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What are the most technically ingenious and impressive illusions you’ve ever seen?

Jason_Roberts

New Blood
J
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Jul 25, 2007
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This question is largely directed towards other magicians, but non-magicians are strongly encouraged to relate their own experiences.

Eventhough “technically ingenious” is mentioned in the topic, I am assuming that the disclosure of trade secrets can be avoided if we abstain from going into specific details, or from imparting trick mechanics.

So, what are the most impressive tricks you’ve seen, and why?

Mine is “Shadows” by Teller.

The beauty lies in how simple it appears and the kind of importance that is suddenly instilled into the shadow itself. But the real reason why I love it so much is the average reaction of the audience it receives. It’s in their expectant laughter and their enciente supposition that something funny is about to happen. (Penn & Teller are funny guys, right? There’s a gag to this, yes?)

Then the blood comes and in the end they are unexpectedly left with a poem.

The real gag is on them I like to think.

But even the technical aspects are impressive. It has everything for me.



Anyway...

How about you folks?
 
Teller's miser's dream/goldfish trick. Just beautiful. I was lucky enough to have Teller recently explain to me his philosophy and the history behind that sequence. It's impressive because it's not just one coin here and there, and it's not one coin from thin air.

It's coin after coin out of splashes of water, and handfuls of them that you simply don't see coming, and then...goldfish in abundance!

The idea of turning water drops into coins is genius. And when the goldfish appear, the audience actually gasp.
 
tkingdoll said:
Teller's miser's dream/goldfish trick. Just beautiful. I was lucky enough to have Teller recently explain to me his philosophy and the history behind that sequence. It's impressive because it's not just one coin here and there, and it's not one coin from thin air.

It's coin after coin out of splashes of water, and handfuls of them that you simply don't see coming, and then...goldfish in abundance!

The idea of turning water drops into coins is genius. And when the goldfish appear, the audience actually gasp.
Click to expand...


I strongly agree.

It’s the only trick I’ve seen that has communicated the idea of what defines “true happiness” and exactly how superfluous the question is in regard to achieving it.
 
Jason_Roberts said:
I strongly agree.

It’s the only trick I’ve seen that has communicated the idea of what defines “true happiness” and exactly how superfluous the question is in regard to achieving it.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what any performance of a miser's dream should be, but so few are. The idea of abundance. And of course Teller performs it so humbly and silently joyfully.

During the same trip as my anecdote from my previous post, I had the mixed pleasure of seeing Hans Klok's show (the one with Pamela Anderson). If we're discussing technical brilliance, he was FAST. Amazing vanishes - sadly I saw the assistant run during one of them but despite the overall naffness of the show, I had to be impressed by how quickly that guy can swap places with an assistant.

He's highly rated as a card manipulator but that stuff doesn't ring my bell because the presentation is always the damn same. But then, I'm not a magician so there's no reason I'd be impressed by mutant backpalming :D
 
Having never seen a good Miser's Dream or any Penn & Teller (other than a few short bits on some specials), I have to go with something a bit more modest.

Card Warp.

I choose it because you asked for things that are "ingenious." Other effects are more complex and perhaps require equivalent or greater skill and insight, but Card Warp epitomizes for me the "Duh, that's so simple and creative" moment.

It is probably the single effect I have used the most. I've had one person figure it out, and he was not a magician nor a skeptic nor an engineer. He was a friend whom I considered to possess "blue collar" intelligence and nothing more, but his natural curiosity and hands-on-fix-it skills got the better of me. I showed him. He went "Hmmm...," took two more business cards, played with them for about 30 seconds, and said "That's pretty neat; here's how you did it."
 
I'm not a magician, just someone who loves watching illusions and also loves trying to figure out the secrets. Even if I do know the method, or at least have a very good idea as to how the trick is done, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment. In most cases it increases it.

I agree that Teller's "shadows" is beautiful, but my vote goes to the Penn and Teller bullet exchange. Great idea, great presentation and totally bewildering.

