Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00 [outro music]
00:23 [no audio]
00:36 [music]
01:03 Hi, I'm Andrew Mayne, and this is the Levitator DVD.
01:07 On here, we're going to explore several ways to make it look like you're actually floating in midair.
01:12 Now, most of the methods here are very simple one-man effects,
01:16 and later on in the DVD, you'll see a strictly stage effect that's a little bit more involved,
01:20 but well worth it when you're in that situation.
01:22 Now, the method behind many of these effects is based upon an idea first created by Louis Siminoff,
01:27 known as "Super Louis," which was published by Paul Harris in 1978.
01:32 Paul has graciously given me permission to present to you my variations on this idea,
01:37 and I thank Paul for that.
01:39 On this DVD, I'm going to show you some ideas that can work on street or on stage.
01:43 I'm going to focus on the stage presentation because I wanted to overcome one of the problems with many street-style levitations,
01:49 and that is that although they're intended for the street, they're very angle-sensitive,
01:54 and your audience has to be in a very specific position.
01:57 So I wanted to have a much more dynamic levitation that you could perform in a variety of situations
02:02 and bring a street-style levitation to the stage,
02:05 which allows you to perform a really cool effect with very few props that you can carry in a briefcase
02:09 or just carry with you and go do and not need a lot of elaborate apparatus.
02:14 I've also included a couple impromptu ideas for you, like the anti-gravity machine,
02:18 which is a cool party stunt you can do.
02:20 And then at the other end of the spectrum, I have the ultimate levitation,
02:24 which is strictly a stage levitation that requires an extra assistant and some apparatus,
02:29 but I've streamlined the materials that go into it, and it's a very easy-to-put-together effect.
02:34 The first levitation I ever made was a version of the Super X.
02:39 The Super X is a levitation where you have a support here, a bar that goes up here,
02:43 and it goes out, and then there's a seat, which is really better used for photographs.
02:47 Well, I always wanted a Super X, and this is when I was like 14 or 15,
02:51 and I never had the money to buy one, but one year when my brother left for college,
02:55 he left behind his weight bench, hoping that I would use the weight bench to,
02:59 I don't know, whatever you use them for.
03:01 Well, I did use the weight bench.
03:03 I took it apart and found out that the part that went like that, that supported the barbells,
03:07 I could lay that flat, and I could take the seat that came out from there and attach it to there
03:12 and create what looked like a Super X.
03:14 So I had a bar here, the support here, and a place to attach a seat that I could sit on
03:18 and make it look like I levitate.
03:20 It really wasn't something you'd use on stage.
03:22 What I would do with this thing is I would set it up in the living room
03:24 and hide the bar that supported me behind the curtains
03:27 and then sit out there on that seat and just float in midair like that, which was great fun.
03:32 One day my brother came home from school and walked in the living room,
03:35 and there I am just sitting there like that, and he just thought that was hysterical.
03:38 And he was okay with the idea of what I had done with his weight bench
03:42 when he realized how much fun I was having with it in that context.
03:45 He would later on ask me to set that up so we could frighten his friends.
03:49 So I would go set this levitation up in my bedroom where I'd have my seat over my bed,
03:54 and so he would bring friends over, they'd open up the door, and they'd look inside there,
03:58 and I'd be sitting there Indian-style in midair.
04:00 And I'd go, "Oh, hello. How are you?"
04:02 It would scare the heck out of him.
04:04 It was funny. He'd bring girls over, and he'd go, "You know..."
04:07 He'd stand in front of the door, "Have you met my brother?"
04:09 And they'd be like, "Oh, no."
04:10 I'd say, "Yeah, my brother, he's a little bit odd."
04:12 He'd open up the door, and there I'd be just sitting there,
04:14 pretending to meditate, floating a foot off of my bed.
04:17 It would scream and run, which was a reaction I had to get used to for the rest of my life.
