(no subject)

One of our local magicians did this on a lunchtime TV show, and I laughed and laughed at the puzzlement. Let me describe it, and you can see if you can catch the trick.

The magician came out and stood with the announcer on his right and two audience members on his left. He showed them a black velvet bag, and let them examine it to make sure that it was empty. He then showed them four small white balls and one small black ball. He had the announcer hold the bag while he reached in and dropped the balls inside. The announcer continued to hold the bag as he had the audience member on his far left reach in with one hand and take a ball out, hiding it from everyone including themselves in their fist. And he had them reach in with their other hand and take one more ball out. He repeated this with the other audience member, so that four balls had been taken out.

Now he held the lip of the bag as the announcer reached in and took the last ball, carefully concealing it.

Next he took the bag from the announcer and showed the bag to them, showing that it was empty.

He asked if they knew where the black ball was. When they said that any of them might have it, he shook his head. No, no, he knew exactly where it was. In fact, (here he reached out and tapped one hand of one audience member from this left) you have a white one. And she opened her hand, and lo and behold, it was white. He tapped her other hand, and announced that it was white! And it was. Repeat with the other audience member.

And here - now he taps the announcer's hand - is the black one. And sure enough, when the announcer opened his hand, there was the black one.

And everyone was surprised!

So should I tell you how he did it?