Video: The world’s greatest magic trick
posted at 9:35 pm on September 24, 2007 by Allahpundit
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With almost 200 comments for this idiocy, you know the big A’s going to try to catch lightning in a bottle twice.
The first 40 seconds are easy to figure out. The 40 after that? Not so much, not so much. I’m assuming the guy in the scrubs is a midget with a knack for drawing his legs up tight next to his chest and there’s some harness or stilts or something in the fake legs. His arms look normal length, though. Exit question: How?
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Crazy! Even more entertaining than Hasselhoff eating a burger off of the floor.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 9:41 PM
Very good…. no idea how he did that.
Maxx on September 24, 2007 at 9:46 PM
The top half is a contortionist. The bottom half isn’t real. The guy makes a leg move by pulling a string. When they put him on the table, he uncontorts and slips his legs inside the pants.
Connie on September 24, 2007 at 9:50 PM
Camera was not on them long enough, they kept going back to the judges!
Well, in due time Penn and Teller will reveal all.
Where did the first midget go?
CrimsonFisted on September 24, 2007 at 9:51 PM
He traverses parrallel universes.
bbz123 on September 24, 2007 at 9:51 PM
I think it involved more than one midget: one for the pants w/stilts and one for the upper half. Who knows, the upper half could be a seriously disabled vet.
Free Constitution on September 24, 2007 at 9:52 PM
No. Freakin’. Way.
MrC_5150 on September 24, 2007 at 9:54 PM
I know. It’s magic!
stonemeister on September 24, 2007 at 10:00 PM
They cut a black guy in half. Where’s Al Sharpton?
jihadwatcher on September 24, 2007 at 10:01 PM
I remember reading about some woman who sort of only has half of her body, no legs cut right at the torso. I doubt I have the link available. Woman had kids too. Having no legs enabled whom ever to do such illusions.
StuLongIsland on September 24, 2007 at 10:04 PM
I know I know I know
It’s MAGIC!
ThackerAgency on September 24, 2007 at 10:05 PM
dang stonemeister, I should have refreshed. . . I hate duplicates, sorry.
ThackerAgency on September 24, 2007 at 10:06 PM
Nice! I think this one by Criss Angel works on the same principle, except. . . it’s freaking scary.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=N14aPl9Nigc
smellthecoffee on September 24, 2007 at 10:07 PM
Does that account for the jumping at the end?
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Note the “assembled” man’s knees are noticeably lower than normal. The lower half is a dwarf/midget, the upper is a “half-man” like Johnny Eck, who can be seen in Tod Browning’s “Freaks”.
Eck did this same trick with the magician Raja Raboid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Eck
JimC on September 24, 2007 at 10:10 PM
HOAX ALERT!!!!
Please don’t link to Chris Angel, he’s a scam artist and his show is a freakin’ joke. He stops and starts cameras, it’s ridiculous. You can actually watch some of the videos on YouTube, and I’ve watched them on TV, rewinding and doing slowmo with DVR and you can see the jump in the image as video was spliced together. Pathetic.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:10 PM
Yes. They bring the fake bottom over to the table. He “uncontorts” and slips his legs inside the fake bottom and stands up.
Connie on September 24, 2007 at 10:11 PM
Well, nuts. Now I have to watch it again…lol.
Connie on September 24, 2007 at 10:12 PM
I need another beer.
Limerick on September 24, 2007 at 10:15 PM
You are definitely right about that. There was no flow to the video and he appeared to be covering stuff up. For instance, they don’t show them actually carrying the legs from one spot to the other.
Connie on September 24, 2007 at 10:15 PM
To follow up, before any Criss Angel fan gets pissed at me, I’ll prove it… Start this vid around 1:48 and don’t blink… at 1:50, you’ll see it jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3f-WPrKnRU
Just one example, but if you need more… dig around YouTube.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:21 PM
Thanks for setting me straight. That video has always freaked me out. Something about that legless lady trundling along–I’m shkeeving just thinking about it.
smellthecoffee on September 24, 2007 at 10:25 PM
reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfu9y2DkGwU
lorien1973 on September 24, 2007 at 10:28 PM
In fact, you can see when the camera angle changes, right before he tells the one girl to lift up the legs… that’s when they stopped, contorted the girl, and put the fake legs in… You gotta love how he acts like she’s just a girl out of the audience by first picking a different one and saying “sorry, you’re too short”… Also, like the girl who is “ripped in half” would do a push-up with her upper body to calmly look at the bottom, and then scream and “run away” (as if the average person, especially woman, would have that upper body strength).
