Vanishing: now you see it.
Now you don’t.
The mystery of the disappearing act
The quintessential demonstration of magic is to make an object vanish. Once you have mastered the basic conjuring techniques and vanishing methods, you can perform anything. With small objects like balls or coins, the most common method used to make the object disappear is a “false transfer.” Tricking someone into thinking you have moved the object when you keep it in your other hand. The basic false transfer of a ball or coin taught to beginner magicians is the French Drop Disappearance.
Through Thin Air
How to make something disappear?
Magic tricks involving disappearing objects rely heavily on misdirection and sleight of hand. The five techniques to make something disappear are listed below.
Palming
This is a classic technique where magicians use the natural lines and shadows of their hand to hide an object, like a coin or a small ball, in their palm. The object then ‘disappears’ when they show the audience an empty hand.
Ditching
Ditching refers to the act of surreptitiously getting rid of an object while the audience’s attention is elsewhere. A magician might drop an object into a hidden pocket (while palming the object, on its way to the pocket), or pass it to an assistant while the audience is distracted.
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand is a broader category which includes many manual techniques. These sleight of hand techniques involve quick, subtle movements that are difficult for an observer to see or follow. A lot of sleight of hand techniques require manual dexterity.
Use of props
Many magic tricks involve specially-designed props that can hide objects. A ‘vanishing box’ has a secret compartment where the object is hidden when it ‘disappears’.
Misdirection
Misdirection is the most important technique in a magician’s repertoire. By directing the audience’s attention elsewhere at the moment, a magician can ‘disappear’ an object without the audience noticing the moment the object vanished. The art of magic relies on the magician’s skill at performing these techniques in a seamless and entertaining way. Like a good plot twist in a movie, the best magic tricks keep the audience guessing till the end — sometimes — long after the trick has been performed. Magic relies heavily on distraction and misdirection.
The trick to making something disappear isn’t the action; it’s about selling the illusion. Practice your timing, your patter, an. Your innocent face for when you “can’t find” the object you’ve made vanish!
What are examples of vanishing magic tricks?
The four examples of vanishes are listed below.
The French drop
The French Drop is typically performed with a coin.
- Hold the coin at its edges between your thumb and fingers. This hand is now the “giving hand”.
- Reach your other hand (the “taking hand”) to take the coin. The thumb should go underneath the coin while the other fingers go on top.
- As the taking hand appears to grab the coin, you let the coin drop into the palm of your giving hand.
- Simultaneously, close the fingers of the taking hand as if it were holding the coin.
- Quickly retract your giving hand, keeping it closed it appears the coin is in the other hand.
- Show your taking hand to be empty. The coin has “disappeared.”
Magic relies heavily on distraction and misdirection. The trick to making something disappear isn’t the action, it’s all about selling the illusion. Practice your timing, your patter, an. Your innocent face for when you “can’t find” the object you’ve made vanish! A more deceptive vanish than any false transfer is the vanishing method of lapping.
Lapping
Slydini invented lapping, though magicians and even laypeople had likely been making objects disappear using their lap prior to Slydini. He was the one who made the vanish trick into an art form. Lapping is easier than any false transfer. But there’s a catch. The performer can make a small object disappear in the mind of participants by doing a false transfer while seated or standing. But to vanish an object using lapping, the performer is restricted to environments where the he is seated (hence, his lap is available). The virtues of lapping is you can lap anything. That means you can vanish anything.
How easy would it be to false transfer vanish a woman’s necklace? Or a couple earrings? Or a crumpled up napkin? Vanishing all the above would be difficult to conceal in the hand skillfully and naturally, but easy to lap any and all them, with little practice. But disappearing coins have their own drawbacks. You need, well, coins. The performer is restricted to vanishing coins, since he practiced hundreds of hours vanishing coins (using false transfers and other methods)., the coin manipulator may say to the lapper, “Lapping is for kids. You can do that only when seated at a table.” But Slydini would retort, “Oh, you can make a coin disappear? Just like every other magician I’ve seen, how clever. Let me see you vanish this phone. Like this.” Poof, it disappeared, gone! Items to disappear include: an ice cube (try palming an ice cube!), table salt, a saltshaker, a pile of ashes, an ashtray, a necklace, earrings, a tube of lipstick, a coin (any size), a paperclip, a bowtie, a marker or pencil, a box of wooden matches (okay, maybe the sound would give it away), a lighter, etc.
Sleeving vanish
Less commonly seen in our era, sleeving can be a devastating weapon in the magician’s arsenal of vanishing methods. Probably the most well-known master of sleeving is Carl Cloutier. If you think flicking a coin or ball up the sleeve wouldn’t fool you into believing the ball vanished, then you haven’t seen Cloutier disappear a ball using sleeving. Sleeving can accomplish vanishes and magical productions and transformations.
The topit vanish
Invented by sleight of hand master Michael Ammar, the vanishing topit is a servante Is woven into the suitcoat or tuxedo of the performer. It acts as a catch for any object tossed (secretly) into the belly part of the tux. It has the same magical impact as lapping, but with the benefit that the performer can be standing.
The restrictions are that the performer must be standing before participants to disappear an item using the topit, and must wear a jacket, coat, or tuxedo. But then, if he needs to be seated when vanishing, the performer can simply achieve the same disappearing effect with lapping.
From visible to invisible through thin air
Out of sight, into mind
As we dematerialize from our exploration of vanishing magic, it’s clear the true artistry lies notin the moment of disappearance, but in the orchestration of perception and misdirection that makes such illusions possible. Magic, the art of making things vanish, reveals a profound understanding of the human mind and its predispositions. Even as we unravel the techniques behind these vanishing acts, they retain their enchanting allure. Magic reminds us that, sometimes, it’s the things we can’t see that captivate us the most.