So how do magicians pull off those amazing illusions? Well, we can always watch every Penn and Teller TV special (those guys rock!... Ed.), or we can rely on insiders revelations about how these tricks are done. We have found a few, listed below, but we would like to reveal more. If you know how any of the great illusions are done, then please submit them here and be part of the 'Secrets' family.

Dancing Metal Ball (and variations).

This illusion is one of the most effective in any magicians bag of tricks. A metal ball seemingly dances around by itself , floating all over the stage, and sometimes the audience (variations have it under a cloth). Well, we know by the laws of physics that objects cant fly around by themselves, so it must be tethered somehow. Yet when David Copperfield and co. show this ball dancing around, over the audience, how do they control it? That must make any tethering very difficult. And it is. Like most illusions, we know that what we are seeing is impossible. Most of us sit there and marvel not at the fact that someone or something flies around the room, (we all know no one can actually fly), we marvel at how well the magician pulls off the illusion. We have all heard the collective 'how the hell did he/she do that' line, and that is really what we want to know. Well, its a good bet that what we are seeing when any object flies around the room is something on a wire. So how can Copperfield make it fly around inside a sealed perspex box? Remember, most magic shows and illusions are performed in strictly controlled conditions. The lighting is designed to deny the audience a clear view of what is really on stage. Red light is preferred, as it makes the thread very difficult to see. Many of the props and sets are cleverly designed to conceal the secrets of the illusion. Some of these tricks are age old, and modern magicians merely add a modern element, whether it be a rock music soundtrack, flashy pyrotechnics or exotic animals. All are there to divert the audience from what is really happening.

Anyway, back to our dancing metal ball. So we understand so far that the ball is on a wire. The ball is also very lightly constructed, belying its appearance. So where is the wire? It is all over the stage. The lighting, as we mentioned, is low, so any dark thread cannot be easily spotted. The backdrop is also very important. The thread is often black silk, thin but very strong. The thread can be manipulated in a couple of ways. It can be controlled by an assistant backstage, watching the performance on a monitor or through a transparent part of the set so he can match the magicians movements. Remember these guys are highly skilled professionals, and the acts are carefully choreographed, so the end result is that the movement is flawless and convincing. The silk in this case runs through many sets of pulleys, often over the crowd and just out of reach. The assistant controls the balls movement using a wand that connects to the thread. The other way is for the magician himself to control the thread, however, this can be limiting, in that the ball must never go beyond an arms length from the magician. Good illusionists like Copperfield appear to use a combination of both, slickly changing methods to confuse the viewer. OK, so far so good, but how does it fly in sealed containers? Well, we know that solid objects cant pass through others, so there must be a way in. The container, whether it be perspex, wooden or glass have cleverly designed lids that are trimmed, or 'shaved' so that the thread passes through and cannot catch on the edges. The opening only has to be half a millimetre wide for the silk to pass through, and how many people could see that in low light from an audience perspective? A similar illusion is done with David Copperfield 'flying' around the stage and inside a 'sealed' perspex box. Even though we know basically how it is done, we can still marvel at the sheer skill and panache that the magician uses to accomplish such a difficult illusion. On one TV special however, he flies over the crowd, then outside the theater, and flies off into the evening sky. Now that's magic!

The Sawing a Woman in Half Trick (and variations).

Most people probably already know how this is done. Some magicians do it better than others though, and there are seemingly infinite variations on this theme. The standard gag is where a woman climbs into a cabinet, with her legs protruding from one end and her head from the other. The magician then 'saws' the cabinet in half (variation: uses large solid blades) and then separates the two halves, showing us indeed that the woman is completely cut in two, wheeling the two ends of the cabinet around the stage. A very clever trick, and very easily explained. Obviously we cant have magicians going around cutting assistants in half. Also obviously, her body must be in the half of the cabinet where her head is. The box itself is cunningly designed to appear smaller than it really is. Use of colour, lighting and perspective make it harder for us, the audience, to judge just how big the props and sets are. So, the woman gets into the cabinet, and we see her feet come out the other end of the box. We assume it is her feet, and sometimes she even wiggles them to show us it really is her feet. But these are fakes. They can be moved by the magician, the assistant, or an off-stage accomplice by means of an invisible thread. Modern illusionists sometimes use radio control and have an assistant manipulate the feet from off-stage. The woman pulls her knees up to her chin and turns her body sideways, keeping her head looking to the roof. Her flexibility and the apparent size of the box are the keys to this version of the illusion. The magician then 'cuts' her in half and can wheel the two parts around the stage all night long, she is only in the 'first' half.