04:21 This is what the original effect, originally called "Super Louie" by Paul Harris and Louis Siminoff,
04:31 and then what I called "Pocket Levitator," looks like.
04:33 You start off with either a cloth or maybe your jacket.
04:36 You bring it in front of your body, like so,
04:40 and look up and create the illusion that you're actually floating in the air.
04:46 Go back down and pull away the cloth, and you're clean, totally like that.
04:51 Now, here's how this effect works.
04:53 Both of these shoes are gimmicked, so they're going to stick together.
04:57 In this case, I'm using magnets. You can use clips, you can use Velcro.
05:00 Magnets are the first thing I tried, and I think they're the best way to do it.
05:03 You then have a cloth or a jacket, like so.
05:07 So you bring your feet together like that, and then under the cover of the cloth,
05:10 you pull, let's say, your right foot out here.
05:12 I have a black sock on that makes it very easy.
05:15 And then you tilt back on your leg and raise those feet up like that,
05:20 creating the illusion that both feet have left the ground.
05:23 Then you return to the ground, put your foot back in, pull away the cloth,
05:28 separate your feet, and take your applause.
05:31 Now, you can do a couple different cool things with this.
05:34 You can do the basic, just floating up in the air, which is cool.
05:39 You can take this foot here and put it at the corner of the cloth like that
05:44 and raise your feet up off like that, like you're floating to the side.
05:49 And that looks pretty neat.
05:51 Now, the downside of this method is that it's really just sort of a street or a party stunt.
05:55 You have to be in a situation where everybody's standing and looking down at you.
05:58 If you try to do this on stage, they're going to see the back leg.
06:01 So that's why I came up with the idea of this DVD,
06:03 was to share with you some of my ideas for how to perform Pocket Levitator
06:07 or Super Louie, whatever you want to call it, up on stage.
06:10 And the way we've done this is we've changed things a little bit.
06:13 We actually perform it on a chair so you can float in front of the chair.
06:16 We use a black sock so you can have your foot and back on that black chair
06:20 and then bring your legs really far out to the side.
06:22 And then you can do this cool thing where you float up, off the chair,
06:25 and then back down to the ground, creating a really cool, complete illusion
06:29 you can do on stage with very simple props, but looks awesome.
06:33 To perform this effect, you're going to need a pair of shoes
06:36 that you can slip your feet in and out of pretty easily.
06:38 I recommend you use a bright-colored shoe.
06:40 The reason for this is it's going to stand out.
06:42 Darker-colored shoes might get lost in the shadows,
06:45 and the audience may not necessarily realize that both of your legs
06:47 have apparently lifted off the ground.
06:49 So I use some white shoes like that.
06:51 You're going to want to use probably a black sock.
06:53 The reason for this is two reasons.
06:55 One, you want to use a thin black sock.
06:57 It makes it much easier to pull your foot in and out.
06:59 And when you want to stand on the chair and perform this effect on stage,
07:02 it makes this foot essentially invisible if it's on a black chair or a dark background.
07:08 Now, the important method behind most of the levitations on this DVD
07:12 is the idea that one leg, either your left leg or your right leg,
07:15 depending upon which one's dominant for you,
07:17 is supporting your body as the other leg lifts up, supporting both of your shoes,
07:22 creating the illusion that both of your feet have left the ground.
07:25 Now, there are multiple ways to do this.
07:27 I've played with just about every method you can imagine.
07:30 The first way I tried is I used some really strong, at the time,
07:33 neodymium magnets that I had in my shoes.
07:35 And the magnets allowed you to pull them apart, put them together,
07:38 and hold them together pretty well.
07:40 When I first bought these magnets, they were really expensive.
07:42 Now, they're much cheaper.
07:44 And the magnets I use--I'll put up on the screen here so you can see the brand
07:47 and where to get them--are pretty inexpensive, and they're not that large.
07:51 They're very, very powerful.
07:53 Even from here, they're pulling towards each other.
07:55 I don't even have to stick them to the inside of the shoe.
