Stage Magic

Floating Table Magic Trick is Still Unrevealed

Party Tricks, Stage Magic

 

a black Hat and Wand used in a magic show

In the age of the Internet, it seems like there are no secrets anymore. There is an answer to everything. There’s nothing you can’t Google, lookup, or find out in a matter of seconds. Information is all around you, and it seems limitless.

This is true for so many things, but when you step into the world of magic, you start to notice that the answers aren’t always easy, accurate, or reliable.

Illusions under Wraps

Yes, even at a time when it seems there are no more secrets, magicians have managed to keep some of their illusions under wraps. The magic community is still close off from the rest of the world in small, but distinguishable ways. You probably didn’t even realize this was possible, right?

After all, there have been numerous expose shows, blogs, and videos that uncover secrets at every turn.

But there is still some mystery in magic, and some magicians have been able to shield their tricks from the world if even just a little bit.

 The Floating Table Trick Remains 

Nothing exemplifies this more than the floating table magic trick. The magician message boards are perhaps the most helpful places, but even there the information is spotty and unreliable.

In fact, even finding a history of the floating table, much less its secrets, seems to be nearly impossible. There is very little information about the trick’s origin, or how long it has been performing for.

Part of this is understandable. Once a trick revealed it’s not as valuable to the world of magic, or to the person who creates it. If everyone knows the secrets of the floating table, then anyone can build one, anyone can perform the trick, and anyone can make money from it.

By limiting who privileged with the knowledge of how to perform the floating table magic trick, you limit who can benefit from it.

That would explain why the comment section on any of the videos that posted tend to be vicious and charged. Magicians definitely don’t want their secrets out there for everyone to copy.

Knowing the Magic Tricks

For you, this might be hard. Not because you want to run away to a life of performing magic tricks, but because you like answers. For you, a trick or illusion is only fun if you know how it’s done.

Not knowing just frustrates you. It eats away at you. When you see a trick like the floating table you need to know how it’s done for your own peace of mind.

Of course, withholding this information is part of the fun for magicians too. They have pulled one over on you, and you can’t even figure out how. You could ponder the floating table over and over again, and yet you won’t be able to truly know the answer unless it’s explained to you.

So, due to the lack of reliable information available about the floating table, you are left to speculate and gather information where you can. Let’s start by examining the type of trick it is.

 It’s Classified as a Levitation Trick

The floating table belongs to a group of magic tricks that are known as levitation tricks. The floating table is also known as the spirit table, and much is written about the way this trick was used by mediums and psychics during séances.

The modern-day floating table trick may get its inspiration from the floating séance tables of old, but it’s clear that the methods are different.

The spirit tables were often lifted off the ground with the help of planted participants who were working for the medium in order to hook potential customers.

Tricks Captured Audience’s Attention for Centuries

But still, in either case, a performer is using an illusion to defy gravity. It’s no accident that levitating or gravity-defying tricks have captured the audience’s attention for centuries. Gravity in itself is a kind of magic. You know that it’s always here, and always working, and you know it can be explained, and yet, it seems beyond explanation.

That’s why it’s easy for magicians to pretend to mess with gravity. It will always enthrall audiences.

 How the Trick Appears

This can achieve by levitating people, or objects, as with the floating table. The floating table trick as it known to magicians today involves taking a small side table, something that a lamp would probably sit on, and cover it with a magician’s cloth and a small wooden box.

Once these elements are in place, the magician is able to get the table to levitate several feet off the ground and move from side to side and up and down.

After watching the trick, many people assume that there must be wires that extend from the table to a fixed point, but many demonstrations from magicians defy this explanation. They move freely with the table, so the question becomes, where are the wires attached?

The Losander Table

A quick look at some of the magician message boards and you’ll notice a name start to pop up over and over again about the light table. Losander Amateur magicians ask others in their field about how to build a Losander table.

The table is the key to the trick. Many magicians ask if they can build their table because the original Losander table runs upwards of $1200.

