Stag Do Bar Tricks

£5 Beer Bottle Challenge

Challenge
Place a five pound note on a table and bet a friend you can open a beer bottle using just a fiver. Not yours obviously, you want to earn out of this so tell them to lay a fiver down on the table, if you do it you get to keep them both, if you fail they win the money.

Method
Take their bill and roll it up really tightly so that it resembles a drinking straw. You must roll it as tightly as possible. Once you have it rolled fold it in half, this will create a natural kink in the “straw”. Using this kink you can lever it against the side of a bottle top just like a bottle opener. Voila! Take your victorious swig like the winner you are but make sure you’ve pocketed their money first.

Playing With Fire

Challenge
Bet your friends that it’s possible to pick up a glass using only the palm of their hand without moving their thumb. Let them have a few attempts at this before revealing yourself to be the alpha male.

Method
Get a shot of Sambuca in an ordinary shot glass. Once all your friends have tried and failed its time for your magic. Set the Sambuca alight and quickly press your palm over the glass. This will instantly put out the flame and create a vacuum sealing the glass to your palm which you can now raise in the air winning your bet. Who’s the daddy?

The Numpty Balancing Act

Challenge
Bet someone they can’t balance halves of lager on the back of their hands. In every stag do there is always someone who is a bit of a fool and eager to prove themselves, this guy is definitely your mark. Have them place their hands palm down on a table or bar counter and place two full glasses on the back of their hands. Now watch their joy as they have proved you wrong, enjoy their smiling face in their moment of victory. Now get up and walk away.

Method
There is no method to this one. He has won the bet however now you have all left him the only way for him to move away from the table without covering himself in beer is to ask a passing Samaritan for help. Cruel but funny.

The Trapped Fiver

Challenge
Turn an empty bottle (preferably longneck beer bottle) upside down on top of a five pound note. The challenge is to get the note out from underneath the bottle without knocking over the bottle. You cannot touch the bottle, and it must remain inverted at all times.

Method
Gently roll up the fiver like a straw until it pushes off the bottle. Hint: The first thing people will think of is to pull the bill quickly out from underneath the bottle. This will work on slick surfaces, unless you make sure the fiver gets a little wet where it meets the bottle. The last few drops of beer left in the bottle will prevent this from happening.

Spinning Challenge

This one isn’t a trick but more of a challenge that anyone can have a go at. Place a pint of beer and a coin on a table the challenge is for the player to set the coin spinning on the table and then down his beer before the coin comes to a stop.

The Cork Getaway

Challenge
Offer a fiver to their pound to anyone who can remove a cork stuck inside a wine bottle. If you can get a few challengers then that’s a few quid for you while your fiver stays nice and snug in your pocket.

Method
With the cork inside the bottle, hold the bottle upside down and insert a plastic bag, rolled, with a portion of it sticking out. Then, with the cork lying next to the bag, pull it out and the bag will catch the cork and take it out, even with the 'pop' sound.

The Bent Cigarette

Challenge
Bend a cigarette in half, without breaking it and without making it un-smokable.

Method

Take a dollar bill and roll it tightly around the cigarette then bend it in half till the filter tip touches the other end. The cigarette will not break and you can still smoke it.

Mind Reader

Challenge
Take three dice give them to somebody and have them drop the dice into a glass of water. (Make sure to see what numbers that are showing on top), tell the person that you are psychic, press the glass against your forehead with your eyes closed, then set the glass back down. Tell the person to look at the Dice and think about the number showing Then stick your fingers in the water to get them wet, rub them on your forehead, and after a little concentration, announce the total number on the bottom of the dice. Amazingly you will be right every time.

Method
Dice have this seven thing going on. All you have to do is add up the total of the numbers on top of the dice and subtract that number from 21 to know what the bottom total is.

Counting Cards

Effect

Fan a deck of cards out and ask your mark to pick a card. Now place the deck on a table, cut the pack keeping the topmost cards in your hand as you turn around and ask them to place their card on top of the remaining cards. Now place the rest of the cards on top and predict you will find their card. Pick up the deck and have a rifle through them... oh no... your magic is failing you and you can’t find the card (cue growns from your friends as they start to enjoy your failings). But ask for one last chance. “What was the name of your card?” Now flip the cards over spelling out the name of their card and as you turn over the last letter of the name of the card there it is. Cue your victory jig and bask in the glow of your might. You da Man!

Method

This might seem like a complicated explanation but its actually a brilliant trick that looks really impressive but is actually really simple to do. To make it easier grab a deck of cards and follow the instructions as you read the method.

Fan a deck of cards out and ask your mark to pick a card. Now place the deck on a table, cut the pack keeping the topmost cards in your hand as you turn around and ask them to place their card on top of the remaining cards.

You will need a bit of misdirection here so wave your hands around as you speak in order to get a sneaky look at the card on the bottom of the cards you’re still holding.

Turn back around and place you cards on top of the deck, pick them up hold them facing you and start rifling through them as you look for the card. Tell the onlookers you can’t find it and let the piss taking commence.

But you already have. As you rifle through the cards look out for the card that was on the bottom of the cut deck that you sneaked a look at while you had your back turned. The card before this will be the one you want. Now keep rifling through the cards silently spelling out the name of their card as you do.

So, when you turned your back lets say the card you sew was the King of Hearts. Once you have picked the reassembled deck up you fan through the cards until you see this card, as you put your cards ON TOP of the deck on the table (on top of which is the card they chose) that card will be the one BEFORE the King of Hearts. Lets imagine that this card is the Three of Clubs. Starting on that card and calling it the “T” of the word three silently count through the rest of the pack marking out each letter to another card as you go “T”, “H”, “R”, “E”, etc until you get to the “S” at the end of clubs.

While you are secretly doing this you are explaining that you can’t find it and everyone is insulting you and enjoying your fall. But the joke is still on them.

Once you secretly reach the “S” in your count split the deck so that this card you have mentally marked as “S” is now at the bottom of the deck so that you can see its face. And switch the rest of the cards to the top of the deck.

Now to make someone else look a bit foolish tell the assembled crowd that you can still save the trick and that the cards you are holding are actually “Magic cards” and that they can spell.

Ask the person who picked the card to tell the cards which card was theirs (hold the cards up to their mouth to make them look even more daft). Now tell them that if they ask the cards nicely the cards will spell it out so “Repeat after me… Please cards will you spell it out for us…” (let them say it) “Because we love you!” (make them say it, they are now looking daft and you are starting to look like a crowd pleasing pro).

All you have to do now is simply spell out the letters placing each card face down on the table as you go, this time the card you marked as the “S” will become the “T” of the word “Three” as you count the cards out onto the table saying each word as it is completed. “T, H, R, E, E, three O, F, of… “ etc

You have reversed the order of your count this time when you reach “S” it will be the Three of Clubs. As you get to this letter place it on the table face up revealing their chosen card.

You are now a Pub Magic God!