Have you ever been out at a fancy restaurant when a magician comes around to perform a trick for your table? Maybe they performed the bending spoon trick leaving you stunned with pasta dangling out of your open mouth. They take the spoon from your very table, in order to prove to you that they haven’t brought along their own. They then make the stainless steel silver bend.
You look around, confused, wondering whether the manager of the restaurant is about to come around and kick the magician out of his restaurant for damaging the restaurant’s property. And then, out of nowhere, the magician restores the spoon to its original form. This trick is a classic and it’s one that’s quite easy to pull off if performed correctly. If you want to learn how to wow your audience members, then keep reading to find out the secret.
The Buzzsaw
For the last 100 years, magicians have been sawing women in half. The first public performance of a woman being sawed is believed to have been in January 1921 when the British magician P.T. Selbit performed the illusion in London. Since then, magicians have been tricking speculators into believing that the woman is really being cut in half. The trick looks so real that many audience members cover their eyes with their hands, afraid to peek. You can rest assured; no women are being harmed in the making.
It’s vital to the safety of all involved that the magician places their assistant in the correct position before whipping out the giant saw and sawing right through the body of the assistant. No, this isn’t a horror movie! It’s just a magician using some deceit. Clearly, the assistants always make it out alive in one piece or else this trick would have been prohibited a long time ago and there would be many magicians sitting in jail cells around the world. So, how in the world does the magician pull off this seemingly dangerous trick you ask?
Behind The Sawing Trick
First of all, this is NOT a trick that should be tried at home, because it requires you to have special equipment. Remember when we revealed to you the chopping the assistant trick? Well, this one is quite similar to that. There is a secret compartment where the assistant is able to protect their body from getting mutilated by the saw.
In order for the assistant to avoid danger, they must tuck their legs away; failing to do so can result in a situation we don’t even want to detail for you. To create the illusion that the assistant is being chopped in half, fake feet are placed at the end of the table. To the audience, it looks like the assistant is sawed in half but after the magician “puts her back together,” she manages to walk away unharmed. Hmmm… so the magician is a healer too.
How You Really "Bend" A Spoon
If you’ve been reading the above secrets to magic tricks up until now, then you can probably guess how the magician manages to make it look like he’s bent a spoon out of shape. He deceives his audience by having an extra piece of equipment on hand.
So, you want in on the secret? The magician uses a small silver coin to mimic the spoon’s handle. They then make the illusion of the spoon moving in their hand by making use of the table. This makes it appear as though the spoon is being bent when in reality, the illusion is created by using a silver coin and keeping it still.
The Zigzag
The zigzag trick is similar to the sawing magic trick. The trick was invented in 1965 by Robert Harbin. The assistant is placed in an upright wooden box and big metal blades are placed in the middle of the box. The magician creates the illusion that he’s placing these metal blades inside of the assistant and splitting her up into thirds. It appears as though the assistant has been cut into a zigzag shape.
Sounds pretty gory, right? There is even a small door in the middle which allows the audience to see the insides of the assistant. Gross. The magician, to further prove his authenticity, will stick his head where the assistant’s torso should be. At the end of the trick, the magician slides the assistant’s insides back into place and the assistant walks away, unharmed. Say what?