It takes two
You’ll need
- Tables
- Playing cards
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found on our safety pages.
- Choose a pair to perform the magic show. They’ll need time before doing their trick to prepare, so do this earlier in the session.
Run the activity
Explain to the pair how the trick works.
- One of the two magicians (‘Magician Two’) will leave the room.
- The other (‘Magician One’) will lay out 10 cards from the deck for the audience to see.
- Members of the audience should take turns to pick a card.
- When a card has been chosen, Magician Two returns.
- Magician One should ask them which card the audience member chose by pointing at the cards on the table.
- Magician Two should say ‘no’ for each card they didn’t choose and ‘yes’ for the one they did choose.
- They’ll need to come up with a system for knowing what card the audience member has chosen. Here is one way they could do this:
- When the magicians are ready to perform, gather everyone around the table. Shuffle the deck of cards and give them to Magician One. Encourage the magicians to use magical gestures and flourishes when astonishing their audience!
- When a few cards have been chosen and guessed by the magicians, the person leading the activity should ask the audience to raise their hand if anyone has an idea of how the trick might be done. Take individuals out of the room and see if they’ve worked it out. If they know how the trick works, the magicians may reveal the system to them and have them join in (‘Magician Three,’ ‘Four’ etc) by either pointing to the cards or correctly guessing. But only if they agree to the Magician’s Oath: ‘As a magician I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician unless that one swears to uphold the Oath in turn. I promise never to perform any illusion for any non-magician without first practising the effect until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic.’
- See how many members of the group have the magic touch and challenge the audience to try and catch the magicians out!
Reflection
Magicians rely not only on their magic touch, but also on lots of other skills. A memorable performance needs showmanship (or ‘flair’), team-work, self-confidence, strong communication skills and a sense of humour too. At the same time, they have to focus on remembering how to do the trick properly with all those people watching! Magicians, how hard was it to fool your audience and be in control while remembering how you did your trick? Audience, were you convinced by your magician’s powers? Any theories on how they did it?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
If your magicians have great faith in their powers, lay out twenty cards for the audience to choose from.
It may be necessary to have both audio and visual indications of which card has been chosen by Magician One, rather than just pointing. They could say: ‘Is this the card they chose?’ and point for each one.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Once magicians have agreed to the Magician's Oath, the magicians of the internet will happily share the secrets of their mystical power. Spellbooks with pictures are also especially helpful. Have the group get into teams and practise a trick with cards or other available props to perform at a magic show for family and friends.
Some within your group may already have discovered their magical powers. If there’s time, have others perform card tricks of their own to the group as part of the show.