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If someone came to you and asked "What's the greatest illusion ever invented?" What would your answer be? It can be any genre. All from stage magic to close-up magic, mentalism, coin magic, card tricks, you name it. I'd like to hear what your favorite illusion is of them all. I know it's not fair to favorise, cuz there are so many great things out there, but everyone usually have a favorite... you know... so... what's yours?

i will get panned for this, but i must say the Old Victorian Levitations. Just look at the work involved in staging such a feat and some magicians even toured with this set-up. Amazing stuff

David Copperfield's Flying - as an illusion there's nothing that comes close in my opinion.

I think the deathsaw is the greatest illusion ever when the boxes seperate and the specs see the magicians upper half and lower half going in seperate directions

The Death Saw would be my second choice - I pondered over this and Flying, but ended up thinking that Flying had the edge. When he flys off at the end and the eagle flies in from the left of the stage and perches on his arm whilst he's in the air is just perfection.

Another vote for copperfields flying

Okay, I'll go against the grain here and go with a strong closeup effect-- Scarne's Aces. Now, let's see how much discussion this generates.

stephenmagic wrote:i will get panned for this, but i must say the Old Victorian Levitations. Just look at the work involved in staging such a feat and some magicians even toured with this set-up. Amazing stuff

I agree, Maskelyne's Levitation was an incredible landmark in stage illusion. Kellar's "improvements" (after he nicked the secret) only made it better.

David Copperfields Train Vanish looked amazing on national television. I was impressed with that illusion.

stephanmaigc comments on the old Victorian floating systems which, ironically, is where a lot of the idea behind the Copperfield flying sprang from; the Kellar and Kalanag flying systems being key bits of focus (the Kalanag getting my vote for being one of the most sensational levitations around... but, that's why it's been in Lance's show for so long).

When it comes to naming "the best" of anything, we have to remember that it's subjective. Line up a single effect like the Thin Model Sawing, one each by twelve different builders then look at the deception factors, construction techniques, material quality, finish, comfort and ease of use as well as set-up & break-down, durability factors, etc. When you start allowing your perspective of magic to grow into this kind of fine-tunning you can have your idea of what is "the best" shifted a bit.

On this particular front I'd have to say that Mark Wilson's "Diamond" styled Thin Model Sawing (built by John Gaughan) is the sweetest of the pack and Kirby Vanburch's Asrah Levitation couch is one of the most deceptive I've ever seen (his switch is likewise the cleanest in the business).

Such a broad area to look at, it's hard to say that any one piece is better than another in that it's the performer and technical crew that transform the box (as it were) into a miracle.

Speaking of the Maskelyne clan, what about Jasper's hiding of Alexandria from Nazi bombers. That has to be one of the greats, surely