Effect: You are sitting in a restaurant waiting for the food, bored out of your mind because you forgot your cell phone. You decide it’s the perfect time to entertain everyone with a little magic. You pick up a paper napkin and begin to tear it in half. You keep tearing it into little pieces. You scrunch all the pieces up into a ball and close your hand into a fist. You pick up a knife and using it as a wand, wave it over your closed fist. You put the knife down, open your hand and unravel the ball to reveal – a completely restored napkin!
Secret: You need two paper napkins and a knife or pencil to make this trick work. Secretly scrunch one of the napkins into a tight ball and keep it hidden in your right hand (left hand if you’re a leftie), in a finger curl palm – just like you did with the sponge ball. Put the pencil or knife into your right back pocket and you are ready to perform.
1. You ask the others at the table if they would like to witness a minor miracle. Assuming they say yes, hold up a paper napkin and unfold it. Tear the napkin in half.
2. Put the pieces on top of each other and tear them again. Repeat this two more times, ending up with eight pieces.
3. Scrunch all of these pieces up into a tight little ball (like the one hidden in your right hand) and close your right hand over it. The other ball is sitting next to it, still hidden.
4. Saying, “I need a wand….” and in view of your audience, dump the un-torn napkin from your right hand into your left hand, secretly holding back the torn napkin with your right thumb. This is your misdirection to ditch the torn napkin in your pocket.
5. You pat your right front pants pocket as if looking for your knife (wand). At the same time you reach into your right back pants pocket, you dump off the torn napkin, cleanly pulling out the knife. Wave the knife (wand) over your left hand several times then put it down.
6. Slowly open your left hand to unravel the ball, showing that the torn napkin has been magically restored back to its original state.
