For great entertainment value, this effect called “the Finger” by Leo Smetsers is hard to beat.

The performer shows his audience how deft he is with his sleight-of-hand by producing a coin from thin air, and then vanishing it just as myteriously.

He remarks that sleight-of-hand is very hard to accomplish if the other fingers of the same hand are restrained from movements.

To this end, he produces a kind of a black cloth that covers his entire right hand, except for a slit where his fore-finger can extend outside the cloth. This truly makes him look very comical. Imagine a magician with a coverd hand and with one finger protruding from it!

He brings forward a large silver disc with a silhouette of a hand with its first 2 fingers extended (like a peace sign) engraved on both sides. This disc is placed onto the palm of a spectator’s outstretched right hand. The diameter of this disc is about 2.25 inches.

The performer brings out the coin he uses earlier and carefully balances it on the tip of the finger that is protruding from the black cloth covering his right hand. He challenges the spectator that he can be just as deft with this single finger even though the other fingers of the same hand are restrained inside the black cloth. He will use this coin to touch the large silver disc on the spectator’s hand, and picks it up again in double quick time, so that the coin will still be balanced on the tip of his protruding finger. The spectator’s objective is to close her fingers around this large disc and trap the performer’s finger as well, just when the coin of his finger touches the disc.

Well, you can anticipate what will be the outcome. The spectator fails in her attempt.

In order not to discourage her, the performer says that perhaps this disc is too large for her fingers. Afterall, the silhouette on this disc shows only 2 extended fingers. This means that only 2 of her fingers are able to close over this disc.

The performer takes this disc away from her and replaces it with a slightly smaller disc. This disc has a silhouette of a hand with 3 extended fingers on it. The performer challenges the spectator to close her fingers around this disc when his coin touches it, trapping his finger as well. Again, the spectator fails to do so.

The performer replaces this disc with a smaller disc. This time, this disc has the silhouette of 4 extended fingers. Surely this time the spectator can succeed in trapping the performer’s finger. She seems very determined this time.

Unfortunately, she fails again! The performer exchanges this disc with a very small disc of only 0.75 inches in diameter. This small disc has an engraved silhouette of a hand with all 5 extended fingers. The spectator should have no problem in accomplishing her objective this time. She has also gained enough experiences from her earlier failures to know exactly when to close her fingers around the small disc.

As expected, she fails. The performer reads her mind, and that of the audience also. The coin must have been stuck onto the tip of the performer’s finger all this time.

The performer takes this coin from his finger and lets the spectator examine it. She finds no sticky stuff on the coin. Perhaps, there is glue on the performer’s finger. As he says this, the performer takes the finger off the black cloth and hands it to the spectator.

You can imagine the surprise of the spectator when she receives this finger. It takes a while before she realises that this is a fake finger!

Everybody laughs! This is indeed an entertaining little routine.

You receive everything you need to perform this fascinating trick, except for your own coin which you use to show off your prowess with your sleight-of-hand at the beginning of the performance. You receive the 4 silver discs with the engraved silhouette in decreasing diameters, a small red velvet cloth to contain the 4 discs, the special black cloth with a slit to cover your hand, a fake finger, and a link to an 8 minutes video tutorial taught by Leo Smetsers himself.

The props are professionally produced. This entire little act is constructed to create excitement and comedy for the spectator helping you. If you cannot be entertaining with this routine, you should give up performing magic. (Rated 5/5 stars)