Another variation of this trick is a woman is cut in half , without a cabinet, right in front of us, and wood on either side of her is cut by the oversized buzz saw blade. Highly effective, this illusion is nonetheless easy to explain, though very difficult to perform, as this is a real blade which could do some real damage. The key to this one is the table the woman lies on. It has a hollow that her body 'sags' into, and thus clears the blade. She is wearing a dress that covers a fake torso, so that when she lies face down on the table, the 'torso' appears to be her real body directly inline with the blade. Wood is placed either side of this torso to prove that the blade has indeed passed through the woman. Of course, the blade is real, and it does cut through this fake torso, so safety is the biggest issue here. It is essential that the assistants real body be clear of that blade. All the regular rules of magic apply, diversion, lighting and props making this a convincing illusion. It is recommended that the motor driving the blade be underpowered, though one wonders what this would really achieve if something did get in the way. We think this is best left to the professionals, at least they have insurance.

Uri Geller et al.

Uri Geller was huge a few years back. Just this past year he has written a book and has returned, however briefly, to the public eye. Movies have been made about him, careers built and failed on him. Certainly, the man has charisma to spare, and people seem to have no problem believing in him, (mind you, all those people believed in Jim Jones too huh...... Ed.). Geller has all but disappeared, mainly due to the fact that he was exposed as a fraud. Did he deserve this accusation? He is very convincing, and some things just cant be explained away. Like most so- called phsycics, he may have been tempted to reinforce his claims with trickery, and this got him into trouble. We have all seen the films of (mainly Eastern European or Russian) laboratory experiments with telekinesis, phsycokinesis and ESP. Often, because they came from behind the iron curtain, they were discounted out of hand as misinformation or propaganda. But were they? Some are very convincing, and here at SYSK we are of the opinion that though there are many frauds and con-artists out there, there are some genuine cases as well. So, what about Uri Geller?

Geller started as a small club act in Israel, and certainly used 'plants' in the audience to signal answers in 'telepathic' demonstrations. When arriving in the United States, it was claimed Uri had real psychic powers and, as a slick vaudeville act, they had no trouble in seducing a willing public. The accomplices were named as Shipi Shtrang, an Israeli national who was a close friend of Gellers, and Solveig Clark, an American born woman. According to David Marks, then a psychologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, he observed Geller and Co. during a national tour of that country. He stated that Clark frequently sat in a unoccupied part of the theater and signaled the answers to questions with discreet movements of her hands, their own version of sign language. He claimed to have documented various signals and could, after a few performances, read what they were. Like magicians and their tricks, telepaths are performers, and it is not so much the trick itself, but how well it is done. Uri and his friends certainly put on one hell of a show.

His more famous 'achievements' were bending spoons and starting watches that supposedly were broken or had not run for years. These tricks are relatively easy to do. Most magicians can pull these off with ease. Geller though needed to distance himself from conventional magic, he wanted to be seen as a true psychic rather than an accomplished magician which, in hindsight, is what he was. Most spoons are so easily bent that anyone with a little pressure in the right place, and a good magician's flair can produce a convincing display of 'mind control'. And as for starting long-stopped watches? Most older watches are winder types, and the movements run in 'jewels', often ruby or some other hard compound. Over years, these movements get dirty, the grease hardens and the jewels wear out, so the watch stops. The slick magician will hold the timepiece in his hands, concentrating hard in an effort to bring the watch back to life. He may even tremble with the effort, and if he is a good showman will sweat and move the watch around as much as he can. So, after all this, the old grease has melted with the heat, the movement is running again with all the shaking and it appears for all intents and purposes that the 'psychic' has resurrected the watch. Neat huh! Go on, find an old watch and try it yourself. You will be surprised how many can be started this way. This of course doesn't explain some of the more complex 'dead watch' tricks, where additional sleight of hand may be needed. And some we have seen are seemingly inexplicable. I guess we will have to wait for one of you people out there to write us and tell us how that is done!

Magic is a fascinating past-time that has thrilled audiences for centuries. From the close-up guys to the master illusionist, anyone watching cant help but wonder how the trick was done. The close-up magicians have incredible skills at misleading where we look and what we are supposed to see. The people train themselves for many years to attain near-perfect execution of their tricks. They use many secret pockets, drops and slick hand manoeuvres like 'palming' objects. We have seen people told to close their hands, and when they open them some object has mysteriously found its way into their closed fist. How do they do that? We don't know. Do you?

That's all we have right now. More exposés are on their way thanks to your submissions. Be sure to check back for updates!

Know any good tricks? Tell the world about it, submit them here.

Secrets You Should Know. This site is intended for entertainment purposes only.