07:57 I just place them inside the shoe like that, and they do all the work.
08:03 I put my feet in there, put the magnets in, and they hold together.
08:06 The downside of these magnets is they're very, very strong.
08:09 You're going to get all sorts of pieces of random metal that you never knew existed
08:13 stuck to your feet--probably meteorites, who knows?
08:16 But they're very strong, and this is my preferred method.
08:19 Now, along the way with playing different methods,
08:21 I came up with the idea of using a banker's clasp like that,
08:24 and that's what was in the original pocket levitator.
08:27 What was great about this was that it was very lightweight.
08:30 You could easily replace it if you lost it.
08:32 You could keep it in your pocket without worrying about a magnet
08:34 destroying your cell phone or your credit cards.
08:36 When you're ready to perform the effect, you slipped it over one shoe like that
08:40 with this part going under your foot, and when it was time to perform,
08:43 you slipped that part of the tang into the other shoe like that
08:47 and then pulled your foot out.
08:48 That made it very easy to lift these shoes up,
08:50 creating the illusion that you were levitating.
08:53 You had a little bit of movement like that back and forth,
08:56 and when you're ready to finish, you just lift up like that.
08:59 This is a pretty solid method.
09:01 You could get one of these, paint it black.
09:02 I prefer using the magnets.
09:04 If you're in a hurry to try this effect, you can try some Velcro.
09:08 The problem with Velcro is Velcro makes a lot of noise,
09:11 but the way to use the Velcro is you stick it between your shoes like that,
09:15 and when you want to pull your shoes apart, if you're using a cape
09:18 or you're using a cloth or whatever, you whip it and pull your feet apart
09:22 pretty quickly.
09:24 Still kind of loud, not my preferred method,
09:26 but if you just want to try these things right away, you can use that.
09:29 Another method is a little clip like this, a bulldog clip,
09:32 which you just put over the top of the shoes.
09:34 You do this by bending down to the ground, going down to your knees
09:38 and preparing yourself like you're ready to launch off.
09:40 You can put the clip over like so, and that will attach them.
09:44 Now there is another method where you don't need any of these clips
09:47 that works reasonably well enough.
09:49 It's not as fluid as other ways, but you don't need a gimmick.
09:52 All you do is take your sock off and use your toes to grip both of the shoes
09:57 like so to lift them off of the ground.
09:59 That's another way to do it if you want to do this in a totally impromptu way.
10:03 Here's what the different methods look like.
10:05 My favorite method is to use two really strong magnets.
10:09 In this case, I've got two here and two here.
10:11 Be careful of buying magnets that aren't quite strong enough.
10:14 I know that's been a problem for some people who try effects similar to this.
10:17 They get magnets that aren't quite really strong,
10:19 and at some point the shoes fall apart.
10:21 You want to make sure they're really strong, yet compact enough
10:24 to fit inside of the shoes.
10:26 They're really durable.
10:27 They're not going to go anywhere unless I want them to.
10:31 This is the basic method here.
10:33 Notice I have a regular sock on this foot, and on my other foot I have a black sock.
10:38 This is a skinny black sock, a dress sock,
10:40 which makes it very easy to slide my foot in and out of the shoe like that.
10:48 So to perform this effect, it's going to mean at some point I've got to bring my feet together
10:52 and pull this foot out and raise these shoes up.
10:55 It should be that easy.
10:57 If you're worried that the shoes aren't going to get picked up,
10:59 or you have a problem putting your feet in and out of your shoes,
11:03 the effect is not going to be as smooth as it should be.
11:06 You want this to look really smooth.
11:08 The smoother it is, the less likely the audience is to assume that you're doing what you're really doing.
11:19 This is how the clip method works.
11:21 Now, you want to use this with the shoes that are pretty rigid on the sides here
11:24 and aren't too thick up around here.
11:26 This works pretty well with a lot of different kinds of dress shoes.
