this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Best simple magic trick I've ever seen, blows people's minds:

Cut out a piece of black paper the shape of the opening of a beer can, lick it and stick it to the lid. From a distance it should look like it's open. Prick a hole in the side with a pin and drain out a quarter of the beer, enough that you can squeeze the can and bend it. Lay it on its side on a table, with the pinhole pointing up so it doesn't leak. Now it looks like an open, empty, crushed can. Do all that secretly obviously.

Now ask someone if they want a drink, and point out the "empty" can. Pick it up and cover the pinhole with your finger, then subtly wave the can around as you magically summon more beer. The remaining beer will fizz up and the pressure will cause the can to inflate and uncrush itself. Secretly remove the black paper and hide it. Show them the magically restored lid, crack it open an pour the beer into a glass (so they don't notice it was partly empty).

What makes it so incredible is you never hid the can from them or did anything tricksy. From their POV, an empty can just refilled itself in front of their eyes.

Edit: Here's David Blaine doing it for some obvious actors. You will be able to make it more convincing than this. Can't believe David Blaine was so popular back then lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTG-MIqU-Q

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your bar for "low effort" is way above my bar of "too much effort".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Shotgun a beer using a bic pen to puncture it. Low effort. The real payoff is the belch.

The trick here is you shotgun three other beers first without anyone knowing but don't burp until you do the party trick shotgun.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

If you can solve a Rubik's cube, normal people will think you are a genius. On the other hand, actual cubers correctly assess that I am a dumbass if they see me do it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Right? I can solve one in a minute to minute and a half. By normal people standards, impressive, by cyber standards I'm laughably slow.

I'm cool with that

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair, this is how most skills are in the internet era. It makes it way too easy to feel like you're not good enough just because it's so easy to find content from highly talented people.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know exactly one party trick based on mathematical group theory, which I have actually used to impress non-mathematicians at a party.

There's a concept called the "center" of a "group", which is the set of operations that commute with every other operation in the group. The center always contains the identity operation of doing nothing. The group of scramblings of a Rubik's cube happens to contain exactly two elements in its center: the identity, and a move called the "superflip" which takes a little bit of effort to memorize how to do, but it's not so hard. Much easier than actually solving a scrambled Rubik's cube. It's like you do a simple move repeated 4x, and then you do that whole 4x set 3x with some rotations in between. Not terribly complicated. Importantly, once you memorize it it's not difficult to do just by feel, since it's a fixed sequence of mechanical motions.

So, the party trick goes like this:

You have a Rubik's cube that is exactly a superflip away from the solved state. You hand it to an unsuspecting party guest and say "go ahead and make one or two turns" (it's important to say something like "one or two" because if they do 3 the trick becomes challenging, and if they do 4 or more it might become impossibly difficult unless you're actually good at solving Rubik's cubes, which I am not). They take this obviously unsolved cube and make a couple more moves so now it appears even more scrambled.

You take the cube back and do the superflip behind your back, without looking at the cube.

Then you move the cube out from behind your back, and at the same time (trying to be slick about it) you undo the one or two moves remaining before it is solved. Everyone gasps and say "omg he solved it behind his back" (when really you did no such thing).

This works because if S is the superflip and X is the simple moves they did to it, S X S is equal to just X because S commutes with everything. (S is also its own inverse, so that S S = 1.)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn, that's neat. I might have to practice that.

I know exactly one party trick based on mathematical group theory, which I have actually used to impress non-mathematicians at a party.

Clearly, we just need more group-based popular toys. I would definitely buy a monster group cube, and then probably get crushed by it falling over on me (how many generators does that thing need, anyway?).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://mathoverflow.net/questions/142205/presentation-of-the-monster-group mentions a presentation of the monster with 12 generators.

Creating a physical rotation puzzle that implements the monster group would be quite a task!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I learned how to do it purely to get free food at a restaurant. The idiot proof method takes about a day to learn and a bit longer to do reliably. Recommended!

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Angry elephant. Remove your glass eye, insert it into your foreskin and flop it around while yelling "brrraaaah!"

Most impressive party trick I've ever seen.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I made it 54 years, and just now regret being circumcised.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This one is more of an icebreaker/game and can be fun to do at a party where there is more talking than partying. You need pen and paper or a phone to take notes.

  1. Ask each person to come up with a color and 3 adjectives to describe it.

  2. Ask each person to come up with an animal and 3 adjectives to describe it.

  3. Ask each person to come up with a body of water (can be specific like β€œLake Baikal” or non-specific like β€œocean”) and 3 adjectives to describe it.

  4. Ask each person to imagine themselves in an all-white room with no doors and no windows. Write down 3 adjectives that describe how it makes them feel.

