Tom Mullica’s Cigarette Eating Magic Trick

In one of his most viral performances on the internet, he began the feat by spreading a deck,
having a volunteer select a card, have it signed, and returned the card to Tom. After shuffling, he
asked her to name a number between 1 and 52, claiming her card would be at that exact position.

As he talked, he casually smoked a cigarette—then stuffed another one inside it, lit it up, and ate
it. He licked a third, tossed it into his mouth, and kept going until he had four cigarettes packed
inside. Then, as if it was nothing, he pulled them out, re-lit them, swallowed all four in one go,
and kept up the act pushing the limit to eight, then twelve cigarettes burning at once.

He followed this by swallowing tissues, stuffing all twelve lit cigarettes in his mouth, chewing
them up, and swallowing everything, leaving his mouth empty.

Then, he had the volunteer count up to her chosen number, but her card wasn’t there. Without
missing a beat, Tom gagged—and slowly, a folded card emerged straight from his mouth.

Which he unfolded to reveal that it was, without a doubt, her signed card.

After watching this we all have one question in mind. did he really eat a bunch of burning
cigarettes without scorching his throat and insides? Some might say he did, but most would call
it a trick. But even if we assume he actually swallowed them, could the human body even digest
cigarettes safely?

I mean we already know cigarettes are harmful even when they're not ingested. So it's pretty
obvious that trying to digest them wouldn't end well for him.

Common sense suggests he is performing a trick that simply hides the cigarettes in his mouth
temporarily and spits them out behind the table at this moment.

But here's the problem, the cigarettes are lit. Even if he were using fake cigarettes made of non-
toxic materials with only the paper burning, the ashes would still be hot enough to burn the
sensitive tissues inside his mouth. And we're not talking about just one cigarette here, we're
talking about 12 fully lit cigarettes in his mouth.
There's no way to hide that many inside while still talking naturally with the volunteer. The
biggest giveaway would be visible smoke pouring out, making it impossible to conceal.

The secret lies in his use of tissues during the act.

This isn't the first time a magician has used tissue paper for misdirection. Take Tony Clark’s ring
vanish, for example. In that performance, the ring is simply clipped between his right thumb and
index finger, while the tissue paper serves as a distraction. When his hand moves near the edge
of the table, he ditches the ring behind.

A very similar concept is used by tom, where tissues once again act as misdirection. the crucial
moment happens when he offers the volunteer a tissue, to try some as a joke.

Notice as his left hand extends, his right hand immediately grabs another piece and uses it as
cover to discreetly spit out the cigarettes from his mouth into his palm.

In this slowed-down shot, you can even see him briefly flash the tissue ball before casually
dropping it onto his lap. The same method is used in his TV special performance, where he
discreetly gets rid of the cigarette-filled tissue ball behind the table, right here.

In the beginning, when he's placing the cigarettes into his mouth one by one and closing it, he
makes sure that the burning end of each cigarette is always facing outward, away from his throat.

As he positions them on his tongue, you can also see him pushing his tongue all the way to the
back of his mouth. This keeps the cigarettes from directly touching the inside of his mouth while
securing them behind his teeth.

This trick is still risky if you don’t have enough practice and I highly discourage you from even
trying it, you’re almost guaranteed to burn the inside of your mouth. But for magicians like Tom
or even David Blaine, going to extreme lengths purely for entertainment is nothing new.

Now, while Tom’s method does come with risks, it’s also backed by a clever technique to
minimize them.

First, he wraps the front of the 12 cigarettes in his mouth with the first tissue, creating a barrier
between the burning ends and the inside of his mouth. Then, he uses a second tissue to wrap
around the backside of the tissue-covered cigarettes. You can even see him rotating the ball of
tissue inside his mouth.

At this point, the cigarettes are somewhat securely wrapped within the tissue, and he constantly
chews to compress the ball, making it smaller and easier to palm. He further wraps the ball with
a third tissue, this is because, while exhaling from his mouth, he reintroduces oxygen to the
smoldering embers, momentarily re-igniting the burning process.

As a result it slightly burns and thins the tissue, weakening its barrier. But he did it on purpose to
prove that the cigarettes are indeed still burning.

In a way, he really is eating the cigarettes, but not actually swallowing them. He’s only chewing
them down to crush them as much as possible by exerting a lot of force with his jaw.

Now, what about the card trick? How did he get it inside his mouth?

If you rewind to the start of the performance, right after taking her card, you can see him perform
an overhand shuffle to control her card.

Here’s how the control works. she initially places her card on the bottom half of the deck, upon
which Tom places the top packet, while making sure to keep a pinky break like this. You can
then see him, immediately lift the top packet from that break and perform an overhand shuffle,
where the cards are re-positioned to the bottom.

As a result, her card is currently at the top.

He then performs a second overhand shuffle. But this time, as he takes the top portion, he uses
the slip force technique, which looks something like this, to ensure that her card still stays on top
of the deck.

Then, we see a jump cut where the deck is suddenly on the table squared up in front of her.
During this jump cut, the card was secretly folded using the Mercury Card Fold technique, which
looks like this in an exposed view. This folded card is then, casually dropped on his lap.

now how exactly did he get the card from his lap to his mouth?
Watch this moment.

Yes, he used the moment when he dropped the marker as misdirection, to go behind the table and
secretly stuff the folded card into his mouth. This explains why we can briefly see a bulge inside
his mouth right after he returns from behind the table.