The Illusion Designer's Blog

Due to some consulting work on a theatre production, I’ve had levitations on the brain a lot lately.  While a ton has been done with levitations over the years including everything from mid-air vanishes to Greg Frewin’s passing through her as she floats, I’m happy that I’ve still been able to find ways to do things a little differently over the years.

What seems like 100 years ago now, my take on an appearance in mid-air was first released as a downloadable pdf illusion plan (Aerial Arrival also now appears in my book), which was incredibly well received by magicians performing it.  A few years later, I came out with Sound Waves, which has been licensed to Dream Illusions for magicians to purchase and perform.  Sound waves was something that I was really proud of because I spent a lot of time performing on side stages at city events back in the day and I would have killed to have had a levitation that would have worked well under those conditions.  Now, Sound Waves gives magicians that ability.

Today, I’m concentrating more on what happens once the performer is in the air.  One of my next magic consulting projects will involve a change of one character for another and I’m looking to do it in mid air.  The current concept is that the character will start to levitate off the floor of the stage, arching backwards and letting his arms and legs hang.  His body will float to a height of roughly 5 feet off the floor before he starts to turn until his feet face the audience.  Then, while accompanied by a dramatic lighting and musical change, his feet will thrust forward, rotating him to a vertical position where he faces the audience.  This is the moment that the change will happen.

My goal with this illusion has been to follow a few key rules.

1.  Under no circumstances should it look like a ‘magic act’.  It needs to blend in perfectly with the story and become a seamless part of the show.

2.  The levitation movement has to be smooth and effortless.  It can’t look mechanical or stiff.

3.  The method must be invisible to the audience and well lit.  No wires and no visible methods of support and it can’t look like we turned the lights off for it.

and finally 4.  The actor must be completely safe and comfortable.

The illusion is in a fairly preliminary design phase right now; however it’s looking like everything will meet the above criteria, fit within a tight budget and look great on stage.  I’m working on paper right now, although I will soon move that into the 3D space so that I can start designing in actual scale.  In many ways, the method is going to be similar to a levitation I designed for a production of Dracula several years ago.  In that version, Dracula rose up from behind a railing and continued to fly all the way up, landing on top of the railing and stepping down.  I liked this effect because the actor was instantly free to walk, without having to get unhooked from any sort of a fly system.  That illusion has been used as my starting point upon which I’ve added the other elements to make the rotation and transformation work.

Speaking of which, all this typing makes me want to go work

More on this to come!

Well, I’ve still got a long way to go, but the prototype of this illusion is nearly there.  There is a lot of touch up painting, sanding and the entire table still needs to be finished but I wanted to at least give you an idea of what she looks like.

It’s a time machine concept whereby objects put into the box come out in a different state after the clock has been turned forward.

We still haven’t name it.  Any ideas?

Click to enlarge

Wow what a busy time it’s been!  I’m in complete illusion fever right now as I finish up a ton of projects for both myself and other magicians.  We’re purchasing an illusion in a couple weeks, waiting on one being built and finishing up the construction of a third here at home (more on that in a later post – with photos!)

The biggest thing keeping us busy is performing.  I’ve had a busy couple of months performing both stage and close-up shows.  I like that I can bounce back and forth between the two as needed.  While I never ‘want’ to take a break from either designing or performing, it’s nice that I seem to be able to flow easily between the two.

Well, I’ve got to get back out to the shop and start upholstering this new prop!  More to come!

Last night I had the pleasure of watching a fantastic production of Into The Woods for which I created a couple magical effects.  Jennifer Worsnop-Sellers, the director of the St. Clements production, contacted me with two goals.  The first was a flash of fire, light or smoke from the witch character which we accomplished using a standard magicians Finger Flasher, allowing her to create a safe flash of fire on cue.

The second effect was one in which the script calls for the Baker and Little Red Riding hood to crawl from the stomach of the Wolf.  Typically, theatrical productions will do this in silhouette.  We wanted to do it in full view, allowing the audience to see the actors emerge, without knowing how it was accomplished.

For this, I designed an illusion using the bed.  Two slight variations in design were created for the client depending on their budget and schedule.  The version selected worked fantastically as can be seen below.  While you can’t see it in the photo (that’s the point, of course) there is a TON of room for the two actors to hide, even though the audience can see under the bed to the back underside rail.

I think the nice thing about this effect was that it was easy on the actors and even easier on the production budget.  Built out of an existing bed, the prop was built from my specs in less than a day.

Thanks to the cast and crew for working hard, selling the story and making the final effect look great!

I’m very excited to say that the first 3 units of 4 Way Split are under production as we speak.  Jack Murray over at Dream Illusions has been doing an AMAZING job of putting these together.  I can’t wait to get my hands on it and start building out my routine for it.

Here is a sneak peak, starting with the 3D concept.

The original 3D concept

The leg template

The small show that I’ve mentioned previously is coming together nicely! We’ve put together a few of the illusions and I’ll be in the wood shop within the next 30 minutes to start building my original “Ladder box” illusion. I suspect that this one will take two nights to build but we’ll see how tonight goes.  If we can’t build it in time, we’ll have to put it aside and use it for another day.  I don’t want to put an unpolished piece in the show.

Ladder box is a pretty cool illusion. It’s based off an old existing illusion but I’ve created by own unique method for hiding the load space. I’ll be sure to post pictures once building has completed.

I’m having a lot of fun working with an entirely new and untrained crew. Sometimes it’s nice to have people coming in fresh with no perceived knowledge of magic and no limitations to go by. The crew completely trusts me and is willing to run with things.

Just over a month to go. We’re down to the crunch! Ok, off to the workshop I go!

Tickets are officially on sale for Twisting Reality.

Visit www.oakvillemagic.com for more details!