Make Lady Liberty Disappear!

[Beady]

How likely is it that this guy knows what he's talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com/statue-of-liberty-disappearance-DAVID-COPPERFIELD_W0QQitemZ6639002959QQcategoryZ14013QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Have you ever wondered how David Copperfield himself made the statue of liberty disappear? Well now you can learn the greatest kept secret in the world. This trick has been kept under the rug for to long and now the greatest magic trick in the world done by the world's greatest magician will soon be known to only a handful of people who buy this offer that will not be around for long...
THIS IS A WRITTEN DISCRIPTION WITH DETIALED PICTURES

It kind of bothers me that he's removed the tiles from the pictures.

[Azrael 5]

Who knows?
I know how it was done,but I have 25 years of magic experience in my head,even then I didnt figure it out myself.For someone to buy the secret is pretty sad,it's not as if they can recreate it.

[fuelair]

Overall, I thought it was pretty obviously a camera shift trick - before I saw on a wonderful show the camera shift trick. I am unpopular with most magician types because I support showing how the tricks work. The more "Magic" we can take away the less the woos have to hold onto. And, just in case, yes I know magicians say it's just a trick, there are too many people out there who want it to be real and some who really think it is. (oh, and I have nothing against little kids thinking there is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny etc. while they are little kids, and I enjoy LOTR, Harry Potter, etc. - I just want to make sure, ultimately, that no one takes them as real or as indicators of reality (i.e. there is really no Harry Potter, but there are ghosts and unicorns and real magicians)

[Azrael 5]

Overall, I thought it was pretty obviously a camera shift trick - before I saw on a wonderful show the camera shift trick.

Soemthing shifted,but it wasn't the camera! :)

[RSLancastr]

The secret used to be on this page (http://users.aol.com/maskedmagi/indexorg1.htm), but it would seem that Copperfield's agents have gotten it excised. Some of the other magic secrets revealed here are quite stunning.

[Peter S.]

The secret was published in William Poundstone's book "Bigger Secrets" a number of years ago.

[Azrael 5]

I can't get any of those sections on that page to open!
That's a good trick.

[T'ai Chi]

The same thing has been used to make small islands disappear, etc. I forget who did that one though.

[Bob Klase]

The same thing has been used to make small islands disappear, etc. I forget who did that one though.

I think that was probably Franz Harary.

[Azrael 5]

It was Franz Harary.He made some Island in Hawaii dissapear(or is it disappear?)I recall.That was a different principle I think to Statue of Liberty,maybe wrong.He also made London Tower Bridge vanish also.

[opqdan]

The secret used to be on this page (http://users.aol.com/maskedmagi/indexorg1.htm), but it would seem that Copperfield's agents have gotten it excised. Some of the other magic secrets revealed here are quite stunning.
Stunning? I suppose one could describe them that way.

I especially liked the explanation of how a magician pulls a selected card from the deck. I will reproduce only the last statement here:

But what if our magic man has accomplished this marvel using your deck? Easy. It is a little known fact that all playing card companies are owned by magicians and thus all cards in the world today are printed with this special heat sensitive ink.Ooooookay. :confused:

[Azrael 5]

That website is dumb.I know how a lot of modern and classic illusions are performed and the definition for The Origami Box is so bizarre it couldn't be true.

At the beginning of the trick both the outside and the inside of the box possess virtually the same area and are therefore very close to being the same size. However when the box is folded up, due to it's exacting and precise construction, the surface area on the outside of the box is transferred to the inside thus increasing the surface area on the inside of the box. Therefore the surface area of the inside of the box becomes greater than that of the outside making the inside of the box bigger than the outside. The assistant actually has more room at the height of the trick than she does at the beginning and thus has no difficulty in dodging the swords while changing her outfit.


Run that by me again...!

[roger]

It's almost as if that site is a spoof.

[Azrael 5]

It's almost as if that site is a spoof.

