talkmagic.co.uk

Okay, first off let me say that I am a theatre teacher first and trying to learn magic as a hobby with no intentions to perform professionally, I just don't have enough manual dexterity to be good at it. WHat I do have is a love for it. So much so that I have written a script set in a sideshow that has one effect that is baffling me (I guess I shoulda planned the trick before I wrote but I can't fight the muse) Anyways, here's what it boils down to (BTW, anyone who can point me in the right direction gets a free, first edition copy of the script, a picture DVD and testimonial for marketing purposes in order to aid further sales of the gimmick, and my eternal thanks. Also I will pay for plans that work, but only in US dollars and via paypal):

I need to make a man appear as if he only has an upper body. A half man in effect. He can be on a platform/table but the table must be moveable somewhat on the stage. I can have other characters move his "table" as part of the course of action.

I thought about using the Sphinx table setup, but imagine that there MUST be a more reliable way.

I am at a loss. The gimmicked tricks I have looked at aren't very promising.

I thank you for any reply.

STOP POSTING THESE EVERYWHERE PLEASE. It is driving me nuts.

It really depends on what you want the half-person to do. In side shows the majority of "living torso" types are real people, nothing fake about it, they were born that way.

There are illusion systems that replicate the idea of a living torso but the entity is stationary and can but twist a bit at the waist, arm and head actions, etc. Said systems have some lighting and angle issues and when used in the side shows, the public was kept at an appropriate distance. Such bits typically being part of a 3 in 1 or 5 in 1 type feature in which one would most likely encounter the living head, resting atop two swords laid across a throne chair amongst any combination of other classics such as Mabel, the Headless Lady, Spidora, etc. All of them working on similar principals.

Just do some digging on Side show Illusions. You could likewise track down some of the side show masters who are still with us like Ward Hall and Bobby Reynolds or the insane Tod Robbins, all of whom can give you a decent education on this world and what it is really like. Your best bet however is to find a carney unit and just jump in... take up a job on the road with them for a season so you and earn your story from the inside.


Just to Satisfy My Own Curiosity I did a Google Search... over a 20 minute period I found all of these related listings. I know for a fact you will find the answers you seek in a couple of the books listed here but thought the other links would prove of interest and amusement for one and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fzFsMbOQCo

http://flashpackertv.com/jon/index.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carnival-Sideshow-Headless-Woman-Illusion_W0QQitemZ170045171568QQihZ007QQcategoryZ86940QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Real Oddities
http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/2006/07/fake-freaks-pretenders.html

http://www.showcase.ca/blog/Default.aspx

Kevin James' Sawing -- It's still the most awesome bit of business going...
http://www.flicklife.com/e61ca572cb5bb8db206e/Americas_Got_Talent_Cut_In_Half_Illusion_EXTRA.html

My Old Boss & the Crew
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/us/13album.html

Plans, etc.
http://www.halloweencostumesale.com/SPIDORA-ILLUSION-PLANS-Grp-123LB139.aspx

Paul Osborne Books
http://www.magiclegends.com/paulosbornemagicillusion.html

Just Plain Cool
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-images-from-mysterious-german.html

http://www.sideshowworld.com/GS-C2-Pt4.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=sACcmMWM6t4C&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=Spidora%2BIllusions&source=web&ots=vXM8PzYe0r&sig=m6x7RxTAAES7OP-Hcchkm9Y_L7Y&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result

first let em apologize for posting this question all over...I was just trying to maximize the chances of getting an answer. I have been researching Sideshow and human oddities for several months now. It all started when I watched Todd Browning's "Freaks" and I got really interested. I read biographical info about Johnny Eck and Randian, but wondered about gaffed versions of these and have been looking on the internet (even some of the sites you found, although a few are new to me) for a while. I guess I hoped someone here had seen a gaffed version that marks might buy from 40' away. Really what I hoped for was a little bit of a shortcut to creating the effect...I found plans for the sphinx effect in an old magic book I bought in a used book store in Atlanta, but it is not very clear and I am not sure it would work for this setup. The play I am writing is set in your standard 10 in 1 and the blowoff is this particular freak. I can rewrite the part, but really would like to take a swing at something like this.

Just so youn know I am not a method thief I am putting a link to my first play here. Buy 50 copies...it's not very good but I need the royalties...

Tod who?

I could give you a rather huge yarn about Mr. Tod in that he's a cousin... ironically so is Edgar Allen Poe to whom I have a much closer kinship than I do Robert & Elizabeth Barret... go figure.

Strangeness just runs in the family I guess, we even have those pentecostal preachers that drink poison and charm snakes.

My suggestion is that you take a long look at my buddy Scott's two shows; Scott is a real Carney that's taken what he knows from that world and given it a more theatrical slant as well as the true yesteryear mode of marketing (selling it all as the real deal).

http://www.theparanormalshow.net/

I can't find a link to his other show, but if you are on MySpace friend me (Craig the Psychic or under The Mind Reader as well) and I'll hook you up with his MS pages.