars.
posted by fire&wings at 4:47 PM on September 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

You mean they usually say "milk".
posted by Ike_Arumba at 5:13 PM on September 13, 2008

YES YES YES. The levitation that fire&wings links to. Be sure to follow the directions on building it up. Don't perform it on demand. Let the legend build and only do it occasionally.
posted by ALongDecember at 5:23 PM on September 13, 2008

party tricks
physical tricks for young kids
(a few more by clicking on your "tricks" tag)
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:31 PM on September 13, 2008

Revision3's Scam School has how-to videos for about 25 of these, mostly for caging free drinks in bars.
posted by jenkinsEar at 6:19 PM on September 13, 2008

Try Penn & Teller's book, Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends. They're extremely simple (mostly) but original tricks to impress people, such as "calming" a shaken-up soda can with a finger tap, or turning water into wine.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:20 PM on September 13, 2008

By "psychology tricks", do you mean mentalism?

I always thought the grey elephant from Denmark trick was cute.
posted by CKmtl at 6:40 PM on September 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

Similar to the chopsticks and fingers, we have one in which you hold up a totally random succession of small table objects (or whatever) and ask your friend "Is this a planet?" Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes no, and the friend has to guess what the rule is. It's puzzling. The answer is that it's in your question: When you say "Is this a planet" the answer is yes, when you begin with another word such as "Okay...is this a planet?" or "So...is this a planet?" the answer is no.

There's one with four playing cards face down on table - four face cards. I can't remember it too well, but I think it's this: you tell your friend they have the power of telling which card is which despite the fact they can't see the faces. Their task is to find the king. You know which one the king is, having laid out the cards, but they don't know. So you just ask them: separate out any two cards. They slide two cards over. If one of those two is the king, then ask them to remove one more card. If they have selected the king, ask them to turn it over. Viola! King! Amazing!. If they have selected the other card, sweep it over to the pile with the first two, and ask them to turn over the last card. Voila! King! Amazing! Obviously this works regardless of which two cards they separate out first, and is astounding, for a couple of minutes until they figure it out. You just do it by leaving your instructions vague enough so that they don't realize you're just eliminating possibilities until they have the king and can turn it over.
posted by Miko at 8:21 PM on September 13, 2008

Bring out plate with some coins on it. Place plate on table, say 'pick one of the coins and everybody pass it around to psychically charge it (or similar hokum) then put it back on plate.' Leave the room. Come back. Pick out the coin everybody psychically charged!

All the coins were in your fridge. The one they handled is the warm one.

Another favorite: say that 'most people will die within six months of their birthday' and see who gets it.

I gotta million of 'em.
posted by eccnineten at 9:53 PM on September 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

1) Tell a friend to say "tree" twenty times really quickly. After he's done, point to your elbow and say "quick, what's this?". He'll say "knee".

2) Put your hands on a table. The left hand should be balled into a fist or a tube, with the fist/tube standing up on the table so it's like a vertical cylinder. The right hand should be flat, palm down on the surface.

Move your right-hand-palm forwards and backwards while gently banging your left-fist up and down on your table. It's hard, but get used to it. Now, switch your right and left hands. The people trying to imitate you will get all messed up.

3) Similarly: Hold your hands up in the air. Have your right hand make a fake-gun shape (pow-pow), and make an outstretched palm with your left hand, but fold your thumb in. Raise your hands so that the palm of your left hand is facing forwards, and the right-hand-gun is pointing towards the left hand. Switch your right and left hands repeatedly. This one is someone tricky, too.

4) This nearly always works.

You know that stretch where you grab your hands together and turn your arms inside out? Everyone's done this before -- you put your left hand with your palm facing left, your right hand with your palm facing right, clasp your hands together palm-to-palm so that your arms are crossed, bring them under and stretch them out..

The trick: Say "I bet you can't do this!", and tell people to put their hands in this position. Do the stretch once or twice; people will probably follow. Your patter: "Oh. Then how about this?" Revert to the original position; your friends will too.

Now, this is important: release your hands, and pretend to adjust the position of your friend's hands -- move them slightly, or twist them further. Re-clasp your hands, but when you do, don't actually hold them in the first position; clasp them with your left arm turned left. (What I mean is: outstretch your arms, and clasp your hands together normally. Now twist them counterclockwise. This is the position in which you should hold your hands.)

So now: Your arms are holding each other normally, although they're twisted. Their arms are individually twisted. With a grunt, rotate your arms so that your arms are no longer together. They'll try, but fail. Ta-da!
posted by suedehead at 10:02 PM on September 13, 2008

spell 'mop' , spell 'hop' , spell 'stop'. what do you do when you come to a green light?
they usually say stop
posted by docmccoy at 10:58 PM on September 13, 2008

Oh Wa
Ta Goo
Si Am
posted by davidmsc at 3:19 AM on September 14, 2008

The smoking fingers is always fun, and a good repertoire of wine cork tricks is a must.
posted by TedW at 6:25 AM on September 14, 2008

Oh Wa
Ta Goo
Si Am

I don't get it.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:58 PM on September 14, 2008 [5 favorites]

The Real Hustle
posted by AceRock at 10:24 PM on September 14, 2008

Oh Wa
Ta Goo
Si Am

Oh what a goose I am.
posted by Knigel at 8:05 AM on September 15, 2008

Can you explain that mysterious steam/condensed air trick a bit more?
posted by rux at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2008

Rux, I simply put my fist to my lips and push air against my cheeks for a few seconds as hard as I can and then gently exhale the "steam".
posted by Knigel at 4:25 PM on September 17, 2008