Cough Cough by David Blaine

Performance: The magician has a card selected and signed.

The card is then shuffled into the pack by the spectator and it is the magicians job to locate it.

Unfortunately the magician cannot seem to get it right, but after a few attempts, the magician seems to actually regurgitate a tightly folded card.

It is the spectators card, with their signature.

Preparation: You need a pen and a deck of cards .

Method: Have the spectator select a card from the deck and show it to the audience.

After the card is signed control it to the top of the deck by means of a Hindu Shuffle control or a revolving pass.

The deck is now held in the standard dealing position in the left hand ( with the chosen card at the top )

Get a finger break under the top card and palm with your right hand immediately.

Flourish the rest of the deck with a one hand cut, or one hand shuffle with your left hand and offer it to a spectator to simply mix up the cards.

Make sure the spectator starts to shuffle because some stubborn people start to look through the deck looking for their card.

Then turn your back making this move seem natural to show that there is no possible way that you could know where the card is.

At this time you are folding the palmed card into eighths. ( The smaller the better ) This is easy, as your back is turned you can use both hands to do this and then slip the tiny package in your mouth between your cheek and gum.

Turn around to face the audience. As the card is folded so tightly in your mouth, you can talk normally.

Take the cards and act as if you messed up .

Turn over a couple of cards to reveal what was supposed to be their selection. The card will of course be the wrong selection.

Do whatever you want, just make yourself look bad.

As soon as people start to laugh at you, act as if your hurt, as if something inside of you is wanting to get out.

Make the audience curious, and have the suspense build up.

As soon as they reach their peak work the card out of your lips and and slowly spit the card out onto the palm of your hand.

Unfold it, and watch the audience scream as they see that it is the chosen signed card.

It looks as if you somehow swallowed the card beforehand and regurgitated it back up again.

Matrix Levitation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iicRMrYe3nE

The Matrix
METHOD: This effect is basically accomplished through the aid of a gimmick that

consists of a dual leg/back brace that locks out at just under 90%, which will help support

your body weight, combined with several mechanisms to shift your center of gravity

away from your upper body, allowing you to stay balanced while leaning backward at an

impossible angle. Simple, huh?

Making the Gimmick: To create the gimmick, you’re going to need (or at least

need access to) several things.

1. One or two (depending on your height) 5 gallon heavy duty plastic buckets (wal-mart,

lowes, k-mart…etc.).

2. A drill. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

3. A hinge that locks out. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

4. A jigsaw. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

5. Steel toe boots. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart, shoe stores, sporting good stores…etc.).

6. 2 pairs of the heaviest ankle weights you can find (no lighter than 10 lbs, totaling

40lbs…4x10=40) (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart, sporting good stores…etc.)

7. Some socks. (If you don’t know where to get socks, stop reading this book, and go

buy a helmet…which can be found at wal-mart or k-mart or sporting good stores).

8. Six nuts and bolts. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

9. A sharpie marker. (wal-mart, k-mart, gas stations…etc)

10. Some elastic bands large enough to fit around your leg. (wal-mart, k-mart, sporting

good stores…etc.)

11. Some sandpaper. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

12. Two pairs of pants, one a size or two smaller than the other (Pants-R-Us)

And last but not least

12. A measuring tape. (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart…etc.).

Probably the most random shopping list you’ve ever seen. But don’t worry, it’s going to

start making sense in a minute. Hopefully. The first step in making this gimmick, is to

create the leg/back brace.

Making the leg/back brace-

1. The first thing you’re going to do is take your own personal measurements for the

leg/back brace. You want to take several separate measurements. First, you want to take

the width of your waist. Not all the way around, just from one side of your hip to the

other. Then, measure the length from just under your armpit, to your hip bone. This will

be the back brace part of the gimmick. Now, you’re going to draw out the exact

measurements of your back onto the bucket, except for this piece, and this piece only,

you’re going to add about an inch and a half to the length. What’s going to end up

happening is that you’re going to draw a rectangle with the two shorter sides being the

width of your hips, and the two longer sides being the length from your armpit to your

hip. Cut out this rectangle with your jigsaw, and sand the edges with the sandpaper until

they are smooth and have no sharp parts. Now, you’re going to do the do the exact same

thing (measure, draw, cut, sand), except you’re going to do it with the measurements

from the top of your buttock to your knee pit (the part just behind your knee), and from

your knee pit to your ankle. You’re going to end up with three separate pieces.