Time and time again magicians ask others for ways to make their table to save money, but they told that buying the table is the best and only option.

The Art of Levitation

It’s clear that what you’re paying for is not the table. You are paying for the secret to the trick. On his website, Losander bills himself as the master of the art of levitation, and he claims that his Losander floating table is the best table levitation trick around. He created it over 20 years ago, and it has been captivating audiences and other magicians ever since.

Other famous magicians support this claim, and they ask that magicians honor the original and not seek a copycat table.

 Possible Explanations of the Floating Table

Sparse videos on YouTube with no working sound offer half of the picture when it comes to the floating table trick. By observing the one here, you’ll notice that a sort of metal arm inserted in the top of the table. This arm is hidden by the magician’s cloth that placed on top of it.

The metal arm tells some of the stories of the trick, but not all of it. There’s still the significance of the box that placed on top of the table. Is it to draw your attention away from what is happening? Is it to disguise where the metal arm inserted?

There are a few other videos you could examine, but most of them are after trying to sell you a product that will promise you answers. It’s clear that when it comes to the floating table trick, the answers not supposed to be free, or easy.

 The Magic is in the Performance 

Of course, by watching Losander perform the trick, you’ll notice what most practicing magicians know all too well. It’s not the trick that’s hard; it’s the performance. Losander makes you believe that he his levitating the table. He draws you in. You know there is a logical explanation for how he is achieving the effect, and yet, it defies logic. He makes you believe that the table is floating.

By paying money or infiltrating the magic community you could gain access to this secret knowledge. But you wouldn’t be able to make much use of it. Knowing the steps and secrets doesn’t make you a magician, and once you know the answerers, the magic is gone.

All Will Eventually Revealed 

The floating table trick won’t likely remain unrevealed for long.  If YouTube is any sign, people have spent years trying to expose the method, and they won’t rest until they do.

So you can take heart in knowing that the mystery will solve, or you can take heart in letting it stay, at least somewhat, a mystery. It may eat away at you, but when it does, watch a magician perform the trick and revel in their skill.

How Do Magicians Burn Paper Into Money?

Party Tricks, Performance, Revealed, Stage Magic

Magic is always more interesting when money is involved. And one of the greatest tricks involving money is the one where a magician will burn an ordinary piece of paper and transform it into money.

To do the trick yourself, all you need is a piece of paper, a candle, a match, and a table to perform the act on.

What does the trick look like?

It all starts with the magician showing you this ordinary white piece of paper.

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Then he shows you that he has nothing else in his hands.

After laying the piece of paper on the table, he picks up a box of matches and pulls one out.

He uses it to light a candle on the table next to him.

He crumples the paper up and sets it on fire with the flame of the candle.

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A big flash and it looks like the paper is gone.

Then he begins to unfold the paper, as he unfolds the paper it looks like the white piece of paper has turned into a hundred dollar bill.

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The crowd erupts with applause.

How is it done?

The key to this trick is the white paper and the matchbox.

The matchbox, at the beginning of the act, is sitting open on the table.

Before he begins the trick he places a crumpled hundred dollar bill into the back of the open matchbox.

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It is completely concealed because when the matchbox is open there is an empty space back there.

After get gets a match out to light, he closes the box.

The act of closing a box pushes the hundred dollar bill into his hand.

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Your attention is on him lighting the match. Once the candle is lit, he takes that white piece of paper and seemingly crumples it into a ball.

What he is actually doing is crumpling it around the hundred dollar bill.

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The white paper is no ordinary piece of paper.

It is a piece of spark paper, created to burn instantly and put off a flashy flame. When he sets it ablaze it does its job perfectly.

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It is burned away, so when he looks like he is unfolding the paper, he is really just revealing the hundred dollar bill hidden underneath.

Watch the entire trick and learn how it works

Every magician should start this trick with one of those do not try at home disclaimers, because who would not want to take a piece of paper and turn it into money?

This is a great trick and really popular among street performers.

It is more about drawing your attention away from what is really going on.

