I only know a couple, that I can think of. If you know any more please add to the list.
It’s the “two forks, two toothpicks, and salt shaker one”.
Here it goes:
Take the two forks and intermesh the prongs together(like fingers) so they lock and the forks make a right angle, pretty much. (Some forks won’t lock together, they gotta be basic, run-in-the-mill forks.)
Take one of the toothpicks and stick it in the center hole of the salt or pepper shaker, make sure it’s nice and snug. BTW, the top of the shaker must be flat and have holes big enough to fit a toothpick.
Now take the other toothpick and slide inbetween the prongs of the fork wherever it will fit(closest to the center, and centered top to bottom, left or right side doesn’t matter). Only a bit of the toothpick (a third) should stick out the back(the side where the fork tips are). Make sure that it will balance on your fingertip perfectly, gently rocking back and forth.
4)CAREFULLY, place the tip of the toothpick stuck in the forks on the end of the toothpick in the salt shaker.
TIPS:
The toothpicks can’t be the flat kind
before you put the toothpick in the salt shaker, tap it on the table to flatten the tip, it will make it easier to balance the other toothpick on
try to get the trick set up on the first try, it is a whole lot more impressive to your audience than messing with it for five minutes before you get it to balance.
leave it on the table and tell the waitress if she knocks it over she’s not gettin a tip.
The other trick is with the cellophane off a cigarette box.
Take the plastic gently and try to keep it “nice”.
Crease the corners so the plastic will stand on the open end, and not fall over.
Take a lit smoke and gently burn a hole on the top center of the plastic, about 2/3 the diameter of a cigarette.
Roll up a piece of paper, about the size of a baseball card, a receipt or some newspaper, and stick it in the hole on top of the cellophane.
Light the end of the rolled piece of paper and watch.
TIPS:
Jiggle the “box” for the squiggle effect
Stop the fire before it melts the cellophane, you might want to do the trick over.
don’t try it anywhere outside, the breeze will make you crazy.
I’ve worked in two bars and have seen a bunch. These are the only ones I know worth sharing, and they wont get you 86’d.
You will need:
A wine bottle
2 corks
2 forks
1 pin
1 needle
Place one of the corks securely into the neck of the wine bottle. Push the pin into the cork so it is straight, and sticking out a bit. Push the needle into the centre of one end of the other cork, blunt (thread) end first. Again make sure it’s straight. It only needs to be pushed in far enough to be firm. Push the forks into opposite sides of this cork. Make sure they are sloping down a little, so the handle ends are a bit below the bottom of the cork (the bottom is the end with the needle in it). Now, carefully balance the sharp end of the needle on the head of the pin, and give the fork / cork set-up a gentle spin. It should be like one of those “perpetual motion” machines which used to be popular in the 70s and 80s. If done properly, it will spin for a very long time.
I like Penn and Teller.
They have got their entire audience to do a trick where a red cloth is pushed into a fist, disappears and then reappears.
(You could do this in a bar, so I’m not hijacking!)
I always liked the one my dad did on me when I was real young.
“Son” he makes his pointer finger and thumb into a circle “I bet I can poke this chair through this hole.” I disagreed saying that there was no way in which he could do that. And then he proceeds to do just that. I laughed and laughed. Just don’t ask him how a horse bites?
Glee,
Go to a Magic Shop, and ask for a “thumb tip”. One of the better ones is made by Vernet.
Once you buy it, the magician behind the counter should show you how to use it.
One that I enjoy is very simple and doesn’t amaze anyone. It’s a reactionary thing. Let someone order a double of something you really like, or convince them to do it (the more expensive the better). Cover the drink with a hat, napkin, etc. Bet them a quarter that you can drink the drink without moving the covering or the glass in any way, having anyone else move it, etc. The more impossible you make it sound, the better.
Make quite a preparatory show, then pick up the covering, drink the drink, then slide the quarter to them and admit that “I lose”. You get an 8 dollar drink for a quarter while enjoying the “I’ve been had” look on their face. The bonus of this, if you do it well, (and are with a “slower” person) is that they will call some friends over and have you do it again because they think it’s funny. Good form is to buy the “sucker” another drink later of course, depending on the company. I once watched a friend of mine build this up for half an hour and get several people involved to the point where the bartender put up 8 shots on the bar with coasters on each to see an incredible display of magic. About 40 bucks worth of tequila for a buck. The bartender enjoyed it so much that he called it a house loss and got a large tip for his trouble.
Take a damp napkin or wet part of the table, put three matches in a pyramid on the napkin, business ends up, light the three matches with another match and drop a sturdy pint glass on top of it. When the matches have burned out, a vacuum has been created. If the glass is strong enough and the seal is good enough, you can lift the table–even a quite heavy one. Of course, the glass can shatter in your hands…
Bet a girl a pitcher of beer that you can make her breasts move without touching them. (NOTE: only do this with extremely cool girls, who you absolutely KNOW will go along with it.) Once she agrees, make a big show of it. Roll your sleeves up, gesture your arms around wildly, step up to them, step back. Step up to them, step back. Slowly, reach your hands forward, gently grab her breasts, and move them up and down. Signal the bartender for a pitcher of beer.
