Paper Napkin Tricks

Napkin trick materials at the ready.

If you can't play with your food at the table, you might as well play with your paper napkin. Napkin tricks can break the ice at awkward dinner parties or add a little frivolity at the end of a meal. They are especially good for entertaining nieces, nephews and other easily impressed family members.

Napkin Rose

This trick can accentuate a romantic moment with a date. Unfold a napkin. Fold about two inches of one edge over and crease. Turn the napkin so that the creased edge is on your left and the folded over portion is tucked underneath. Hold the napkin at the bottom corner of the creased edge with the index and middle finger of your left hand. Keeping the folded-over portion on the outside, wrap the napkin around your index and middle fingers, forming a tube. The bud portion of the rose is the part into which your fingers are inserted. Form the stem by twisting the napkin at the base of the bud until you've twisted about half of the remaining tube. Remove your fingers from the bud. Take the corner of the napkin at the end of the tube, and pull it up to where you stopped twisting. Twist the rest of the napkin into a stem, keeping part of the corner untwisted to form a leaf. Finish the rose by twirling the center of the bud and folding down the outside petal.

Bernoulli's Bottle

Place a clean, dry glass beer bottle on its side. Tear off a bit of a paper napkin balled it up so that it will just fill the mouth of the bottle but doesn't need to be forced in. Place the napkin ball in the mouth of the bottle. Ask for volunteers to try to blow the piece of paper into the bottle. Take bets if you like. No one will be able to blow the paper into the bottle because of Bernoulli's principle: moving air is always of lower pressure than fixed air; thus, the napkin will pop out rather than being blown in.

The Torn and Restored Napkin

The torn and restored napkin magic trick is a classic great for learning the crucial magician's technique of "palming." Take one napkin and roll it into a tight ball. Palm the ball in your hand before you start the trick. In the same hand hold a fresh napkin. Unfold it to demonstrate that it is not torn, and then proceed to tear it into multiple pieces. Crumple the multiple pieces into a ball. Place the crumpled ball into the hand holding the crumpled whole napkin. Tell the audience you need some magical dust, and with your empty hand reach into your pocket. As you are reaching in your pocket with the empty hand switch the two balled up pieces of paper in the other hand. Now when you unfold the napkin, you hold the whole and untorn napkin you hid away earlier.

References

• Napkin Rose: How to Make Nice Napkin Rose
• The Bottle Gang: Three Bar Tricks Involving Napkins
• Spike TV: Torn and Restored Napkin Magic Trick Revealed