Magic Tricks Revealed: The Amazing Elephant From Denmark

by: George Hutton

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Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 Time: 3:19 PM - 0 comments

This is a classic psychic trick that always gets people thinking. It is based on some simple mathematical ideas, and always ends up with the same answer, so it's great fun to do at parties, bars, or even birthday parties. It works best with a little bit of show and can have a powerful "reveal" at the end if you play it up right.

Here's the basic trick. I'll ask you to do the same things you'll ask the people your playing the trick on to do, so you can see how it works. First, think of a number between one and ten. After that, take the number, and multiply it by nine. If it's a two digit number, add them together. Now subtract five. Got it?

Now you take the number and match it with the corresponding letter of the alphabet, with A=1, B=2, etc. Got it? Great. Now think of a country in Europe that starts with that letter. Got it? Ok, now go forward in the alphabet one letter. Got it? Now think of a circus animal that begins with that letter. OK? What color is that animal? OK, so now, you're most likely thinking of a gray elephant from Denmark, right?

This works because any number you start with, you'll always end up with four. Try this with all the numbers from one through ten and you'll see. So long as you specifically limit the countries to European countries, they'll almost always choose Denmark. And as long as you go up one more letter (E), most people will pick elephant, and then obviously gray.

There are a bunch of different ways you can reveal this trick. They best way is to actually write "Gray Elephant From Denmark" on a piece of paper, fold it up, and give it to the person you are playing the trick on. Then have them tell you their answer, and have them take out the folded up piece of paper out of their pocket and read it out loud.

This is a really great trick to do at parties when you choose one person to do the trick on, and have everybody else watch. Unless the person knows this trick, and is purposely trying to throw you off, they will almost always end up with a gray elephant from Denmark. This works especially well with kids, and have them as a group come up with the country, and the animal, etc., before having them unfold the magic sheet of paper. Have fun with this.