How to do the vanishing salt shaker

Put a coin on the table, cover it with a salt shaker, and cover the shaker with a paper napkin squeezed to its shape. Announce that the coin will go through the table. Each time you lift the shaker to check, the coin is still there. On one of those lifts, the shaker secretly drops into your lap, and the napkin keeps its shape as if the shaker were still inside. Slam the napkin flat: the shaker has gone.

What does the audience see?

Sitting at a table, you set a coin down, cover it with the salt shaker, and cover the shaker with a napkin. You say the coin will melt through the table. You count to three and lift: the coin is still there, and everyone tells you so. You try again. This time you slap the napkin with your hand and it crushes flat on the table. The coin is still there, but the salt shaker has vanished.

What do you need?

• A salt shaker. Any small shaker on the table.
• A coin. A small coin is fine. A sugar packet or similar flat object works if you have no coin.
• A paper napkin. It must be thick enough to be opaque.
• A cloth napkin on your lap. This catches the shaker quietly. It is the only preparation.
• A seat at a table. You need to be sitting, with the audience across from you.

How do you do it, step by step?

1. Set the scene. Lay a cloth napkin across your lap before you begin. Announce that you are going to make a coin go through the table.
2. Cover the coin. Put the coin on the table in front of you and set the salt shaker on top of it.
3. Make the shell. Drape the paper napkin over the shaker and squeeze it gently around the sides, so it takes the shaker’s shape. Do this casually, as if you are just tidying it.
4. First try. Say your magic words and count to three. Lift the shaker, napkin and all, to show the coin. It is still there.
5. The secret drop. As you lift, bring your hand back towards the edge of the table rather than straight up. While everyone leans in to look at the coin, relax your grip and let the shaker slip out of the napkin into your lap. Keep holding the napkin, which still looks as if the shaker is inside it.
6. Cover it again. Act a little annoyed, say you will try once more, and put the empty napkin shell back over the coin.
7. The vanish. Say the magic words and, instead of lifting, slap your hand down on top of the napkin. It crushes flat on the table. The coin is still there, but the salt shaker has disappeared.
8. Optional reappearance. Reach under the table, pick the shaker up from your lap, and bring it out from beneath the table as if it went through instead of the coin.

Why does it work?

The trick is a piece of misdirection. You tell everyone to watch the coin, so on the first lift every eye goes to the table, and nobody watches your hand at the edge of the table. The paper napkin holds the shaker’s shape, so the audience goes on seeing a shaker that is no longer there. By the time the slam comes, the vanish happened long before, which makes it very hard to reconstruct.

How can you present it better?

• Bring in a helper. Ask someone to tap the covered shaker with a pen or a wand before each try. It gives them a job and keeps their eyes on the table.
• Let them correct you. When you lift and the coin is still there, pause and let the audience shout that it did not work. Their attention is exactly where you want it.
• Slam with confidence. A loud, flat slap makes the vanish feel sudden and complete.
• Clean up. At the end of a meal, a cloth napkin on your lap hides the shaker until you can put it back on the table.

What helps you take it further?

• Restaurant Worker’s Handbook by Jim Pace and Jerry MacGregor, a 153-page book on restaurant magic that covers working tables and teaches eight effects with cards, coins, sponge balls and the appearance and disappearance of restaurant table items.
• Tom Mullica Expert Impromptu Magic Volume 1, a download of impromptu effects including Karrel Fox’s Napkin Vanish.
• Modern Magic by Professor Hoffmann, free from our public-domain library, with chapters on coin tricks and miscellaneous tricks.

Next, learn coin through the table, read up on misdirection and building a set for dinner parties, and browse our everyday object magic.

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