Transcript
Roger “Rogue” Quan: Hey, Heather, I see you’re holding a pencil. Can I borrow that for a second? Thank you. This is not a trick question, but do you see the number two logo on the pencil? Is that on both sides, you think, or is that only on one side?
Heather: I think it’s on both sides.
Roger: Actually, it’s only on one side. But, being a magician, watch, I can transfer the ink right onto the back, so now it’s on both sides.
Heather: Woah.
Roger: Isn’t that cool?
Heather: Yeah.
Roger: If I shake this like that I could make the ink totally disappear from both sides. Of course, I’ve got to bring that back.
Heather: Wow.
Roger: Both sides. But, of course, at the very end I have to erase that ink so it’s back to normal…
Heather: Woah.
Roger: Just for you.
Heather: That’s crazy.
Roger: Hey guys, this is the number two pencil trick. This is actually one of my pet effects. There are actually marketed versions of this trick on the market using gems or colored circles. I took the liberty of using number two pencils because these actually are very common in the office and around, you know, wherever, you know, there are office supplies.
Basically, you take your number two pencil. The logo’s actually on one side. To show it on both sides you’re going to do something that’s called a paddle move which is a very old move in magic. Basically, as you come up you’re going to give the pencil a half twist, a half twist just like that. Basically, the larger motion’s going to cover the smaller motion.
So like I said, as you come up you give it a twist so it looks like the number two is on both sides of the pencil. So in real time it looks pretty convincing. You don’t want to do this too many times, otherwise they might catch on, but just once or twice. It looks like the number two logo is on both sides.
To show that the number two pencil disappears, all I’m going to do is just twist it once. As I’m shaking I twist it once, and now it’s not there any more because there is no number two logo on the back.
To show that’s blank on both sides, again I do the paddle move. To make it come back, twist it one more time while I’m shaking the pencil and it comes back. Show it again it’s on both sides. And at the end just rub it off. Pretend to rub off the back. And now it’s back to normal.
And that’s the explanation for the number two pencil trick.
