Here’s one of mine:
You can open a beer bottle with any fairly sturdy object. A standard bic lighter works great.
Grasp the bottle at the top of neck with your non-dominant hand
Place a lighter between the bottle cap and your index finger (between the first and second knuckles)
Put the bottom of the lighter under the small tangs of the bottle cap
Using your index finger as a fulcrum and the lighter as a lever, press down firmly on the lighter and pop the cap off
Practice makes perfect.
You can balance two forks on the tips of toothpicks at a restaurant that looks neat.
Take two toothpicks, a salt or pepper shaker and two forks. Stick one toothpick in a hole in the shaker so it sticks straight up. Mesh the tines on the fork together so they stick out at 90 to 120 degrees. Stick the second toothpick in the meshed tines as close to the center as possible with about half an inch coming through the back. Hold the forks in one hand and the toothpick-tip in the other and place the very tips of the toothpicks to each other. Slowly let go and the forks should balance. It should look like the shaker is in between the handles of the forks.
-Tcat
Stupid, cute bar trick.
Carefully form a bar napkin into a little pouch. Blow into it and seal it up. Hand to someone.
“Here you are. Blowjob to go.”
MOve one eye independently of the other: impress kids!
Daniel
Lift an ice cube with a piece of string (or dental floss, or whatever) without ever touching the ice cube.
My favorite (easy) card trick of all time.
Unknown to your audience, place the ace of diamonds on the top of the deck. Now take the Ace of hearts, and the 2 and 3 of diamonds position them such that the ace is the back card, with the pointy part of the heart pointing up (the heart is upside down), and the 2 and 3 form a V in front of the ace. If you do this correctly it will look like you are holding the Ace of diamonds with the two and three of diamonds on top of it.
\2\A/3/
You show the ace, 2 and 3 of “diamonds” to the audience. and place them face down on the table. You take the top card which is the fake Ace of diamonds and slide it into the center of the deck. You take the 2 of diamonds (showing it to the audience) and put it on TOP of the deck (this places the two on top of the REAL ace of diamonds that you planted there earlier). and then take the three of diamonds, again showing it to the audience, and place it on the bottom of the deck. Now ask someone to cut the cards.
YOu say “presto” and leaf through the cards and show how the Ace two and three magically appear together in sequence.
It’s so simple, yet it always amazes.
E3
A can of pop/beer can be easily balanced at a 45 degree angle when it’s about 1/3 full.
Another set of restaurant physics tricks:
If you have a salt shaker with flat edges on the bottom (not round), you can balance it on its edge by pouring a small dime-size pile of salt on the table, sticking the shaker in the pile, and then blow the salt away. Try to find the balance point of the shaker beforehand without the salt, then place the shaker in the pile at that same angle.
The same balance trick I first posted can be done with a fork and a spoon on the edge of a glass if you have a lollipop (some Denny’s type places have bowls of candy up front). The lollipop has a thicker stick that you can wedge in the tines of the fork.
If you want to gross people out at the table, and don’t mind getting a bit messy, take a plastic coffee creamer and put it in your hand upside down in a loose fist. Grab a fork and raise your fist up to your eye, then jam the fork into your fist. The cream sprays out and everyone thinks you just pierced your eye. Yes, this is normally done late at night at Denny’s after drinking. Be carefull not to jab too hard, as you can stick your hand pretty good with the fork (or all the way through the plastic cup).
Take a coffee dish and put a tab of butter in the middle. pour a little water in the dish, up to the height of the butter. stick a match into the butter straight up. light the match and hold an empty clear glass upside down above the flame for a couple seconds, then put it down on the dish. As the flame goes out, the air inside will cool, thus causing suction, and will suck all the water in the dish up into the glass.
Secretly pour a bunch of pepper into a coffee mug (like 1/4 inch worth - unscrew the shaker or you’ll be there all night). Then in view of others take the mug and openly shake salt into the mug. Make sure you are the only one that sees what is going on, but sprinkle enough to make a thin layer on top of the pepper so it is visibly all white. People will ask WTF? and you show them the mug, without tilting it or shaking it, also keep it low so they can’t smell the pepper. Then wave your hand above the mug, say presto or whatever, give it a good shake side-to-side and show everyone that you have turned salt into pepper. You can even pour it out and they won’t see the salt mixed in it if you have enough pepper.