Ok, now:

  1. The color and related adjectives is how you see yourself.

  2. The animal and related adjectives is how you see other people.

  3. Body of water and related adjectives is how you see your sex/love life.

  4. The white room is how you see death.

People love this shit. Lots of laughs all around.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Maybe not impressive but it is funny to draw 2 pounts at specific locations on a hand and then "eating" stuff by moving the "middle" thumb joint ud and down so it looks like a mouth.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How did you get such an up-close pic of Jennifer Lopez?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I forgot how she looks but it sounds funny so i upvoted it anyway

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And for your upvote, you get taco-flavored kisses!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I got a hunger only tacos can stop

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

It's a South Park reference btw

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

You're right, that's certainly not impressive.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just tell them, "talk to the hand," sloooooowly raise your hand to eye level, and start using it like a puppet.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Offer to share an apple with someone, then split it in half with your hands. It's easy once you figure out the technique.

Dollar bill origami. Ask someone for a bill, fold it into a T-shirt or whatever, and give it back to them.

Wear a ring (stainless steel, not gold) and use it to open bottles with your hands.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Open a beer bottle, with another beer bottle.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay here's my favorite super easy card "magic" trick. Works best prefaced by "I'm not very good at it but I hope it works"

You fan a deck and tell somebody to remember the card. Then ask them to put it back on top of the deck. Make sure to remember the card on top of the deck first. Then you give the cards a very shitty shuffle, but enough so they can see their card go into the middle of the deck. If you look really awkward and unskilled, this will work even better. The card they picked and the original top card should remain together.

You then just start flipping cards off the top of the deck, 1 by 1. at some point you will flip the card that was on top of the deck, meaning the card just before it is the card in question. Keep flipping a few cards. Then (make sure you look hesitant and unconfident), say "Okay if the next card I put on the table is your card, you down your drink. If it's not, I'll down my drink" If your performance has looked shitty enough so far, they will be sure to agree, since they already saw their card be flipped.

But instead of flipping the next card, you go through the pile, find their card, and put it back down on the table.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've done this one before and it's always worked for me. The one difference I do is after they put the card on top of the deck I give them the deck and tell them they can cut it as many times as they'd like. By cutting the deck it's incredibly unlikely they'd separate their chosen card and the top card. Plus it makes them think they have more control over things

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's risky depending on how adamant they are about cutting. If they're cutting a random spot each time, at 10 cuts there's an ~18% chance they've split the two cards up. Your odds are 50/50 at 35 cuts.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

'Card throwing' a card and sticking it into an apple. 1 afternoon of practice and you can likely get it done in 3 tries.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you have apples lying around, tearing one in half with your bare hands is actually pretty easy. There are quick guides on YouTube but basically, if I'm remembering right, you put the heels of your palms together at the bottom of the apple and finger tips at the stem and kind of squeeze the apple and try open the apple like a book. It makes a big difference having freshly washed hands.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/F21mTojMCAc

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Opening a beer bottle with a lighter, a second beer bottle, your teeth (not recommended), the corner of a table (don't actually do this unless you know the table can be scratched up or chipped), or other random objects.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's actually just a basic skill in Germany and far from impressive. Even myself who basically can do nothing with his hands can open a beer bottle with many objects that have an edge.

Not saying that it might not be impressive in other parts of the world, but dont overestimate its effect in Germany. ;)

Edit: Just remembered that I knew a guy who opened bottles with his eye socket...crazy shit.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Opening a twist off bottle top with your hands when everyone else thinks it's a normal bottle top is a good one for a quick laugh

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even in this world where everything I buy or am gifted comes with another fucking bottle opener I still use the lighter or hard corner trick more than any other bottle opening methods

Knew a guy once who could do it with his bare hands, no idea how though, looked like it hurt

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Doing it with your phone is also great if you have a solid case. You can do it with your hand if you have a ring that isn't soft like gold or silver

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apparently, "So anyway, here's Wonderwall"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I will not bother using both hands to clap after. That's my party trick, clapping with each hand individually by having my relaxed fingers smack the palm.

It's the dumbest thing, and people lose all their faith in humanity when they see me do it, it's hilarious.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Well if you have hyper mobility in your joints like me, people are always interested when I fold my pinky flat against the back of my hand.

It’s super low effort for me…might involve some broken bones or dislocations for others though Β―\_(ツ)_/Β―

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I used to get some decent mileage out of catching a stack of quarters off my elbow. That was back when more people carried change though.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Playing 'Alle meine Entchen' on various instruments.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Ask around the table who has fast reflexes. Get a $10 bill, scrunch it a bit and put it on the table (a bit like a ball). Ask the person to position their hand some 4 inches above the bill, palm down. Then, position your hand much higher (1.5ft) also face down and bet that person that you can grab that bill before they do.

It's misleading because of the distance but if you're just normal fast by the time they react you'll already have the bill in your hands.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Contact juggling. Making empty (or full) bottles spin "weightlessly" in your hand, rolling an orange over your fingers like David Bowie... not that impressive, maybe, but a lot more impressive than it is hard to learn.

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