Big Bling

Here’s a fun effect that can be done as a walk around effect or as a conversation starter. A borrowed ring turns ginormous* in a blink of an eye.
*(Ginormous is a perfectly good word)

Effect
The magic man approaches a group of people and cleverly makes conversation by mentioning his volunteer work teaching monkeys how to use forklifts. He notices a sparkly ring on the finger of one of the people in the group. Admiring it, he asks to look at it closer using his most trustworthy grin. Looking at it closely he asks the woman who lent it to him if she’s lost weight. As he says this he spreads his fingers to reveal that the ring is now gigantic (and enormous). He returns the ring and it automagically shrinks back to normal size.

Method
You’ll need to obtain a jumbo-sized diamond ring. The alternative to posing in Playboy and marrying a Texas billionaire to get one is to go look in novelty stores or on the end of a keychain at Wal-Mart (where I found my ring).



When the opportunity strikes, place the jumbo ring in a finger palm position in your right hand. Notice a shiny diamond ring on a female spectator’s hand. In your most fake sincere way, ask to look at the ring. Beg. Take the ring with your left and and do a fake pass to your right hand and bring it close to your face to examine it.



It’s okay if a bit of it shows between your finger because it’ll still look like a normal ring.



Pause for a moment. Look at the spectator a little confused. Ask her if she recently lost some weight (women love to hear this, honest). Spread your fingers to reveal the jumbo ring. Hold it at eye level and look at it. False pass it to your right hand and hand back their original ring placing it into their hand and curling their fingers over it. Direct your attention elsewhere and move on to your next topic.



Alternative method: If you place a napkin in your pocket with the jumbo ring you can start totally clean and steal the ring when you go for the napkin to “polish” the diamond. Under the cover of the napkin you can also make the switch between the small and jumbo ring.



I’ve found that the jumbo ring makes for a fun prop outside of a magic trick. For a conversation starter I’ll tell a group of people that I was thinking about proposing to my girlfriend and then show them the ring. This makes for a very innocuous opening. The ring gets a funny reaction and more than a couple pathetic looks on a occasion. “Well she is a kind of big-boned girl…”