It is that time of year again. Time to get a new backpack, new binders, cover your textbooks with a paper bag or that clear sticky stuff, and fool the heck out of your friends. That’s why Magic Geek is presenting the Top Ten Tricks for Back-to-School.

#10 Bite Out Quarter: There is a reason this Nickel-plated miracle is our best seller. It looks like pure magic, it’s easy to carry around, it requires no set up, and David Blaine used it on his first television special.

#9 Misled: Now, why Misled and not Perfect PENetration? Camouflage. Most of us use a pencil to write notes and take standardized testing, so Misled fits right in with the rest of your school supplies. Perfect PENetration is great, and it almost made the list, but for school settings, I have to say that Misled is slightly better.

#8 Floating Match on Card: No magic list would be complete without a little levitation. This one is perfect for school because it fits into a binder and is self contained. There’s no messing with reels or anything, just float the match and put it away.

#7 Self-Tying Shoelaces:Teacher’s have always got your back, that’s why they’re so easy to fool. “Hey, your shoelace is untied.” “Is it?” BAM! Tied.

#6 Multiplying Foil Balls: Picture this, you finish your lunch, roll up the foil that your pizza was wrapped in and then put on a full on manipulation show for the entire cafeteria. Thanks for the leftovers, ma.

#5 Dime and Penny: Use your lunch money for something useful: an easy to carry magical marvel.

#4 Healed and Sealed Soda: I can’t say enough good things about this trick. The latest release (Healed and Sealed 2.0) has so many routine variations and little tips that it has become the ultimate anywhere anytime effect.

#3 Duplicity: This is a new one and it takes a little bit of practice, but it’s totally worth it. There are a lot of tricks like this out there–Twisted Sisters, B’Wave to name a few–but this trick takes the cake as far as something to bring to school. First off, it has a very minimal amount of moves and if you need help with the one that you use, there’s e pretty good explanation in our Tutorials section. Everything is examinable at the end and it’s a small packet effect that’s easy to carry around.

#2 The Web: This is a mean one. But a lot of our customers have said that they had the nerve to do it to their fellow students and even teachers. If you like to make people scream, here’s your chance.

#1 Sticky Situation: I don’t know about you, but in my classes I was not allowed to chew gum. Instead of sticking it to the bottom of your desk, turn it into a little phenomenon that the whole class can enjoy.

Those are my Top Ten, but you might have some other recommendations. We want to share them with the world. What have you found to be the best trick to pull out of your bag during recess?

Say hello to our new shop fish “Carter the Bait”. (But you can call him Carter.) We originally got him to star in the Kozuch Gimmick demo and he’s now our resident bubble blower.

The Kozuch Gimmick makes it possible for you to make live fish appear, turn water into juice, cause coins to materialize, multiply silks, and tons more. The gimmick is so versatile that any clever magician can come up with specific routines that match their exact performance style.

It comes with instructions for the routines Ah, Ah, Ah, Fish…”, Incredible Appearance, Instant Juice, Invisible Coins, Disappearing Coins, Scarf Duplication, Final Applause, Out if the Air Coin, Removal of Dollar Bill or a Piece of Paper out of an Envelope, Flash Appearance. Also included is a link to videos showing different performances possible with the gimmick.

At any rate, I just wanted to give you an update on Carter and let you know that after his performance in the Kozuch demo, he is soaking up retired life in his luxury fish bowl on my desk.

I’m not entirely sure that we need a “Geekmobile” but I’m sure glad we have one. A while back we ordered a Kikker 5150 and it came in just last week. Aidan somehow managed to make sense out of the five boxes of parts and put the thing together without instructions. It didn’t happen as fast as when Copperfield makes a motorcycle materialize, but that’s okay.

I made this little video to showcase our new little chopper.

It’s not a full sized hog–actually more like a little piglet–but we love it and it’s turning a lot of heads in our warehouse parking lot. Aidan and Brian look like real geeks when they ride it. And me? I’m not going on that thing! It’s dangerous.

One of our lovely customers requested that we do a video blog on mentalism. In this video I teach the original effect “Reverse Shell Game”. This is a great trick to know if you want to start learning mentalism and experienced mentalists will apriciate the new take on an old method.

This blog features the book 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda.

Also, be sure to check out all the tricks and gimmicks available in the Mentalism Section.

This video explains the finer subleties to making a ball vanish:

These things happen when you work in a warehouse full of diabolos and rubber chickens.