Hat-Tricks

Perhaps the most famous magic trick that has been used as a representative of magic tricks as a whole is the famous rabbit in a hat trick. We’ve all seen it in our favourite films or TV shows, but you might not know what’s behind this famous trick. That’s what we’re here for!

Read this article to find out how to pull a rabbit out of a hat, along with a few other fun magic hat-tricks that will impress your friends and family. We hope you have fun reading and even more importantly, to have fun while performing these tricks!

Rabbit in a Hat

Before cat in the hat, there was a rabbit in the hat. The notorious rabbit in a hat magic trick was most likely first performed by Louis Apollinaire Christian Emmanuel Comte in the early 1800’s (supposedly in 1814). He was known as ‘The King’s Conjurer’, because he started performing for the French king Louis XVIII when he was only 26 years old.

Although he was a beloved Parisian magician, we bet that he never expected his trick to reach these heights. Are you curious about how we managed to pull it off? We’ll give you the steps, but keep in mind that magicians usually rely on props that you might not have at home. Here they are:

• Find a docile rabbit (preferably trained), a suitable top hat, and a large black handkerchief.
• The handkerchief should be specifically designed for this trick and it needs to have 4 holes on its 4 sides.
• Carefully place the rabbit inside the handkerchief, close it up, and hang the handkerchief, using its 4 holes, on the nail of the table.
• Show the audience that the top hat is empty, and then put it face down right above the rabbit in the handkerchief.
• Pick up the rabbit with one hand, while you pick up the hat with the other and make sure your movements are synchronised, so the audience doesn’t see you put the rabbit in the hat.
• Pull the rabbit out of the hat!

There are other variations of this hat-trick, some of which involve putting the rabbit in the hat and concealing it with fake hat lining. The version presented here is simply the most popular one.

Got Milk?

This is another really fun and famous hat-trick that’s called the vanishing milk. Here’s how you can perform it:

• Take two plastic cups. Cut the top rim of the first cup, and then cut the bottom of the second cup. You can decorate the rim of the second cup as to hide the fact that the first cup is cut.
• Place the bottomless cup inside the other one and make sure you line them up, so it looks like it’s one cup.
• Show the audience that the hat is empty. Then place the special cup inside, but find a reason to take it out (e.g., ‘it’s not clean’). What you’d be doing is taking out the bottomless cup, but leaving the other one inside.
• Pour milk inside the cup, pretending that you’re pouring it in the hat.
• Put the bottomless cup back into the rimless cup filled with milk and take it out to show it is filled with milk. Voila!

Old but Gold

The following hat-trick comes from Prof. Hermann’s Book of Magic, which was published in 1903 and it’s one of the first books dedicated to the artistry of magic tricks. The hat-trick he described involves a hat, a box, and some coins. It’s still popular today and what you have to do is to make the coins disappear. Here’s how:

• Find a small metal box (big enough to hold a dozen of coins) and drill a hole in it (big enough to allow the coins to pass through). Alternatively, you can buy such a box from a magic shop or online.
• Put wax on top of the box and put a place next to it on the table.
• Grab your top hat and obtain 6 coins from the audience or your assistant, and change them for 6 of your own coins, and drop your coins into a tumbler.
• Put the obtained coins into the box, and attach the box to the plate by using the wax placed on it.
• Show the audience that the hat is empty and then place the plate over it. The coins shouldn’t go through the hole in the box just yet, so be careful how you hold the items.
• Take out the coins from the tumbler and pretend to put them in the left hand, while actually palming them in the right. Secretly place them in a box containing sawdust (underneath or close to the table, which should be invisible to the public) and try to be as quiet as possible. Use your “magic fingers” to confuse the audience.
• Pick up the hat with your right hand and hold it at arm’s length.
• “Vanish” the money from your left hand, while simultaneously tilting the hat in a way to make the coins fall through the hole in the box into the hat.
• Your audience will hear the coins from inside the hat, and thus you would have officially “vanished” them.