Alex Carson
So you’ve probably heard of the Magician Code, right? How about Most Famous Magic Tricks
It’s the idea that magicians shouldn’t ever reveal how their tricks work.
Giving away these tightly held and zealously protected secrets puts a rogue magician at risk. A risk of being blackballed by the rest of their illusionist community.
Sure, older tricks or obvious ones are generally speaking okay to demystify. It’s a bit but not the big ones or those of well-respected magicians who are still performing them.!
Fortunately, we here at Facts Verse aren’t magicians and don’t abide by any code. Today, we’re going to pull the curtain back on some of magic’s most head-scratching tricks.
FACTS VERSE PRESENTS: World’s Most Famous Magic Tricks Revealed
So, grab your capes and dust off your trusty magic wands. We are going to swim deep into the forbidden waters of magic’s biggest secrets. But before we do, make sure you like this video and subscribe to our channel. Tap the bell icon, and just like that, you’ll magically be notified whenever we drop new facts-filled videos for your viewing pleasure.
Disappearing Statue of Liberty
David Copperfield shocked the world when he seemingly made the Statue of Liberty completely disappear! No, he isn’t some kind of wizard, in fact, the trick can be explained fairly easily.
From the point of view of the audience was a large curtain of fabric between two pieces of tall scaffolding. It is raised and lowered at Copperfield’s command.
The next piece of the puzzle came down to lighting. The statue is typically illuminated with an elaborate lighting system. David did his trick however all the lighting was turned off except for the spotlights. At the base, the curtain obscured the landmark from the live audience.
This very simple preparation gave the audience the illusion of empty space. The bright spotlights became the focal point of the audience’s point of view. The spotlights were timed to not only appear to pass through the statue. It is also to distract the audience from the truth.
So when the monument was revealed, all that you could see was the bright light of the spotlights moving about.
Disappearing Truck
There are some tricks that you will only ever see on TV and this is one of those.
The trick is typically performed with a large semi-truck being covered with a large piece of fabric, then the magician will dazzle the audience with a little showmanship before pulling up the drape only to find that the truck has suddenly vanished right before their eyes!
This trick can be accomplished by creating a special custom-built framed drape that uses wires to keep the shape of the truck, even if the truck drives off – which for this truck that’s exactly what happens.
You might be wondering how the audience doesn’t hear the loud diesel engine or notice a truck leaving the scene.
That’s because the audience is in on the trick as well. They are all plants. The entire illusion is designed to look good on TV, not necessarily to be a part of a real live show.
Floating Man
At first glance, this trick looks pretty impressive.
It certainly appears as if this yogi is actually levitating above the ground, but you probably start to notice a few things that look a bit off about this image.
Why does a guru that has the ability to levitate need a staff like that?
Underneath his baggy attire, and secured to the staff in his right hand is a steel platform.
Underneath the flower bed below him is a large weighted base to keep him from toppling over.
Cutting A Woman In Half
First of all, always be skeptical of random audience volunteers. If it’s a magic show, then more than likely the so-called volunteers are all plants.
In this trick, a volunteer – typically a beautiful woman – is put into a horizontal box and then sawed in two. The two sides of the box are then wheeled around for the audience to see.
Typically the head and feet of the ‘volunteer’ are shown to be perfectly fine. You might see the head smile or the feet wiggle.
But to pull this trick off successfully you not only need a single volunteer, but you need two, and both people need to be super flexible.
When the volunteer hops into the box, the lid is actually obstructing the audience’s view as to what is actually happening. One person is in the right segment of the box already curled up into the fetal position. When the volunteer slips into the left side of the box, the person on the right simply pops their feet out the feet holes, giving the illusion that one person slid into the box. Meanwhile, the volunteer on the left curls up as well tightly into their side of the box and slips their head out the top.
So when the magician saws into the box, they aren’t separating one person. Rather, they are splitting two separate people to be wheeled around. Once the two boxes, are reunited, and the lid comes open, the right assistant retracts their feet as the one on the left slips out of the box unscathed.