It seems so simple, yet it takes some pretty inventive techniques to pull off.

The Levitating Woman – Stage Trick Revealed

Performance, Revealed, Stage Magic

We’ve all seen it before: The Levitating Woman. It has to be one the oldest illusions in the history of stage magic. It’s one of those tricks where you would never be able to figure out how it works unless someone told you.

You’re about to see why in just a minute.

What the trick looks like?

Once the woman lies down, a sheet is draped over the board.

The lifted sheet gives the audience the impression that only the two chairs at the end of the board are holding it up.

The magician then puts the pretty lady in a trance and slowly raises his hands.

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Two assistants remove the chairs.

The lady magically floats up under his hands.

The assistant next to him hands him a hoop, which is drawn over the board so that the lady passes through the middle of it.

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Next, he slowly lowers his hands and the lady floats down gently.

The assistants put the chairs back to catch the pretty little lady. They unwrap her and she sits up, swinging her legs over the side of the board.

How does it work?

So now you want to know what really happened.

The board is actually being held up by metal rod in the back of the board.

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The chairs do nothing at all. They are only there for illusion.

When the magician isn’t standing there, the rod is clearly visible. But the magician blocks the rod from view with his legs.

The platform that the magician is standing on is the biggest key to this trick.

It is mechanically designed.

Under his feet are two hidden buttons which allows him to control the mechanism up and down.

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These gears are what raise up that pretty little lady with the touch of a button under his foot.

So how does he make the hoop pass through?

That metal rod that the magician is hiding with his legs are attached to the board the woman is laying on in a very specific design.

It is designed specifically for the hoop!

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1. So on the first pass that hoop is brought to the bend of the S.
2. The second pass he does is to untangle the hoop so that he can hand it to the assistant.

This all might sound complicating, but it’s really not. It’s all a prop trick that any magician can do with just the right equipment.

Take a look at the entire performance below.

Watch the complete trick and the revealing

What makes this trick so cool is that you are not even looking at the magician’s legs.

You are so mesmerized by the hoop going around that even if he stepped out of the way so that you could catch a glimpse of the rod, you would probably miss it anyway.

It is really easy to see why this trick is so popular. It is fun, fast, and completely mesmerizing.

A Performance by Gamarjobat: The Best Comedic Magicians From Japan

Performance, Stage Magic

Here is a performance by Gamarjobat, a comedic magician duo in Japan.

One of my favourite comedians to watch. They are absolutely hilarious and show us that magic doesn’t have to always be mysterious.

They barely do any magic in their routines, but they entertain the crowd better than any magician I’ve seen.

Watch their performance below.

There are many magicians who choose to incorporate comedy into their routines. If you love performance, but don’t necescesarily enjoy practicing tricks until your hands blister, perhaps you should consider turning your magical acts into a different genre of visual arts.

Magic can be mixed into a variety of performing arts. Be creative. You don’t have to do the same routines as everyone else.

One of the Oldest Stage Illusions Revealed… Wait Never Mind

Revealed, Stage Magic

This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Stage illusionists have been performing this trick for a very long time and most people have not been able to figure out how it’s done.

Today, we’re going to learn the secrets and how you can do it too. However, there’s a catch at the end. This is one of the coolest tricks I’ve ever seen. I love tricks where they teach you how the classic version of the trick is done, then leave you scratching your head by adding a twist at the end.

When you see how it’s actually done, it’s going to be disappointing. It’s kind of a bummer to learn that the secret behind a great illusion is actually very plain and boring. But, make sure you watch until the end. You’ll learn how one trick is done, but it doesn’t end there. Get ready to have your mind blown.

Care to venture a guess on how the second part is done? There are many hypothesis by people who watch the trick. For people who guess that he merely hides in the dark, behind the stage, and switches places with the woman at the last second, watch the video again. You can clearly see that she enters the compartment before the man is revealed.

Note that all sides of the compartment are opened at the end so she clearly can’t be hiding on one of the sides.

This one is a real mind tickler.