2. Now, You’re going to hinge the two leg pieces together. So, take the hinge, mark

where the holes need to be on the plastic pieces, drill the holes, and hinge the upper leg

part to the lower leg part with the hinge and nuts and bolts. Make sure the hinge is facing

the right direction. It should be attached so that it acts as sort of a knee between the two

leg pieces. (Note that the leg pieces should wrap comfortably around your own leg, with

the hinge directly behind your knee, and locking out in the position your leg would be in

if you were sitting down in a chair).

3. Now, you’re going to connect the leg piece to the back piece with the nuts and bolts

the same way you connected the two leg pieces, minus the hinge. You want this gimmick

to be attached to your strongest leg, so adjust it accordingly. Since most people are right

handed (right legged?), I’ll describe it from the right leg perspective. You want to

overlap the two pieces about an inch or an inch and a half, the upper leg on top, and

drill/bolt them together with bolts about an inch from each side. Since this is the right

leg, you want the right side of the gimmick to be completely flat, and the left side to be

the side that has the back brace section sticking out. You would simply reverse this for

the left leg.

Attaching the Gimmick- Now, you’re going put on your smaller pair of pants, and lay

the gimmick flat against the back of your leg OVER the small pants. Take the elastic

bands and wrap two of them around your lower leg, and two around your upper leg,

helping to fasten the gimmick in place. Now, you’re going to put on your regular pants

over top of the gimmick, and the small pants.

Adjusting Your Center of Gravity- Don’t go and try the effect yet, because, unless you

have very good balance, your center of gravity is too far towards your upper body, and

will just make you fall over and get hurt. You need to do a few things to help push your

center of gravity more towards your lower body, allowing you to balance more easily.

The first thing you’re going to do is attach all 4 ankle weights to your gimmicked leg.

They should be stacked one on top of the other, running from your ankle to just under

your knee. Walking to be uncomfortable, but for an effect like this, it’s well worth it.

It’s going to be hard for you to walk with 40+ pounds strapped to one leg and not the

other at first, but you’ll soon get used to it. Then, you need to take two socks, fold each

of them in half, stack them on top of each other, and place them in the heel of your right

(if your gimmick is on your right foot) steel toe boot. This is going to cause you to stand

sort of tiptoe on this one foot, shifting your center of gravity more towards your leg. The

combination of the heavy steel toe boot, the tiptoe positioning of your foot inside the

boot, and the ankle weights will be enough to shift your center of gravity more towards

your legs, and allow you balance better.

Performance- Now you’re ready to perform. With everything in place, have two

spectators hold your hands (one on each side of you), and slowly lower you back. You

want to do this very, very slowly. Not only does this give the illusion a more realistic

feel, but it helps to prevent the gimmick from snapping, and not only ruining your hard

work, but embarrassing you and possibly causing you SERIOUS injury. As soon as

you’re bent back in position and you can feel yourself being supported and balanced by

your right leg, tell them to open your hands, and allow you to let go of them. Slowly,

slowly, slowly let go of their hands, showing that you’re suspended in mid-air. Keep this

position for several seconds, and then slowly lift your left leg into the air. The funny

thing is that lifting your left leg straight out actually helps you balance by shifting your

center of gravity even further towards your legs. Keep this position for as long as you

want, being careful to keep your balance and not fall (falling could break the gimmick,

and possibly break YOU). As soon as you’re ready to get up, call for your assistants to

come over, grab your hands, and help you get back to your feet.

Needle from Eye to Eye

WARNING: I will not be held responsible for any damages and or injuries while performing this effect.

Effect:A small needle is cleanly pushed into the right eye
and emerges from the mouth.it is pushed back into the mouth.
It is pushed back into the mouth and finally emerges from the left eye.

Required: 3 perfectly smooth needles made from from silver. Size should be 1/2 inch by 1/16th inch. Lager sizes can be used after alot of practice.

