Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut . . .

Effect:

Due to his violent reaction to peanuts and some distant memory about his toothless grandmother’s peanut dish filled with formerly chocolate covered peanuts, the magician magically extracts the peanut from a peanut M&M leaving only a “regular” M&M.

Method:

My gut tells me that you already have worked out your own method. This is nothing overly amazing that you’re gonna close your show with. However, in a casual setting it’s perfect. Simply have in your right finger palm a peanut that has been shelled and a regular M&M (let’s assume that it’s an Orange M&M). Also make sure that you have a pile of peanut M&Ms on the table (or in a candy dish) just slightly in front of you and slightly to the right.

With your right hand loosely resting on the table, use your left hand to pick up an orange peanut M&M. Openly place it in your now loose fisted right hand. Place it directly into right hand thumb crotch (i.e. in thumb palm) as you close your hand into a “tight” fist – don’t crush the stuff in your hand.

Put on your best “I’m extracting a peanut from an M&M with magic” face. Incidentally, it’s not unlike the “I just ate a whole block of cheddar cheese and I’m having unproductive porcelain time” face. Then ask one of your nearby friends who happen to notice you place the peanut M&M in your hand to hold her hands cupped together.

Simply open your right hand above her cupped hands, and release the regular M&M and the peanut into her hand. Under cover of her reaction, either push the candy dish or pile o’ M&Ms aside (ditching the thumb palmed peanut M&M in the dish or in the pile) or grab the M&M from the spectator and eat it as you secretly eat the peanut M&M as well.

Final Thoughts:

As I mentioned, this isn’t a show stopper, but it’s certainly a fun moment to have with your friends. The way I’ve done it is to simply eat a few from the candy dish that “happens” to be sitting on the table where I’m chatting with a friend or co-worker (I have a co-worker who keeps a dish of peanut M&Ms on his conference table. I also keep some on my desk occasionally, and occasionally there’s a dish kickin’ around at home).

Then at an opportune moment, I’ll get the peanut and the regular M&M out of my pocket and into finger palm. As I pick up the orange (or whatever color matches my secretly finger palmed regular M&M), I’ll make a comment about one of my kids having a peanut allergy, so I always have to squeeze the peanuts out of the peanut M&Ms for him. Then I do it.

I should also mention that this is best performed if there are no regular M&Ms in sight. That way, they don’t think that you just grabbed a regular M&M from the ones on the table. Try it out. It’s a simple fun quicky for when the perfect opportunity presents itself.