LONDON — He came, he sawed, he dominated. One a century back on Sunday, illusionist P.T. Selbit put a lady in a box on the phase of London’s Finsbury Park Empire and sawed right through the wood, producing a wonderful classic.
Now, 100 years on, magicians from around the globe will be getting together online this weekend to commemorate the centenary of that landmark efficiency.
“This took off and became the most influential and the most famous illusion, in my opinion, that there’s ever been,” stated magician and historian Mike Caveney who is composing a book on the impression.
“The magician wasn’t doing this trick to an inanimate object. He was doing it to a human being, which raised it up to a whole new level.”
In the initial variation, the saw went through, package was opened and the individual emerged unhurt.
Down the years magicians established improvements, with the 2 halves pulled apart. Celebrity magician David Copperfield created his own variation “The Death Saw” where he was the one restrained to a platform as a huge rotary blade sliced him in 2.
Sometimes he in fact got hurt, Copperfield stated in an interview shot for Sunday’s online occasion.
“I got cut a few times by the blade because the blade was a little bit off, you know, stages are different every theatre you have,” Copperfield stated.
The London-based Magic Circle organisation will host the events with a live streamed-event on Facebook from 1800 GMT on Sunday.
Guests will consist of Debbie McGee, the partner of the late British TELEVISION magician Paul Daniels, who will explain the lots of times she made it through the treatment.