Method: Basically one needle is previously hidden in the left eye between
eye and lower eye lid and one is hidden in mouth behind lower lip.
During the show a needle is introduced into right eye and hidden behind
the lower eyelid.You pretend to push it along the veins and expose
the needle in the mouth pushing it out with tongue.This is then replaced in
mouth and pushed to the left eye from where previously hidden needle is removed.

Practice is essential in introducing the needle and keeping it there.The needles should
be perfectly polished and free from scratches ans barbs.The needle is pushed into the
inner corner of the eye in a downward direction and finally rest behind the lower eyelid.
Initially you feel an itching sensation and the eyes tend to water.however after a few hours of practice these sensation vanish.

Once you can keep the needle in the eye for some time without showing
on feeling and sing of discomfort you are all set to perform the feat.
The needle from the mouth is pushed out by the tongue without the hand
going near it to eliminate suspicion of a palmed needle.The needle from the eye is pushed out by running
a finger on the outside of the lower lid to enable the audience to see it clearly emerging form the eye.

Note again: It is dangerous!

Criss Angel Levitation

Materials needed: One or two (depending on your height) 5 gallon heavy duty plastic buckets(walmart, lowes, k-mart)
A drill (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
A hinge that locks out (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
A jigsaw (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
Steel toe boots (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
2 pairs of the heaviest ankle weights you can find (no lighter than 10 lbs)
Some socks (anywhere)
Six nuts and bolts (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
A sharpie marker
Some elastic bands large enough to fit around your leg (walmart, k-mart, sporting good stores)
Some sandpaper (walmart, lowes, k-mart)
Two pairs of pants one size smaller than the other (walmart or wherever)
A measuring tape (wal-mart, lowes, k-mart)

A now that you have all of those supplies with you.
Making the leg brace:
first you are going to take your own personal measurements for the leg/back brace. First you want to take the width of your waist. Not all the way around, just from one side of your hip to the other. Then, measure the length from just under your armpit to your hip bone. This will be the back brace part of the gimmick. Now you are going to draw out the exact measurments of your back onto the bucket, except for this peice, and this peice only, your going to add about an inch and a half to the length. Whats going to end up happening is that you're going to draw a rectangle with the two shorter sides being the width of your hips, and the two longer sides being the length from your armpit to your hip. Cut out this rectangle with your jigsaw, and sand the edges with the sandpaper until they are smooth and have no sharp parts. Now, you're going to do the do the exact same thing (measure, draw, cut, sand), except you're going to do it with the measurements from the top of your buttock to your knee pit (the part just behind your knee), and from your knee pit to your ankle. You're going to end up with three separate pieces. Now, You're going to hinge the two leg pieces together. So, take the hinge, mark where the holes need to be on the plastic pieces, drill the holes, and hinge the upper leg part to the lower leg part with the hinge and nuts and bolts. Make sure the hinge is facing the right direction. It should be attached so that it acts as sort of a knee between the two leg pieces. (Note that the leg pieces should wrap comfortably around your own leg, with the hinge directly behind your knee, and locking out in the position your leg would be in if you were sitting down in a chair). Now, you're going to connect the leg piece to the back piece with the nuts and bolts the same way you connected the two leg pieces, minus the hinge. You want this gimmick to be attached to your strongest leg, so adjust it accordingly. Since most people are right handed (right legged?), I'll describe it from the right leg perspective. You want to overlap the two pieces about an inch or an inch and a half, the upper leg on top, and drill/bolt them together with bolts about an inch from each side. Since this is the right leg, you want the right side of the gimmick to be completely flat, and the left side to be the side that has the back brace section sticking out. You would simply reverse this for the left leg.

Attaching the Gimmick- Now, you're going put on your smaller pair of pants, and lay
the gimmick flat against the back of your leg OVER the small pants. Take the elastic
bands and wrap two of them around your lower leg, and two around your upper leg,
helping to fasten the gimmick in place. Now, you're going to put on your regular pants
over top of the gimmick, and the small pants.

