How to Do the String in the Straw Trick | Table Magic Tricks

Watch more Easy Magic Tricks for the Dinner Table videos: http://www.howcast.com/videos/510527-How-to-Do-the-Reappearing-MandM-Trick-Table-Magic-TricksLearn how to do the string in the straw magic trick in this dinner table magic tricks video from Howcast.Ben: Do you have a piece of string I can borrow?Female: Fresh out of string.Ben: I actually brought some of my own right here. How about a drinkingstraw?Female: No.Ben: No? Okay. I got one of those, too.Female: Of course you do.Ben: I'm going to show you something really neat. Watch this. All I do . .. and this is actually the hardest part, is I put the string allthe way through to the end of the drinking straw. This justtakes a second. Bear with me. I assure you the buildup to payoffratio will be just fine.Female: Good to know.Ben: There we are. You don't have a pair of scissors with you, do you?Female: No. You have them, too?Ben: I brought one of those, too. Here's what you do: You just fold thestraw in half. Can you take these scissors for me?Female: Of course.Ben: I want you to do is slip them right through the middle here and cutthe straw in half.Female: All right.Ben: Watch your fingers and my fingers there. Yep. There you go. You cansee it's clearly in tow pieces. Then I put it back into my hand,snap my fingers, string goes right back.Female: But I just cut it.Ben: Yeah. Right?Female: How'd you do it.Ben: I'll never tell.Female: Please.Ben: Okay, but you have to keep it a secret.Female: Of course.Ben: There's a little secret setup that you do before the trick begins.You take the straw, and it can either be in the wrapper or outof the wrapper. I like to start with it in the wrapper becauseit really disguises the fact that you did some secretpreparations with it beforehand. You take a pair of scissors andyou cut the straw just about halfway to the middle point, righthere. You'll notice that's maybe 1 inch or 2 down. You can evendo it about here. It doesn't have to be exact. You notice itdoesn't go all the way through. Then you take a pair of scissorsand you cut along the middle of the straw for about 4 inches.Just like that. Now you have a straw with a slit in the middle.Then you can put this back in the wrapper. You can do this whilethat's still in the wrapper. The neat thing is even with a slitin the straw, you can handle it, you can show it; you don't needto be super-secretive of the fact, because you can't see theslit. In fact, it's very hard for me to see it even when I'mholding it. Then you take the string, and this is the part thattakes a little while depending on the string and the straw, andyou bring it all the way down to the bottom of the straw.Female: This is the part I saw?Ben: This is the part you saw, yeah. This part is fine. It's okay if theywatch this part. You pull it down so it's hanging down from eachside. You keep it nice and symmetrical. This is the secret move:When you fold the straw in half, under the misdirection ofputting the straw from one hand to the other or handing somebodya pair of scissors, you take these two ends and you pull thestring down, and then the string is actually right there betweenthe two pieces of straw, but it's covered by this hand. When Ihand you the scissors, you're not paying a lot of attention, andyou can't really see what's happening here anyway because it'scovered by my hand. I pulled the string down in a quick momentso it's really right here. When you're cutting . . .Female: You're not cutting.Ben: . . . you're missing the string, but nobody can tell because I'mholding it in my hand and I'm pulling these down. Then I haveyou cut through there. There you go, and you display the twopieces. You can even separate them into two hands as long asyou're not showing the string that's going between. Then you putthem back together like this, and really, nothing's happened;it's still connected. Then you have to do a magic moment. Youwave your hand. You snap your fingers and you pull it straightback out.Female: There you go, full string.Ben: That's how you do the Cutting a String in a Straw trick.