Magic and card-throwing

Henry and his friends and all of their slaves go to see a vaudeville show in November, and they are greatly impressed by a magician-mesmerist and his comely assistant.

The magician’s trunk trick and floating girl levitation trick are derived from detailed descriptions of illusions of the general time period. While the multiplying/dividing rabbit trick is also based off of illusions real magicians of the period performed, I have no idea how it is accomplished. Obviously, witches and warlocks are involved.

(all videos are short because I have no patience for videos, seriously)

Short, blurry video of an Asrah levitation trick.

And here a version of the magician’s trunk/metamorphosis trick, with hideous music and a 1980s body-builder lady. It’s totally worth watching for her flexing and posing:

I wasn’t familiar with card-throwing until I started researching the magician’s performance.  This video is made by someone who clearly has it in for fruit and veg:

And here’s the distance world record holder shilling his card-throwing system:

For me, all of these illusions would be greatly improved by the magician wearing a tailcoat and looking dapper as hell, which unfortunately does not seem to be a thing magicians care about in this century.

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