Home >> Hobbies >> Other Hobbies

How to Remove a Tablecloth as in the Magic Trick

The audience holds its breath. The magician grasps the cloth and in a single flourish, whisks it from the table, leaving all the plates and cups undisturbed. The audience breaks into amazed applause. Try it at home and you'll be amazed too, at how far the dishes fly if you get this traditional conjuring trick wrong. With a little practice and some careful preparation though, you too can hold an audience spellbound.

Things You'll Need

Smooth plastic-coated tablecloth
Scissors
Smooth table
Furniture polish
Duster
2 cups
Coffee pot
Heavy metal coffee spoons
Modeling dough

Instructions

- 1
  Check a smooth plastic-coated tablecloth for hems. Trim off any hems you find with scissors, to leave a clean straight edge. You need the smoothest possible sheet of material. Removing the hems prevents them jolting the crockery as they pass underneath.
- 2
  Buff the table to a smooth and shiny finish, using furniture polish and a duster. The trick relies on reducing friction by creating a surface over which the cloth will slide with ease. Rub a little polish on the spoons and the bases of the cups and coffee pot, too. The shinier the surfaces, the better your trick will work.
- 3
  Roll a lump of modeling dough into a ball around the size of a large potato. Press the lump down inside the bottom of a coffee cup, so it is out of sight of your audience. Do the same with the other crockery items. Heavy objects are more likely to stay put when you start pulling.
- 4
  Spread the cloth on the table so that at least 2 feet of it hangs over one side. Smooth out the cloth carefully. Make sure there are no wrinkles or gathers in the material which could upset a cup once the cloth gets moving.
- 5
  Stand the cups, spoons and coffee pot on the cloth. Group the crockery close together, so the cloth will clear beneath all the items quickly. Arrange your items close to the edge of the cloth, so you have less material to pull from under the crockery.
- 6
  Grasp the free edge of the tablecloth in both hands. Sharply pull the cloth, downward from the table in one swift, smooth action. Keep the cloth perpendicular to the table as you pull, so it is heading straight down toward the floor and not out toward your body. The cloth should slide off the table, leaving all the crockery in place.

Other Hobbies