Effect:

You can now gain from a children’s illusion which has been presented more than a thousand times and steadily improved in the process.

Not only will children be delighted but also the grown-ups. With this effect you can playfully focus on healthy food as well as the very important subject of road safety. In this way you can take credit for providing entertainment suitable for children, which will electrify your audience, but you can also be sure to be teaching them something useful.

Ferdinand, the Zebra, is shown on a 37 x 29 cm picture. He lives at the zoo with his friend Balduin, who is a zoo keeper. Like all the other zebras, Ferdinand has black and white stripes.
The two of them go for a walk every morning when there are no visitors at the zoo. In the evenings, Ferdinand sometimes entertains his friend with a very puzzling trick.

It’s like this: As soon as the zebra comes out of his enclosure (a fence, now seen empty), he changes – would you believe it – into a red and white striped zebra.
That can’t be true, has Ferdinand eaten too many carrots? How can that be? A little bit of the picture can be seen the whole time just above the fence. When Balduin quickly looks again, Ferdinand is back to black and white stripes which is as it should be.

Ferdinand changes once again, and now the kids know how it is done: The magician is simply turning the picture round together with the fence – that means the picture shows a black and white zebra on the front and a black and red zebra on the back.

“We are not stupid”, the kids have seen through the trick and demand that the picture be turned round. Now starts the age-old game. The magician is supposed to turn the zebra round. He puts him on his back, with legs in the air. “Not like that, stupid!” “Well, o.k, the other way then. But that means Ferdinand is standing on his head!” “Not like that either”. Suddenly Ferdinand is sitting on his tail. No, that’s not right either, say the kids. “Mr. Wizard, will you please turn the picture round so we can see the back!”

“I can’t do that because I think you think there is a red zebra on the back!” “And you know what, I think you are right.” The picture is turned round and the children see – a green zebra.
“Is that from the spinach?”

Shrieks of laughter.

– A variation on an old theme.

– Now the kids are laughing about the magician, not the other way round.

– The technique of this trick is clever but easy to handle. All the time the picture frame protrudes a little from the folder which is meant to be the zebra’s enclosure.

– Only one picture is used, the folder can be shown empty at the beginning.

– Flat-pack magic of the finest, will even fit into a full suitcase.

Perfect craftsmanship, lasts forever.