Magic tricks for beginners · Cards, coins, everyday objects, the mind

Seven easy magic tricks for beginners,
and what each one teaches

Chosen by Hugo Marceau, professional magician and mentalist, from the tricks that genuinely fool people on the first evening: a card trick with no sleight of hand, a number you can predict, a coin that vanishes, and a piece of mind reading that needs nothing at all. Each comes with the lesson a professional would want you to take from it.

The seven tricks

Hugo Marceau · professional magician and mentalist since 2010 · member of the Fédération Française de Magie · rated 5.0 on 178 verified Google reviews · performs in English and French

Before the tricks

Every magic trick below is self-working or close to it: the illusion rests on a principle rather than a difficult move, so your hands are free and your attention can go where a magician's belongs, on the people watching. All of them have been published in beginners' books for decades; none of them is a professional's guarded routine. What is not in the books is the lesson next to each one, which is the reason a professional would pick these seven and not seventy others. Learn them in order, start with the first, and perform each magic trick for a real person before you open the next. One tip before you begin: an easy trick performed with confidence beats a hard one performed with doubt.

7tricks: three with cards, one with numbers, two with objects, one with the mind
0difficult moves; one easy coin vanish, taught in stages
0props to buy: a borrowed deck, a coin, a pencil, a rubber band
2 weeksof practice, fifteen minutes a day per trick, before you show it

Hugo Marceau, professional magician and mentalist — Hugo Marceau · magician, mentalist, AI magician

Card tricks for beginners

Three card magic tricks beginners can do on day one

01 · The key card · the easiest card trick

The chosen card found, every time

What they see. A spectator takes any card from a shuffled deck, remembers it, puts it back and cuts the deck. You spread the cards and name theirs.

Before you begin, glimpse the bottom card of the deck as you square it. That is your key card. Do it while you are talking about something else.
Spread the deck and let them take any card. Close the spread and hold the deck in your hand while they memorise it.
Ask them to put their card on top. Then ask them to cut the deck and complete the cut. The bottom card, your key, now sits directly on top of theirs.
Turn the deck face up and run through it. Find your key card; the chosen card is the one that was lying directly beneath it in the face-down pack, which in a face-up spread shows up immediately to its right. Do not take it out at once. Look at them, hesitate, then name it.

The lesson: the method is finished in step one. Everything the audience remembers happens in step four. Spend your practice on the pause before the name, not on the glimpse. That is the whole secret of easy magic: the trick is done before the audience thinks it has started.

02 · The 21-card trick · mathematical

Three piles, three questions, one card

What they see. Twenty-one cards are dealt into three face-up piles. The spectator merely says which pile their card is in. You gather and deal twice more. Then you count down to their card.

Deal twenty-one cards face up into three columns of seven, one card at a time, left to right. The spectator silently chooses any card and tells you only its column.
Gather the columns so that the chosen column goes between the other two. Deal again in the same way; ask again; gather again with the chosen column in the middle. Do it a third time.
After the third gathering, the chosen card is the eleventh from the top. Count down to it with a flourish, or spell a phrase of eleven letters, one card per letter, and turn over the last.

The lesson: a trick that always works is a trick you can perform with your eyes on the audience. Watch where they look during the dealing: it tells you which card is theirs long before the maths does.

03 · The spelling reveal · a force in disguise

Their card spells itself

What they see. You ask for the name of their card and spell it, one card per letter. On the last letter, you turn over their card.

Use the key-card method from trick one to learn the position of the chosen card: say it is twelfth from the top after your run-through.
Ask them to name the card out loud. "Seven of hearts" has thirteen letters without the spaces, and "the seven of hearts" has sixteen. Compare the count with the position: drop or add "the", or turn over the card after the last letter rather than the last letter itself, until the two numbers meet. It takes a few seconds of arithmetic, which is why you rehearse it until the counting comes quickly.
Spell slowly, one card per letter, and turn the last one over. Theirs.

The lesson: a magician decides what the audience will do, then lets them feel they chose. That idea, the force, is the foundation of mentalism, and this is the gentlest place to learn it.

Easy magic tricks with everyday objects

Easy magic with a prediction, a coin and a pencil

04 · The 1089 prediction · no props

A number you wrote down before they started

What they see. You write a prediction and fold it. The spectator chooses any three-digit number, does some simple arithmetic of their own, and arrives at the number in your hand.

Write 1089 on a slip, fold it and give it to someone to hold.
Ask the spectator for any three-digit number whose first and last digits differ by at least two: 742, say. Reverse it (247) and subtract the smaller from the larger: 742 minus 247 is 495.
Reverse that result (594) and add the two together: 495 plus 594 is 1089. It always is. Have the slip opened.

The lesson: never let the arithmetic look like the trick. Talk about the spectator, their choices, the freedom they had; let the numbers be theirs. Presented as maths it is a curiosity. Presented as a prediction it is mind reading.

05 · The vanishing coin · your first move

A coin taken, then gone

What they see. You take a coin from one hand with the other, blow on it, and open an empty fist: the coin has disappeared.

