Difficulty: Easy

Effect
Munch a pencil into hundreds of little tiny bits, right in front of your audiences nose!

History and Credit
Lapping is the technique of secretly dropping an object into your lap in order to give the appearance that it vanished.

Lapping is a very old technique. The first English book of magic ever published, the “Discovery of Witchcraft” in 1584, describes using it to vanish a ball. It has subsequently seen print in numerous other magic books since then.

Martin Gardner, in his 1978 book “Impromptu Magic”, explained how you could use lapping to “break” and restore a pencil. This trick, appropriately called “Lap and Snap”, provided the main inspiration for Jonah’s handling. 

Difficulty: Medium

Effect
Turn a friends shirt into your own personal birthday candle. Blow it out, and restore it back to normal.

History and Credit
During the pandemic Ben and Jonah undertook what they called “The Tarbell Challenge”. Each month they went through one of the famous “Tarbell Books of Magic” (starting with book one and working through to book eight), chose a trick, and put their own spin on it. 

You can see the results of their efforts on the official Toronto Magic Company Youtube page. 

In Tarbell volume there is a trick called “Burning a Borrowed Handkerchief”. As the name implies, you burn and restore a man’s handkerchief. This is Ben’s version and handling. 

Difficulty: Medium

Effect
An easy to do colour change that uses moves you already have in your arsenal.

History and Credit
Tyler Wilson isn’t just a great magician - he’s also one of Chris’ oldest friends! 

In 2007 Tyler published a slow motion colour change called “The Shocker!” in his “Movers and Shakers” notes. The change happens as the card is pushed through the fingers, and it inspired Chris much easier handling! 

Difficulty: Easy

Effect
Wrap a silk around the stem of a glass, tie a knot, and pull. You better believe it. it goes right through the stem of the glass!

History and Credit

Based on Charlie Miller’s “Improved Handkerchief Penetration”, from Genii Magazine (April, 1957). James' major addition was to do it with a wine glass, which improves visibility for stand up performances.

Difficulty: Hard

Effect
There are many ways to vanish a coin. The retention vanish is one of the best, and Glenn's retention vanish is one of the best retention vanishes around. Learn it from him directly.

History and Credit
The first published reference to the retention of vision vanish is a French magic club magazine from 1907 called “I’Illusionniste”. In Vol. 16 issue 67 Claude Grivolas describes performing and explaining what he called "l'emplamage" - which translates from French into English as "sleight" or "move".

Two years later in T. Nelson Downs’ book “The Art of Magic”, Downs provides the first detailed description of the move, along with a mention of two Americans who've been doing the sleight for a while.

Difficulty: Hard

Effect
A funny multi-phase routine where the magician turns over the cards, and repeatedly sees ONLY backs. no faces. It's pretty baffling.

History and Credit
The all-backs plot is a super cool one. Although it was popularized by famed magician Dai Vernon, the first person to ever publish a version of the effect was Ralph W. Hull as “The Ever Changing Deck” in 1933.

Steve’s wonderful version can be found in issue 15 of “Output”, which came out this year in 2021.