WOuld be more entertaining.Cant access the secrets links.Anyone know why?
I click and nothing happens.:confused:

[Jorghnassen]

Didn't the Straight Dope website explain it somewhere? IIRC, the writer of the column first asked a friend who was a magician, and his answer was that David Copperfield palmed the Statue...

[NeilC]

Overall, I thought it was pretty obviously a camera shift trick - before I saw on a wonderful show the camera shift trick. I am unpopular with most magician types because I support showing how the tricks work. The more "Magic" we can take away the less the woos have to hold onto. And, just in case, yes I know magicians say it's just a trick, there are too many people out there who want it to be real and some who really think it is. (oh, and I have nothing against little kids thinking there is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny etc. while they are little kids, and I enjoy LOTR, Harry Potter, etc. - I just want to make sure, ultimately, that no one takes them as real or as indicators of reality (i.e. there is really no Harry Potter, but there are ghosts and unicorns and real magicians)

Funny you are unpopular with magicians when you want to ruin their art...

Everyone know's magic is a trick. You don't need to explain the exact working of a trick to make this clear.

Magic relies on secrets. Revealing secrets ruins magic. That's why Randi specifies no exposure on this site.

He is arguably one of the greatest anti-woo's on the planet yet doesn't agree with you. He doesn't think you need to tell people how tricks are done to promote rational thought. Neither do I.

[Calcas]

Soemthing shifted,but it wasn't the camera! :)
Good one. Many theme parks use the same principle with some of their "attractions."

[RSLancastr]

That website is dumb.I know how a lot of modern and classic illusions are performed and the definition for The Origami Box is so bizarre it couldn't be true.It's a spoof, guys. I thought that would be obvious when I posted the link, sorry.

Here is the frames version (http://users.aol.com/maskedmagi/frame.htm) of the page, which seems to have the links working.

Click on "The Secrets the Pros Don't Want You To Know" at the bottom.

Then scroll through the menu at the bottom and click on each trick to learn How The Pros Do It!!!

[Meffy]

Run that by me again...!

This might help. :-}

A Positive Reminder
by J. A. Lindon

A carpenter named Charlie Bratticks
Who had a taste for mathematics
One summer Tuesday, just for fun,
Made a wooden cube side minus one.

Though this to you may well seem wrong,
He made it minus one foot long,
Which meant (I hope your brains aren't frothing)
Its length was one foot less than nothing.

In width the same (you're not asleep?)
And likewise minus one foot deep;
Giving, when multiplied (be solemn!),
Minus one cubic foot of volume.

With sweating brow this cube he sawed,
Through areas of solid board;
For though each cut had minus length,
Minus times minus sapped his strength.

A second cube he made, but thus:
This time each one foot length was plus;
Meaning of course that here one put
For volume: plus one cubic foot.

So now he had, just for his sins,
Two cubes as like as deviant twins;
And, feeling one should know the worst,
He placed the second in the first.

One plus, one minus -- there's no doubt
The edges simply cancelled out;
So did the volume, nothing gained;
Only the surfaces remained.

Well may you open wide your eyes,
For these were now of double size,
On something which, thanks to his skill,
Took up no room and measured nil.

From solid ebony he'd cut
These bulky cubic objects, but
All that remained was now a thin
Black sharply-angled sort of skin

Of twelve square feet -- which, though not small,
Weighed nothing, filled no space at all.
It stands there yet on Charlie's floor;
He can't think what to use it for!

[geni]

I think that back during WW2 a magician was given the task of makeing the nile dissapear.

[Bob Klase]

I think that back during WW2 a magician was given the task of makeing the nile dissapear.

Sounds like Jasper Maskelyne. About 20 years ago I read a book about him called "The War Magician". I don't recall making the Nile disappear, but he did other things that came close to that.

A movie based on the book is in the works.

[Azrael 5]

Yes it was Jasper Maskelyne,and it was the Suez canal not the Nile.He kind of camoflagued it so it seemed to have gone using spotlights and such!