Hold the coin at the fingertips of your left hand, thumb on top, in plain view.
Bring the right over to take it. As the right fingers close around where the coin is, let it drop quietly into the curled left fingers instead. The right closes on nothing and moves away as if it held the coin.
Look at your right fist. Never at the left. The audience follows your eyes. Open the right slowly, empty: the coin has disappeared. The left arm hangs naturally at your side, coin inside, until you make the coin reappear behind an ear or under a glass.

The lesson: this is the move magicians call a false transfer, and it is the whole of misdirection in one gesture. The trick is not in the fingers; it is in where you look. Every piece of coin magic you will ever learn starts here, so make the practice count: a camera helps more than any tutorial, and you are ready when the real take and the false take look identical.

06 · The magnetic pencil · visual

A pencil that sticks to your palm

What they see. A pencil lies across your open palm, knuckles towards them. You grip your wrist, open your fingers, and the pencil stays, apparently stuck to your skin.

Lay the pencil across your left palm and turn the knuckles to the audience. Close your fingers lightly over it.
Grip your left wrist with the right as if steadying it. As you do, extend your right index finger behind the pencil and press it against the palm.
Open your left fingers one by one. The pencil stays. Close the fingers again before anyone walks round you, and take the pencil away with the other hand as if peeling it off.

The lesson: angles. This illusion is perfect from the front and ruined from the side, which is true of most magic. Learn early to place your audience, and to end an effect before curiosity makes someone move.

06 bis · The jumping rubber band

A band that leaps from two fingers to the other two

Loop a rubber band over your index and middle fingers, knuckles to the audience. As you close your fingers, secretly slip all four fingertips inside the band. Open them: the band jumps to the ring and little fingers. The classic that is in every children's magic set, and still fools adults when done with a straight face. It is here so that you have one easy magic trick you can make from whatever is on the desk or the dinner table.

A first piece of mental magic

Which hand holds the coin

07 · Which hand · observation

Reading a decision from a face

What they see. Behind their back, the spectator hides a coin in one hand and brings both closed hands forward. You look at them, not at their fists, and name the one holding the coin.

Ask them to put the coin in either hand behind their back, then bring both fists out in front and hold them still.
Look at their face and their arms, not their knuckles. The fist with the coin is usually held a little tighter and a little higher; the eyes tend to flick away from it; some people unconsciously lean the other way to protect it.
Name it. If you are wrong, you were "testing their poker face" and go again; after three rounds you will be right more often than chance, which is all a mentalist needs, because the audience remembers the hits.

The lesson: mentalism is largely attention. There is no secret move here, only looking harder than other people look, and dressing the result in confidence. This is the beginning of the craft on the mentalism show page, and the reason Hugo, who began with cards, ended up reading rooms for a living.

Three tips go with all seven tricks, the same tips every professional was once given. Never explain a magic trick, however nicely you are asked. Never repeat one for the same people: the second time they know where to look. And never show a trick you have not performed for an empty chair, words and all, at least twenty times. When these seven are yours, the page on how to learn magic gives you the books and the clubs for the next year, and how to do a magic trick takes one effect apart to show you where the performance actually lives.

If you are planning an event

Seven tricks for you. A whole evening for your guests

What a professional does with a borrowed deck at a drinks reception, or with a hundred guests' thoughts after dinner, is a different craft from the one on this page, and it is Hugo's job. Close-up magic, a mentalism show or his AI act, for corporate events, private celebrations and weddings in France, Switzerland and beyond. Send the details and you will have a tailored proposal within one business day. Fees on request.

Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French. Agencies: the page for event planners.

Questions beginners ask

Easy magic tricks, answered by a professional

What is the easiest magic trick to learn?

The key-card location: a chosen card is found because you secretly know the card that sits next to it. There is no difficult move at all, it works with any borrowed deck, and it teaches the two things that matter most, looking natural while you glimpse a card and building up the reveal.

Which card tricks are best for beginners?

Self-working card tricks: effects whose method is a principle, not a move. The key card, the 21-card trick and spelling or counting forces all work by themselves, so your attention can go on the words and the audience. Learn two of them before you learn a single move, and make each one yours.

Can I do easy magic tricks with everyday objects?

Yes, and they are often the strongest because nothing looks prepared. A coin, a pencil, a rubber band and a borrowed deck of cards cover everything on this page. The number prediction needs nothing but a pen, a napkin and a restaurant table.

How long should I practise a trick before showing it?

Until your hands no longer need your eyes, then a week more with the words. For the tricks on this page that is about a fortnight of fifteen minutes a day. Then show it to one person, not a group, and note where they looked.

Is it all right to learn magic tricks from videos?

To see how a move looks, yes. To learn to perform, no: a video teaches the method and nothing of the presentation, which is where a trick lives or dies. Read the trick, put in the practice, perform it, then use a camera on yourself rather than a tutorial on someone else.

Should I explain the trick afterwards if people ask?

No. Explained, a trick is a puzzle solved and the wonder is gone, for them and for every magician they meet afterwards. Smile, say that a magician never tells, and make them laugh with another one. Equally, never repeat the same trick for the same people: the second time they know where to look.

Hugo Marceau, mentalist and AI magician · How to learn magic · How to do a magic trick · How to become a mentalist · What is mentalism · About Hugo · Corporate event entertainment · How card sharps work

Seven easy magic tricks for beginners,and what each one teaches