Making Magic Boring

[Sophus]

Magic tricks usually don't impress me because, well, I know they're just tricks and the answers are always so expected, simple and boring. Yet some of them are fun to decode.
I've been watching Criss Angel's Mindfreak lately and there are some things which are kind of interesting. I couldn't find video online of this one trick but it worked like this:

Criss took a $100 bill and a pen.
Punched a hole in the bill with the pen.
Then moved the pen around the bill, making it look like the hole was moving.

I think this is how he did it: He had a special pen so that the tip would push up into itself when he rammed it against the bill/his hand. He was hiding an identical looking magnetic tip behind the his hand to attach at the right time and that's what made the illusion possible.

Any magic tricks that have impressed you which you where able to figure out?

[The Magic Pudding]

I was impressed by those master magicians known as Lehman Brothers.
Here look at this sad balance sheet, just a wiggle of the wand and the debts are gone!
Thank you, thank you ladies and gents, just give us your money and we'll make that disappear too!

[pinkocommie]

I have nothing of substance to add to this conversation.  However...

[spoiler:1jz5msee]Illusions, Sophus.  Tricks are what whores do for money.[/spoiler:1jz5msee]

[Tank]

I have nothing of substance to add to this conversation.  However...

[spoiler:o79ey1hi]Illusions, Sophus.  Tricks are what whores do for money.[/spoiler:o79ey1hi]

[karadan]

I saw a very cool card trick when i was in Thailand. This girl would say, pick the nine of clubs (for instance) and i would point to a card. She would ask me to turn it over, and it would be the correct card. She did four variations of that trick in a row. I was properly gobsmacked because not one time had she even come close to touching any cards.

I thought it was effective because she got me to do all the work.

(She taught me how to do it. It was a surprisingly simple method but incredibly hard to pull off with flair).

[Asmodean]

If I had a stack of cards with just the nines, I could probably ask you to pick a nine and you would without touching a single card too  

For my part, I'm properly impressed by the "mind tricks", like reading thoughts and such. It's still only a matter of skill with no extra senses involved, but impressive none the less.

[karadan]

Indeed. That's when simple tricks turn into mastery of a form. Anyone can do simple card tricks but something like the Penn and Teller magic bullet trick? That's very impressive.

Oh, asmo, i forgot to mention, the cards were placed face down jumbled across a table - not stacked. Real deck too.

[elliebean]

I have nothing of substance to add to this conversation.  However...

[spoiler:20k99qdc]Illusions, Sophus.  Tricks are what whores do for money.[/spoiler:20k99qdc]

[spoiler:20k99qdc]Or cocaine.[/spoiler:20k99qdc]