Great magic trick: take a small water glass and turn it upside down. Take one or two paper (paper!) napkins, unfold them, place them on the glass and make a mold of the glass by squeezing/twisting the paper around the glass. You need the paper to hold the shape of the glass. Then take a coin, put it on the table, and tell everyone you are going to push the coin through the table without touching it. Put the glass over the coin (so you can’t touch it, see?), and put the napkins over the glass (you can do the molding here if you want). Say presto or whatever, grab the glass/paper and move it directly towards your chest saying “Hmmm…didn’t work. Try again.” Put the glass and paper back over the coin. Say presto or whatever and repeat the motion of bringing the glass/paper back to your chest, but sort of low over the table. While everyone is looking at the coin, slightly release the pressure on your grip and the glass will slip out and fall into your lap (make sure your lap will catch the thing). Replace the paper mold over the coin (it will stand on its own if you molded it properly) while saying “Oh, I messed up, its not the coin…” then SLAM your hand down on the paper mold and say “It is the glass that goes through!” reach your other hand smoothly down into your lap, grab the glass without stopping, move it under the table and clank it up underneath the table, then pull it back out and place it on the table.
Yes, I spent far too much time in Village Inn while in high school.
-Tcat
Tell a dickhead that it is impossible to balance a full beer glass in the following manner. Hands face down on the bar, thumbs touching through through length. Tell him if he can balance the beer for 10 seconds, you will give him $5. Place the full beer glass on his thumbs, wait 10 seconds and say “You win!” and walk away.
…I don’t get it. Is he not suppoed to be able to get the glass of his thumbs without spilling or something? I don’t see why you couldn’t support the glass with one thumb and pull your other hand out.
And Tomcat? At least give Penn and Teller credit for all those tricks.
Ok easy $5.
Put your hands down. Position your hands down. Now let me balance this full beer just so. All you have to do is hold it for 10 seconds…
It isn’t always a guarenteed spill. Usually they just get people to help (even dickheads have other dickheads to turn to).
Someone might pull off a catch with practice but it is all in the delivery. Done properly, it makes someone look like a helpless idiot and is reserved for drunk (male) assholes and gives you time to make a scene while everyone laughs at them.
This is a joke trick:
You: “Want to hear a good knock-knock joke?”
Them: “Sure!”
You: “Ok, you start.”
Them: “Knock-knock”
You: “Who’s there?”
Them: pause
You: 
Again, it is all in the delivery.
My only card trick. I got it off the back of a Hi-C drink label when I was a kid. Very simple, but no one that I’ve pulled it on has been able to figure it out.
The trick: I’ll tell you which card you picked (with a twist)
[ol]
[li]Make sure you know what the top card (the first face-down card) of the deck is. I do this by fanning the cards with the faces toward me while I mutter, “Does this deck have all the cards?” No one’s called me on it yet.[/li][li]Ask the rube to “pick a card, any card,” and to put it ON TOP OF THE DECK. This is very important. Tell him to make sure you don’t see it.[/li][li]Now cut the cards “to mix them up.” The card the rube picked and the one you memorized will be somewhere around the middle of the deck.[/li][li]Here’s the twist. Now go through all your cards as if you’re looking for his card but can’t find it, all the while muttering something like, “Damn, this trick’s worked before . . .” Of course, you know which card is his: It’s the one immediately to the left of the card you memorized.[/li][li]Say something like," Hmph, let me try again." Now count the cards to the left of his card the number of letters in his name. For instance, if his name is Dan, find the card second from the left of his card.[/li][li]Now cut the cards, making sure the “counted” card in the previous step is on top of the deck.[/li][li]Spell out his name while taking a card off the top of the deck: “D,” take a card, “A,” take another card, “N,” show him this card. “Is this your card?”[/li][/ol]
Hmmph, now that I’ve written it out, it doesn’t look all that simple. But I learned it when I was nine, so how hard could it be?
