Magic Paddle

Learn how to amaze and mystify your friends with an ordinary butter knife. Join Ryan Oakes as he reveals step by step how to trick your audience’s eye with the Magic Paddle trick!

A plastic butter knife
Small “star” stickers

SOMETIMES WE USE MATERIALS THAT REQUIRE ADULT SUPERVISION…LIKE SCISSORS SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY AROUND WHENEVER YOU DO MAGIC TRICKS!

1. First you need to master what’s called “the paddle move.” To do this, rotate the knife 180 degrees in your fingers as you lift it up with your hand to reveal the other side. The audience will think they’re seeing a both sides of the knife when you’ve actually just rotated it and shown them the same side twice. Make sure you use the handle of the knife and not the blade. The handle is symmetrical so it will look the same on both sides whereas the blade will not.
2. Place one sticker on the bottom of the handle of your knife. When you first show the knife to your audience, show both sides normally. Show the side with the sticker first, and then flip up to reveal the other side.
3. When you show them a second time, snap your fingers and perform the paddle move as you lift the knife to show what the audience thinks will be the other side. To them, it will look like a sticker has magically appeared on the other side of the handle!
4. Bring the knife back down, rotating it back as you do, and place another sticker beneath the first one. Perform the paddle move again to make it look like a second star has appeared on the opposite side. Repeat this step with a third star.
5. Now you’re going to make it look like all of the stars have vanished. Snap your fingers, shake your hand, and rotate the knife 180 degrees as you do it. Now the audience is seeing the side of the knife without the stars, lift the knife and perform the paddle move as you do it to make it look like all of the stars have vanished.
6. Repeat Step 5 to “bring back” the stars for the audience to see.
7. To make the stars disappear one by one, leave the knife lifted with the starred side facing the audience. Remove the third star, and bring the knife back down while performing the paddle move to make it look like it has disappeared on the other side as well.
8. Repeat Step 7 with the other two stars and the audience will be none the wiser!