Stage Magic -- Linking Rings (Mallusionist)

Linking Rings

Effect

The magician presents a number of solid silver rings, each about a foot in diameter. The rings are shown to have no breaks in them. Nevertheless, the magician is able to link the rings to each other at will and unlink them once again with a mere thought.

Secret

If the magician shows, for example, three rings, only one of them will be a real ring. The other two "rings" are actually pairs of half rings, held in whole-ring formation by the magician. Because the halves of the rings are not really attached, they can quickly and easily (with a little practice) be separated to allow the "linking" of the whole ring or another pair of half rings.

The single real solid ring is used to that it can be left hanging from one of the fake rings. If fake rings are not held onto, they tend to fall apart. However, recent innovations in linking ring technology include magnetic closures for the half-ring pairs, so that they can be released from the magician's hand without separating, allowing the possibility of performances with apparent unlimited numbers of rings but no real rings, the only problem being that the magnets tend to make the rings stick together, leading to unintended laughs when a magician can't seem to unlink a pair of rings that were not supposed to be linked in the first place.

If you would like to perform this effect yourself, you can find it at Hank Lee's Magic Factory

The information on this site is intended for use only by those with a sincere desire to learn nothing about magic and is for entertainment purposes only (in other words, don't try this stuff, particularly the dangerous parts). The Magicians Assistance Collective (MAC) frowns upon the use of magic in the formation of religions or to attract a cult following.

Magic is not real. Reality is not magic.

Stage Magic Explained

Linking Rings