Flea Circus Coin Magic

45-60 min

Ages 8-13

What Will You Learn?

A coin disappears right before our audience’s eyes and re-appears in a spectator’s hand, flea circus style.

Finding Our Groove

Flea circuses are fascinating. Imagine a real circus with a tightrope act, a trapeze, and more, but all in miniature and supposedly run by tiny insects! The flea circus has its roots as a classic vaudeville and sideshow act. Magicians have long taken elements of the flea circus and adapted them into their own acts, too.

Now, I present to you the Flea Circus Toilet Roll Coin Vanish! That’s right. You heard it here first, folks. A Toilet Paper Roll Coin Vanish performed by fleas! Don’t worry … no fleas were harmed during the production of this trick. (There are no real fleas involved at all in a modern-day flea circus, as a matter of fact!)

Prep the Paper Bag

Step 1

First, we’ll need to shorten our brown paper bag down to around 3″ tall. We want the bag to be shorter than the toilet paper tube (Figure A).

Step 2

Now, cut a rectangular piece of white card stock paper that will fit snugly inside the bottom of the paper bag (Figure B ).

Step 3

With a dark colored marker, make a circle slightly larger than the diameter of the toilet paper tube on one side of the rectangular card stock insert.

Step 4

Insert the card stock, circle side up, snugly inside the bottom of the paper bag (Figure C )

Hack the Toilet Paper Tube

In this routine, the toilet paper tube will be our gimmick. (Makers hack things, magicians gimmick things. It’s the same idea.) A gimmicked item is one that carries a hidden secret which helps in the magic of a trick. We’re going to hack, or gimmick, our toilet paper tube!

Step 5

Apply glue all along one circular opening edge of the tube (Figure D ). We want this glue to be invisible when dry, so we’ll use something like a school glue stick rather than, say, hot glue.

Step 6

Press the glued end of the tube to the unused portion of our white card stock (Figure E ). After the glue is completely dry and the tube is securely attached to the paper, carefully cut the paper around the outside of the tube, as close to the edge as possible (Figure F ). Our tube now has a paper bottom (Figure G ).

NOTE: If you are using regular printer paper rather than the thicker card stock paper, repeat the gluing and cutting out process one more time, to double up the paper on the bottom of the tube and make it more opaque.

Step 7

Now, our toilet paper tube is successfully gimmicked! We’ll want to keep the paper bottom a secret from our audience, so be careful how you position and handle the tube.

Step 8

Place your gimmicked tube upright in the paper bag, gimmicked side down, next to the circle we drew earlier (Figure H ). The paper bottom of the tube should be imperceptible now.

Prep the Matchbox

Step 9

Slide the drawer out of the empty matchbox. Now, this next step is a little tricky to explain, so you may need to rely on the photos. We’re going to hide one of our quarters inside the box, by wedging it in between the lip of the back edge of the drawer and the top of the box (Figure I ). Slide the drawer partially in, so the quarter stays firmly stuck in place, yet the box appears to be open and empty (Figure J ). This alone is already a powerful illusion! When you close the drawer, the quarter will fall in, so the next time you open the matchbox, there will be a quarter in the drawer. Go ahead, give it a try!

Step 10

Now set it back up again, quarter wedged and hidden, drawer partially open. Take your second quarter and place it inside the matchbox drawer, visible (Figure K ).

Step 11

Leave the matchbox just like that, drawer partially open, with one quarter wedged and hidden and one quarter visible in the drawer. Place it in the bag on top of your drawn circle, next to the toilet paper tube (Figure L ).

Decorate the Flea Circus

Step 12

Now that we’ve built the working parts of the trick, it’s time to design the look of our flea circus (Figure M)! The way something looks really can impact an audience, and flea circuses in particular are known for the interesting and mysterious ways they look. The more elaborate, the more intrigue and curiosity you create. They’re often meant to mimic the look of a classic circus, just in miniature. Have fun with your design. Use markers, crayons, paint … whatever you’d like. Use the paper remnants attached to straws to create little flags! Don’t forget to decorate your matchbox and toilet paper tube, too!

The Performance

It’s time to perform the flea circus routine! Invite your audience to join you around your table. For this routine, you can even be completely surrounded without risking the revelation of any secrets!