A discussion of the supernatural (maybe initiated by the magician) leads to the magician claiming that although he doesn't believe in spirits, he happens to have an object that appears to be possessed. He pulls out his key ring and hands it out for inspection. He says although it looks normal, it's anything but. One particular key was said to belong to an elderly person found dead on their doorstep in the freezing cold. The key had apparently fallen out of their reach and they expired before they could retrieve it.

The magician lays the keys in the palm of his hand. He explains that it's not too difficult to spot which key belonged to the person if you look closely enough. He gestures over the keys. He explains that one key almost wants to jump into your hands. As he says this, a key in the middle of the ring slowly begins to lift up and stick out from all the rest. The magician says he'd be spooked out by this if he actually believed in that sort of thing.

Secret
I discovered this effect by accident playing with my own key ring. I easily have 10 or more keys on it. I found that if I laid the keys on my palm with the ends between the pad of my thumb and the pad of my first finger, a slight squeeze would make one of the keys in the middle stick out (figure 3). Usually it's the one that has colored plastic on either side. Try it with your own set of keys and you'll find that one key likes to pop out more than the others.

This works because squeezing the keys acts like a kind of vice. Because the keys are squeezed at a slight angle, one key will want to pop out as it's squeezed (figure 4).

Performance

1. Bring up the subject of haunted house and objects.
2. Tell them your creepy story.
3. Let them inspect your keys.
4. Lay the keys in your palm (figure 3).
5. Gesture at the keys (figure 5).
6. Slowly squeeze the keys.
7. Watch their reactions as the key pops up.

Want more magic fun? Check out my website at www.weirdthings.com.

Copyright 2006 Andrew Mayne