My point is that convincing elements must surround the magic of levitation, in order to be effective. As much as the Flying Illusion was awesome and beautiful, if suffered from “dangling leaf”. This was obviously a new technology invented by geniuses of magic. Whatever it was that held the performer up was completely invisible. It had to be strong enough and thick enough to hold up as least a hundred-ninety pounds. It was clear that the hook-up was very complex and some of the same mysteries that enabled Lance Burton to animate a birdcage were at work here. Even the novice of magic can obtain booklets on the floating ball. We have all seen the structure necessary to make the ball move about the stage. The books and videos on the Zombie effect are enough to give some clue to the fantastic hook-up required to float a man and a spectator.

This brings up another aspect that makes the levitation convincing. I refer to the committee. In the early days of magic on television, pioneers like Mark Wilson faced this problem. Producers didn’t want to try magic shows because of the special effects that were already in place. All of the five basic effects in magic, e.g. production, vanish, levitation, transformation, and transportation, were being done by editing. Mark Wilson’s answer was to have a live audience surrounding most of the Magic, which the TV audience could see. Beginning an illusion with the disclaimer that no camera tricks were involved, began to close the doors on perception. I grew up on Mark Wilson and he deserves any and all awards he might receive.

Today as we watch the Magic Specials on TV we still hear the disclaimer: “Absolutely no camera tricks are used, and the camera will not cut away.” Whoever thought that up also deserves enormous credit. The audience thinks, “hmmm, I wonder if…” and immediately they say, nope, can’t be, because there are people all around it and they just said there are no camera tricks. For some reason, this cuts through all the un-convincing thoughts. What becomes a problem is the use of shill. As most of you may know, the shill is the guy who just won. When the con man with the three little nuts or the three cards wants to generate interest and induce the mark to bet, he has no better convincer than the guy who has just won money. This winner is the plant or shill. In order to make people believe that the huge structure in the middle of a body of water, which can be seen every day by millions of people, has completely vanished into thin air, a group of actors is necessary if not crucial. The only weakness in this equation is the level of actor that the magical designer hires. In one case, which I mentioned earlier, the taping of a special allows the live theater audience to see things that the TV audience won’t. (Anneman said that if ten people were enlisted to fool just one, it was perfectly acceptable) What the live audience saw was that the group of well-dressed young boys and girls who surrounded the flying illusion came up and encircled the performer several times during the evening. The only attempt to hide that fact was that the group, who looked like they worked rides at Disney Land , was seated in different parts of the theater. First, Row B was called up to “help with the magic”. Later in the evening Row F was called and we all saw that it was the same group. To the lay audience, watching it on TV it looked like a random selection from the theater seats. This “selection” then, becomes part of the illusion. On a recent magic special the magician levitates himself in front of a supermarket and then in the middle of a casino lobby. He does several convincing anti-gravity effects during which the elaborate hook-up would be difficult if not impossible. The use of actors is suspected in the most convincing performances and the attempt to portray them as “just walking by” falls short when he causes a young woman from the crowd to float as well.

I want to insert a few simple facts. The case for “real” levitation has never been proved. One of the reasons that we now have child restraints in cars is because we didn’t like them crashing into the windshield at sixty miles-per-hour. Thus the law of inertia, which states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Since the earth is revolving at 368 thousand miles per second, we are traveling at that same speed. Gravity holds us to the ground and we never feel the tremendous velocity because we match the rotation of the globe. I would suggest that if gravity was suspended and levitation was accomplished for even a second, David Blain would be a smoking rocket, which would vanish over the horizon before anyone could blink an eye. That’s one take on levitation. Thankfully, the public accepts it for what they think it is.

Before Copperfield and the magic specials, magicians traveled from town to town. The equipment had to be transportable and the stage settings had to be adaptable. Howard Thurston perfected the Asrah Levitation in which the woman assistant floated out over the audience then vanished from under a sheet. Improvements on machines that make this possible have ranged from the original floating woman, to sword on ball and the assistant rotating completely around the performer. The cost of a levitation effect has come down in price to under a thousand dollars and the effect is still quite good.