Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
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Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Morritt's wife recalled to a friend how Charlie always returned to mirror illusions, infatuated with their principles and eager to work out the next idea. She described how he used to retire for the evening with small pieces of looking glass under his pillow.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
the audience didn't perceive the plane of the glass and, because the ghost was a reflection, the image always appeared behind the glass, moving in the same space with the actors and the scenery.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
His novel presentation focused on the thousand people in the audience who did not step up onstage, calculating that by quietly exposing the trick to a few, he was creating a miracle for everyone else.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
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Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Boucicault's ghost was state-of-the-art stagecraft.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Robert-Houdin's original version depended upon a spoken code. His casual instructions to the audi- ence-"Here's an interesting object. Yes, please hand it over. I'll ask you to concentrate on this. Pray tell us what we have"-contained the proper sequence of code words that indicated objects, materials, and characteristics.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
When he mumbled the mystic hypnotic incantation that held the princess aloft, the children in his audience watched, dumbfounded, convinced of real magic. (His spell was actually a genuine string of Hindi profanities.)
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
The Davenport brothers were quiet by nature, but early in their career they must have realized that the secret of their success was to say absolutely nothing.
Teller Jim Steinmeyer • Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
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