This was Bob’s hilarious closing stage routine for many years.
Effect: A borrowed $20 bill is burned and found restored in an impossible location.
Yes, many magicians do a burned bill routine, but this one is multi-phased, funny, and very strong. Here’s an outline of the steps, including some of the magical psychology that make it work:
- It starts as a card trick. The magician bets the volunteer $20 he can discover his card under impossible circumstances. Psychology: This provides a natural way to get some money from the volunteer. Why not use a hundred? isn’t that more impressive? No! The audience will not believe that you’ve really burned up a volunteer’s $100, but they might believe you burned a $20 for a joke.
- The deck of cards is shuffled and spread out on a tray, and covered with a cloth. The magician lifts the cloth to reveal a card castle. But the selected card isn’t seen anywhere on the castle. So the magician switches to a burned bill trick.
- The volunteer’s bill is covered in lighter fluid and accidentally burned up. Psychology: After the volunteer lights the match, just keep talking as the match burns down in his hand. Eventually he’ll drop it onto the tray and light the bill. The magician claims that he wasn’t ready for the bill to be burned yet.
- An envelope has been hanging in plain sight, and the audience assumes it will contain the restored $20. But it contains a great gag instead.
- Then the bill is found in an impossible location that is unexpected and flows naturally in the routine. The bill matches the torn corner to prove it was the original.
- The magician claims he will restore the bill with the corner, but he transposes it into another gag that fits logically in the routine.
- Finally, the magician demonstrates that he did know what card was selected at the beginning and that card and card castle is used to reveal the torn, burned, vanished bill once again.
It’s a 12 minute routine with many laughs, natural flow, surprises, and really strong magic. It will make a great closer for any show.
This digital download includes PDF instructions and a 13 minute performance video.
