P.T. Selbit

P. T. (Percy) Selbit (1881–1938) was an English magician, inventor and writer who is credited with being the first person to perform the illusion of sawing a woman in half. Among magicians he was known for his inventiveness and entrepreneurial instinct and he is credited with creating a long list of successful stage illusions.

Early life and career

His birth name was Percy Thomas Tibbles and he was born in Hampstead, London. He developed an interest in magic in his youth, when he was apprenticed to a silversmith. The basement of the silversmith’s shop was leased to magician and inventor Charles Morritt who used it to develop new tricks and the young Tibbles would sneak in to study these when Morritt was away. Tibbles began doing a coin and card manipulation act under the stage name P. T. Selbit, which he created by spelling his last name backwards and dropping one of the “B”s. He also used Selbit as a pen name, working as a journalist for a theatrical paper, writing a magic handbook and editing a trade journal for magicians.

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Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) whose birth name in Hungary was Erik Weisz (which was changed to Ehrich Weiss when he immigrated to the United States), was a Hungarian American magician, escapologist (widely regarded as one of the greatest ever), stunt performer, as well as a skeptic and investigator of spiritualists, film producer, and actor.

Initially, Houdini’s magic career resulted in little success. He performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as “the Wild Man” at a circus. Houdini initially focused on traditional card tricks. At one point, he billed himself as the “King of Cards”. But he soon began experimenting with escape acts. In 1893, while performing with his brother “Dash” at Coney Island as “The Brothers Houdini”, Harry met and married fellow performer Bess (Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner). Bess replaced Dash in the act, which became known as “The Houdinis”. For the rest of Houdini’s performing career, Bess would work as his stage assistant as well as get married.

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Tutorial: Coin matrix

Coin Matrix is one of the most popular coin tricks around. In the trick you lay out four coins in a square and cover them with four cards. When picking up the cards one at the time, the coins jump to one card on the table. It is relatively simple to preform, but requires some practice to make it look natural. It also requires a good table with a soft cover, like a card table (or you can use a towel). This makes it easier to pick up the coins and the spectator won’t hear the coins being picked up and dropped down again.

This tutorial is by JTIBO1. Check out his YouTube channel for more great tutorials.

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Mascot Moth

Mascot Moth was a stage trick created by David Devant in 1905. It is considered the masterpiece of this conjurer. In this trick Devant makes a woman, dressed as a giant moth, disappear in the middle of the stage. Devant said the idea of the trick came to him in a dream, where he was chasing a moth that suddenly disappeared.

While Devant never explained the secret behind the Mascot Moth, we know the basics. The woman in the costume, folds her wings before her body. She then disappears in a trapdoor in the stage. The costume consist a metal frame, so that it looks like the woman is still in it. Behind the costume a tube arrises out of the stage, out of sight for the audience. A couple of stagehands pull the costume thru the tube beneath the stage.

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Criss Angel

For over a decade, Criss Angel has dominated the world of magic as the biggest name on the planet. His visionary approach to the art escapes the confines of tradition and has given birth to a new breed of modern mysticism. Oprah Winfrey hailed, “Criss is the best, the best, THE BEST!”

From his role as star, creator, Executive Producer and Director of his hugely successful A&E television series Criss Angel MINDFREAK, to his spectacular live show Criss Angel BeLIEve at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and star of and creator of countless television specials, books, music CD’s and more – Criss has redefined the term “artist” for the 21st century.

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Bob Talbot video: David Blaine with sharks

Bob Talbot is a world renown photographer, film maker, and environmentalist. If you never heard of him, you really should take a look at his art. It’s amazing. Right now Talbot is working on a project to change the humans perception of sharks. For this Talbot shot a video starring David Blaine. In the video Blaine is seen in a tank full of great white sharks.

And Blaine would not be Blaine if he did not smoke a cigar under water.

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John Nevil Maskelyne

John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 1839 – 18 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with many other Victorian-era devices. His door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, hence the euphemism to “spend a penny”.

Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. He trained as a watchmaker but became interested in conjuring after watching a stage performance by the fraudulent spiritualists, the Davenport Brothers. He saw how the Davenports’ spirit cabinet illusion worked, and stated to the audience in the theatre that he could recreate their act using no supernatural methods. With the help of a friend, cabinet maker George Alfred Cooke, he built a version of the cabinet. Together, they revealed the Davenport Brothers trickery to the public at a show in Cheltenham in June 1865. Inspired by the acclaim they received for their clever exposure of the deception, the two men decided to become professional magicians.

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Tutorial: French Drop

If you want to be a coin magician, you have to master palms and vanishes. The French Drop is probably the most popular vanish ever and you must have heard of it. You start with a coin in one hand and then take it with your other hand. When you open that hand, the coin disappeared.

The secret here is that the other hand never took the coin. As the the hand closes around the coin, you relax the grip so that the coin falls into the base of the hand holding the coin. Although the drop looks very easy, it is very hard to master. The hardest part about the trick is to convince the spectators you actually took the coin with your other hand. You can do this by following the coin with your eyes to the other hand. But since the coin stays in your first hand this is a very unnatural move. Practice, practice and practice more.

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David Devant

David Devant (22 February 1868 – 13 October 1941) was an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David Wighton in Holloway, London. He is regarded by magicians as the consummate exponent of suave and witty presentation of stage illusion.

Devant was a member of the famous Maskelyne & Cooke company and performed regularly at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London. In 1905 he became a partner with John Nevil Maskelyne. He was succeeded by Oswald Williams. Devant is revered by magicians as an inventor and performer whose stature led to him being invited three times to participate in Royal Command Performances. He was droll, engaging and a master of grand illusion and platform magic. The wit of his patter marked a departure from the pseudo scientific style of earlier conjurors. This humour can still delight, as evidenced by stage lines he includes in the treatise he wrote with Nevil Maskelyne, Our Magic. It has been claimed that Queen Alexandra laughed aloud during Devant’s “A Boy, Girl and Eggs” routine at the first of his Royal Command Performances, where an assistant from the audience was given the (losing) task of keeping track of a bewildering number of eggs plucked from an empty hat by the magician.

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Magic Library: The Conjuring Arts Research Center

Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week about The Conjuring Arts Research Center. Based in New York, The Conjuring Arts Research Center houses more than 15.000 books, letters and manuscripts about the art of magic. Or as they say: The documentation is all created by magicians for magicians.

Funny fact is that owner and founder Bill Kalush, was the one who pulled the trigger at David Blaine’s ‘Catching Bullet’ stunt. The library is not meant for public use, but you can make an appointment to visit this enormous database of magic.

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