Where Are The Matches?

Effect: Two empty matchboxes and one containing some matches are moved around on a table. The spectators are unable to identify which box contains the matches.
Secret: All three matchboxes are empty. Attached to your right arm and hidden by your sleeve is a matchbox containing some matches. Shake a box with your left hand it sounds empty. When you mix up the three visible boxes you can make any one appear to be the full one, simply by shaking it with your right hand. The spectators think it contains matches because they hear the sound from the hidden box.

Anti-Gravity Matches

Effect: A box of matches is opened and the drawer held upside down. The matches defy the laws of gravity and do not fall out – until you command them to. Secret: Wedge a match across the drawer of a box of matches. You will probably have to shorten the match to do this. When you take the drawer from the box, hold it by the sides to keep the secretly-wedged match in position. Command the matches to fall and release the pressure on the wedged match. All the matches fall from the box on your command.

Match Restoration

Effect: A matchstick is broken in half then magically made whole.
Secret: You need a handkerchief with a matchstick hidden in its hem. A match is taken from a matchbox and wrapped in the handkerchief. Ask a spectator to break the match through the material but make sure it is the one hidden in the hem that he breaks. Shake out the handkerchief and the match just removed from the box falls out. Casually put the handkerchief (with the broken match concealed in the hem) back into your pocket. It appears that the match was restored by magic.

Stop!

Effect: A matchbox obeys your commands.

Secret: Run a thread through the end of a matchbox drawer (see figure 1). Put a small eraser or a block of wood in the drawer on top of the thread (see figure 2) then close the box. You are now ready to show the trick. Hold each end of the thread, with one hand above the other. The matchbox should be near the top of the thread. If you hold the thread loosely the box will slide down the thread but if you secretly tighten the thread the box will stop (see figure 3). With practice you can make it stop or go at your command.