This is not a fool-proof puzzle. You have to put your faith in an untested paper straw. I recommend that you only do this trick over a soft surface so that there is no damage if it doesn't work.

Show your friends an empty bottle and a paper straw. Stand the bottle on the table and then ask if anyone can lift the bottle from the table without touching it with anything except the straw. And it is against your rules (well, this is your puzzle!) to tie the poor defenseless straw round the neck of the bottle.

A few over-confident people may try, then you show them that it is really easy. Well, it is really easy indeed! 

For this trick you need 2 matches and a ring (a ring thats slightly loose)  and a black marker

Preparation:

• using a black marker draw on the red part of one match.
• put 1 match (the colored one) in the ring out of sight.

The Method:

George Washington... a psychic, too?

Effect:

Show your friend a dollar bill and tell her to look at the serial number and to concentrate on just one of the numbers.

Tell her that George Washington wasn't just the first President of the United States, but he was also a psychic!

Ask her what the number was and after she tells you, you show her your prediction - one that was already written on the dollar bill before you began! Carry this one in your wallet. It's a good one to do anytime!

The Effect

You hand to audience for examination, three silk handkerchiefs; one red, one white, and one blue. Next you show the two crystal cylinders, such as is used on gas jets. Have someone in audience to tie the corners of blue and white handkerchiefs together and roll them into a ball, which you place in one of the cylinders, and give to someone to hold.

You next take the red handkerchief and place it in the other cylinder, and hold one hand over each end of cylinder, and away from your body. You now command the red handkerchief to vanish, and instantly the cylinder is seen empty; hands are still covering both ends. Person holding the other cylinder removes the two handkerchiefs and unrolls them, and to their astonishment they find the red handkerchief which had disappeared from the other cylinder between the blue and white handkerchiefs, all being tied together. Very effective.

NONE of the principles employed in this clever combination are new, but, as the audience only sees the surface of a trick, the effect is none the worse on that account. If this surface is properly camouflaged, the closer one sticks to the time-tried methods the better.

The Effect

The performer takes one of the leaves from an advertising calendar, tears off a corner and gives it to one of the audience to hold. Then he tears the remainder of the leaf into strips, which he rolls into a ball, saying: "There's another month gone, how time flies!" Holding the ball at the tips of the fingers of the left band, he picks up a fan from the table with the right and fans the strips, at the same time working the ball open with the fingers. He then lays the fan on the table and straightens out the paper, showing the leaf restored. He passes it to the spectator who holds the piece torn from the corner, who fits it in place and reports that the fit is perfect. He then pretends that someone looks suspicious, and, turning to him says: "I see, sir, that you suspect some trickery on my part, but you wrong me, you really do. I assure you that I am as innocent as an unusually young babe. You think that I kept this original sheet and tore up another. Now just to make you regret all the rest of your life that you so wrong fully mistrusted a fellow mortal, I'm going to sacrifice another month of our all too short life by again tearing this into bits." He proceeds exactly as before, returns to his table, picks up the fan and fans his right hand while walking back toward the audience. Then he straightens it out and again has the corner fitted.

Turning to the suspicious spectator he says, "Sir, I shall expect a public apology from you. Otherwise my second will call on you in the morning."

The Effect:

A fairly heavy Manila paper envelope is prepared beforehand by cutting a slot at the bottom right corner. With a pair of scissors trim a small sliver of paper from the bottom of the envelope. When the envelope is prepared this way the opening will offer no resistance to the coin and it will fall freely into your hand.