Ask someone to jot their favorite book on a slip of paper, then cover it with their hand, so you can’t peek.  With a little concentration, believe it or not, you can tell them what’s on the paper!  How?

Tell a spectator the word they select in a book!

“When you drop a playing card on the table”, you demonstrate to a spectator, “it lands on 1 side or the other.  Can you drop it, from a height of at least 1 foot, so it lands on its edge?”

Make a silver ball float!

Half of 8 is 3, you claim.  And you can prove it!  Do you know how?

Some men interpret nine memos. Too bad, I hid a boot. Madam, I’m Adam. A man, a plan, a canal – Panama! Doc note, I dissent.  A fast never prevents a fatness.  I diet on cod.

Introduce your assistant, the great mind reader.  Send her out of the room.  Show a sheet with pictures of 9 animals, with their names beneath the pictures.  Ask a spectator to select any animal.  Invite the mind reader back in.  She correctly reveals the chosen animal!  Want to learn to do this? 

Here’s a fun bit to show a library patron, or an audience while they are waiting for a program to begin. Ask your audience if they can make a pear disappear.  Let them think about this.  After a minute or two, show them the secret: 

Complain that your neck has been hurting.  Mention that you think you might have a case of Dog Jaw.  Ask the person you’re showing this to if they’ve ever heard of Dog Jaw? 

Show a deck of cards.  So you can’t do anything sneaky with them, you place them in a paper (or styrofome) cup.  Upon your command, the queen rises out of the deck!   Would you like to learn to do this one?