How to Pull a Coin Out of an Ear

You can learn to pull a coin from someone's ear.

If you ever need to keep young children entertained for a few minutes, or you're just interested in developing sleight-of-hand skills, then you may want to add a few simple magic tricks to your repertoire. One of the oldest and best-loved of these involves pulling a coin out of an observer's ear. Even after only a few minutes of practice, you can master this simple trick, and entertain children with ease.

Instructions

1. Take the coin in your right hand and squeeze your palm around it; such that you are holding the coin -- while still being able to extend your fingers. This is called "palming the coin," an essential skill for magic tricks like this one.

2. Show the audience your hands -- palms down. Since you are palming the coin in your right hand, you can extend your fingers, making it look like you're not holding anything.

3. Reach your right hand up to one spectator's ear and pull the coin from it. As you move your hand up, slide the coin from your palm to your fingertips, letting it rest visibly between your fingers. As you take your hand from behind the person's ear, show the audience the coin -- which they were unable to see before.

4. Return the coin to behind the person's ear, or make it disappear entirely, by waving your free hand over the hand holding the coin. Either palm the coin, or hold it between two fingers; so that when you hold your hand up, with the palm facing the audience, they can't see the coin.

5. For an alternate way to perform this trick: Rest the coin on a spectator's shoulder without his knowledge. When you reach out to his ear, pluck the coin from the shoulder and hold it up to the audience.

Tips & Warnings

• Sleight-of-hand, not speed, is the key to magic tricks like this one. Precision and technique will do more to draw the audience's attention away from the coin. If you go too fast with any of the hand motions, you may drop the coin or expose its location, before the audience is supposed to see it.

References

• Mallusionist: Impromptu Magic Explained -- Coin From Their Ear

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish