A roundup of magic tricks perfect for one-shot gags. Become the hero of the party!
When you’re asked to do a party trick at a gathering, what kind of act do you perform?
There are lots of possibilities—from comedy bits like gags or impressions to more physical, street-performance-style acts like handstands.
In this article, we’ll introduce magic tricks that are perfect as quick party pieces.
Since these are one-off tricks, we’ve selected ones that are short and can be done using items you have around you.
Be sure to learn a few of these tricks and show them off at your next party!
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- Simple! Easy one-shot gags. Surefire bits that liven up parties and performances [2026]
A roundup of magic tricks recommended for one-shot gags. Become the hero of the party! (21–30)
Simple magic you can do with your smartphone
It’s a magic trick where you have someone choose a card from a deck, and when you hold a smartphone camera over that card, it reveals what the card is.
The mysterious part is that it looks as if you can see through the card to its suit and number, and when you actually flip it over, it matches exactly.
The key is how you hold and present the cards, and you also use psychology about where people tend to choose, so you can make them pick a specific card.
Then, if you’ve pre-recorded footage of taking out and putting away that forced card, you can make it look like you’re reading it with X-ray vision.
Smartphone coin magic trick
It’s a magic trick where you press a coin against a smartphone placed over a glass, and even though there’s no hole, the coin appears to pass through the phone and drop into the glass.
The fact that the coin you were pressing is no longer there makes it really look like it penetrated.
You prepare two coins: in addition to the coin you press, another coin is set up between the smartphone and the rim of the glass.
Then, as you make the pressing motion, you slide the phone to let the hidden coin fall, while using the angle of your fingers to make the coin on top seem to vanish.
A roundup of recommended magic tricks for one-shot gags. Become the hero of the party! (31–40)
Magic that turns smartphone photos into reality
It’s a magic trick that makes a wish come true: turning a photo on your smartphone into a real, physical picture you can hold.
Even though a finger touching the screen should only make the image move, if you slide it briskly outward, the photo on the screen disappears and the real one pops out.
The key is preparing the image in advance: display an enlarged version of a photo taken from a distance, and leave blank margins around the outside.
Then, as you slide, you bring up the blank margin on the screen while producing the real photo hidden behind the phone.
That’s the flow of the trick.
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.
A magic trick where a handkerchief passes through a smartphone screen
It’s a magic trick that looks all the more mysterious because you can see it clearly: a handkerchief slowly passes through a smartphone that doesn’t appear to have any holes.
The handkerchief visible in front of the phone and the one visible behind it move in perfect sync, which is why it really looks like it’s penetrating.
In reality, the handkerchief is rigged with a plastic part that has a hole, and by concealing this piece with the hand while aligning it with the phone, it creates the illusion of penetration even though the handkerchief is merely passing underneath the phone.
The key points are the mechanism itself and the positioning of the hands so the portion of the handkerchief that passes under the phone isn’t visible.
Smartphone magic that’s going super viral
It’s a magic trick where a series of 6s displayed on a smartphone calculator suddenly turns into a series of 9s.
Even after flipping the phone upside down several times, the 6s stay 6s, but in a certain instant they really do flip—and that’s what feels mysterious.
The key is the numerical setup beforehand: you prepare a calculation that adds a series of 3s to a series of 6s so that simply pressing “=” will turn them into a series of 9s.
Then, while moving the phone, you just brush the “=” button for a moment, and you can show the numbers changing.
A simple yet fun Magic Smartphone
It’s a magic trick where, even though you supposedly multiply random numbers, the final result ends up being a sequence of digits related to a birthday.
You have the spectator multiply a two-digit number, then a three-digit number, then a four-digit number in order, but in reality the calculations have nothing to do with the number that appears at the end.
The trick uses a function that gets hidden when the smartphone is held vertically, allowing you to force the number you want to display at the end.
A key point is to use calculations that produce as many digits as possible so the spectator won’t realize the final number doesn’t match the true calculation.