Mickael Chatelain ONE Trick Secret Revealed And Explained

Let’s explore Mickael Chatelain ONE trick secret of teleporting three coins with the sleight of hand, gaff cards and gimmicked playing card box or deck case.

I do not own nor have seen the actual latest ONE magic trick created by Mickael Chatelain.

This is my two cents how this Mickael Chatelain teleporting coin magic trick is done.

It is derived by just watching the only demo video clip, together with my wild guess.

Anyway, my assumption of Mickael Chatelain ONE trick secret could be completely incorrect.

It doesn’t matter because I love to know how things work.

I can learn from his ingenious thinking behind all those amazing close up magic tricks.

Now, let’s explore and examine this new ONE trick by French magic creator Mickael Chatelain.

Mickael Chatelain Magic With Gimmicks

American inventor, magician, and writer Paul Harris hailed Mickael Chatelain as “one of the best creators of magic effects in the world!”

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Related: To read free Paul Harris magic books, click here.

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Mickael Chatelain is known for creating magic tricks using props with built-in gimmicks.

If you are a fan of card trick gimmicks, I am sure you know Mickael Chatelain’s creations, which include “Crazy Hole“, “Super Hole“, “Melt Card“, “Card On Ribbon“, and “Matrix“.

Many of his tricks relied on well-camouflaged gimmicks and the magical effects are very visual.

Mickael Chatelain Gimmick Secrets

This is what I presume where the gimmicks are.

CRAZY HOLE Secret

For the “Crazy Hole” trick, there is a concealed movable slot held by elastic thread at both ends, as indicated below.

You can read it in “Crazy Hole By Mickael Chatelain Secret Exposed And Explained“.

MELT CARD Secret

This is one part of the gimmick (slits) of the “Melt Card” below.

CARD ON RIBBON Secret

In “Card On Ribbon” trick, the chosen card is the first one in the deck.

The cover flap is not tucked into the box because the chosen or selected card is positioned slightly higher.

Look closely you can see the first card movement through the front hole of the box in most video clips.

I think the white color card is actually a blank face gaff card.

The chosen/selected card is stick to this gaff card with a double-sided tape.

Most probably the gaff card with the stick-on chosen/selected card is attached to the top fold flap with hidden magnets as seen below.

You can clearly see the white color card in this video at 3:36 when his finger straighten the deck of cards inside the box.

Read the full article, “Card On Ribbon By Mickael Chatelain Secret Exposed And Explained“.

BOTTLE By Mickael Chatelain Secret

In the coin through bottle trick by Mickael Chatelain, there is a second coin hidden inside the gimmicked cork.

It is sort of similar to Unicorn Cork by Nick Einhorn.

From this video clip at 0:50 of the video clip, you can clearly see the coin is dropping from the cork above.

You can see the first coin still in the palm of the hand.

Ball And Salt Shaker aka Shake Sphere Trick Secret

The Bottle by Mickael Chatelain is also similar to 1984 the ball and salt shaker trick by Neil Prete called “Shake Sphere“.

It uses a salt shaker and a small plastic ball.

The secret of salt shaker or Shake Sphere trick is the same as a Chop Cup.

The ball has a magnet inside it which makes it stick to cap of the shaker.

You can watch the smooth performance of Ball And Salt Shaker here by Harry Allen of Daytona Magic.

By the way here is a free book by Harry Allen, filled with a collection of one-liner jokes that can easily be incorporated into your magic routines.

Sleight Of Mouth: A Collection Of Hilarious One-Liner
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

*Link 3 is from Scribd. To read it for free, by installing the Nice Try Scribd Extension.

Chrome users, click here.
Firefox users, click here.

For those who want to download it, paste the link on this Download Scribd site.

1 Up Levitation Bill Secret

I think he uses a clear plastic as a supporting arm to levitate the bill as seen below.

It is hidden at the side of box/case, and he uses his right thumb to control the movement of the transparent supporting arm.

MATRIX By Mickael Chatelain Secret

Mickael Chatelain’s 2010 “Matrix” trick effect looks similar to what the Masked Magican exposed in 2009 TV series “Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed” (Episode Thirteen).

Watch how the Masked Magician (Val Valentino) moves three holes to the corner of the playing card below:

Here is a video tutorial how to make your own MATRIX ART gimmick card.

Before I share my view how Mickael Chatelain ONE trick works, this is the effect.

It starts out with a box of playing cards and three coins.

He takes out the deck of cards from the box.

Chatelain palms the first coin and makes it disappear.

Magically it seems to reappear inside the playing card box.

Then he makes the second coin vanishes, by placing it under a playing card.

Just like the first coin, the coin apparently also teleported into the playing card box/case.

Finally Chatelain places the third coin on the palm of his hand and covered it with a playing card.

With a turn of his hand, the coin is gone, and this third coin also appears to be teleported into the playing card box.

Watch magician Mickael Chatelain performing the ONE magic trick below:

Mickael Chatelain ONE Trick Secret

Before I proceed further, I think the playing card box is gimmicked, and it has three hidden coins inside within a slider or chute.

At the onset of the act, he never highlights the playing card box at all.

He never shows its interior and particularly front side of the box to the viewers.

Casually he put it down at the corner as if it is just an ordinary playing card box or case.

It is a subtle psychological act of suggesting there is nothing inside it.

You can learn more about it below.

Instead he misdirects your attention to the three coins and the disappearance effect.

Then there are two gaff cards on top of the pile, which help to make the second and the third coin to disappear.

