Popularised by Jon Armstrong, the “Tiny Plunger”, at one period, was one of the most performed close-up effects.  This is because the entire routine is easy to do, and the tiny plunger is not gimmicked.  The card that is responsible to make the trick work can be prepared in less than half a minute with any card in the deck that you are performing.

To the public, this tiny toilet plunger can readily purchase the sucker stand for your mobile phone.

However, the original concept of the tiny plunger for use in magic was from Mathieu Bich.

The “Universal Plunger” contains the original version of Mathieu Bich’s plunger.  The product comes in a nice small drawer box.  You receive 2 tiny plungers, one of which is specially gimmicked.  You also receive a set of 2 gimmicked playing cards.  One of them is the secret to the plunger trick.  It is known as the “air-card”.  The other card is specially constructed to keep this air-card flat, an essential feature to make the trick work.  You are also given a link to an hour long video tutorial.  In the tutorial, Mathieu also discusses his original version using a ball-point pen.

There is another version of the tiny plunger trick.  It is manufactured by Tenyo Magic of Japan and it contains the Mathieu Bich’s “air-card”.

You may ask: why then do you need Mathieu Bich’s “Universal Plunger” with a gimmicked plunger and air-card?  First of all, if, at any time in your routine, you can switch the ungimmicked for the gimmicked plunger, and you can cause the plunger to magically lose its power so that it no longer can pick up any card.  The only person who can “turn” the plunger “on” or “off” is you.  Secondly, the special “air-card” allows you to lift the entire deck of cards off the table even though the air-card is on the bottom of the deck.  When the “air-card” is on top of the deck, the plunger is not able to lift any card at all.  This effect cannot be achieved with the other specially prepared card.

The best routine to perform with the tiny plunger is the routine by Jon Armstrong.  It is taught in the video.  It is an entire small act where the plunger is able to pick up any named number of cards, and also to find a freely chosen card.  Purchase the “Universal Plunger” to get the original version by Mathieu Bich.  (Rated 5/5 stars)