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Hi,

I'm a University student doing a degree in Live Art. I can show you some of my previous projects if anybody is interested... I have done a fair bit of installation work (including lying in a butcher shop window for hours recently) and some action paintings if you want to know more about me prior to giving me some advice (hopefully!)

Anyway, I am currently devising my final and most important performance for this course, which is my practice based research project. I am looking at how the Gypsy culture in Britain has evolved and how certain traditions are dying out. Not the easiest of research projects, but an interesting one!

I have an idea for the performance which involves me doing a) a vanishing act and b) an act in which I am sawn in half or similar. I would like to hire a magician to help me out. My Uni is in Mile End, East London. Obviously I am living off of my student loan so do not have copious ammounts of money to spare, which is a problem. I have looked at the Dekolta chair on the internet...there is no way I can afford this for one performance, but it's that sort of effect I would love to create.

Is there anybody locally that is up for being a part of a challenging performance? Is there anything I can try / make myself (long shot I know). It's really frustrating as I think I could make a great performance from the idea in my head... I just don't have the skills or equiptment.

Any help gratefully recieved

I dont really do any big illusions of this kind but there is a website where you can buy the plans to build yourself illusions of the kind you are talking about:

http://www.shockmagic.com/iplans.html

the plans look to be about $15. Hope this is of some help

Hi Victoria,

I don't tend to do these types of stage illusions but I'd like to suggest you have a look at Mark Willson's Complete Course in Magic. He's got some stage illusions in there, not sure if anything would do for you though. I'll have a look through my copy when I get home.

Lady of Mystery how much you get for every Mark Wilson book sold? I ma trying to do the same thing but with Goshman and sponge balls

Yeap I would look in there Victoria.

Hang a while Victoria, there are TM members down your way and you might find someone willing to help and advise. You don't need to spend a lot of money on expensive props for a vanishing act, just some careful thought about the venue, the available scenery/layout etc and perhaps a tablecloth or other large piece of fabric .

Thank you for the replies so far...and thank you Lady of Mystery for having a look for me...I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Craig, oh Craaiiiggg! I'm sure you can throw the lady a couple of tips. Didn't you help out at a school play once or something?

O.K so here goes.
First you need to plan the HOW from the WHERE. For vanishing and cutting yourself or others in half there are a lot of principles that are all good, but not all can fit your stage, your car trunk, and your pocket. What it means is, you need to consider those three elements (when the money and stage are the most important) and with them choose a method.
So, the first thing I get from you is that you are a student and therefore can't afford to buy any special expansive apparatus, and quite possibly even to build most. So, what I would suggest? For the vanish, probably a method using "Black art" and a flash pot or plain misdirection with a good fogger (smoke machine). For cutting yourself in half I would look into an illusion by Andrew Mayne called "Bisection and even combine it with his "Pocket saw in half for a full illusion. If you have a bit more cash on your hands and you are not afraid of some good old DIY you can by illusion plans (even for the Dekolta chair) and build one, and if you did a good job, even sell it later for a lot more then the construction cost.

The question remaining is what kind of stage are you going to perform on, is it big/small, can you control the lighting, is it covered for 180 degrees (like a normal stage)? All of the above and more are factors that need to be considered before choosing the kind of illusion you are going to perform.

Hi there, thanks for your helpful response.

OK... I'll be performing this in my University's drama studio. It's a fully functioning theatre, of a good size. I can do whatever I want with regards to lighting and sceneography, it's fully equiped and there are full time technicians there to help us out. Although I haven't got a set date for the performance, it'll be March time (I'm trying to get organised in advance) and it'll be due in the week, daytime. I'm hoping that I may be able to hire an illusionist (if there is anyone near me, please get in touch) since I wouldn't have thought they'll be booked up lunchtime on a tuesday (likely performance time) but then I may be niave in persuming that.

No I can't afford specialist apparatus but I'm willing to take on a project to build something suitable. My other half is a DIY enthusiast and a lot of his friends have working trades (my cousin is a carpenter) so materials and tradesmen willing to help with the labour are no problem to me. Where can I find illusion plans to buy?

I will look into Andrew Mayne's illusions... thank you for that advice.

I think I've answered most of your questions but if not just give me a shout.

Thanks all for being such a welcoming and helpful bunch...

What uni are you at? out of curiosity
(here's what we call a long shot ey?)

Queen Marys, University of London. It's on Mile End road.

O.K great.

By the sound of that I can offer you several possibilities for each effect.

For the vanish, I can offer you two things:

1)A black art vanish, for which you will need a full background, and some lighting management. For the cover under which you will vanish you can either use a big cloth/foulard, or a good fogger. If you got a few pretty pennies to spend you can buy a nice flash pot for theatrical effect and some misdirection (if that's the way you are thinking of performing it).

2) A Dekolta chair vanish, if your cousin is a carpenter it would be a walk in the park for him to make one or to "gaff" a normal wooden chain that fits the requirements. For this you will have to buy the plans (cost 30$ and you can sell them on Ebay later, or even give it to your cousin to build more chairs and sell them for a nice profit to magicians) you can find the plans on a lot of magic on-line stores, for example here:
http://www.williamsmagic.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=41&products_id=11166
To perform it you will need at least one assistant, and again some control over your background.
A fogger or flash pot can also help the effect; all depends on how you want to present it.

For the sawing in half:

1) I strongly suggest Bisection by Andrew Mayne, if you want you can improve it by using his "pocket sawing in half", but then you will have to alter the effect a bit and have an assistant, but you will have a much stronger effect (imagine this: with bisection alone you get to see the bottom half of the "sawed" person, with the combination you can see the upper half on the floor trying to reach the bottom half).

2)If you want to use your cousin's skills to the max, you can build a sawing in half "bed" like the one Penn and Teller used (if you ever got to see them perform it). You can't get plans for it, but if you have a video of them performing it you will understand how to make one right away, and it's not very difficult, only needs a lot of wood.
The only thing good about this method over the first one is that it's a bit more visual, and has the potential to be extremely gory if that's your thing. But I really wouldn't suggest it.

Thanks for your help (again)!

What is a flash pot? Sorry if that's a really dumb question. And when you say "full background", what do you mean? I was thinking about using the back wall of the studio to project video images onto. Would it be better to have just the black curtain?

OK I've just been looking up the DeKolta Chair plans and it says that a floor trap is needed for this to work... our drama studio does not have this.

VictoriaArcher wrote:Thanks for your help (again)!

What is a flash pot? Sorry if that's a really dumb question. And when you say "full background", what do you mean? I was thinking about using the back wall of the studio to project video images onto. Would it be better to have just the black curtain?

A flash pot is basically a pot with a battery operated Igniter in it that ignites something called flash powder, which is a powder that when ignited creates a flash of fire and a puff of smoke. It is used a lot in theater and magic shows for special effects (and in magic also as misdirection) here you can see a variety of flash pots:
http://www.theatrefx.com/store/commerce.cgi?product=floor_devices_powder

Basically you don't need anything more then a standard one that costs around 30$ (it's 35$ on the link I gave you, but the whole site is rather pricy).

By full background I mean full curtain covered background, and this goes for both the black art vanish and the Dekolta chair vanish (only that in the black art one it needs to be black).