Did you do magic tricks?

Grampa Don

Grampa Don

Yep, that's me
Location
Orange county, Calif.
Did you do magic tricks as a kid? There was a Ben Franklin dime store in our town with a small counter in the back that sold magic tricks. A lot of my allowance money ended up there; balls and cups trick, paper to dollar bill changer, and my favorite, the finger chopper.

One of my earliest memories is from kindergarten. A magician came to school and put red, white, and blue hankies in an empty tube and pulled out an American flag. I was stunned. How did he do that?

When I was older, my Mom bought me a book titled 200 Magic Tricks You Can Do. I just about wore it out. And, I checked out other books on magic from the library. But, I don’t have the dexterity needed for many tricks. I spent hours trying to master palming a coin with poor results. And, forget fancy card handling.

I sent off for a cheap little catalog of tricks and ordered a magic popcorn box. It turned out to be an actual popcorn box with a second side glued on to hide something in. I never fooled anybody with it, and fooling people is what makes magic fun.

Our boys went through a magic phase too. There was a little magic shop in downtown Santa Ana that we made several visits to, and both had there own magic sets. Their skills were no better than mine but we pretended to be amazed.

Steve Martin worked in the magic shop in Disneyland when he was younger. We visited that shop at about that time and I remember this young guy demonstrating tricks. I often wonder if it was him.

When my Grand daughter was younger I fooled her a couple times. One was the coin through a table top trick. A piece of double sticky tape in my palm and a second coin made that easy.

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A young man (college sophomore) who worked for me for a year or two in the late 70s had been practicing magic from a very young age. He was amazing! His tricks were the sorts of things that were performed very close up, say, at a table over lunch. All slight of hand, generally involving the use of normal coins or playing cards. No special props, but LOTS and LOTS of practice. (y)

He tried to show me a couple of things. Unsuccessfully, but trying it did gave me a great appreciation of the level of commitment required.
 
I had a second-grade teacher whose husband was a part time magician. He gave our class a magic show and I volunteered to participate in a trick. He was very good and had a great routine for young kids.

After that I was hooked on learning magic. I lived in a small town but once a year I spent a couple of weeks in Denver with my Grandparents. In Denver I found a couple of Magic Stores where I could purchase tricks and they would teach them to me when I purchased them. I worked earning money every summer before going to Denver so I would have money for tricks. Over time I worked up a little magic show I would do for my parents, grandparents, and friends. It all was great fun!

We left the small town when I was entering 9th grade. After that I stopped doing magic, no reason, I just got too busy...

After I retired, I started getting back into magic tricks and practicing so I would have a good routine to use on my Grandchildren (6). That all went very well, and all my Grandchildren were brought up being entertained by my magic. They are all now grown up and my only new hope is that I will have some Great grandchildren to entertain before I get too old or too dead to do tricks for them...
 
I asked Chatgpt if there were any female magicians. It came back with the names of seven. I searched each name and three of them were actually male. But, that means there were or are at least four well known enough to be in Wikipedia. They are: Adelaide Herrmann, Dorothy Dietrich, Inés La Maga, and Misty Lee. Still, that's a small percentage.
 
My go-to magic trick is one I do for any children. Grabs their attention every time.

It's called "Two Little Dinky Birds Sitting on a Wall". All you need is a piece of tissue or tape for the "birds". I usually dip 1/4 of both index fingers (aka pointer fingers) in a glass of water and wrap the tissue around my finger to secure it...or lick your finger to make it stick if you don't have water handy. Now just follow the video...

Three Disclaimers:
1-This video is not me.
2-They aren't "Dickie Birds" like the video title says. It's "Dinky Birds"
3-I don't put my fingers behind my back. I place my fingers side-by side on a table or my knees when sitting and throw them quickly back to my ears to switch.

 
Last edited:
Lara said:
My go-to magic trick is one I do for any children. Grabs their attention every time.

It's called "Two Little Dinky Birds Sitting on a Wall". All you need is a piece of tissue or tape for the "birds". I usually dip 1/4 of both index fingers (aka pointer fingers) in a glass of water and wrap the tissue around my finger to secure it...or lick your finger to make it stick if you don't have water handy. Now just follow the video...

Three Disclaimers:
1-This video is not me.
2-They aren't "Dickie Birds" like the video title says. It's "Dinky Birds"
3-I don't put my fingers behind my back. I place my fingers side-by side on a table or my knees when sitting and throw them quickly back to my ears to switch.

Click to expand...
My late mom did that trick for us all the time....! Good memories.
 
No, it wasn't mentioned in the home. I found out later as to why. I'll no explain, sorry!

However, at school when I'd get upset, I was able to fly off both chalk and brush off the blackboard.

I could spin my pencil upright on my desk and flat into my hand.

I was good at plain cards divination.

I was told years later that I had latent telekinesis...
 
Not as a kid, as an adult. I studied for months before my son's 6th BD party. We have my "show" on tape! so I can never forget it. Can't remember my tricks, only remember the balloon animals I made for the kids afterwards.
 
I'm useless, I can't do tricks. However, I absolutely love magicians shows, we do not have great magicians any more on TV. Paul Daniels was so entertaining.
 

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