If you find yourself in a bar that serves Grolsch beer in the bottles with the ceramic lids held on by the wire clasp (this kind), bet someone he can’t open the bottle with one finger. Seal the bottle (assuming it’s already been opened), hold firmly with one hand at the base, and make your other hand into a fist with just your forefinger sticking out. Touch the side of your forefinger against the lid, and for dramatic effect, pull your hand away and slowly bring your finger back against the side of the lid saying “one, two, three!”. On three, whack your finger against the side of the lid and it will pop off.
The trick, of course, is that you’re not actually opening it with your forefinger. The metal clasp only opens in one direction. Make sure the knuckle of your middle finger on the striking hand connects with the hinge on the clasp, and that is what will actually release the clasp. (In the linked picture, your middle finger knuckle would connect with the hinge apparatus on the far side of the bottle and the lid would open toward the viewer.) The numb nuts you’re trying to trick will be so focused on actually trying to pop the lid off with his first finger that he’ll be at it all night, resulting in a sore finger and bruised ego.
An easier one. Take 2 shot glasses and place an egg in one. Position the empty one a few inches away, so the egg glass is between you and the empty one. Bet someone he can’t get the egg from one glass to the other without touching the egg or either glass.
Blow a sharp burst of air down against the egg. The air pressure will lift the egg out of the glass and propel it into the other glass. It might help to practice a couple times to determine the best position for the empty glass.
You can put a match out on your tongue. All you do is work up a good layer of spit and let it rest on your tongue. Strike the match, let it burn just long enough to confirm it is lit, then drag it from mid tongue down to the tip. Don’t let it rest in one spot or else it will burn, but if you move it and let the saliva extinguish it, you’ll be unharmed.
Here’s another bar trick.
Bet someone a dollar you can drink any drink he/she orders WITHOUT touching the glass with any part of your body.
When the drink comes, pick it up, enjoy the drink, and place the empty glass on the bar. Say, “OK, you win the bet!” Give them a dollar.
<<Just to clarify, don’t want to whoosh anyone>>
The bar drink certainly costs them more than the dollar you just paid for losing the bet.
Go to a fast food place or restaurant that has one of those cheap plastic salt shakers. Then pull out a dime and tell everyone that you are going to make the dime disappear. Spin the dime on the table as fast as it can spin. Then slam the salt shaker directly down onto the spinning dime. Be sure to do it so that the bottom of the shaker hits the table flat. And don’t let the shaker bounce or move at all! Now tell another person to find the dime. They’ll pick up the shaker and have a mess to clean up.
Since the previous one was more of a prank than a trick, here’s another one:
Get 3 empty glasses and 5 of those plastic drink stirrers (straws) at the bar. Take an empty glass and place 4 of the stirrers across the top of it. You might need a couple of more stirrers since they will have to hold the weight of 2 full glasses of water. Now fill up the other 2 glasses with water and position them top to top. You may need to do this over a sink. The 2 glasses will form a fully enclosed container and stick together so that no water will leak out. Now stand this container of 2 glasses on top of the 3rd glass with the stirrers on it. Now tell someone to figure out a way to get the water from the upside-down glass on top into the empty glass on the bottom, with touching any of the glasses.
The trick is to use another stirrer to blow at the suction seal that links the 2 water glasses. As the wind coming through the stirrer hits, water will begin trickling out of the top (upside-down glass), down the outside of the middle glass, and into the empty bottom glass.
Please be careful the first time you try this one.
Oh yeah, the glasses should be like beer glasses so that the diameter of the top is bigger than the diameter of the base.
One more for now. This is the toughest, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too hard.
Push a cork all the way through the opening of an empty wine bottle. It would be pretty difficult to get the cork out without breaking the bottle, right? Get an average cloth napkin, and fold it into a triangle shape. Try to get the 2 corners into the opening of the bottle, all the way down the neck. Then turn the bottle upside down and try to have the cork fall into the middle of the 2 napkin corners. Than swiftly pull the napkin back out. The cork should wedge itself into the neck and come out with the napkin.
Practice, practice, practice before you demonstrate this to the public.
bet someone that they cannot eat a slice of white bread in 30 seconds, no drinking allowed (and it is harder if they have been drinking alcohol)
it is amazing how few people can (perhaps 1-2/100)