This is a great street magic trick that never fails to entertain and amaze anybody you show this to. It’s easy to do, and requires only a little bit of set up. You’ll soon be approaching strangers on the street and quickly become the talk of the town with this amazing illusion.
This is the way it will appear to your audience. You walk up, and say you are practicing some street magic, and you’d like their attention for a couple minutes. Most everybody will readily agree to seeing some street magic, so you’ll have no problems getting them to say yes. You start to launch into a trick, maybe pulling out a deck of cards, but then you begin to sneeze. You act like your have a sore neck all of a sudden, and you start to sneeze uncontrollably. Then your head suddenly drops down to the center of your chest. You say something like “Oh, my,” and then pull your head back to your shoulders. You politely excuse yourself, and walk away. Needless to say, your audience will be stunned beyond belief.
Here’s the trick. You’ll need to get two shirts of identical fabric and color to set this up. One shirt under, and one shirt over. On the shirt that is over, you’ll need to cut a “V” shape about halfway down to the chest. You’ll also need to wear a dark jacket over both shirts. Next, take a sturdy coat hanger, and place it between shirts, so on the coat hanger is the cut shirt, and your jacket, but not the uncut shirt that is underneath.
As you start sneezing, and complaining about your painful neck, reach back like you are rubbing your neck. When you sneeze really hard, grab the coat hanger, and pull up, and at the same time lower your head. This will make them think your head has fallen off your shoulders and is somehow resting in the middle of your chest. With your hand on your forehead, gently push your head back up to your shoulders.
The key to this trick is to do this quickly, both lifting the jacket and the cut shirt up, as well as returning everything back to normal. Especially if you set this up by saying you are going to do some kind of mind reading trick, nobody will be paying any attention to your shirt and jacket. Because this happens so fast, they will actually remember it as though your head really fell down to your chest.
People won’t be paying much attention to your shirt, so you can easily pull this off. Many studies on social sciences bare this out. All you need to do to perform this trick effectively is to set it up as some kind of mind reading trick, do a good job of acting that your neck is hurt, and quickly apologize, and excuse yourself once you’ve “returned” your head. They will be taken completely off guard, and you’ll generate a ton of laughter and amazement with this trick. Have fun.
