Make a Rubber Band Appear to Switch Fingers
Amaze your audience by making a rubber band switch fingers.
Steps
- Get an average sized rubber band of regular elasticity. (Reading the directions below will give you an idea of the size of rubber band you'll need.)
- Put the rubber band over your pointer and middle fingers. Pull it all the way down by your knuckles.
- With your palm facing you, make a half fist, pull the rubber band out and toward your pinky.
- Put the ends of all four fingers in the rubber band (your pointer, middle, ring and pinky fingers.)
- Show your audience the back of your hand. It looks like the rubber band is only around your pointer and middle fingers, with all your fingers curled down. Then straighten all your fingers quickly. The rubber band seems to jump to your other two fingers!
Tips
- Ensure to look at your hand in a mirror before showing it to other people.
- After practicing, try to do it very fast. It will look like you just flicked your hand and the rubber band jumped.
- Try it with sizes of rubber bands with different elasticity to find what works best for you.
- Experiment in front of a mirror to see if it looks believable.
- Experiment reversing this i.e. starting off with the third and pinky and making it jump to the index and middle.
- Try to do multiple bands, e.g. one band moving from the index and middle fingers to the third and pinky, and the other band moving in the opposite direction. Using bands of different colors helps here.
- Do not show your audience the set up or how you did it. The audience will not believe it is magic.
Warnings
- Your audience will catch the trick if:
- You show them the palm side of your hand
- You don't straighten your fingers quickly enough
- The rubber band is too big
Things You'll Need
- rubber band
- hand
- audience