Will Tsai

Coin Teleportation

Revealed

In his first appearance on the TV show America's Got Talent, Will Tsai stunned the audience with a brilliant magic performance. According to Simon Cowell, it was the best magic trick ever performed on America's Got Talent.

In the trick, Will mainly uses the classic magician's tool: coins. But this is no ordinary coin trick! Seeing him make coins disappear, appear and teleport from one place to another will make your brain spin. How on earth does he do it?

Don't worry, we have answers for you. Watch the performance first, then read the explanation below.

 

Explanation:

So, how does he do it? Seems impossible, right? But as always, there is a completely rational explanation for how this trick is done.

Let's break the trick down into two parts. The first part is fairly unimpressive and could be explained with basic slight of hand. The coins are covered and we don't see what's really going on below. But then Tsai surprises us. In the second part of the trick, he uncovers the coins and does the whole thing again, with coins in full sight! That can be no ordinary slight of hand. But how is it done?

The secret of the trick is in the board that Will Tsai uses. Let's take another look at it:

 

Note he doesn't just use an ordinary table. The fancy board he uses has quite some depth. Why is that? In magic, nothing is a coincidence. That is no ordinary board.

The board is actually a gimmick that contains a mechanism which can put the coin to the top of the board or make it »disappear« to the inside of the board. There are hidden compartments in the board that the coins can fall into. So when you see a coin »teleport« from one place to another, you are actally watching two different coins on two different locations. First, one of the coins disapears into the board. Almost at the same time, a second coin (on a different location) is delivered to the surface from the inside of the board. This happens so fast it looks like it is just one coin being teleported from one place to the other. But that is just an optical illusion.