Magic Self-Mending Matchstick

by Roberto
(Dog Stone Bay (South Africa))

This is a really easy & cool trick where a broken matchstick "miraculously" becomes solid again!

The Effect:
A spectator takes a matchstick out of a matchbox, inspects that it is solid and places it in a napkin. The magician folds the napkin and hands it to the spectator who then breaks the matchstick into two seperate peaces. The magician shakes the napkin open and the matchstick falls onto the table and is solid again...really AWESOME trick!

The Secret:
(The set-up)Prior to performing the trick, take any cloth napkin and insert a matchstcik into the hem on one corner of the napkin. The matchstick is totaly invisible and you are now ready to perform magic!

Hand a box of matches to a spectator and ask him to take a matchstick out, inspect it and make sure that it is whole.

Show the spectator your hands on both sides and it is seen that there is nothing hidden in your hands. Pick up your "secretly prepaired" napkin by holding it on two corners (one of the corners being where the "hidden" matchstick is). Turn the napkin around and shake it thereby demonstrating that there is nothing in it.

Lay it flat on a table and ask the spectator to place his matchstick in the centre of the napkin. Simply fold the corner with the "hidden" matchstick over the centre of the napkin and continue to do so with the other corners as well. (Just make sure that the corner with the "hidden" matchstick is not directly next to the one placed by the spectator, otherwise the wrong one will be brocken).

Once the napkin is folded up, pick up the napkin and hand it to the spectator and ask him to break the matchstick, making sure that it is in two seperate pieces. Take the napkin back from the spectator and shake it open. To his amazement, the matchstick falls onto the table and has miraculously become whole again!