Here’s a couple that I remember off the top of my head.
Olive and a brandy snifter trick
Place the olive on the bar, and bet someone that you can get the olive into the glass with out touching it, smashing it, scooping it, etc.
After they try a few differnt approaches, take the glass, place it over the olive and move it RAPIDLY in a circular motion, causing the olive to rub the sides of the glass. It will tend to “walk” up the side of the glass, allowing you to filp it over with the olive inside.
A coin, a rocks glass, and two coasters.
Place a coaster on top of a rocks glass, and place a coin on top. Bet someone you can get the coin into the rocks glass without laying a finger on the coaster, the coin or the glass. When they give up, hold the other coaster in one hand and “snap” the edge of it into the other coaster. It will shoot out from under the coin, which will fall into the glass.
I work in a bar, I will try to remember more and post them here.
Here’s another old one. Have your friend pull a barstool away from the bar a little bit and then sit on it, and tell him or her that you will walk around the stool three times, and that by the time you’ve finished they will no longer be sitting there. Make a big show of assuring them you won’t touch either them or the stool. Agree on a starting point for you to start walking from, and ask if they’d prefer clockwise or anticlockwise. Draw it out as much as you can. Then start walking. One revolution. “That’s ONE!” you declare. A second revolution, “AND TWO!!!”. Then, you suddenly stop, look confused, and say, “I think I left the oven on! Gotta go. Stay right there, and I’ll come back and do the third revolution tomorrow”.
What a great thread. Here you go this is one of the best bar tricks I have ever seen [when done properly you will amaze everyone sitting around you]
Supplies: Lemon Wedge
tea cup or esspresso cup “plate” not the cup
a match stick
a snifter or rocks glass
water
Get all of these items together, place them in front of someone, and fill the concave esspresso plate [or tea cup plate] with water. It will hold about half a cup, if it is deep enough. Ok now pose this question:
Take everything I have given you and fill that glass [point to the snifter or rocks glass] with the water in that plate. You cannot touch the plate or the glass/ You cannot dump the water in the plate into the glass etc…etc…
As the person looks at you and the lemon wedge and the match stick and the plate and snifter. They ‘usually’ become quite puzzled, and get that quizzicle look on their face.
When they conceed they cannot do it [which is about 9 out of ten times] take the lemon wedge and put it into the plate, in the water. Then take the match and place it business side up, in the lemon wedge, so as to stand it up. Now light the match and put the snifter or rocks glass over the flame. in about 3 seconds the water in the plate will completely transfer into the glass because of the vaccum you have created. In the correct glass it looks pretty cool.
Bartending got me through grad school. I used to call it education by dypsomania
not to rain on your parade, but WHERE IN THE HELL am I supposed to find pins and needles in a bar?!! Good idea nonetheless. I have to admit I’m a bit of a mechanical nut. the pins and needles would offer much less resistance.
Munch,
I hope Mary Kate’s sister, Ashley, didn’t get too jealous.
Did I miss something, or did you mean to say just “you can’t touch the plate”?
This is a really stupid one.
Tell your friends about your telekenetic abilities, Until the point they are getting annoyed. The put a shot glass upside down on the table, and tell them you will pour a drink in it and take a drink from the glass without anyone tounching the glass. Once the bet has been made, pour the little divet on the bottom(now the top)full and suck it up.
I used to pull the Time/Space Travel Trick. Not every time, but more times than I can count. Here’s how it worked:
I go to a bar and start drinking. After a few hours, things get kinda fuzzy. Then, quite suddenly, it’s the next day and I’m in an odd place (a stranger’s bed, a jail cell, an emergency room)…and get this: I have no recollection of how I got there!
The unpredictability of this trick was fascinating.
My mother taught me the “tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue” trick. I’ve found it to be very popular for some reason. Seemed to get me dates when I was single. No accounting for the interest of an audience sometimes.
This one was on TV recently as a “seance” trick, but it works great at bars/restaurants if you can be just around the corner from the other person.
You have two identical index cards and small brown envelopes that fit them. You put one card in an envelope and write the person’s name on the outside with a marker.
You have that envelope set in your lap.
You ask the person to write a name on the card and slide it into the envelope (don’t let him seal it!). Then You write his name on the outside.
You’re holding the dummy envelope against the bar with your left thumb, and the left fingers are holding his envelope for you to write on it. When done, you slide the envelope into your lap just as you raise the dummy and give it to him.
You ask him to burn it in the candle and drop it into the ashtray (assume smoking section these days), while you “block your eyes to avoid any glimpse”. Actually you are reading the one in your lap while he’s distracted staring at the flame.
Then you tell him what he wrote.
If you’re alone it’s magic. If there’s someone viewing you, it’s a gag they won’t spoil until it’s over.
into 
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