Does anyone have a link to a clip of Teller's miser's dream/goldfish trick?
 
tkingdoll said:
Teller's miser's dream/goldfish trick. Just beautiful. I was lucky enough to have Teller recently explain to me his philosophy and the history behind that sequence. It's impressive because it's not just one coin here and there, and it's not one coin from thin air.

It's coin after coin out of splashes of water, and handfuls of them that you simply don't see coming, and then...goldfish in abundance!

The idea of turning water drops into coins is genius. And when the goldfish appear, the audience actually gasp.
Click to expand...
I want to see that! I didn't find a version online. Teller discusses the evolution of that trick here.
 
Gravy said:
I want to see that! I didn't find a version online. Teller discusses the evolution of that trick here.
Click to expand...

Oh fab! Thanks for that link. He told me a much shorter version! :D

Screw seeing it online, get yourself to TAM6 and see it live at the Rio.
 
tkingdoll said:
Teller's miser's dream/goldfish trick. Just beautiful. I was lucky enough to have Teller recently explain to me his philosophy and the history behind that sequence. It's impressive because it's not just one coin here and there, and it's not one coin from thin air.

It's coin after coin out of splashes of water, and handfuls of them that you simply don't see coming, and then...goldfish in abundance!

The idea of turning water drops into coins is genius. And when the goldfish appear, the audience actually gasp.
Click to expand...
This was the exact trick I thought of when reading the first post. I love Teller's shadow trick and yes the bullet catching trick is awesome.

Let me add Penn and Teller's flag trick with China's constitution as having an awesome presentation.

Eugene Burger's version of Card Warp is beatiful and pnly when done by him. He is the only one that can pull off his version. Go figure.

ANything Max Maven does pretty much comes to mind. He is simply awesome. Everything he does is so well thought out.
 
I have found it almost impossible to separate an effect from a routine from a performance from a performer. Seriously, I don't really see how I can answer this ... my judgment always starts with whether (and to what degree) I am entertained, and that's not dependent on the effect alone (or even mainly).
 
This one impresses me, because it seems to be done without any technology.



There has to be some slick technology behind this, right? But because it is "on the street", it just seems more amazing. If anybody knows how it was done, can you PM me the answer?
 
Well robinson I can't see any video so can't comment.But your comment "On the street" makes me think it's either Blaine or Criss Angel.If it is,then it's camera tricks/editing.
Maybe post the url.
 
Ok found the link when I pressed Quote.Yep its Criss Angel and its camera editing.
No need for a PM.
 
robinson said:
There has to be some slick technology behind this, right? But because it is "on the street", it just seems more amazing. If anybody knows how it was done, can you PM me the answer?
Click to expand...

Stooges, camera editing, and bad showmanship.

If that's what you call slick technology, then you were correct.
 
I watched a video explaining the technology of how it was done. No editing involved, (it really is one long shot, no cuts). So I stand by my point, because it seems to be "on the street", it looks like magic. But it really involved technology set up in advance.

And stooges.
 
Dude, don't let him fool you with "one long shot." At 1:34 they zoom in to his shoes for a few seconds (while in fact they fast forward it).. that's when the switch happen.

Many of the things Criss does is lame camera tricks.. you must be new to his "work".
 
Switch? There is no switch. It is after he comes through that we see the glass solid. With no camera cut, or pan away from the window. It is a technology trick. At 3:04 he steps down, then with no cut we see a solid glass window revealed. That is the trick.

I know how it is done, and it used technology set up in advance.

Obviously some people don't like his shtick, (I'm not a huge fan, I just want to know how he does it), but doing it "on the street" makes it seem cooler than on a stage.

YMMV
 
I have to disagree. There's no shortage of editing to create the magic in Angel's shows, but there's no need in that particular trick. Since the trick could be done with no editing I wouldn't consider the zoom to the shoes as proof since it wasn't really necessary (although it's entirely possible that the 'shoe zoom' was used to make a switch because Angel and his crew were too lazy to do the work without the editing room).

For a good example of editing try here (personally I don't consider this exposure since it's no more "magic" than any movie special effect. Others might disagree):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mQeTmqQHLJI&mode=related&search=
 
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