How to teach your cat tricks?

I have tried many times to teach my cat to do tricks. I was wondering if anyone had advice for me on how to do this. I can't seem to get him to do any of the tricks that i try to teach him. I have been to many cat trick websites and they have helped out some, but not much.

My cats seem to know "stay" "sleep" and "eat" pretty well!

Though one of my cats does enjoy playing catch with me on the stairs. I will throw a ball up to him, he'll catch it then toss it back down. Are we really playing? Doubt it, but it sure is cute!

I did read an animal trainer once say that to train cats they have to have that natural disposition. So when they look for cats to train, there has to be a willingness that is inherent and not learned. I think the trainer said he looks for cats that are curios, alert, and will come to you when you call for them.

my boyfriend taught one of our cats to play fetch.. crazy, but true.. he crumbled up a peice of paper and got his attention, when the cat noticed it he became curious and walked over to him.. my boyfriend threw the paper ball and our cat chased it picked it up in his mouth and walked back to him and dropped it right by his feet.. we laughed and figured that it was just coincidence so we tried it again and our cat did the same thing.. very strange but he still loves playing fetch.. every time right before he would through it my boy friend would wave the paper ball around and have the paper make that crunching sound to get the cats interest going.. try it and see if it works for you..