VIDEO: Magic Tricks That Went Horribly Wrong

Magicians around the world are constantly upgrading their tricks, coming up with the craziest ideas and, sometimes, even playing with death!

The desire for fame often makes them do really dangerous tricks.

Those tricks usually go well, but at some point something terrible is bound to happen.

This video presents five magic tricks that have gone horribly wrong.

According to Wikipedia, a founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in 1845. He transformed his art from one performed at fairs to a performance that the public paid to see at the theatre.

His speciality was constructing mechanical automata that appeared to move and act as if alive. Many of Robert-Houdin’s mechanisms for illusion were pirated by his assistant and ended up in the performances of his rivals, John Henry Anderson and Alexander Herrmann.

John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London. In 1840 he opened the New Strand Theatre, where he performed as The Great Wizard of the North.

His success came from advertising his shows and captivating his audience with expert showmanship. He became one of the earliest magicians to attain a high level of world renown. He opened a second theatre in Glasgow in 1845.

Towards the end of the century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm. The British performer J N Maskelyne and his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall, in London’s Piccadilly, in 1873. The show incorporated stage illusions and reinvented traditional tricks with exotic imagery.

The potential of the stage was exploited for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the control it offers over the audience’s point of view. Maskelyne and Cooke invented many of the illusions still performed today – one of his best-known being levitation.

The model for the look of a ‘typical’ magician—a man with wavy hair, a top hat, a goatee, and a tailcoat—was Alexander Herrmann (February 10, 1844 – December 17, 1896), also known as Herrmann the Great. Herrmann was a French magician and was part of the Herrmann family name that is the “first-family of magic.”

The escapologist and magician Harry Houdini took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on what became known after his death as escapology.

Houdini was genuinely skilled in techniques such as lockpicking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. Houdini’s show business savvy was as great as his performance skill. There is a Houdini Museum dedicated to him in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The Magic Circle was formed in London in 1905 to promote and advance the art of stage magic.

As a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television specials, which opened up new opportunities for deceptions, and brought stage magic to huge audiences.

Famous magicians of the 20th century included Okito, David Devant, Harry Blackstone Sr., Harry Blackstone Jr., Howard Thurston, Theodore Annemann, Cardini, Joseph Dunninger, Dai Vernon, Fred Culpitt, Tommy Wonder, Siegfried & Roy, and Doug Henning.