Anyway, it’s pretty clear that on that one, they didn’t even freeze the camera in place and restart once a change had been made.. they simply stopped, and then started a camera from another angle, assuming we wouldn’t question it.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:28 PM
You’re missing it lorien, I’m in the process of exposing that hoax Criss Angel.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:30 PM
Good thing it wasn’t really real, huh?
Connie on September 24, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Criss Angel is a mindfraud. His illusions are not illusions, but TV editing. His casual “spectators” are paid stooges. He performs no tricks. The trick is the camera editing. He might as well just phone it in with photoshop.
jihadwatcher on September 24, 2007 at 10:43 PM
Exactly! That sums it up. We all go see a “magicians”, knowing that they’re really an “illusionist”, but Angel doesn’t do that. He goes in an editing room and splices video.
Now, I’ll give him credit on the little “slight of hand” stuff, but that’s just stuff that runs throughout the show as you build to the “big” trick, and it’s stuff that anyone can learn with minimal practice. But the big tricks are what the show builds to and what he’s supposed to be famous for, but they’re camera tricks.. which defeats the purpose. I’d rather watch the Matrix.
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 10:46 PM
How?
He’s a Suliban.
Zorro on September 24, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Criss Angel is definitely a fraud, but what about David Blaine? I imagine he is too because his tricks are just too far out there.
thedecider on September 24, 2007 at 10:52 PM
Wow…all the Criss Angel bashing…
But bigger “wow”…how is this done? Never seen anything like it before.
It would be nice tho, when you have to “go”, and you’re watching football, your top half can stay in front of the TV while your bottom have hits the head!
JetBoy on September 24, 2007 at 10:55 PM
There is no spoon.
/matrix
spec_ops_mateo on September 24, 2007 at 11:04 PM
At least one of Blaine’s “tricks” was for real - hanging over London in the box. His refeeding was written up in a medical journal.
mikeyboss on September 24, 2007 at 11:10 PM
Reference for Blaine (long, sorry)
mikeyboss on September 24, 2007 at 11:14 PM
This trick is simple. It’s two people. Like a “Willie the Jackass” costume. Two people in the donkey, one is the front legs, one is the back legs.
Nothing to see here but a drunk Michael Knight.
Vincenzo on September 24, 2007 at 11:17 PM
Here’s a neat trick:
Okay, so it’s not really a trick.
MrC_5150 on September 24, 2007 at 11:22 PM
That much is interesting and doesn’t really surprise me. What I’m really referring to are the tricks where he throws a deck of cards and one ends up inside a beer bottle or stuck to the other side of a plate glass window. Or the trick where he reached through the window of a jewelry store and picked up a watch (or something). Then there’s the whole levitation thing which you can read about elsewhere on the internet. Those are the “tricks” I think are completely staged hoaxes.
thedecider on September 24, 2007 at 11:26 PM
Take a look at his so called illusion
All he does is walk away from the drain, the camera looks away, he then stands in a different spot where the decal has been applied.
That is not an illusion. That is just camera fraud.
jihadwatcher on September 24, 2007 at 11:34 PM
The Jews.
Jim Treacher on September 24, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Zactly.
I believe it’s pronounced Joooooos. Like Booooosh.
Yeah, well I see your vomiting Swedish game show host, and I raise you this:
(gross out and mild language warning)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-BA0Hk3vT1g&mode=related&search=
RightWinged on September 24, 2007 at 11:49 PM
It’s easy to learn a cheap form of the levitation trick, but you’re right. In the “Street Magic” show, there is camera cut away and he appears much higher off the ground.
mikeyboss on September 24, 2007 at 11:50 PM
Ahh. The wee person. The most reliable distraction evah.
Since the camera was so enthralled with the Lilliputian, I couldn’t tell what was going on.
mojowire on September 24, 2007 at 11:50 PM
A microencephalic dwarf for the bottom, and a midget with very short legs for the top.
Held together by a willing suspension of disbelief.
I find these gimmicks only good for pickpockets to distract the rubes with.
Which is the origin of all “illusion”.
profitsbeard on September 25, 2007 at 12:04 AM
See - this is all very weird. I just enjoy it for the entertainment it is. I don’t need to figure it out - or rip someone a new hole for not doing the trick well enough.
Good grief - it’s SHOW business. You know - “Fun”?
Dr. Gecko on September 25, 2007 at 12:34 AM
This is Rove’s doings.
Shy Guy on September 25, 2007 at 12:53 AM
I have to raise ya one time with this Omazing video
MrC_5150 on September 25, 2007 at 12:57 AM
Why all the conspiracy theories? Clearly, he saws the guy in half with a chain saw and staples him back together. DUH!
ronsfi on September 25, 2007 at 12:58 AM
That brotha has got to be retarded. Otherwise he’s cracked out beyond belief.
RightWinged on September 25, 2007 at 1:13 AM
Highly advanced Japanese robot. The freaky-deakyness was the tipoff.
