One of the secrets of magic tricks 1 is to make your audience have a good time; make them smile. To do that you have to turn a trick from being a just a puzzle into an entertaining magic trick. The easiest way to do that is make a short story that suits your trick. This means spending a few minutes being creative.

Personally I love this part of the process. To make it easier I have a range of resources that I use to help me along. I'm going to share some of those with you. You'll find the longer you spend with me, the more you'll realise the secrets to magic tricks are more than just the magic tricks themselves.

I have lists of jokes and sayings. I have collected these for the last 30 years. If something makes me smile or laugh I write it down. There are times I think why did I ever bother BUT it's amazing how years later there will be just the thing I need sitting in those notes.

One of the lists I have is Silly Names. This is often a useful starting point to writing a story for your magic trick. Here's a few to get you started. Add to these and make your own lists. Note> I'll explain these as some of my readers don't have English as a first language.

Sid Down and Chad Up (sit down and shut up)

Carla Spadeaspade (call a spade a spade)

Eaton A. Pickle (eating a pickle)

Evan Elpuss (heaven help us)

Scott Shawn DeRocks (scotch on the rocks)

Chris P. Bacon (crispy bacon)

Foster Dennis Peeding-Bullet (faster than a speeding bullet)

Felix Cited (feel excited)

Maybe take a card, coin or rope trick and add it to one of these names and try to make a bit of a story to go with what happens.