How to Make Yourself Disappear With a Sheet or Blanket

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Impress your friends with a simple but clever magic trick. If you've always wanted to be a magician, try disappearing into thin air, leaving your friends and family scratching their heads, wondering how in the world you performed this great feat. It doesn't take more than a large sheet or blanket and a little bit of imagination to wow your audience. Throw in a few magic words, and you're on your way to becoming the next David Copperfield.

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Things You'll Need

  • Glitter

  • Sequins

  • Large Sheet Or Blanket

  • Fabric Paint

  • Volunteer

  • Iron-On Letters

Instructions

Step 1

Choose your prop. Find a bedsheet or blanket large enough to conceal your whole body when you hold it up in the air with straight arms. If you're really serious about performing this act in front of a live audience, get creative and decorate it so that it looks like it might actually belong to a real magician. Use colorful craft materials, including fabric paint, sequins, glitter glue and iron-on letters.

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Step 2

Set the stage. In order to perform this trick successfully you must have an easy escape route, allowing at least 8 feet between you and your audience. Also make sure that you perform your trick standing next to something you can quickly hide behind — a large easy chair, a sofa, a pony wall or a bed — when the sheet falls to the floor.

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Step 3

Recruit a volunteer from the audience. Before your performance, secretly arrange to have one of your friends or family members come to the stage. Let him or her in on how the trick will be performed and what his or her role will be in your reappearance. Remind your volunteer to act surprised when you pick him or her from the audience so that it looks like it was a random selection.

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Step 4

Start your trick. Announce to your audience that you will disappear into thin air, then reappear with the help of a volunteer. Stand straight and on your tiptoes, raising the bed sheet or blanket up over your head. Toss out a few magic words, and with a gentle toss of the sheet up into the air — along with a handful of glitter for effect — quickly duck down onto your knees before the sheet is able to hit the floor and roll behind the easy chair or sofa next to you.

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Step 5

Reappear before their eyes. Your volunteer should pick up the sheet and look amazed. After 10 to 15 seconds, have your volunteer raise the sheet up over his or her head so that the audience can see both your volunteer and the sheet. The sheet should conceal any gap between it and the easy chair or sofa. Have the volunteer spout some magic words, asking the audience to count backward from 10. When the audience gets to 1, have your volunteer drop the sheet. By then, you will have secretly repositioned yourself back into a standing position behind the sheet.

Tip

Before you wow the audience with your clever magic trick, be sure that you have practiced it to perfection so that there are no overt mishaps.

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