Magicians the world over are outraged that an Appleton, WI museum has revealed how Harry Houdini performed his famous “Metamorphosis” trick, performed while handcuffed in a sack in a trunk.
At a hastily-called press conference, several stage magicians threatend to put a hex on the museum and its patrons.
“They want to see how Metamorphosis works?” an enraged David Copperfield was quoted as saying. “I’ll show them how it works from the inside. POOF! They’ll all metamorphose into asthmatic newts!”
Teller, silent half of the comedy magic team Penn & Teller, angrily shouted “——— — —- – — ————— — ——— ——– —— – —— —– ——— ——-!”, his eyes bulging with rage.
Even the normally smiling Doug Henning wasn’t smiling at the press conference. “If the BBC thinks that it will escape our wrath because it only explained on its web site what the museum revealed, they’re wrong! They’ll wake up one morning to find their mouths and fingers have disappeared! How will they file their oh-so-informative stories then?”
Despite these threats, Libby Bias, head of the BBC News Division, seemed unconcerned. “The BBC have retained the services of Prof. Quirrell, instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m sure that with him working at the organization, evil forces will never be able to infiltrate or harm the BBC.”
I remember being at a magic show where they did a similar trick. However, they put the trunk to far forward, and those of us sitting on the far front sides were able to see the whole trick.
Just so you know, Doug Henning died a couple of years ago. His last major project was the supposed planning and design of Veda Land, a theme park devoted to transcendental meditation.
Libby Bias… heh. 🙂
There was a TV series about 25 years ago (I think it starred Bill Bixby) about a magician who also solved crimes. I remember one episode where the magician was locked in a safe, then lowered into a swimming pool. At the end, when Bixby revealed who the crime culprit was, there was also an explanation of how the trick worked. It was kinda cool, but it does remove the mystification of the illusion.
Revert Mike, the show was actually called “The Magician” & did star Bill Bixby. I recall it being pretty good, too. Very different for it’s time.
I saw Doug Henning when I was a kid. Put on a great show. I wonder what sort of rides there would be at a TM theme park?
And there’s a magician who had a series on Fox, I think, that revealed the workings of the most commonly-seen magic tricks. He was totally ostracized by his peers.