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How is this magic done???

We can't really expose secrets here, but there are no mirrors involved.

By the way, this effect is not for sell. So baisically everytime you see a magician does it (like the magician from the Next Big Thing), Copperfield can go and sue them. But he doesn't. That's why the creator of this, Steve Fearson, has literally lost his mind and calls himself a unicorn.
 
Okay, that became very impressive when he came down the stairs off the platform.

I can make some very incomplete and amateurish speculations, but that's it.

DJM: What's the Fearson tie-in?
 
Fearson invented it and "Lent" it to Copperfield for some money when he was broke.Fearson subsequently went a bit barking and ended up in an asylum.
Telling the warders he was friends with David Copperfield and could fly sadly only made things worse! :D
 
Azrael 5 said:
Fearson invented it and "Lent" it to Copperfield for some money when he was broke.Fearson subsequently went a bit barking and ended up in an asylum.
Telling the warders he was friends with David Copperfield and could fly sadly only made things worse! :D
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Thanks. I didn't know any of that.

My first ITR video was Fearson's, and I learned a lot from it. Sad to hear this about him.

Did Copperfield rip him off, or is his continued use of it legal?
 
Steve made a deal with Copperfield, which he regreted later on. Basically it prevented him from selling it to the public, which could have been a great thing for him. Part of the deal was that even Steve himself can't perform it anymore. But he's a grown man, no one put a gun to his head.

Actually I think he's the one who's ripping people off with all the nonsense he has published recently, such as the Goodbye Vanish and Station Manager. :sour:
 
Cool, thanks for the link. I'd not seen this before.

My vaguely educated guess is it's a very clever up-date of a very well established effect. Nuff said! :D
 
Thanks, DJM.

JonWhite said:
Cool, thanks for the link. I'd not seen this before.

My vaguely educated guess is it's a very clever up-date of a very well established effect. Nuff said! :D
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Well, now. Why didn't I think of that? It's all so clear to me now.

{Actually, I was trying to work out how to do it with an established effect/method. Then he came down the stairs. It's probably still the same thing, but I'd need someone with better engineering skills to design it for me.}
 
Actually it's not that hard to design, once you know the extact details. Though it could take awhile to do it.
 
DJM said:
Steve made a deal with Copperfield, which he regreted later on. Basically it prevented him from selling it to the public, which could have been a great thing for him. Part of the deal was that even Steve himself can't perform it anymore. But he's a grown man, no one put a gun to his head.

Actually I think he's the one who's ripping people off with all the nonsense he has published recently, such as the Goodbye Vanish and Station Manager. :sour:
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I always thought Andrew Mayne invented this, at least I seem to recall seeing an ad or something of his that looked very similar. Something like he chopped himself in two and put his top half on a table.

Anyway, hope Steve is feeling better.

A
 
aofl said:
I always thought Andrew Mayne invented this, at least I seem to recall seeing an ad or something of his that looked very similar. Something like he chopped himself in two and put his top half on a table.
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Here's a YouTube video that shows something similar.

If memory serves, I've seen several old variations on this effect, including some performed in the '60s. In those days, however, one had to be careful about portraying anything too gruesome. Cutting a lady in half or stabbing her with swords had to be done with a box or cabinet hiding the supposed blood and guts. Today's illusions, by contrast, try to show dismemberment, impalement and bodily harm more out in the open.
 
Brown said:
If memory serves, I've seen several old variations on this effect, including some performed in the '60s. In those days, however, one had to be careful about portraying anything too gruesome. Cutting a lady in half or stabbing her with swords had to be done with a box or cabinet hiding the supposed blood and guts. Today's illusions, by contrast, try to show dismemberment, impalement and bodily harm more out in the open.
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I think the need for boxes and cabinets was dictated more by the methods available than anything else. Richiardi was pretty gruesome with his buzz-saw cutting in 1/2- I know he was doing that in the early 70's, but don't know about the 60's.
 
I am still impressed that a magician has beatiful women dancing in his show. Once that happens, I am not interested in the magic.
 
DJM said:
We can't really expose secrets here, but there are no mirrors involved.
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O.k. fair enough but I'd like to ask you this: Can this trick be performed in front of a live audience or is it pure computer editing?

Regards,
Yair
 
yairhol said:
O.k. fair enough but I'd like to ask you this: Can this trick be performed in front of a live audience or is it pure computer editing?

Regards,
Yair
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Copperfield's audience was live in the link you posted. The audience was also live in Brown's link, though I admit there was one suspiciously timed camera cut.
 
Garrette said:
Copperfield's audience was live in the link you posted. The audience was also live in Brown's link, though I admit there was one suspiciously timed camera cut.
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There may have been a suspicious looking camera cut, but Kevin does that in his live shows. The cut was not required and I'm sure it was an editing decision by the director or editor and not dictated by the trick.
 
Copperfield's audience was live in the link you posted. The audience was also live in Brown's link, though I admit there was one suspiciously timed camera cut.
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Simply unbelievable...There is no where for cooperfield's body to be hidden. I thought about a midget in the pants (*not what you think*) but then where would copperfield's lower body be?
I'm going crazy over this.

Regards,
Yair
 
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