Every schoolchild can tell you how to perform the classic trick of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, which has become a tired cliché, but even fellow professionals sometimes struggle to decipher the signature tricks of modern illusionists. Here are three classic tricks from the arsenal of magicians.
Catching a Bullet
One of the oldest tricks is the “bullet catch” – using a plate, hand, or mouth, the latter undoubtedly being the most spectacular way to perform the trick. The earliest mentions of the trick date back to the 17th century, but it was not until the 19th century that the trick became extremely popular among illusionists, thanks to the Scottish magician John Henry Anderson, who toured all of Britain with this act. The techniques magicians use to perform this trick vary depending on the situation, the performer’s experience, and the audience. Some use blank bullets or pyrotechnic cartridges that explode inside the weapon and do not project outwards – the magician simply needs to have previously hidden another bullet in their mouth. In the early days of the trick, illusionists used special mechanisms that mimicked the sound of a gunshot, smoke, and sparks when, in reality, no one even pressed the trigger.
In the 20th century, for greater authenticity, magicians began to involve spectators. American illusionists Penn and Teller reached perfection in performing the bullet catch trick by not only asking someone from the audience to choose bullets, sign them with their initials, and load the gun but also by shooting at each other simultaneously. Following this, the magicians would show the “caught” bullets clamped between their teeth and ask those same spectators to verify the presence of their earlier signatures.
The “Catching a Bullet” trick inherently implies deception, as it is physically impossible to stop a bullet fired from a pistol with your teeth and survive. Illusionists use planted audience members or, by distracting the audience, use inconspicuous manipulations to extract bullets from the loaded pistol before firing. However, even with a precisely calibrated script and the coordinated work of an assistant and magician, this trick remains one of the most dangerous: more than 10 professional illusionists have died while performing this very act. For example, the famous magician from the late 19th century, Adam Epstein, used a special ramrod with a magnet attached to the end when catching a bullet. Thus, during the cleaning of the barrel before firing, Epstein extracted the bullet. However, this trick played a cruel joke on the magician: during one of the performances, a fragment of the ramrod got stuck inside the pistol, and when fired, it fatally wounded Epstein.
Sawing a Woman in Half
Nowadays, the classic trick of sawing a person in half no longer surprises anyone. Almost everyone knows its secret: the magician has two assistants, one playing the role of the “head” and the other the “legs.”
According to one version, the inventor of this act is said to be a certain Torrini, who demonstrated it in 1809 before Pope Pius VII. According to another, the authorship is attributed to the English illusionist and inventor Percival Tibbles, who performed under the pseudonym P.T. Percy Selbit and demonstrated this trick in 1920. The trick’s author is also claimed to be the “father of modern magic,” the Frenchman Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, who was the first to describe the “sawing method” in one of his books.
In the early 20th century, this act was incredibly popular; magicians stole the secret from each other, changed the shape of the box, and complicated the execution of the trick using mirrors, all to amaze the audience more. Magicians continue to perform this trick even now.
One of the most shocking variations of the trick was presented several years ago by the American illusionist Criss Angel. In a video recording, which can still be found online, he tears a woman apart with his bare hands without using a saw, boxes, mirrors, or other devices. The effect is intensified by the reaction of the audience: Angel was assisted by two girls who clearly did not expect the trick to work. Later, the secret was revealed. In fact, the “torn” woman was played by two people: the lower part was “played” by an acrobat, and the upper part by a disabled woman with a very rare disease called sacral agenesis (in this disease, a person’s lower body does not develop).
Disappearance
A special place in the arsenal of any self-respecting magician is occupied by disappearance tricks. Items, assistants, and the magician himself miraculously vanish from the stage. In 1983, the American illusionist David Copperfield performed a trick that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records — the magician made the Statue of Liberty disappear. There are several versions of how the trick was performed, including the use of a rotating platform, video editing, and lighting tricks. There is also a belief that everything that happened was a grand hoax with planted spectators and a model of the Statue of Liberty. However, Copperfield has never revealed the secret of any of his tricks to this day.
Harry Houdini’s trick of making an elephant disappear was performed only once on January 7, 1918, at the New York Hippodrome. Houdini led the elephant into a large box, and then the elephant disappeared.
A true virtuoso of stage disappearances was the magician The Great Lafayette (real name Sigmund Neuberger), who toured the world at the end of the 19th century. To perform his acts, the magician relied on the help of numerous assistant doubles, who were made up to look like Lafayette, allowing him to be simultaneously in several places in the hall and mysteriously disappear and reappear again. However, paradoxically, his main trick became his death. In 1911, during one of the performances, a fire broke out; the flames from the burning curtain quickly spread to the auditorium, resulting in the deaths of 11 people, including Lafayette himself, who tried to save the trained animals from the fire. The illusionist’s body was found under the debris and buried with honors amid a large crowd. However, a few days later, during the demolition of the burned-down theater, another body was found. Based on the rings with precious stones that the magician always wore on his fingers, it was established that this was the real Lafayette, and the person buried in his place was just one of the assistant doubles.