Adjusting Your Center of Gravity- You need to do a few things to help push your center of gravity more towards your lower body, allowing you to balance more easily. The first thing you're going to do is attach all 4 ankle weights to your gimmicked leg. They should be stacked one on top of the other, running from your ankle to just under your knee. Walking to be uncomfortable, but for an effect like this, it's well worth it. It's going to be hard for you to walk with 40+ pounds strapped to one leg and not the other at first, but you'll soon get used to it. Then, you need to take two socks, fold each of them in half, stack them on top of each other, and place them in the heel of your right (if your gimmick is on your right foot) steel toe boot. This is going to cause you to stand sort of tiptoe on this one foot, shifting your center of gravity more towards your leg. The combination of the heavy steel toe boot, the tiptoe positioning of your foot inside the boot, and the ankle weights will be enough to shift your center of gravity more towards your legs, and allow you balance better.

Performance- Now you're ready to perform. With everything in place, have two spectators hold your hands (one on each side of you), and slowly lower you back. You want to do this very, very slowly. Not only does this give the illusion a more realistic feel, but it helps to prevent the gimmick from snapping, and not only ruining your hard work, but embarrassing you and possibly causing you SERIOUS injury. As soon as you're bent back in position and you can feel yourself being supported and balanced by your right leg, tell them to open your hands, and allow you to let go of them. Slowly, slowly, slowly let go of their hands, showing that you're suspended in mid-air. Keep this position for several seconds, and then slowly lift your left leg into the air. The funny thing is that lifting your left leg straight out actually helps you balance by shifting your center of gravity even further towards your legs. Keep this position for as long as you want, being careful to keep your balance and not fall (falling could break the gimmick, and possibly break YOU). As soon as you're ready to get up, call for your assistants to come over, grab your hands, and help you get back to your feet.

Warning

If you're a heavier performer, you may not want to even try this effect, as the brace apparatus likely won't be able to support your weight. Do NOT try this effect if you have any back, leg, or neck problems.
This effect is presented extremely well if you claim to be inducing hypnosis, or a similar trance like state on yourself. This effect is best done with a very serious tone. It is not very well suited for comedy. If you still have problems balancing, try performing on a hill or a slight incline (with your legs towards the bottom of the hill, and bending back towards the top). This will shift your center of gravity even further, and make it much, much easier to balance.

Thread performed by Criss Angel

Warning: Before anyone does this, I am warning you that it does hurt and it can cause damage to your eyes. If you perform this trick, you are taking all of the responsibilty for anything that may go wrong.
Effect: Spectator takes a piece of thread and puts it in his mouth, allowing just a tiny piece to stick out. He then pulls at his eye lashes and starts pulling one out. It turns into the string and he pulls it farther out. The piece of string that is sticking out of his mouth is pulled all they way into his mouth and the rest of the string is pulled from his eye.

Method: First, take two pieces of thread that are the exact length. With one, place it in some warm water. You want this water to be about room temperature, maybe a little warmer. You don't want it too cold, because it will irritate your eye, and the same thing with it being to hot. Now that the string is saturated with water, take it out and ring it out a little bit, making sure it stays damp.

This is the main trick now. Before you perform this, you have to insert the thread into your bottom eye lid, making sure just a little sticks out. Once the thread it in your eye, do not move your eyes downwards, as this increases the chances of damage to your eye as the thread may become lodged into your eye. You also have to make sure that some of the thread is sticking out. This way it looks like an eye lash and people won't think anything of it.

Now that you have that down, take the other piece of thread and insert it into your mouth, allowing a little to hang out of your mouth. Now act as if you are forcing the thread up to your eye. The acting really sells this trick.

Once you have acted as if the thread has gone up to your eye, find the thread that you have already inserted into your eye lid and start pulling. At the same time, suck in the thread that is hanging out of your mouth. By doing that, it looks as if it is just one thread. Keep pulling the thread out of your eye, and once all the thread is in your mouth, you can either swallow it, or just hide it in your mouth.

Keep pulling all of the thread out of your eye. Do it slowly because it really does hurt. Like all tricks, practice this. And be careful.

Toothpick Trick (Done by Criss Angel)

Performance

Tutorial