Ring in Ice Cube

Effect: A ring is borrowed from a spectator, vanished, and reappears inside a solid ice cube, that has been inside the spectator’s drink since before the trick began.

Preparation: Obtain a simple, medium sized, gold wedding band (the kind that everyone seems to be wearing) and place it into an ice tray, fill it with water, and put it in the freezer. Once it is frozen solid, you need a way to get it into the spectator’s drink. For this reason, this effect is much easier to perform at a home gathering, where you could have the opportunity to
pour the drinks yourself. If you can’t do this, another option is to have an assistant (possibly a cook in the kitchen, or one of the spectator’s friends) help you. And yet another option would be to palm the ice cube, and casually drop it into the drink on an off moment, or as you move the drink out of the way so you’ll “have room to perform”.

Presentation: Start by borrowing a ring from the spectator. Because you need to find one that looks similar to the duplicate ring, quickly scan the spectators hands for a ring that matches somewhat. Don’t just ask for a ring, because they might give you the wrong one. Specifically tell them which ring you want to borrow, but don’t make a big deal about it, because you don’t want to draw suspicion. Now, it’s time to vanish the ring. If you already have a favorite method of vanishing objects, use that one. If not, simply do a false transfer by casually acting as if you’re dropping the ring into the left hand, when you really keep it concealed in the right. As their attention is on the left hand, secretly drop the ring off into the right back pocket of your pants with your right hand. This allows you to show both hands empty after the vanish. After you have vanished the ring, instruct the spectator to look in their drink. Have them remove the ice cube, and examine it to show that there are no holes, and it’s completely solid. Because the ice will blur the image of the ring, you don’t have to worry about them seeing that it isn’t their ring. Take the cube in your left hand, and begin cracking it against the table. While all their attention is on this, secretly reach into your pocket with your right hand, and palm their real ring. As soon as the ice is crushed enough to get the ring out, reach over with your right hand, and take the ring. Now, you’re going to switch the duplicate ring for their ring as you give it back to them. The easiest way to do this is to just pull both rings into your palm, and casually drop their ring into their hand, and retain the duplicate.

Ideas and Tips: Don’t limit yourself to using a ring for this trick. It can be done with nearly any object small enough to fit inside an ice cube, such as candy, or even the corner torn from a playing card. In fact, using something other than a borrowed ring could eliminate the switch at the end, making the effect much cleaner.