If that cat ever figures out how this is done, it's gonna gut that guy in his sleep. Read the rest

I keep this ball and vase trick around because kids like it.

Sure, you are brilliant. We get that know how it works. You can also read this post. While little kids often find card and coins tricks to be a yawn, they love even a lamely presented magic ball and vase!

After you fool them with the trick a few times, sneak the ball insert out and let the kids play with the empty vase.

It is as much fun as fooling your cat with a laser pointer.

Magic Ball and Vase via Amazon Read the rest

"That's incredible, I mean, I've felt these bricks, these are real bri—", says TV host Steve Uyehara as the brick turns to dust at his lightest touch. [via Reddit] "Oh! Whoa! Whaaaaaa! Check it out, baby! Guns!"

P.S. Glass is an irresponsible material for the board breaking trick! Read the rest

This gravity defying water trick, watch til the end. from r/blackmagicfuckery

A science teacher uses a classic but eternally astonishing magic trick in a lesson on atmospheric pressure and surface tension. The real magic though is the infectious curiosity she sparks in her students.

(Here's the secret and the science.) Read the rest

This is more impressive to me than being able to solve it in 1.2552 nanoseconds or whatever the current record is.

(GlobalMagicians) Read the rest

Jordan Reeves, 13, was born with a left arm that doesn't extend past her elbow. Last year, Jordan dreamt up a curious prosthetic arm that resembles a unicorn horn and shoots glitter out of its tip. Then, working with her prosthetist and technical designers at Autodesk, she designed and built the magical contraption.

"I wanted show people that our differences don't necessarily hold us back, in fact, they can give us more opportunity," Reeves told WGN9.

After receiving numerous awards for her ingenuity and founding a nonprofit, Born Just Right, Reeves was invited to display her prosthetic at the Chicago Musuem of Science and Industry's Wired to Wear exhibit.

"I love that I can show people that our differences aren't a bad thing... just look at how much fun it can be" Reeves said.

More on Jordan Reeves in Fast Company: "The Girl Behind The Sparkle-Shooting Prosthetic Arm Is Just Getting Started"

Read the rest

I can open your eyes Take you wonder by wonder Over sideways and under On a magic carpet ride

Credits: Hiskm and Dahlek88 (r/Aquariums, thanks Dustin Hostetler!) Read the rest

Belly up to the bar for Stephen Molloy's cocktail shaker take on the classic cups and balls magic routine:

I was asked to share my handling here. Hope you guys enjoy :) (Instagram molloy894) from r/Damnthatsinteresting

(via /damnthatsinteresting) Read the rest

This deck of 56 'Rider Back' Bicycle playing cards has blank faces.

These come in handy for a number of magic tricks. The cards are printed on US Playing Card stock, and excepting the missing printed faces are identical to your regular deck of Bicycle 808 cards.

Magic Makers Bicycle Blank Face Red Back Card Deck via Amazon Read the rest

Making your own decisions can be hard work. Often, I turn to my trusty Magic 8 Ball. How have things turned out? "Ask again later." Read the rest

Magic lifts the spirits. Read the rest

Eric Chien's got some nimble fingers, a shit-ton of showmanship, and a magic trick that'll blow your mind. The trick is so frigging good that Chien won a 2018 Fism Grand Prix award with it. Read the rest

Pedro Volta, an escape artist from northern Spain, was paying tribute to Houdini at an international magic festival near Madrid by trying to get out of a water tank while wearing a strait jacket. In the video, it's not clear at first that he is struggling, but he later told reporters that he had trouble with a buckle to release his arms. "I made an effort and managed to release the buckle but the energy and oxygen used in doing so was too much."

It wasn't until he lost consciousness and his body went limp that onlookers realized he was in serious trouble and people rushed to rescue him. Once they lifted him out he quickly regained consciousness.

Via Metro Read the rest

This weekend I'm camping in a secret location with a bunch of nutty geniuses. Two of them are Jon Wee and Owen Morse, a comedy juggling team who work together as The Passing Zone. They're performing Saturday night, September 8, 2018, at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in St. Joseph MN, not far from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Read the rest

Netflix has a new magic six-part series called Magic For Humans. The show's star, magician Justin Willman, worked with an audience to help him pull off the trick in this clip. Working together, they make two guys believe they've become invisible, and they really, really do believe they can't be seen. (I was a little worried about the second guy. I think "being invisible" broke his brain.)

“When I was a kid I put a tooth under my pillow, went to sleep, and in the morning there was money there. That tangible evidence was more than enough proof to make me believe in the tooth fairy. To find out how far I could take that premise, I set up a large flash-mob style social experiment all to convince one guy he had turned invisible.” - Justin Willman.

(Likecool) Read the rest

New PhD student Samuel Gillis Hogan and colleagues at the University of Exeter are launching a deep study of 15-17th century spell books to understand how people attempted to summon fairies throughout history.

"Fairies were thought of as wondrous and beautiful, but mostly dangerous. But people wanted to summon them and harness that power for their own gain," Hogan told the BBC.

Hogan, a lifelong fan of the supernatural (see photo above) and, yes, Harry Potter, received a fellowship to move to the UK after completing his master's degree at the University of Saskatchewan. His thesis topic? The history of chiromancy, aka palm reading.

From the Canadian Press:

Gillis Hogan said taking a closer look at the magic people believed in gives us an intimate window into how they understood the world.

The way we see the world now, he noted, is just one perspective among many.

“I think that should give us a bit more pause when we have a tendency to look at past cultures, or even other cultures than our own that exist right now, and look down our noses at it as being backwards or strange.”

(via Daily Grail) Read the rest

Last week, Aretha Franklin died at the age of 76 in her hometown of Detroit.

On Tuesday, during a pregame moment of silence at Detroit's Comerica Park dedicated to her memory, a full rainbow appeared.

Some pictures say it all. pic.twitter.com/abFKT7gsQM

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 21, 2018

Read the rest