Broken Restored Spoon
A Super Close Up Tea Spoon Twister Trick That Leaves An Audience Dumbfounded
Effect:
First of all you casually lift a teaspoon after stirring your tea or even while your still holdiing it, - glance at it with an amused look and wiggle it up and down a little, as if it's kind of bendy and malleable..
You then calmly proceed to bend the bowl of the spoon backwards and forwards and look a little amused. You now appear to do an impossible feat of strength and twist the bowl of the spoon round and round, several times.
You can if your wish, break the bowl of the spoon right off, and then join it back together again and with a couple of twists - you just shake your head in disbelief at the poor quality of the spoon and it back down on the table - Fully Restored Back Together!!!. - This is close up magic at its best !!!
How To Do The Illusion :
You first need to prepare a simple gimmick. - This is just the bowl part of an old teaspoon that you have cut off with a hacksaw. - see picture on the left. ( Take care when using a hacksaw and file off any sharp edges, this should only be done by an adult )
The gimmicked spoon bowl has to be finger-palmed - This means simply holding it gently in your loosely curled fingers. - So have this kept in a convenient pocket where it's very easy to grasp it with your fingers.- See picture above.
The effectiveness of this close up magic illusion is all down to your presentation. - Holding the spoon in your right hand (or the opposite hand from the one that holds the spoon bowl in finger palm position), you give it a wiggle from side to side and if you hold it loosely between your thumb and forefinger it will appear as if the spoon is flexible and bending. While bending the spoon, try to look a little surprised as to why the spoon looks so bendy.
Now take hold of the spoon with your left hand - the hand that is finger palming the gimmicked spoon bowl. - The gimmicked spoon bowl is held with the thumb and the second finger of the left hand while the bowl part of the whole spoon is slid behind the second, third and little fingers - See the picture above which shows how to position the whole spoon in the hand leaving only the stem part of it visible.
You are now in a position to appear to bend, twist and break off the bowl of the spoon as you so desire, making some amusing remarks about the poor quality of the cutlery.
Use the next move to lay the spoon back down, fully restored
Grab the handle of the spoon with your right hand and as you lightly curl you fingers of the left hand round the gimmick, - you turn the spoon over lengthwise in a forward twisting movement that leaves you completely free to either hold the spoon up for inspection or hand it to one of your onlookers to inspect. Alternatively, you can simply throw the spoon back on the table.
At this point your left hand naturally drops to your side with the gimmick hidden in the easy finger palm as when you started. You can then simply
put your hand in your pocket and get rid of the gimmick.
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this magic illusion. With a little practice, it can be performed smoothly and is an excellent impromptu close up
trick and can be carried around with you easily due to the minimal equipment required. I hope you have fun with this trick.
Other clever methods of how to bend a spoon can be found on our spoon bending trick
page.