For my first trick, I must ask for nothing less than complete silence.

I hold in my hand two perfectly ordinary every day jumbo-size magic wands.

From these wands hang different lengths of yarn, knotted at the ends into small, fuzzy tassels.
There's no need for skeptical audience members to "examine" the wands. Hold them up high so everyone can see.
The wands are displayed side by side.

Now, observe:

When the short tassel is pulled down, the long tassel appears to grow shorter.
This effect can be repeated by selecting the opposite tassel.

I extend the newly-shortened tassel, and the formerly-short tassel (the presently-long tassel) is visibly reduced in size!

The crowd surges forward, spellbound!
Young and old alike stare goggle-eyed in disbelief at the extraordinary illusion unfolding just above their heads.
I can sense the collective mind of my audience working twice as hard - overtime - to solve this puzzle. To “make sense” of the impossible!

But being a magician means being a leader, and quite often I feel obligated to suspend the fascination for as long as possible.
No, ladies and gentlemen - this is not a hallucination!

One goes up while the other goes down!

One goes down while the other goes up!

But HOW???
How can this be???

How can two independent objects appear to interact - nay, communicate with one another in such a seamless, synchronized ballet?