The hat-trick is a classic magic trick where a performer will produce an object (traditionally a rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

 or a bouquet of flowers) out of an apparently empty top hat

Top hat

A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...

.

Method

In its simplest form, the trick works by placing the hat on a specially made table or chest. Both the hat and the surface it is placed on will have a hidden opening in them, through which an object stored in a compartment in the table or chest can be pulled. Alternatively, the performer can produce an item hidden in their sleeve using sleight of hand

Sleight of hand

Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....

 and misdirection

Misdirection

Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another....

. This eliminates the need to place the hat on a surface, and also allows the performer to give the hat to an audience member for inspection.

This trick is also traditionally performed for children, since it is a basic trick with basic props.

It is said that the earliest magician to pull a rabbit out of a hat was Louis Comte

Louis Comte

Louis Apollinaire Christien Emmanuel Comte "The King's Conjurer" , also known simply as Comte, was a celebrated nineteenth-century Parisian magician, greatly admired by Robert-Houdin....

, in 1814, though this is also attributed to the much later John Henry Anderson

John Henry Anderson

John Henry Anderson was a professional magician, born in The Mearns, Scotland. Anderson is credited with helping bring the art of magic from street performances into theatres and presenting magic performances to entertain and delight the audience....

.

Pop culture

This magic trick is so well-known that it has been referenced in a wide variety of media. The top hat used for the trick has become almost synonymous with stage magicians, and is commonly used as an icon to represent magic (such as the example on the right). Likewise, rabbits are so commonly associated with the trick that rabbits are often used to represent magic in general.