The variant of “pick a card, any card” I did when I was about that age (note: There are at least dozens, probably hundreds, of different “pick a card, any card” tricks):
Have an audience member pick a card out of the deck. If they want, they can show it to everyone else in the audience.
Cut the deck, and have them put the card back in the middle.
While the deck is cut, sneak a peek at the bottom of the top half (the card that’ll be right above the picked card)
Do a “shuffle” that amounts to just cutting the deck again.
Look through the deck, and find the card that’s right before the card you peeked at. Take it out and show it to everyone: That’s the picked card.
Also, remember: The tricks themselves aren’t what makes the magic show. The show is all about the presentation. Even if a trick fails to work, you can (if you’ve got the knack) still make a success out of it by turning it into a joke.
Going to work now, but I’m a second grade teacher who just completed a six-week after-school magic club and who directed students in tricks to do onstage. I’ll post some ideas later.
Check out YouTube’s Magic Emmy. She seems to be about your daughter’s age and has many videos of her performing magic tricks.
You can see all the other videos from there too. Some involve apparatus which you obviously don’t have, but some can be done with stuff around the house. The one in the link uses just your hands and can be found in the book “Magic for Dummies”, which is probably your best bet at this late date.
To learn the one in the linked video…
SPOILER SPACE
Notice that the first time she puts her hands together she does it one way, but then she takes them apart to demonstrate how she wants you to keep your thumbs pointing down. By this time, your audience should have their hands clasped the way you’ve told them. But notice that NOW, she puts her hands together in a different way so she can rotate her thumbs up, which the audience cannot do. To reverse engineer this, clasp your hands together, palms together, with your thumbs pointing up. Now, rotate your hands together so your thumbs are pointing down. This is the position YOU have to start in. Got it?
It’s simple, but it fits to important criteria for a good magic trick; its a real fooler and it involves the audience. But don’t take my word for it. David Copperfield used it as his opening effect for many years.
If any of Magic Emmy’s other effects appeal to your daughter, post back and we’ll talk about them.
Here’s another simple one you can make at home from Magic Emmy.
The Indestructable Newspaper:
SPOILER SPACE
Coat a few inches of the center section of the newspaper strip with a thin layer of rubber cement then cover with talcum powder. The talcum powder prevents the paper from sticking to itself when folded in half. But when you cut through BOTH layers (Important - DON’T put one blade of the scissors into the fold and cut) the cutting action sticks the two pieces together at the cut making it appear uncut.
Randwill’s suggestions are great. I’ve got two tricks I prepped for the show, but both require a fair amount of work, and there may not be enough time for them. I’ll explain them anyway.
The first one is modified from the written instructions I gave the kids in my club, accompanied by instruction; I changed the trick (especially in the prep stage and the end reveal) to make it “play big”, i.e., be good for an auditorium audience.
Complicated stuff. The next post I’ll tell about the phasic ropes and the apples.
This trick is probably even more complicated, but it looks totally awesome. It’s the phasic ropes and apples trick.
To prep, you’ll need some decent-quality clotheline. Cut two 6’ lengths, and using white thread, gently sew the ropes together at their middle, using just two or three stitches. You’ll need to break these stitches at the end of the trick. When you’re done, if you hold the two ropes side by side, the stitches should be invisible–it should just look like two lengths of rope.
Show the ropes to the audience and get two volunteers to hold them and tug them, testing them to show that they’re strong and not tricky.
Take them back from the volunteers. HERE’S THE TRICKY PART: when you take them back, you need to grab them in the middle and then unobtrusively switch them around in your hands so that the ropes are bent in the middle, both ends of one rope hanging from the same side of your hand, joined only by the stitches. Think instead of =, ><. The audience shouldn’t see this move, and should think the ropes are still = in your hand.
Drape the ropes over your neck so they’re hanging down in front of you, with the stitched connection totaly behind you and invisible to the audience. Pick up an apple and core it (or if you’re not comfortable letting her core it, have her pick up a cored apple). If you want, give it to a volunteer to write their name on it and investigate it for tricks.
Hold the apple in one hand. With the other, reach behind you and grab the ropes by the stitched bit. Thread the ropes through the apple. HERE’S THE OTHER TRICKY PART: use your hand to hide the stitched bit until it’s entirely within the apple. The audience must never see that bit.
Get the volunteers to hold the ends of the ropes again; use one hand at all times to steady the apple.
Explain that, as securely as the apple is on the ropes, you want to make it even more secure so that there’s no suspicion of tricks. Take one end of the rope from each volunteer and loosely tie them together in a knot, like the thing you do when you begin tying your shoe. Half a square knot. This will result in you handing one of volunteer A’s ropes to volunteer B, and vice versa.
Hand the ropes back to the volunteers.
Still holding the apple, take a cloth and drape it over the apple. Instruct the volunteers, on the count of three, to pull the ropes really tight. Grab the apple under the cloth.
On the count of three, shout, “Abracadabra!” and yank on the apple. If the volunteers pulled tightly enough, the stitches will break and the apple will pop free!
If it doesn’t work at first, don’t worry–you can play it off, and this time get everyone to shoud Abracadabra with you. Remind the volunteers to pull the ropes tight.
Show the audience the apple with the initials on it, and take your bow.
Both tricks I posted really require some practice. The first trick involves some very tricky patter: in order to do it, you have to be totally confident and unhesitating, taking each audience choice and instantly molding it toward your end without thinking about it or getting confused. Practice the patter here!
The second trick works with minimal patter (although you need some to make the trick worth watching, natch), but the rope manipulation is hard. I had my girl who was manipulating the ropes practice that first tricky bit for about fifteen minutes straight until she could do it without looking at her hands at all. The more you practice, the smoother it’ll be.
I’ve heard of magicians doing something like this, with a separate out prepared for every card in the deck. I’ve also done similar tricks that went all the way to the end via eliminations, without needing outs at all.
Both paths are definitely workable. I like this trick for two reasons:
It’s the way I learned it, so I’m comfortable with it (I’m about two levels below “amateur” in the magician realm); and
It’s a nice balance between forcing a single card and having far too many preps: four preps is manageable, and the final, completely open choice of suit gives the audience a final confirmation that they got to choose the card.
The “needle in the balloon” is a good trick for kids.
Get a light colored balloon and turn it inside out. Stick a piece of Scotch tape (about 1/2" long) to the balloon and turn it right side out again. She can pass this balloon around and when she gets it back, she can blow it up and twist and pinch the end to avoid it deflating (as opposed to tying it if she can’t manage that by herself). Now she just nonchalantly looks for the piece of tape (that is adhered to the INSIDE of the balloon wall) and takes a needle and pokes it through the balloon where the tape is. The tape will prevent the balloon from popping, and as long as the needle is in the balloon, it shouldn’t deflate very fast either. If she has pretty good aim, she can take a pretty good poke at the balloon with the needle, but if she doesn’t, she can increase the drama by going…very…very…sloooooowly.
Totally! I taught both these tricks to 8-year-olds, but the “wants to perform tomorrow” coupled with never having done magic before is kind of key. I just figured I’d offer my best tricks for kids up :).