Bad Astronomy

Wine Cork Magic Trick

the wine cork magic trick
He’s a magic man.

Photo by Phil Plait, from the video

I recently got a new camera, a Canon Rebel T4i [affiliate link] for the photo nerds out there. I’ve been testing it out, playing with the lighting and video modes, seeing what works best. I needed to make a short video to get a solid test of how it performs, so I figured, why not have some fun? So here’s the Wine Cork Magic Trick, performed by yours truly [a higher-res version is on YouTube as well]:

Let me note: I filmed this video first, then looked for the music after I had already edited it. I like Kevin MacLeod’s Royalty Free Music, and his song “Bad Ideas” seemed to fit what I needed. When I added the audio track into the video, I couldn’t believe how well it matched the action. Seriously, the way the final couple of seconds played out wasn’t planned at all. So maybe this video really is magic after all.

And knowing how much I had to practice this, I bet you’ll think it’s magic if you try it for yourself. It helps to wait a while before, um, making the wine corks available, too.

Tip o’ the black top hat to Richard Saunders and Alynda Brown for showing me this trick many years ago.