Magic Tricks - How to Saw a Woman in Half

Sawing a woman in half trick was probably the first made by a British magician named PT Selbie in 1921. Original interpretation would probably not be very satisfactory for a contemporary audience as the woman was completely enclosed in a wooden box so that was out of sight when the cutting took place. Before entering the box in his hands and feet bound with ropes. Betty Barker was appointed assistant Selbie and we know that it was the first woman to be publicly sawn in half!

Horace Goldin performed the version of how to saw a woman in half, we are more familiar with today: the woman's head and feet sticking the ends of the box and the box halves are separated briefly when it was sawn . When the two halves together are replaced, the assistant emerges unscathed.

Since then, we have seen and continue to see all possible variations of how you saw a woman in half, even more spectacular, including the use of a transparent box (the first of The Pendragon ") and a particular version Penn and Teller horrible involves a lot of guts to latex and fake blood!

Despite these variations, uses all of these saws in half an illusion of two basic principles. The illusion is essentially mechanical.

In one approach, the box is so constructed that gives the illusion of a much thinner and narrower than it actually is. In fact, a lot of room attendant simply curl up on one side of the box. Often, in this case, the wrong feet are put in place under the pretext of a variety of screening.

In the second method, the box has a false bottom in the central part, which slides out when the assistant to lower his diaphragm out of trouble when cutting. Often, from the beginning was the assistant wearing the wrong tree fiber glass, so that even in exposed situations such as a transparent box version of the already said, is an illusion that the woman is still exactly the same situation . In fact, he has slipped out of the wrong in the middle.

Thus, the famous saw a woman in half magic trick is done by a combination of mechanical, optical illusion and deception.

Interestingly, despite its long tradition of modern magicians are constantly trying to find new expressions of old theme. An example of the most powerful and famous took place on television in Criss Angel's show in which, instead of sawing a woman in half, had audience members pull a woman through a bank the park! This was achieved through the use of two buddies, one of whom was a woman born with a deformity known as "sacral agenesis" in which the person actually has a normal head, shoulders and arms, but seems to lack the sections lower body, all vital organs exist in the body inhibits the growth and the other a professional circus artist. Needless to say, the effect caused a controversy.

So now you know how to saw a woman in half. But popular as this magic remains with the public and even armed with knowledge about how it's done, I will warn you to think and plan very carefully before attempting to do so because it can still be very dangerous, if not set up just right.