Right here, I’ll explain two easy toothpick tricks that anyone can do. You’ll learn how to make a toothpick disappear and how to make two of them penetrate each other without taking any damage.
The great thing about the tricks:
For these tricks, all you need are a few ordinary toothpicks and some preparation before you perform the illusions. You won’t need more than some transparent tape and some scissors.
Let’s get started with the first trick.
Trick #1: How to vanish a toothpick
With this trick, you can make a toothpick disappear in seconds. Right after vanishing it, you can make it reappear instantly.
You can watch a performance of the trick in this video:
Here’s what you need:
- A normal toothpick
- Clear adhesive tape
Before the trick, tape a toothpick to your thumbnail as shown in the image below. To make the toothpick disappear, you then just have to open your hand and stretch your fingers – your thumb will hide the toothpick.
Make sure that the tape you are using is transparent, and try to use a little tape as possible.
This is how you want to hold the toothpick when performing the trick:
Clench your hand into a fist to hide the tape that attaches the toothpick to your thumb. Your thumb points towards the audience and your middle and index finger hide the tape.
This is how the trick looks from your perspective:
Open your hand with one fast move and stretch all of your fingers. Your thumb has to point upwards to hide the entire toothpick from your viewers.
It’s even possible to show your hand from a different angle like shown in the picture below, but make sure that nobody can see the toothpick!
The best way to learn this trick is by practicing in front of a mirror.
Your second hand can imitate the movements, which will distract your viewers a little bit. So just do the same gestures with both hands, it will look a lot more natural!
To make the toothpick reappear, just repeat the same movements, but this time, do it backward. Clench your hand into a fist and quickly cover the tape.
Trick #2: Make two toothpicks penetrate each other
This is another amazing trick using only two toothpicks. This time, you don’t need any tape, just the toothpicks, and some practice.
You can watch the trick in this video:
Before you practice the trick, you have to prepare both of the toothpicks.
The required preparation
Cut off both ends of the toothpicks so you don’t hurt yourself when doing the trick. You’ll have to apply quite some pressure on them, so this step is really necessary.
How to perform the toothpick trick
Now, hold the toothpicks between your thumb and middle finger, one in each hand.
Your goal is to make it look like they penetrate each other, just like with the “Crazy Man’s Handcuffs” trick, where two rubber bands are interlinked and instantly separated.
The secret is quite simple. You apply enough pressure to one of the toothpicks to make it stick to your thumb, allowing you to remove the middle finger.
With one fast movement, you now bring both of the toothpicks together and quickly remove your middle finger just before they touch. Once the toothpick passed the other one, put your middle finger back on it and hold it just like before.
When done fast enough, it actually looks like the toothpicks penetrated each other.
The great thing about this illusion is that you end “clean”, which means there aren’t any hidden gimmicks or tape like in the other trick.
If you are interested in a few more magic tricks with everyday items, make sure to check these ones out:
Image sources:
All of the images are my own photos, click here if you want to use them.
