Their brain won't know what's happening...but you do.
People tend to be a little sensitive when it comes to their phones. Understandably so. Your phone has your bank info, private messages, and most importantly your candy crush high score on it. It's stressful if they get lost. So it's really fun as a magician to make someone think you've lost theirs.
Enter Optix Pro by Tobias Dostal and Henry Harrius.
You start by switching phones with your spectator. You tell them that you want to have this performance filmed on your phone, and ask if they'd film for you. Then you take their phone and turn on the flashlight.
They press 'record' and you turn their flashlight toward the camera. Then, in an instant, the blinding light vanishes... along with the rest of their phone. You show your hands are completely clean.
At this point, it's best to let the terror take a second to set in. They handed their phone to a stranger. The stranger claimed to be able to do magic. And now their phone is gone. Maybe forever.
At least they have your phone as collateral. Or do they?
Once they've run through all 5 stages of grief, you tell them to examine the phone they're holding--the phone they've been holding the whole time. It's not your phone. They are holding their own phone.
We love the twists and turns that this routine gets to take. The phone vanish is flawless and happens really in the blink of an eye. But the icing on the cake is getting to watch their brain short-circuit once they come to terms with the fact that their phone seemingly never left their hands.
We liked this effect so much, we shot our own trailer for it, just to have an excuse to perform it around town.
Optix Pro is available at any Murphy's Magic dealer, or you can check out with our featured dealer, All Things Magic!
