Happy weekend! Time to relax and waste time. If you're a child at heart, or you've got a couple young ones hanging around, treat them to these old-school magic tricks, courtesy of Flickr user Jordan Smith. Smith generously scanned and uploaded a selection of cards from a postcard set published by the General Cigar "Hall of Magic" for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.
You don't have to go the boring route with Christmas lights this year. Try hacking them, or better yet see if you can replicate this Tron-themed optical illusion made by WonderHowTo favorite Brusspup. Good luck... looks like it took some serious time and patience to get it right.
There's something charming about Professor Wiseman's speedy and concise delivery of 10 different magic/science party tricks, delivered in just over 4 minutes. A little something to entertain the family with this holiday season. Enjoy.
A worthy addition to the world of outstanding chairs, this magical chair doesn't shrink in the morphing sense, but it does shrink to incredible compactness. Makes for a great magic trick prop, or a must-have for your next tailgate party.
WonderHowTo favorite brusspup demonstrates an amazingly simple coin trick with a plastic hanger and a quarter. In fact, it seems almost too simple to be real.
The Illusion Contest of the Year recently announced their top ten finalists, and the overwhelming crowd and jury favorite is Impossible Motion: Magnet-like Slopes by Koukichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan.
American magician and master of endurance David Blaine delivers a TED talk on the challenge of holding one's breath for as long as humanly possible. Blaine currently holds the Guinness World Record for longest breath held, at 17 minutes. His journey to achieve this feat (described below) is quite interesting, don't miss it.
A bunch of super cute Hong Kong kids totally kick ass, as they compete in the Pen Spinning World Tournament. Congrats to winning champion, 14-year-old Eugene, who says he practices every day for 4-5 hours.
Below is a great video that shows a classic illusion designed and built by Jerry Andrus. Jerry is a backyard magician and illusionist who created his own kind of special magic tricks for his entire life, up until his death in 2007.
Pen Spinning lives in a similar world of the unassuming arts of Cup Stacking and Dice Stacking. All three performing arts truly require a great deal of practice and skill.
When arch-skeptic Michael Shermer has you in his crosshairs, the act is over. Criss Angel has been debunked on WonderHowTo many times before. But this disclosure of the famous spoon bend is unlike the others.
Made by our abrasive friends at Spike, this tutorial is actually well researched and happens to employ plain old common sense. (Ummm...common sense, being an attribute you are lacking if you are in handcuffs.)
A 15 year old named Brandon reveals one of the great magic tricks of all time for Viewdo. If you try this on a friend who does not know this trick...you will be a GOD. The kid is good. He "sells" it too.
The Zippo ain't no common Bic. This lighter is windproof, waterproof, electrocution proof... the list goes on! In the 1950's a fisherman found a Zippo in the belly of a fish. It worked on the first try!
