Everyday Magic for Kids

I want to open this book with my favorite trick to teach. I call it the Grocery Gambit, but your friends will call it what it is: amazing!

Your friend is going to make a choice, and you will then reveal that you knew exactly what decision they would make. It’s an astounding prediction, and you’re right every time! Here is what it looks like if you were to perform it for your friend: You have a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, and a jar of pickles. You say to your friend, “Pick one! The peanut butter, jelly, or pickles, but make sure that it is a free choice. At the end of this, you may think I made you choose one or the other. But no! I want this to be your decision. So, what’ll it be?”

Let’s say in this example your friend chooses pickles. You reply, “I knew you were going to say pickles. Let me show you how I knew that.” And you unscrew the jar of pickles and you show everyone that inside the jar of pickles, written on the lid in magic marker, are the words PICK PICKLES! (1)

But it gets even better. Your audience is kinda impressed, but they still seem skeptical. You then say, “I know what you’re thinking. You are thinking that there is a written prediction underneath all of the lids. Well, you are right.” Then for the fantastic climax you unscrew the lid to the jelly and you show them that the jelly reads PICK PICKLES! Finally, you unscrew the lid of the peanut butter and the peanut butter jar also reads PICK PICKLES! Somehow you knew that your friend was going to pick pickles and you predicted it not once but three times!

Here’s the secret to the trick: You are prepared with three different predictions no matter what your friend chooses. If they pick pickles, you reveal your prediction underneath the lid of the jar. But you have two other hidden predictions. You have jelly written on the back of each of the jars and you have peanut butter written underneath each of the jars. Pretty sneaky. This relies on the fact that the audience doesn’t know how the trick ends; they’re just told to make a choice.

I made my peanut butter, jelly, and pickles jars with labels from the store. You can also use paper, scissors, and glue. You’ll need three of each prediction totaling nine labels. Three will be hidden in the lid, three underneath the jars, and three at the back (2).

Once you have made your specially prepared jars, you are ready to do the trick. You display the jars with the audience standing in front of you. (Note: This is a trick in which the audience cannot stand behind you or they will see your hidden predictions on the back of the jars.) You tell them to make a selection, but make sure that it is a free choice. Let’s say they choose jelly. Then you say, “I want to show you that I knew you were going to pick jelly because I wrote down a prediction on the back of one of these jars.” And you reveal on the back of the jelly jar that it reads PICK JELLY!

Now you let your audience be impressed but skeptical and that is when you can reveal the rest of the trick by saying, “I know what you are thinking. There is writing on the back of all of the jars. Well, you are right.” And then you reveal that all of the jars read PICK JELLY on the back.

The same goes if your friend picks peanut butter and you reveal the bottom of the jars. The important thing to remember as you reveal the jar’s back or bottom, or under the lid, is to be careful not to reveal your other hidden predictions. This is an amazing trick that you can do in your kitchen at home or onstage for a bigger audience. And if you don’t have peanut butter, jelly, or pickles in your house, you can use any food or items that have three different options for predictions. Be creative and create your own Grocery Gambit!