The Effect
Discussing the power of the mind, the magician takes a piece of tin foil – this can be kitchen baking foil, a chocolate wrapper (such as from a Cadbury’s Creme Egg) or the foil insert from a packet of cigarettes – and dips it into a glass of water (or beer, cider, lemonade etc). Rolling it into a ball, the performer places the foil into a spectator’s hand and asks them to imagine it is starting to become warm. Within a very short period of time, the foil does indeed start to heat up… becoming warmer and warmer, until the point where the spectator decides it is so hot that they have to drop it on the floor. Proving that the feeling of heat is entirely in the spectator’s mind, the performer can immediately pick up the foil at fingertips without any danger of burning themselves.