Pour some water on the plate and rub it around the rim. Now place the shell on the rim and

it will spin around the plate. Amazing. Explain that you have hurt your thumb, and

then do this. In fact, you have placed a plastic cup under your elbow, and as you gently pull

your thumb up, crush the cup against your body.

Pick up a fork and show that you can magically make it stick to your left hand. When people

become suspicious of your right hand take it away and the fork still stays in place.

The secret involves carefully placing a dinner knife under your watchstrap and then supporting

the fork using the knife. Make a cone of paper. Cut off the end and

place two dots on it to create a face. Put the cone on your third finger, bend that finger

over and place your other hand on top. Now you can introduce your friends to your new

pet mouse. For extra fun, secretly place some tomato sauce on your hand, and after your

friends have seen your new pet, push your hands together and say 'Oh dear, I think I

have killed him'. Take a paper cup and magically make it levitate.

The secret involves making a hole in the side of the cup, and then supporting the cup on

your thumb. Here is an impossible looking object. To make

it, fold a rectangle of paper in half lengthways, open it out and fold it half widthways, and

finally fold each of the sides to the centre crease, so you end up with a grid like this.

Now cut this fold, and this one, and this one. To make the impossible shape, simply

fold this section over and lay the whole thing on a table.

Take a napkin, pretend to place some invisible thread around it and make it move by pulling

the thread. The secret is simple. Just push the base of the napkin with your thumb and

at the same time pretend the pull the thread with the other hand.

This stunt involves a DVD. Say you can make the DVD stick to your finger. In fact, you

secretly stick out your little finger underneath the DVD and support it on that.

Take a bread roll and bounce it on the floor. In fact, when your hand goes below the table,

turn it over and throw the roll into the air. Have your friend lie down on the floor and

cover them with a cloth. Now make some passes and they magically rise into the air. The

secret is obvious once you see what's going on under the cloth.