A show-stopping party trick that energizes the crowd at a school cultural festival
What would you do if you were asked to perform a quick party trick at a school festival or cultural festival?
If you’re someone who already excels at a particular skill or has a special talent, you can jump in without hesitation.
But there are probably some people who feel like, “I don’t have anything I can show others… I’d rather not,” and want to turn it down.
In this article, we’ll introduce quick and fun performances recommended for cultural festivals that might come in handy in exactly those situations.
We’ve gathered plenty of ideas, from things you can do right away with no practice to ones that could become a neat specialty once you learn them.
If you’re thinking, “I want to do something, but I don’t know what,” be sure to use this as a reference!
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One-shot gags that hype up the crowd at culture festivals and school festivals (41–50)
The Magic of Deodorizing Beads
It’s a magic trick where you pour water into a cup filled with colorful deodorizing beads, making the beads seem to disappear and revealing a hidden mascot.
The trick uses light refraction caused by the water and the cup: as the beads become invisible, the mascot buried among them becomes visible.
Be mindful of the amount of beads you put in so it really looks like they’ve completely vanished.
Also, if the mascot floats in water, it may push up the beads and give away the secret, so that’s an important point to consider.
One-hit crowd-pleasers for school festivals and cultural fairs (51–60)
The magic trick where milk disappears
It’s a magic trick where you seem to pour milk from a cup into a rolled-up newspaper, but when you open the newspaper, there’s nothing there.
Because the milk level in the cup goes down as you pour, it feels less like the newspaper has been restored and more like the milk has vanished.
The cup holding the milk is double-walled: the outer section contains the milk, while the inner, preloaded cup is empty.
By transferring the milk into this inner empty cup, it creates the illusion that the overall amount has decreased.
It’s important to thoroughly conceal the moment the milk moves with the rolled-up newspaper and to prepare the cup so the transfer happens smoothly.
Magic you can do with items from a 100-yen shop
These are magic tricks that focus on convenience, using familiar items you can pick up at a 100-yen shop.
For example, the angle of a lollipop on a stick appears to change, or when you press an inflated balloon against a smartphone and let the air out, the phone ends up inside the balloon.
The simplicity actually makes them look even more mysterious, doesn’t it? They say they’re not changing the angle of their hand, yet they’re really using that angle; or they’re just using the size of the balloon to make things stick—since the methods are simple, even if you get found out, you can probably turn it into a laugh.
As a setup for a bigger trick, it might even be fun to deliberately reveal the secrets as you go.
Simple and Mysterious Magic
It’s a magic trick using a board with arrows pointing in different directions on the front and back.
By supporting the board with your fingers and rotating it, or changing where you hold it, the arrows can appear to line up or differ even more.
The illusion comes from switching between holding the side or the corner, which changes the rotation and makes it seem like the directions have changed.
Since there’s no hidden mechanism altering the arrows, you can turn it slowly and still clearly show the change—adding to the sense of mystery.
The explanation based on optical illusion is tricky, so even the performer can find it puzzling.
A card trick that absolutely can’t be figured out
It’s a magic trick where you casually split a deck of cards, have someone memorize the picture and number on a card, return it to the deck, shuffle, and then name the exact position of that card.
After the shuffle, when the deck is spread, only the two jokers are face up, and they indicate how many cards down the selection lies—an effect that heightens the mystery.
The positions of the jokers are predetermined, and from their relative placement, the performer deduces the exact position of the chosen card.
It’s a routine that tests card-handling skills, such as false shuffles that make it look mixed while secretly restoring the original order.
Colored paper magic
This is a magic trick where colored papers that were supposedly the same size change size at the moment they’re flipped and revealed.
The fact that something the audience was just looking at changes in an instant makes the mystery really palpable.
A large sheet and a small sheet are hidden behind a paper that appears to be the same size, with two types attached to a larger sheet underneath, and a small sheet set up behind the standard-size sheet so that only one can be taken out.
The finer details of hand movements are crucial, such as how to extract the large sheet and how to extract the standard-size sheet.
Magic that breaks things without touching them
It’s a magic trick where you hold an object in one hand, and even though the other hand shouldn’t be touching it, the object breaks on cue.
Toothpicks are recommended because they’re easy to break.
You pre-break one and fit the pieces together so the seam isn’t noticeable, then use a flick to the end with your finger to make it break.
Be mindful to keep the movement of the hand that’s holding it to an absolute minimum so it isn’t obvious, and use the other hand in a way that conceals that action.
Since you’re using a small item like a toothpick, it’s best to perform this for a small audience.