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This is the illusion where the magician selected
a man and a woman and had them lie down separately on
park benches. He then asked another woman
the film what was going to happen on a cell phone. What happened next
was extraordinary. Four Volunteers
one at each persons on the benches head and legs
pulled and the bench persons bodies split in two.
The magician then put the upper body of each
together with the wrong legs from the other bench.
The people then got up complaining they have the wrong legs
and the magician chuckled as he walked away.
Of course this trick could be easily done
by CGI or other camera tricks such as
green screen. But can it be explained by doing it for real?
YES, sort of. Here's how it was done.
First, let me establish
that it was not done in real time. Look at the shadow
of the trash can in he original video. At the start
a clear shadow extends to just over the path. Later
on the shadows from the trees cover the whole
trash can. This indicate that the illusion
took several hours. It also establishes
that all the people present are stooges, paid actors
who are either in on the act or are bystanders
who can see how it's done.
It is also obvious that the original bench
man and woman are not the same people
as the two who were broken in half. The faces and
upper body characteristics at different. The illusions procedure is this:
The original man and woman are normal people
with the exception that the mans legs are covered
by a skin textured cladding. This cladding
makes his legs and waist look thicker than they really are.
After these two lie down on the bench,
between camera cuts, they are replaced by half
body amputees with fake waist and leg sections.
These are people either born that way
or through accident or medical necessity have had their legs and waists removed.
The switch is less obvious than it would otherwise be
because the changing camera angles and film quality
when shots alternate between the professional cameraman
and the cell phone camera.
With the substitutes in place, they can be pulled apart
and the real top half switched with the alternate
bottom half. The woman's bottom half is a simple dummy
but the mans has a mechanical device
to kick the legs to show movement. After they are put back together
another camera break happens while
a re switch occurs in which the original
actors return and and replace the half people. This time
the man wearing a skirt has taken off the cladding
to reveal his real skinny legs. The woman
meanwhile has had the cladding put on her to beef up her legs
and waist and to make them look like a man. Are these
two half people being exploited? Well they are paid volunteers
so no. No more exploited than any
employee in a paid job.