What is the easiest magic trick? There’re LOADS of easy magic tricks you can learn for free, but here are my top 4 picks of easy cards tricks you can learn!
Read on to find out!
Learning magic tricks is a great way to impress your family and friends, but who has time to spend 5 years at magician school learning super hard sleight of hand through magic books?
Luckily for you, here are 4 tricks that are REALLY easy and REALLY impressive.
Let’s get straight into it with…
… Pick No.4: The Invisible Deck
I love writing about this trick. That’s because it is quite possibly my all-time favorite magic trick, ever.
AND, it’s really easy.
Imagine this: You ask your friend to pick a card. In fact, to make this even more impossible, you ask them just to think of a card. Any card they like.
You tell them that you are going to read their mind, and close your eyes for a few seconds.
‘Yep,’ you say. You’ve done it. 100% read their mind.
Now at this point they may not believe you, but that’s okay because you can PROVE it to them. You pull a deck of cards out of your pocket, sealed inside the card box.
For the first time, you ask them to name their card. Let’s say it’s the Jack of Hearts.
‘Jack of Hearts?’ you say. ‘That’s funny. I knew you were going to say that!’
You spread the deck of cards out, displaying that every single card is face up, apart from one. You slowly pull it out. It is…the Jack of Hearts!
Their mind is blown and you get an instant reputation as a master magician. I’ve been performing this trick for over 5 years now, and I’ve never once had someone guess how it was done. I mean, no one’s ever got remotely close to getting it!
Everyone you meet will be absolutely gobsmacked by this great trick. It is always my ‘go to’ trick when somebody finds out I’m a magician and (inevitably) asks to see a trick or two.
I like to use this trick in combination with the lie detector trick (coming up soon on this list) to convince people I can read their body language to work out the card they chose!
That’s completely not true, obviously, but what other explanation is there?
Pick No.3: Easiest Card Trick Ever by Mismag822
Boy, this is an easy trick. If you were looking for a simple but fun trick you could do with a shuffled (or even borrowed) deck of cards, then this is the trick for you.
Mismag822 is a great YouTube channel for learning magic (you can read all about learning magic on YouTube here) and this is one of his most viewed videos of all time.
It may be an easy trick to do, but it definitely makes you puzzle over how it could be done.
In fact, it actually fooled the heck out of me the first time I saw it!
I know I shouldn’t be admitting that, but it’s the truth.
If you want to learn how to do this trick, keep reading!
Here’s a video from Mismag’s YouTube channel teaching you this super easy but fun trick.
Simple, right?
But how many of you would have been able to guess the method without watching the rest of the video? Not many, I bet.
That’s what I love about this trick; it might be easy but it is really hard to figure out how it is being done, making it an ideal trick for all beginners.
I spent ages trying to work out what was going on, but eventually I just had to watch the rest of the video and find out.
If you want to learn more card tricks like this than I would definitely recommend checking out Mismag’s channel on YouTube, or even his website. He’s got hundreds of great tutorials, most of which are just as simple to do as this trick!
I would say that a good 50% of the very first tricks I learnt were through Mismag, and he gives you a really good ‘foundation’ for learning even harder tricks later down the line.
Once you’ve mastered this trick, let’s get going again.
Pick No.3: Cardtoon
Cardtoon is actually quite similar to The Invisible Deck, but with a few key differences.
The main difference is that Cardtoon is much more visual and fun to present (although there’s no denying that they are both great tricks).
Imagine you asked your friend to name any card at all. He says, ‘The King of Spades.’ You pull out a pack of cards from your pocket.
On each card, there is a little drawing of a stickman in a top hat. As you begin to riffle through the cards, the stickman starts moving.
He slowly reaches up, takes off his hat, and pulls a card from it. He flips the card around to reveal that it is, in fact, the King of Spades!
This trick literally convinced Simon Cowell that magic was real, and some of you might have even seen it on TV without realizing that you can learn it too!
Fancy watching this trick in action? To see a video of this very trick performed on Britain’s Got Talent, just search ‘Jamie Raven BGT Audition’ in YouTube!
Pick No.2: The Lie Detector
This is a great trick to do for family and friends as it involves putting them through a ‘lie detector’ as part of the trick.
The effect goes like this:
They pick a card, but don’t let you see it. Once they have it memorized, they return it to the pack and you shuffle the cards.
Now that the card is lost in the deck, and you have no idea what it is, you put the cards away. The important thing is that they remember their card– that’s it.
Now, you ask them if they think they’re a good liar. Most people say ‘yes’ (why is that?) but sometimes they’ll say ‘no’ too.
Either way, it doesn’t really matter. You tell them that you’ll find out if this really is the case or not by doing a ‘lie detector’ test.
You ask them a few questions (like: ‘is your card red?’ or ‘is it spades?’) and eventually through the sheer power of your questioning you are able to guess the exact card they picked.
You can incorporate some jokes into this trick, or even pretend that you’ve been trained in reading body language if you want! Feel free to play around with the presentation of this effect.
I actually made a tutorial on how to do the Lie Detector Card Trick myself, you can check it out for free and let me know what you think!
Pick No.1: Little Door by Roddy Mchghie
This is a beautiful card trick that was actually voted best card trick of the year when it was created! I love this trick; it’s really visually impressive and completely blows people away.
