A.P.E.- A Perception Experiment by Craig Petty

“What I love about this trick is that the audience are led down an innocent garden path and then sucker punched off the edge of a cliff! It’s engaging, different and funny with an out of left field kicker that people love.”

Lloyd Barnes

“I was lucky enough to pick one up at Magic Live and I absolutely love performing it! Apart from the fact I feel Craig should have shaved for the trailer I give it 100%!”

Peter Nardi

“A.P.E. is a real trip! Craig has recreated the famous viral video of the invisible gorilla experiment as a packet trick. It’s funny, fooling and hugely entertaining. Your audience will go bananas! (Sorry, not sorry.)”

Mark Elsdon

APE HITS HARDER THAN A 500LB SILVERBACK

You ask if your audience has seen the famous perception experiment on YouTube, where a bunch of basketball players pass a ball around and you have to count the number of passes, the one where you totally miss a giant gorilla walking out, beating his chest and leaving.

You say, “I’m sure if you were there live and close up, you’d see it?” Well, now you recreate the experiment.

You remove three cards from a vegan leather holder. Each card shows a different number of basketballs. You fairly display each one, front and back, and ask them to guess the total number of basketballs.

Then you ask, “But did you miss the gorilla?”

They look confused.

You turn the cards over and reveal a huge gorilla spread across all three cards.

How did they miss that?

Cue absolute chaos. Laughter, disbelief, and people trying to figure out what just happened. The reaction doesn’t stop.

As soon as the gorilla appears, you can show the cards front and back again. You can even hand some out, but nobody wants to. Their brains are too busy trying to process what just happened.

The cards were designed by Phill Smith, known for his incredible work in card marking and design, with a clever built-in method.

This packet trick is perfect as an opener or a closer. It has a strong hook, it’s fun, interactive, resets in seconds, takes up almost no pocket space, and is incredibly easy to perform.

You missed the gorilla. Don’t miss A.P.E.