Most of us have long since figured out that when the girl goes into the box, half of her body is being concealed somewhere and another girl is providing the legs and feet. It’s a dramatic trick and one that actually includes an element of real danger, because of the sharp blades employed. Magicians have been sawing their assistants in half for nearly 100 years. Just as David Copperfield drew on an age-old trick to create something more spectacular when he vanished a national landmark, the modern buzz saw trick is a variation on an old standard. After the unveiling, the pillars were draped again and the process reversed to “restore” the Statue of Liberty. Throw in a duplicate set of lights and some showmanship, and the statue “disappears”. The draped pillars remained in front of the audience but were slowly shifted so that the statue of liberty was no longer visible between them. The movement was slow and occurred after dark in an area without visual landmarks. The pillars were draped so that the statue was not visible during the process. Rather than moving the object, as magicians vanishing small items do, Copperfield apparently moved the audience. Copperfield’s audience, along with the pillars between which the statue could be viewed, stood on a rotating platform. Soon after the giant statue disappeared before our eyes on television (and in front of a live audience), a simple explanation was revealed. Sleight of hand might be employed to make a rabbit disappear, but when the vanishing object is a 225-ton national landmark, it’s not quite so simple. Here are some of the great tricks that have dazzled us, caught us off guard, perhaps even made us wonder for a moment-and then turned out to have a simple, usually mechanical explanation. Perhaps the greatest remaining mystery surrounding the magician’s trade is why it continues to fascinate when so much has been revealed. Then, the proliferation of Internet forums made it even easier to learn magicians’ secrets. When the “Masked Magician” came on the scene decades ago, the hype said that he’d destroy magic forever. Eventually, the truth comes out, and it’s almost always disappointing. After each new trick - and they are tricks - some people speculate about how it was done, while others poke holes in their theories and try to hold on to the illusion. We know it couldn’t really have happened… don’t we? But when that magician appears to make the Statue of Liberty disappear, turns a Bentley into a Lamborghini, or rises into the air before our eyes, it’s a bit more difficult. When the magician pulls an endless scarf out of his closed fist or a bird flies out of an apparently empty hat, it’s easy to accept that it’s a simple trick, a sleight of hand. This shaky video was taken at a magic convention where Lubor lectured the year before he died, and it shows him performing his "Gozinta Boxes.When a performer like Criss Angel, David Copperfield or David Blaine wows us with “magic”, most of us know that there’s a logical explanation. It's a work of mathematical and optical genius which seems utterly impossible when you see it. And here's the part that hurts your brain: the large box is then inserted into the smaller box, and the lid of the smaller box put back on. The small box is removed, then the lid is replaced on the larger box. One of his most famous creations is "The Gozinta Boxes," as in "one goes into the other." What you see is amazing: a box is displayed and the lid removed. He would give lectures for groups of other magicians and fool them deeply because the principles underlying his tricks were always new. He was far and away the most creative person I've ever met, and he learned a lot in his years of working in a chemical factory. He was a brave and clever man Lubor died two years ago at age 81 while sitting at his computer, still inventing. Lubor lived in Czechoslovakia, escaped to the west and lived in Austria, then returned home after The Czech Republic was liberated. While many magicians create tricks, Lubor did something much more difficult: he created new principles on which tricks are based. In the world of magic and magicians, there is Lubor Fiedler. There are geniuses in almost every creative field.
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