You show the audience a regular deck of cards from a regular playing card box. You explain that there’s a secret technique magicians use to peek at the cards when they think the audience isn’t looking.
‘Watch,’ you say. You draw a little door onto the box with a pen, and put the cards inside. You put your finger on the door and LITERALLY open it up until you can see the cards beneath!
‘Cool, right?’ you say. You take the cards back out of the box. ‘And the best part is, you can just wipe it off when you’re done and nobody will know any different!’ You wipe the door off the box and hand it to the audience.
Sure enough, they can try as hard as they like but there is no door to be found. Just a completely ordinary box of playing cards!
I got this trick last year and it has soon become one of my firm favorites that I make sure to carry around with me. It’s quick and visual, and best of all, very easy!
So, what do you think? Did you agree with this list?
In your opinion, what is the easiest card trick ever? Did I get it right, or was there anything you would have changed?
Feel free to leave and comments, questions or feedback you might have down in the comment section below and I will get back to you within 24 hours! Don’t forget to share this post with a friend if you enjoyed it!
If these tricks inspired you to learn magic, make sure you check out my ultimate step by step guide to learning magic right here!
OR email me at contact@thedailymagician.com and I will be more than happy to provide you with some 1 on 1 lessons in magic!
Magic tricks are a great way to break the ice with anybody. Show them a good trick, and they will always remember you. Great article! Very entertaining!
That’s completely right. It’s always cool to know a card trick or two that you can bring out if the occasion calls for it!
Hey! Great list of easy to do tricks there! (Kinda relieved you didn’t list the 21 card trick lol).
They are great examples that good magic doesn’t have to be hard to do, but that it’s all in the presentation.
Well it did cross my mind but yes I thought it would be best not to drop it into the mix. Glad you approved!
Very interesting. I’ve learned a few card tricks over the years, but haven’t taken time to demonstrate them lately. They are quite entertaining, to say the least. Good article.
Glad you enjoyed!
Wow, these are some awesome tricks for newbies like me wanting to learn a trick or 2 and be the life of the party. I think these are all great and the first one I’m going to learn is the Cardtoon as it seems super simple but effect too. Thanks for all your great help my friend.
You’re welcome! That’s exactly why I decided to put this list together.
Hey Benji, great article, I am already a fan!
I love magic and I try some tricks at home to entertain my kids but hiding coins in my armpits is becoming a bit old-fashioned (a euphemism to say they got me long ago, lol).
Thank you for enabling me to renew my repertoire, I will try the card trick tomorrow and let you know!
Thank you! You’re exactly right about that; repeating tricks is never a great idea! That’s where we get the saying ‘never do the same trick twice!’. Thanks for the great comment, hope all goes well!
Hey Benji, this was some awesome information. I only know like two magic tricks, but this is one sure way to get kids involved in something new. I showed my nephew your third pick and now he wont stop doing it. Hes only 5 but he thinks its the coolest thing.
That sure is a great trick to use, glad it worked for you!
Very nice. I am going to have to learn a bunch of these to amaze my granddaughter lol. You have a great site here. I am going to be ack often.
Glad you liked the list! Hope to see you again soon.
Card tricks have always amazed me. I’m checking out your site. It’s very informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
Wow, these card tricks sound amazing and I guess it must be real fun being able to perform them.
I have no idea, if they are easy or hard to do, but definitely leave the audience perplex.
Well they are all easy to do actually, that’s why I put them on the list! It definitely is fun to do them. Thanks for the comment!
The only one on the list I could ever do was The Lie Detector and I was too afraid to do it in front of the same people more that twice in case someone clocked what was as happening. I was so afraid of being outed!! Haha. Maybe I should have practiced more. Speaking of, where did I leave the deck of cards…
Yeah it’s not the best idea to do the same trick twice in a row but I would definitely recommend giving it another go! You’ll surprise yourself.
I enjoyed this post tremendously as well as the video exposing the card trick.
The article is very well written, interesting and fun.
Thank you for the great comment!
Wow. These are fantastic. My teenage son was talking about learning some card tricks, so I’ll have him take a look. I think a few simple tricks would help him boost his confidence and maybe add some “cool” points with his friends.
That’s a great point! Let me know how it goes for him and please do get in touch if you have any questions. If he’s interested in learning magic, maybe he would enjoy my ultimate guide to learning magic?
VERY interesting! I’m so glad you posted the videos. I’m not sure I could have figured it out on my own. perhaps I’m a more visual learner. What got you started in magic? It is intriguing.
I got started in magic after seeing a magician on TV and being absolutely blown away to the point where I had to learn where I could do that!
Great read, I had a guy stay in one of my AIrBnB’s who was into doing magic tricks.
He a croupier and I asked if he’d ever do tricks at work. He said nope as peeps would think he be cheating… Fair comment I suppose.
Anyhoo thx for sharing.
Tony B
Yep that makes sense, still must have made for a great guest!
Hey!
I have wondered for so long how magicians can do what they do.
I almost left in wonder and amazement and have wanted to have the same effect on others.
Thanks for the great info and for sharing some tips!
Russell
You’re welcome Russell! Thanks for the great comment.
Hello, what a great list of tricks!
I will be doing some of these with my 3 kids, we just love Magic!!!
Great article and page I love it!
Glad you liked them! Thanks for the great comment.