I have a great routine where a borrowed bill is "destroyed" by fire and reappears inside a balloon animal. The problem is I can't use flash bills in most locations, so my question is: what alternatives are out there that give the appearance of a borrowed bill being destroyed without using fire? I don't want a vanish of the bill but rather the destruction of the bill, which plays much better with the audience.

A very small table top shredder??

You could use one of those "money printer" magic trick gimmicks and load a balloon into it first. That way a bill goes in and a balloon goes out.


Juliegel

There's a japanese 'bill shredder'. It's a clear crystal shredder that you can see your bill being destroyed.