Looking for Magic Prank Ideas

Hey everyone!

This might be a bit of a long post, but I need to give some background. I'm a young guy who, besides being passionate about magic, works at summer camps. At the camps, there's always a surprise "horror night" where we play scary-themed games to give everyone a fright (in moderation, of course) and have a unique and fun time.

Usually, only the counselors know which night it is, to keep it a surprise for the campers. And that same day, we start playing little pranks to set the mood and get them "spooked." For instance, if the theme is zombies, some counselors might pretend to feel sick and cough up fake blood... Things like that, so the campers get scared but then understand by nightfall that it was all part of a game.

This year, those of us organizing the night want to pull these pranks on our fellow counselors too, and I thought I might be able to use my magic skills for it. The theme is "ghosts," so any kind of effect that seems paranormal would work for me.

This is pretty far out of my comfort zone since my magic repertoire is mostly close-up magic, focusing on cards and Rubik's Cubes. I have some flash paper and invisible thread that someone gave me once, but I've never actually used them. Maybe they could give me an idea for making something float in the dining hall... or using fire to startle someone without anything actually getting burned...

So, in a nutshell, I'm posting because I'm running low on ideas and wanted to tap into the collective brainpower of fellow magicians for this situation. It's not about putting on a magic show, but rather applying the methods we know to spontaneous situations where people aren't expecting anything magical to happen.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate all the help! 😊