I would explain them as I go along….

First Coin

I think the first coin is made to vanish by the sleight of hand.

At 0:18, you can see him drags the coin to edge of the table and secretly let it drop down.

Basically he just sweeps the coin off the table, as seen here.

Probably the coin falls onto his lap, a servante table pocket or just onto the floor.

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Servante is a utility device which allows magicians to secretly dispose of, or steal out, small objects such as folded cards, coins, finger rings and billets.

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He also does the same move in his Bottle demo video, just before he hits the bottom of the glass bottle at 0:35.

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Note: If it is falling onto his lap, in the art of conjuring magic tricks, it is known as “Lapping“.

Lapping is a magic technique whereby a performer seated at a table secretly dispose of an item (coin or card) into his lap.

A common lapping technique is to sweep an item into the lap while pretending to pick it off the tabletop.

This deceptive move is used in the classic “Salt Shaker And Napkin“ trick.

You can read up about the Lapping technique from many magic books, including “Magic: The Complete Course” by Jay Joshua.

You can find out more the Lapping move and other techniques from magician Tony Slydini below.

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Related: You can find free books about the sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation and legerdemain below.

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Then how does it seem to reappear inside the playing card box?

As I have mentioned above, there are three concealed coins inside the playing box.

That is the first hidden coin.

Well, at the beginning of the performance, Mickael Chatelain just gingerly pulls out the deck of cards at 0:08.

He never tilts the box all the way upside down or shakes it at all.

Now there are still two more coins inside the box probably stored in a slider or chute gimmick.

I do not know precisely how Mickael designed the gimmick, but it is can control each individual coin inside.

There are couple of methods of doing it.

Second Coin

To make the second coin to disappear, he uses the first gaffed or gimmicked card from the pile.

At 0:31 when he lifts up the gimmicked card (King of Spades) from the pile, he flips it around as if it is a normal card.

At 0:34, it appears like he slips the coin into the secret pocket at the face of the King of Spades card.

Watch closely and you can see he does not place the coin on top of the table.

His left hand is pressing onto the backside of the card, as he lifts up it face to open up the secret pocket.

You can see he uses just two fingers to hold the coin because he is inserting it into a narrow slot.

At 0:43, he slips his fingers underneath the card, to make sure the coin is safely slipped inside the secret pocket with his middle finger and presses it down with his thumb

You notice the appearance of the circular pattern under his thumb, is slightly blurred.

In addition, when he flicks the card with his finger, it bends slightly, because of the coin inside the card.

You can see the embossed impression on the card.

Watch closely at the card, or slow the playback speed to 0:25, you would notice there is something solid inside the card underneath the circular pattern.

The thin black curved line is where the opening of the secret pocket, which hides the second coin.

I think this is where the hidden opening on the face of the King of Spades card.

He keeps holding onto that particular spot with his thumb and his index finger as he turns the gaff card around.

Then discreetly he removes the gimmick card and carry on with the act.

Gimmick Playing Card Box

How does the so-called second coin get inside the box?

Before he reveals the disappearance of the second coin, at 0:38, he shakes the box under the pretense of showing you there is nothing inside.

Watch that short snippet again, but this time watch his right hand fingers under the box at 0:40, just before he places it down on the table.

It looks as if he is fiddling with the bottom of the box, before laying it down on the table.

I think this is when he secretly releases the second hidden coin from the concealed chute or drawer inside the box.

Third Coin

To vanish the third coin, he uses the second gimmicked card which I think it comes with a concealed magnet.

After placing the third coin onto the palm of his hand, he places the gimmicked card on top of the coin.

At 1:02, he picks up the box, shaking it to indicate there is nothing inside.

Again he puts his fingers underneath the box.

I think this is when he releases the third coin, ready for its appearance, just like what he has done with the second coin.

At 1:05, he turns the card around, quickly pulls it out from his left clenched fist, with the face of the card (Four of Diamonds) facing away from the viewers.

Slow the playback speed to 0:25, and you can see the coin attached to the face of the Four of Diamonds card.

That little bit of what you see on the card from the visual above should be the coin.

It is because that is supposed to be a white blank area of the face of the Four of Diamonds card.

Remember he never shows you the face of the Four of Diamonds card, probably because of the attached coin on it.

At 1:08, he uses the card to misdirect your attention to his empty clenched fist, then he discreetly discards it together with the third coin.

Finally, he pours out the just-released third coin from the box.

I reckon this is Mickael Chatelain ONE trick secret of making the three coins to disappear and reappear inside the playing card box.

Magic Trick And Suggestion

The action of shaking the deck case to indicate it is an empty box, when actually there are still hidden coins in it, is what psychology called it a suggestion.

It is a process of leading a person to respond uncritically, as in belief or action.

This subtle move of implying the box is empty is mentioned in mentalist Kenton Knepper‘s booklet “Miracles Of Suggestion“.

Most of the time, if you turn a box upside down and something falls from inside the box, this suggests that there is nothing more inside the box. That makes sense, doesn’t it? It is logical. But that doesn’t mean it is true.

There is another act of psychological suggestion by Mickael Chatelain when he disregards the deck case or the playing card box during the act.

…set the box aside. In this way you suggest the box is empty without saying directly the box is empty.

Kenton Knepper is well-known for his work on suggestion, linguistic deception and symbolism, which he applies them to magic and mentalism.

Miracles Of Suggestion By Kenton Knepper
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

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