Magic tricks you can perform at a birthday party: classic crowd-pleasers and surprise effects
Are there any of you who are thinking, “I want to perform magic at a birthday celebration for someone special—like a friend, partner, or family member!”?
A magic performance can liven up a birthday party, and if you can pull off a surprising routine, you can amaze and delight the birthday person.
In this article, we’ll introduce a selection of magic tricks that are perfect for birthday parties.
We’ve chosen not only surprise tricks that let you present a gift or a message, but also classic coin and card magic, as well as tricks you can do using items commonly found at a dinner or drinking party.
Use this as a reference.
If you find a trick you want to try, practice it well and add it to your repertoire!
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- [Simple and Easy!] Birthday Surprise Ideas for Friends
- Magic tricks with a handkerchief: crowd-pleasing tricks for parties and performances
- Magic tricks with balls: recommended tricks for parties and performances
- Simple Magic! Fun Tricks Kids Can Do & Revealed Secrets!
- Birthday surprises you can do at school: A roundup of celebration ideas to wow your friends
- Surprise gifts to give on a birthday: touching birthday ideas
- [Surprising] A collection of body-based magic tricks [for parties and performances]
- Easy! Magic tricks that liven up a Christmas party. Simple tricks and their secrets revealed.
Magic tricks you can perform at a birthday party: surprising productions and crowd-pleasing classics (21–30)
Rope escape magic
How about trying a classic magic trick: the rope escape? If you have two ropes, you can perform it with just your body, and you can even have the spectator tie the ropes for added effect.
With both wrists bound by one rope, you thread the other rope between them and have the spectator hold it—then you demonstrate your escape! The key to this escape is simply to make a small loop with part of the rope and slip your right hand through it.
The method is simple, so even beginners can give it a try.
It’s perfect as a party piece for a birthday, so practice it and liven up your next celebration!
The answer is always 3!? A mysterious calculation
Have the audience think of a favorite number, then follow your instructions to calculate.
First, add 1 to the number they thought of.
Next, double that result and then add 4.
After that, divide by 2, and finally subtract the original number they thought of… Did the answer come out to 3? With this curious calculation, no matter what number they start with, if they follow the steps correctly, they will always end up with 3.
Since the audience likely doesn’t know it will be 3, reveal that you had predicted the number after they get their answer to amaze them.
Smartphone magic where candy pops out
These days, everyone has a smartphone.
Let me show you a magic trick using one.
First, take a small photo of a little snack with your phone, then enlarge it to life size.
Hide the real snack between your phone and your palm, and as you slide your thumb across the screen and pull sideways, it looks just like the snack pops out of the phone screen.
It’s easy, so give it a try! It’s simple, but it will amaze everyone.
Easy magic with just one smartphone
It’s a magic trick where, even though it looks like you’ve reached into empty air, a smartphone appears in your hand in an instant.
You can also make it appear using a handkerchief; in either version, where you hide the phone is crucial.
In fact, the phone is in your hand from the start, held between your thumb and palm, and kept out of sight by controlling the angle.
Being mindful of how you produce it and refining the angles to better conceal the gimmick are key points for making it look mysterious.
Magic trick where a card appears from a smartphone
It’s a magic trick where you touch a card that appears to be displayed on a smartphone screen and pull it off the screen, and a real card pops out.
The card is hidden behind the phone, and you simply eject it quickly in sync with the on-screen slide—an easy mechanism.
To make it look more mysterious, focus on how you show the card on the phone: for example, take a photo and zoom in so that the slide makes it disappear from the screen.
If you use a dedicated app, you can even make the card move just by moving the device itself, so that’s also recommended.
Magic where juice comes out of a smartphone
Are you familiar with an iPhone app called ichocolatedrink? With just this app and a small paper cup filled with a drink, you can create an effect that makes it look like the beverage is pouring out of your smartphone.
First, download the app and pour a drink into a small paper cup.
Since you’ll need to hold the phone in front of the cup, try to use a cup that’s as flat as possible, and make the spout area especially narrow.
Try to coordinate it so that the drink on the phone screen and the drink in the paper cup disappear at the same time.
3 smartphone magic tricks
This is a magic trick where various phenomena happen around a smartphone—something that might feel especially uncanny to people who use their phones every day.
The phone remains steady even in situations where it should lose balance, the numbers on a calculator vanish with just a wave of the hand, a coin passes through—impossible scenarios unfold one after another.
The secret is thread for stabilization, pre-set calculations and a swipe for the calculator, and a coin set up in advance, so proceed in a way that doesn’t reveal the preparation.
If your hands are examined front and back too closely, you’ll be exposed, so keeping a brisk pace is also crucial.