Magic's most dangerous tricks

bigslick

This forum has been kinda dead lately lol, so thought id throw up few of my favourites.

Bit of copperfield (I know he has cooler ones, but this is more realistic than others like the levitation and death saw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3AyBbIx4iM&eurl

Lance Burton: Rollercoaster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kufzOcdFBQ&eurl
Classic Houdini
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUbytEgTXZQ&eurl


and thinking of more comedy-wise, check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N84pQpQjLAc&eurl

Voodu Child

Lance Burtons Rollercoaster is a nice looking effect but in reality there was very little danger involved.

The most dangerous effect is the Bullet Catch, simply because of the number of people it killed over the years. Its rarely performed these days, but in its heyday, it was performed with a muzzle-loader, and the gimmick was pretty crude and unreliable.

The Buried Alive escape is another pretty risky one. There have been a couple of failures because the prop manufacturers had no understanding of the forces involved or the strength of the coffin. Joe Burrus was killed when his flimsy plexi-glass coffin collapsed under the weight of earth and concrete. Bill Shirk had the same thing happen, but thankfully survived after being dug out with an excavator.

Tellingly, Houdini had experimented with the Buried Alive escape, but after a very short number of rehearsals and performances, he abandoned the stunt on account of its danger and unpredictability.

bigslick

voodoo_child wrote: »

Lance Burtons Rollercoaster is a nice looking effect but in reality there was very little danger involved.

As far as i know, he was nearly killed doing that. Met him in vegas and he told me that due to the noise he got his timing wrong and only just made it

Voodu Child

bigslick wrote: »

As far as i know, he was nearly killed doing that. Met him in vegas and he told me that due to the noise he got his timing wrong and only just made it

Well, he would say that of course, and im sure you would too in the same situation. Makes for a good story.

But in reality, he was in very little danger. Couldn't really say any more on the public forum :pac:

oeb

voodoo_child wrote: »

The most dangerous effect is the Bullet Catch, simply because of the number of people it killed over the years. Its rarely performed these days, but in its heyday, it was performed with a muzzle-loader, and the gimmick was pretty crude and unreliable.

It was not only that, but also the fact that it did actually use real powder, and was a working gun. So if a spectator was to jam a button (or a real bullet) in the barrel .......

bigslick

oeb wrote: »

It was not only that, but also the fact that it did actually use real powder, and was a working gun. So if a spectator was to jam a button (or a real bullet) in the barrel .......

The Prestige much? :D

oeb

bigslick wrote: »

The Prestige much? :D

Hollywood has to steal it's ideas somewhere!

Deaths Associated With the Bullet Catch
Coulen (1500s) beaten to death with his trick pistol
Kia Khan Khruse (1818) Indian magician- report of his death onstage may have been false
Madame deLinsky (1820) magician's assistant killed when real bullet loaded into chamber by mistake
Giovanni deGrisy son of Torrini, supposedly Robert-Houdin's mentor; could be a fictitious story; reportedly Torrini fired the gun that killed his son
Arnold Buck (1840) died when a volunteer secretly added nails to the gun barrel before firing at him
Adam Epstein (1869) his wand, used to ram home the balls in the rifle barrel, broke inside the gun; he was killed by wand shards
Raoul Curran (1880) killed by a member of the audience who jumped up out of his seat and shot him without warning
deLine Jr (1890) his magician father shot him onstage
Michael Hatal (1899) he failed to switch blank cartridges for the real bullets that killed him
Otto Blumenfeld (1906) he also failed to switch bullets
Chung Ling Soo (1918) killed by a faulty trick gun
H. T. Sartell he also failed to switch bullets
"The Black Wizard of the West" (1922) his wife purposely fired live bullets at him
Ralf Bialla (1972) fell off a cliff because of constant dizziness caused by injuries from bullet catching act
Doc Conrad (1977) killed during practice of the Russian Roulette trick, a version of the Bullet Catch
Fernando Tejada (1988) killed onstage during a performance in Columbia

cite: http://bulletcatch.com/

King Mob

I don't think people get the kick out of the bullet catch now like they did back in the day.
After seeing so much magic and possibly other magicians doing that trick the just pass it off as a trick, while at the turn of the century no one could figure it out.

I think Derren Brown's russian roulette came pretty close.


Does anyone remember that crappy magic special that was on sky one years back?

oeb

King Mob wrote: »

I don't think people get the kick out of the bullet catch now like they did back in the day.
After seeing so much magic and possibly other magicians doing that trick the just pass it off as a trick, while at the turn of the century no one could figure it out.

I think Derren Brown's russian roulette came pretty close.


Does anyone remember that crappy magic special that was on sky one years back?

Which crappy magic special? There has been loads of them on Sky (and channel 4).

I don't think magic in general is the same as it was back in the day. People are alot more rational these days, and it helps that alot of magicians declare their art as skill rather than supernatural.

King Mob

oeb wrote: »

Which crappy magic special? There has been loads of them on Sky (and channel 4).

I don't think magic in general is the same as it was back in the day. People are alot more rational these days, and it helps that alot of magicians declare their art as skill rather than supernatural.

I think it was the "worlds most dangerous magic" or something similar.

I'd debate the people being more rational these but will concede that they are less likely to believe that magicians are using actually magick (with a k).
I have found that some people just don't appreciate the skill unfortunately.

oeb

King Mob wrote: »

I think it was the "worlds most dangerous magic" or something similar.

I'd debate the people being more rational these but will concede that they are less likely to believe that magicians are using actually magick (with a k).
I have found that some people just don't appreciate the skill unfortunately.

That is more the point I was trying to make, I still think people are idiots who will believe nearly anything, they just accecpt trickery as just that alot more often.

Nahhh, people assume that everything is done with gimmicks and the like. The think you have special cards that allow you to change the value with the heat in your hands. They don't appreciate the fact that you spent the last three weeks perfecting your one handed top palm. Ungrateful spectators =(

King Mob

oeb wrote: »

That is more the point I was trying to make, I still think people are idiots who will believe nearly anything, they just accecpt trickery as just that alot more often.

Nahhh, people assume that everything is done with gimmicks and the like. The think you have special cards that allow you to change the value with the heat in your hands. They don't appreciate the fact that you spent the last three weeks perfecting your one handed top palm. Ungrateful spectators =(

And of course you can't explain how much work you put into each trick, hence a vicious cycle forms:(