How to Do Pencil & Bill Vanish Trick | Magic Tricks

Roger "Rogue" Quan: Hey, Heather, can I borrow your pencil for a second?

Heather: Sure.

Roger: Awesome. And do you have a bill I could borrow, also?

Heather: I do.

Roger: Nice. Oh, I'm going shopping.

Heather: You better give it back.

Roger: Here we go. This is very, very cool. I'm going to count to three, and on three the magic's going to happen, okay?

Heather: Alright.

Roger: Count with me, okay. One...

Heather: One.

Roger: Two.

Heather: Two.

Roger: Three.

Heather: Three.

Roger: Isn't it great? Actually, it's right over here. Isn't that great, though? But, seriously, the real magic happens when you go one, two...

Heather: Two.

Roger: Three.

Heather: Three.

Roger: Just like that. You know where the bill went though, right?

Heather: No.

Roger: It went straight to my bank account.

Heather: Better not.

Roger: Thanks.

Heather: Thanks.

Roger: Here's the explanation for the pencil and bill vanish. You can actually use a pen or you can use a piece of paper. Anything that actually fits in your hand will work for this. I like to use bills because they're all over the place.

Take the bill, you borrow the bill, and you fold it into a little packet. You're going to put that into your left hand. With your right hand you're going to tap the pencil and have the audience count with you. It's best to have the audience on your left for this as you'll see in a moment. Basically, they're going to count with you as you go one, two, three. By the way, you're going to tell them that something magical's going to happen on three. Don't tell them what, just one, two, three.

On three you're going to put the pencil right behind your ear. There's a very old principle in magic called misdirection. As they look at the pencil in your ear you're going to point to the pencil and you're going to say that, "I got you." As you take the pencil off you're going to put the bill that's in your left hand in your back pocket at that moment. So now, your hand comes back out, the bill's no longer there, and you say, "The real magic's going to happen now on the count of three." One, two, three, and the bill vanishes.

And that's the explanation for the pencil and bill vanish.