PaisleyCow on September 25, 2007 at 1:34 AM
Someone has mastered Sectumsepra.
:)
hadsil on September 25, 2007 at 1:40 AM
I concur. Although, I’ve never been a big magic fan, but watching a movie with some of these people must be awful. What with them blurting out how each stunt was done and what CGI was used, etc…
Well, gosh, do you mean he’s not really magic? I’m floored.
reaganaut on September 25, 2007 at 1:58 AM
You have both clearly missed the point. The people writing these comments are highly sought after pundits. Many mysteries have been solved by this commenting panel of experts.
You scoff, because you don’t understand. Searing criticism and incessant finger-pointing bespeak great wisdom and intelligence.
Buy a vowel. Get a clue.
The Race Card on September 25, 2007 at 2:51 AM
Hey smart ass, if you’d read the discussion, you’d know we’re talking about how there are illusionists… and people like Criss Angel who use cameras, an editing room, and actors for their “tricks”. I’m not here bragging that I’m exposing a “magician” for not really doing magic. I was explaining to folks what a fraud Angel is, not because his magic isn’t real (no “magician”’s is), but because he can’t even do “tricks” without actors and editing, and sloppily enough that you can see it.
Thanks for dropping by and contributing nothing though.
RightWinged on September 25, 2007 at 3:22 AM
I’ve seen this performed live, I was in the front row and I will admit to being a bit creeped out when I realised it was a double amputee. It was a white guy at the time and they put the table top right on the stage, at the front, put up a woman to shake his hand, that’s when he ‘woke up’ and ran around the stage on his hands.
BathTub on September 25, 2007 at 4:00 AM
Plastic surgery. A lot of it.
Oh, I thought you were asking how Sharon Osbourne looks like that.
saint kansas on September 25, 2007 at 5:58 AM
Blaine’s fast over London is very far from magical, whether illusory or not. I’m acquainted with several men who have sustained a 40 day fast, some on water only, others on fresh juices. There is definitely a preferred method to returning to normal eating habits afterward, since the kidneys and liver shift from processing external nutrients to hunting around the bloodstream for internal material to handle, not to mention stomach shrinkage.
But again, it isn’t supernatural in the magical sense.
Freelancer on September 25, 2007 at 6:25 AM
Well, I wouldn’t consider Cris Angel a complete fraud. I realize some of it is camera tricks, but I can testify to standing next to him doing one trick (which to my knowledge has not aired at this point) and couldn’t figure out how he did it.
When he started filming his third season, hubby and I happened to be in Vegas at the Luxor to see Carrot Top (shut up, he’s actually funny), and as we were coming out of the theater we saw Cris Angel filming a trick in front of the theater. It involved three people signing a card and putting it back in the deck. If you’ve ever been in any Las Vegas hotel, you know that they have these electric signs all over the place that tell you about upcoming events, menus for local restaurants and such. Well, he took the deck of cards, slammed it against the sign and let all the cards fall through his fingers. The card with the signatures had mysteriously ended up projected on the sign. Then he pulled it out of the sign.
I was standing right next to that sign. And I could not figure out how he did it.
ScoopPC11 on September 25, 2007 at 7:37 AM
Maybe he was in an LL Bean Kayacking accident.
bloggless on September 25, 2007 at 9:02 AM
I wasn’t able to sleep all night. Cris Angel is a fraud?
Oh, the Humanity!!!!!!!!!
Investigative journalism at its finest…
Dr. Gecko on September 25, 2007 at 9:09 AM
Ice rice.
This phrase will replce cool beans.
madmonkphotog on September 25, 2007 at 9:11 AM
One of us
One of us
Classic
SouthernDem on September 25, 2007 at 9:37 AM
Hate to spoil it, but I wondered what this guy did after graduation from high school: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/09/27/gallery.martin/content.1.html
Dayton’s Bobby Martin was removed from the football game during halftime for not wearing shoes, thigh guards, nor shin pads.
Sensei Ern on September 25, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Although there could be two people involved I think there is just one midget being used - probably the same size of the little guy running around avoiding the chain saw. Having one midget running around on the stage shows the magician is working with midgets.
The other doctor - who gets halved by the chainsaw - proablbly has his face built up some which is hidden by the mask to make him look larger. Notice the signals the nurse gives - a big kiss - to alert the guy he is about to be toppled over.
The feet, which have been drawn up are pushed back down into a mini-stilt contraption while they put the two halves on the rolling table. I would have liked to have seen the nurse carry the legs over to the rolling table.
Its an amazing illusion, but I think it is taking advantage somewhat of either a midget or double amputee.
Texas Mike on September 25, 2007 at 12:33 PM