How TV Magicians Switch Predictions

The sorts of switches that TV magicians tend to use rarely get discussed by the magic community. It might be because they often happen off-camera. I think it's more likely that most magicians don't know about and use them simply because they're not methods that can quickly be packaged up and sold to them in shops.

The truth is that nothing is more fooling than a successful switch.

I've been toying with the idea of this article for the past few days and really trying to establish which switches I've used the most in my TV magic career. Let's examine the top ones, and then I'll share a simple way to allow the object you switch to be signed by the hero spectator.

We'll imagine we're performing a headline prediction and that the object you or your team are switching is an envelope that you mailed to a hero spectator ahead of time. You asked them to keep it safe for the performance.

It will be key to have one of your production team members openly examine the envelope briefly when they first arrive on the day—do this as early as possible.

You can simply say to the spectator that you're checking that the envelope hasn't been tampered with – this is the truth; if it has been tampered with, you'll need to go backstage next and identically tamper with the envelope you plan to switch in.