Thames & Kosmos Magic: Gold Edition

Grab your wand! With high-quality magic props and simple illustrated instructions, the 100 magic tricks in this kit can be easily learned, practiced, and mastered — to stun and amaze audiences!

Dots appear and disappear in paddle tricks. Make playing cards come and go and change places. In tricks with money, currency loses value, money doubles in value, and coins disappear from a coin box and then reappear. Coins pass through handkerchiefs, disappear into thin air, and magically stay put when they shouldn’t! Paper money disappears and milk appears out of nowhere in tricks with tubes. A number of tricks involve knots and ropes: Knots in ropes untie themselves, jump from rope to rope, and disappear. A rope passes through solid objects.

A bottle floats in the air. A rigid magic wand becomes flexible. A magic wand grows and shrinks, passes through objects, and emerges from an empty bag. The magic wand twists and levitates. Invisible forces move the wand. The wand tells time.

Many tricks can be done with your hands and a magical thumb: A silk pocket square appears out of nowhere, coins get pulverized, objects magically stay dry, salt vanishes, sugar appears, loose sugar becomes a sugar cube, and dollar bills emerge from bread rolls.

Fun hanky tricks will have a piece of fabric appearing, disappearing, and getting knotted and unknotted. In food tricks, salt and pepper separate, oranges become apples, and sugar and spice don’t play very nice! Even everyday household objects get in on the action: Paperclips, pencils, thread, crayons, newspapers, and spoons take part in wild illusions. You will guess people’s ages and hypnotize their arms.

A 72-page instruction manual with color photographs illustrates how the tricks are performed. Video tutorials for the tricks are available online. For one magician, ages 8 and up, and many audience members.