Magic tricks for family reunions: a buyer’s guide

A family reunion mixes ages, so the best magic is quick, visual and easy to repeat for each new group. Zach King’s TrickStarters The Key Coin Mystery lets a solid key pass through a quarter, Chocolate Coin turns a coin into chocolate and back, and Sandwich Change makes a card change in a guest’s own hand. Hand out Giveaway Magic Wishing Coins to the kids, and download the free Parlour Magic for old-fashioned family tricks. Every product detail below is from the product’s own description.

What makes magic work at a family reunion?

A reunion is not a show. People drift between the kitchen, the dinner table and the photo wall, and the audience might be a grandparent, a teenager and a five-year-old at once. Our suggestion: pick tricks that are visual, take under a minute and reset quickly, so you can do the same piece for each cousin who wanders over. Our guide to impromptu magic has more ideas for tricks with everyday objects.

Which trick is quickest to learn?

TrickStarters The Key Coin Mystery is part of TrickStarters, a series presented by Zach King and theory11. You cause a solid metal key to visibly pass through a normal US quarter, and your audience can examine the key and the quarter afterwards.

The description says each TrickStarters trick is taught by Zach King with clear instructions, and that you can take it out of the box and perform it within minutes. It also says there is no CGI involved.

Which trick gets a laugh from every age?

Chocolate Coin from SansMinds Creative Lab is a twist on the classic coin bite. You borrow a coin, it changes into what looks like a chocolate treat, you take a bite, and then the coin is visually restored. The description calls it easy to perform, suited to close-up, street or casual performances, and says it works with any similarly sized silver coin from your region.

Which card trick happens in a relative’s hand?

Sandwich Change, also from SansMinds Creative Lab, comes with its gimmick. According to its description, the change happens in the spectator’s own hand with little setup, and only a very little sleight of hand is needed. It lists live party performances among the settings it suits. For a free card trick to pair with it, try the key card trick.

What can you give the kids to take home?

Giveaway Magic Wishing Coins by Alan Wong come 20 to a pack. Each plastic coin is 36 mm across, has the value of One Magic Wish, and reads “May Your Wish Come True” on the other side. The description says they are light, affordable and can be used in all magic tricks, as well as given away as gifts and souvenirs. Our suggestion: make one appear from behind a child’s ear, then let them keep it.

Is there a free book of family magic?

Yes. Parlour Magic is an early Victorian handbook of home conjuring, published anonymously in 1838 and written for families to perform in the drawing room. It covers card tricks, sleights with everyday objects, scientific amusements and party puzzles, from colour-changing liquids and optical illusions to the vanishing sixpence and an omelette cooked in a hat. It is a free, complete 204-page PDF: you check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page. The scan has no searchable text layer.

Which one should you choose?

• For the quickest start: TrickStarters The Key Coin Mystery.
• For a quick laugh from any age: Chocolate Coin.
• For a card trick that happens in a guest’s hand: Sandwich Change.
• For the kids: Giveaway Magic Wishing Coins.
• For a free start: Parlour Magic.

For more ideas, see our buyer’s guides to family games night magic and magic tricks for parents to do with kids, or browse our free ebooks.

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