Big Money

Big Money can be used in a close up set, on stage, on the fly or as a light hearted moment while you’re being mugged.


Effect:The magician offers to show a spectator a little demonstration in sleight of hand. He borrows a dollar and folds it up into a small square and asks the spectator to put their initials on it. He places the bill into his right hand and balls both hands into fists. He shows that the bill is actually in his left hand. He repeats the move again reversing the location of the bill. He offers to do this with the spectator’s hand. The bill is placed into the spectators fist. It fails to dematerialize. The magician explains that sometimes the magic goes awry and other properties change. He asks the spectator to check the bill. It’s become ginormous (real Magiczine word), complete with their signature at the bottom.



Method:You’ll need to get some jumbo-sized dollar bills. You can find these in toy store, novelty shop and dollar stores - or you can make a few on your computer - being careful to avoid outright counterfeiting. Take the jumbo bill and fold it up into a small package the size of a regular dollar folded into eighths along with a Magic Marker.



Pretend to search your pockets and secretly grab the jumbo bill as you ask for a bill to borrow.



Remove the bill in a finger palmed position. Take their bill and fold it into a square like your jumbo bill. Ask if they have a pen. Slide their bill behind the jumbo bill and into the palm of your hand as you push the jumbo bill forward. Look at your pocket then pull the hand with their bill away and reach into your pocket and dump it as you grab the pen.

Hand the spectator the pen. Holding the bill as to not reveal too much, ask them to sign their initials on the bill.



Replace the pen in your pocket. False pass the jumbo bill from one hand to the other. Explain to you audience that sleight of hand is about fooling the eye and the brain. Show your empty hand. Tell them that if the eye sees that one hand is empty the brain knows that the other hand must have the bill. Repeat this move and show the empty hand again. Have the spectator hold out their hand. Tell them that sleight of hand is also about fooling the sense of touch as well as the eye and brain. Place the bill into their hand.



Ask them to visualize the bill getting smaller and vanishing from their hand. When they tell them it’s still there, look at them like they just failed a 2nd grade coloring test. Ask them to look at the bill. When they do and inevitably open it explain that they got the whole “imagine it’s getting smaller” thing backwards. Ask them to identify their initials. See if you can make it out of there with their other bill…



An alternative way to get the jumb bill into your hand is to keep it in your wallet. Pull out your wallet, slide the jumbo bill under your thumb then tell your spectator that you’d rather use on of their bills. Return your wallet to your pocket while sliding the bill into finger palm position.



A trick like this is a good closer for a close-up routine. You can get jumbo bills in different denominations. Now I’d never tell someone to do this with a fiver or even a twenty to coerce someone into a tip, but it could be done. Unlike a mis-made bill, this is an easy to obtain object that you can leave with a person and they might want to keep instead of their original bill.