When I was a little kid, my brother showed me a magic trick. He had two toothpicks: one was laid across a palm, and he held the other pick in the other hand, by its end. He lifted one end of the prone toothpick with the end-held one, so that one end of the prone toothpick was lifted slightly in the air, but the other end still stayed on his palm. He paused a second, and then the prone toothpick popped into the air!
To this day, he will not tell me how the trick was done. The toothpicks were round. I will swear that there were no strings, electricity, or other hidden things.
Most likely the toothpick that touches the one in the palm was struck by one of his fingers in a sort of snap. This causes a very small motion but causes the toothpick to fly up.
Try this - when holding the “end-held” toothpick between your index finger and thumb, place the hidden pointy end inside the edge of the fingernail of your middle finger. At the critical moment a slight movement of your middle finger will flick the held toothpick without any apparent movement of the thumb and index finger, fooling your audience.
One toothpick lies flat on your palm, kind of setting in the crack between two fingers. About 1/2" of the tootpick hangs beyond your fingers. Nothing is done with this toothpick.
The trick is with the second toothpick. You grasp it with the fingers of your other hand in such a way as the one end of it is wedged underneath your fingernail. You mutter some mumbo-jumbo about building up a static charge and rub the toothpick on your clothes–all b.s. The trick is that right when you touch the tip of the toothpick to the other, you allow the toothpick to come free from under the edge of your nail and it flicks the other toothpick up into the air.
It’s hard to explain without showing someone in person, but you’re applying pressure to the toothpick by wedging it under a findernail and then releasing it. The resultant “flick” is imperceptible, but nonetheless effective in producing the illusion.
No,no,no,no,no.
I’ve done this trick a thousand times. You don’t even have to touch the toothpick that pops into the air. Al Zheimers is the closest. the “launching” toothpick should be slightly moistened and touching the nail of your middle finger. Extremely minute movements of the middle finger, along with the slight irregularities of the surface of your nail, will make the other toothpick “pop”.
Watch your brother’s middle fingernail and you’ll bust him.