I don't know the exact specifics, but it's really just incredibly thin non-reflective string. You can tell by the way the stick rocks when he sets it up that it's actually dangling and not standing up from the floor, notice he doesn't actually wave his hand above the first stick like he does the second (which is probably suspended from the first).
Basically hes waving his hands around the objects in ways that look like he's proving there isn't a string but is distracting you from the string actually being attached somewhere else. The ball is attached to his hand somehow so him waving his hands all around would never actually break the line. (edit: it's attached to his eyebrow, he's sticking it there while pretending that's to do his eye thing, he never really completely circles the ball with his hand. That's why he leans outward for that part of the trick) And the reflectivity of the ball makes it hard to tell if it's actually spinning or if it's stable (just like his contact juggling ball)
There is a lot of skill involved in this trick still to avoid breaking the illusion and to manipulate the length of the strings without the viewer noticing. I imagine the camera guy is somewhat in on the trick and that usually the viewers would be standing a bit further back.
Just pay attention to the motions of the ball when it starts to fly away from him and imagine it being at the end of a long pendulum and it sort of makes sense, I actually wonder if that was an accident and he managed to make it look like he meant to do it.(e: not an accident, it's where he is pulling the ball away from his face to unstick it)
Also notice that when he puts the last stick down on the ground that one of the sticks in his pile also moves (he tried to hide this by putting something in the pile at the same time)
I'm not a magician though maybe someone who knows more can be more specific and accurate.
The big ball I think he's legitimately just balancing on his head, and then the other move he does with it is like a classic contact juggling trick you would see in the fushigi commercials.
The smaller ball Im pretty sure he attaches the string to his eyebrow when he's doing the freaky eye thing. Notice he doesn't actually put his finger COMPLETELY over the ball when he's looping over top. It just looks a lot like he does from our viewing angle. So draw a straight line from the corner of his brow down to the ball and it makes more sense
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u/Sans-clone 9d ago
Well I don't know so spill the beans.