Balloon Magic Trick

Here's a balloon magic trick that's easy to do, easy to learn and perfect for any occasion where you find balloons like birthday parties or Christmas functions.

What this balloon magic trick has going for it most of all is clarity of effect. By that I mean your audience has no problem in following the effect. It's an old saying in magic but it is very true: a good magic effect can be described in one sentence. I'll describe this trick for you. 'A balloon is cut in half and immediately blown up again.' It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Clear is good. Dai Vernon, one of the greatest thinkers in 20th century magic was fond of saying, "Confusion is not magic!" If your audience is in the slightest bit confused by what they have just witnessed then they will fail to appreciate just how impossible it was.

It often surprises new magicians when I tell them that many professionals use the Invisible Deck in their performing repertoire; its simplicity of handling and clarity of effect are its brilliance. Here is the effect, again in one sentence: a freely chosen card is named, the cards are then taken out of the box and the named card is the only one reversed in the deck. The reaction from an audience is always stunned amazement.

That's not to say more complex routines don't have impact, it just requires someone with experience in presentation and routining to make them really sing.

Again I'm going to point you to one of my favourite all time magic books called

Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz. Clarity is discussed in fantastic detail in Chaper 1 on page 30.

For the Cut and Restored Balloon Trick in this video, just go out and buy the cheapest 30cm or 12 inch balloons you can find.

This is one of those tricks that is perfect to have pre prepared and just lying around in your draw for an unexpected magic miracle. If you are a doctor, childcare worker, teacher etc. this is a great standby effect to help distract a difficult child's attention for a brief moment.