Hand Through Glass
There are many variants of this trick. Sometimes it’s a magician reaching through glass to get a piece of jewelry or other valuable treasure or maybe he reaches into an aquarium to fetch a playing card. Either way, this trick is always performed the same way.
The magician will obscure the part of the glass that he will be ‘reaching through’ with a piece of paper, board, or even their own hand itself.
While the audience is incapable of seeing what is going on due to the obstruction, the glass is then slid.
You see, the glass was already cut with a hole in it but the hole is out of sight until the magician needs it. The glass is either moved by an assistant or is powered by a foot-controlled mechanism to move the trick glass into place on cue.
In the case of the fish tank, the same trick is employed with the only difference being that there are 2 panes of glass that move. Only when two holes cut into each pane overlap, can the magician quickly reach into the tank and retrieve the card.
Dollar Bill Magic
Wouldn’t you love to actually be able to transform a 1 dollar bill into a hundred whenever you felt like it?
Even though that feat is absolutely impossible, at least you can convince your friends you can.
Prepare for the trick by folding up a dollar bill into half horizontally, fold it again, then fold it vertically. At this point you should have a fairly small rectangle.
Do the same folding process with your hundred dollar bill. Once you’ve gotten it all folded, tape the two folded dollars together with clear double-sided tape.
Now you’re all set to do your illusion.
When you unfold the single dollar, the hundred dollar bill will still be taped to the bottom corner of your 1 dollar bill. Obscure this from your audience with your hand when you are showing them that it’s a ‘quote-unquote’ a ‘regular’ dollar bill.
Fold up the single dollar bill in front of their eyes, being careful to keep the hundred dollar bill obscured. Once you’ve got the dollar folded into the tiny rectangle, simply slip it momentarily behind your hand and flip it.
If you can do this quickly, it appears as if the 1 dollar bill suddenly changed into a 100 dollar bill. You then can unfold this bill while obscuring the folded 1 dollar bill just as you did before.
Presto Manifesto!
Walking on Water
Two people are famous for this feat, one was a certain fellow from Nazareth, the other is David Blaine. It’s David’s water-walking that we are able to clearly explain step by step.
This one is easier to explain than some. The trick boils down to preparation and deception.
Plexiglass refracts light in a similar way to water, so when it’s submerged, it’s barely visible.
The magician will prepare a pool, river, or lake with either a bridge made of Plexiglas or pillars to allow footsteps but still allow for them to run a stick or staff through the water around them to “prove” that there isn’t any funny business happening – which of course there always is.
Tearing Up The Signed Card
In this trick, a magician asks an audience member to sign a random playing card. He then very dramatically tears up the card before magically restoring it back to its original state seemingly out of thin air.
Ever hear the phrase “hiding something up your sleeve”?
Well as cliché as that expression is, that’s exactly how the magician pulls this illusion off. When the audience member hands back the signed card, the magician uses a quick move of sleight of hand to slip the card into his shirt sleeve.
In their pocket is a substitute card that is quickly retrieved and torn up in front of the audience. When its time to retrieve the signed card, the magician simply slides the hidden card back out as smoothly as they can. With practice, this whole process of deception can appear to be fairly seamless.
Split Man Trick
This one looks pretty impressive but yet again the explanation is simpler than you’d like it to be.
The magician may look like he just lost his legs to some sort of horrific accident but really from the knee to the waste, what he is holding is actually a plastic mannequin and from the knee down, the magician is simply using his own legs with the assistance of some clever positioning and extra baggy clothing.
This trick is best performed by a skinnier illusionist and it only really works if they are directly facing the viewer head-on. Any other angle will expose the deception for the sham that it is.
Here we are again at the end of another Facts-sinating video.
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit how awful that pun was.
Anyways, now it’s that exciting time once again for you to let your voice be heard. In the comments section, let us know what you think is a more impressive trick, walking on water like David Blaine or David Copperfield’s trick with the Statue of Liberty back in 83.
and before you go, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe to our channel if you haven’t already.
