The magician tells his audience that he would like to take them “BEHIND THE STAGE” and perform an effect exactly as it would appear to them watching from behind the scenes. For the sake of the demonstration he states that he will pretend the audience is towards the back of the room. He now turns his back towards the real audience. The magician explains that for the demonstration he will vanish a jumbo size card with a picture of an elephant. The magician picks up from the table a small draped tray and holds it with the undraped side towards the audience, so that they can see beneath the tray or “Behind the Stage.” Now he picks up two panels of wood and displays the panels front and back. He places them into the two grooves on the tray. The two panels of wood are displayed to his imaginary audience.

The jumbo size card with the elephant is now picked up and is slid down between the two panels of wood. The real audience now sees where the card actually goes, as it is seen hanging beneath the tray in the two looped ribbons. The two panels of wood are removed from the tray and the magician takes his bow having vanished the card to his imaginary audience.

The magician now repeats the whole trick as before, but this time the whole effect is done facing the audience. As he picks up the elephant card and places it in between the panels of wood, he tells the spectators that this is the view the audience normally sees. You now remove the panels of wood as above and tell the audience that the whole secret is not to allow anyone to see the card hanging below the tray. (At this point you turn the tray around to show that the card is there, and then turn it back.) Then the drape surrounding the tray is ripped off leaving just the bare wooden tray and the empty ribbons, which can be shown both sides to the audience. The card has completely vanished!