11:29 And here I'm just going to use black shoes, although you probably want to use some brighter shoes.
11:33 This flat part will go underneath the foot that is going to be lifting the other shoe,
11:38 and that part will just slip inside of there like that, hooking the two shoes together.
11:45 So you already have this clip in place on this shoe.
11:50 You want to put your two foot in there.
11:52 After your foot is out of the other shoe, this shoe will come down over the top,
11:58 and the clip will clip over that side wall like that, allowing you to lift both shoes up like that.
12:04 And you have a little bit of flexibility here.
12:06 Now, a totally impromptu method, like I mentioned before, is to have one sock not on,
12:11 or have a sock where the toes are cut out.
12:14 I call this the monkey toe method, where you take both of your shoes off like that,
12:19 and you have your foot to go in here, and use your toes to grasp and lift up the shoes like that.
12:25 Which, if you're really in a situation where you have to do this effect, and you have the right timing on it,
12:31 go ahead and use this method.
12:33 It's kind of neat because it is totally impromptu, and you're using monkey feet to do magic,
12:37 which I'm a big fan of.
12:39 If your socks are loose enough, you can actually use the monkey toe method with socks.
12:44 It's just so much easier and natural, in my opinion, to use monkey feet to do it.
12:49 Here's an important thing to remember.
12:51 All of these methods require a degree of balance and coordination.
12:56 You should practice all of these on the ground before you attempt this on a chair.
12:59 If you're kind of clumsy, you might want to practice this on a lot of padding.
13:04 Don't hold me responsible.
13:05 You want to make sure that you're in shape and that you can move and you're agile enough to pull it off.
13:09 It's not complicated.
13:10 This is not some sort of gymkhana, but don't fall.
13:14 When you do these things, keep that in mind.
13:16 When you first practice, don't even use the cloth or the other props.
13:19 You just want to make sure that you can actually physically lean and do that without falling off a chair.
13:24 Falling would be bad.
13:26 It would be great comedy, but it would be bad.
13:28 [Music]
13:31 [Music]
13:34 [Music]
13:36 [Music]
13:50 [Music]
13:52 [Music]
14:02 [Music]
14:09 [Music]
14:11 [Music]
14:22 For Levitator, I wanted to come up with a way to take the effect behind Pocket Levitator and Super Lui and present it on stage.
14:33 The problem with those effects originally was that they were mostly made for, or intended for, the street,
14:38 where your audience was going to be looking down at your cloth and your feet and not see underneath the cloth and see your supporting leg in back of you.
14:45 To solve this problem, I realized you have to figure out a way to get rid of that angle.
14:49 The solution I came up with was to do this on a chair, because then you're floating on a chair,
14:54 you're floating off of the chair, in front of the chair, or you're floating to the side of the chair,
14:58 and the chair elevates you off of the stage, giving you an extra foot or two of added levitation.
15:04 By using that chair and changing the way the levitation works, where you're still floating off the stage,
15:09 but using it as a chair to apparently make it more dramatic, it adds a whole new dimension to it
15:14 and allows you to take a street levitation and perform it on the stage.
15:17 To perform Levitator, you're going to need a chair.
15:20 What's great about the chair is this gives you like an added two feet of levitation.
15:24 You'll need a cloth. This is about two yards of fabric that's about standard fabric width,
15:28 and your shoes with either a clip, a magnet, or using the toe method.
15:33 Once you have these things, you're ready to perform the effect.
15:36 To start off the effect, we're going to step up onto the chair.
15:43 The chair is great. It adds a level of drama to what you're doing.
15:47 Once you're on top of the chair, you want to unfurl your cloth like so, like that,
15:51 and you're going to bring it over the tops of your shoes like this.
15:55 As I do this, I'm going to pull my right foot out of the shoes and set it in the back corner of the chair right there.
16:03 After I've done this, I'm going to do the first phase, which is the tilt.
16:08 The tilt is where I'm going to make it look like I'm leaning at an impossible angle.
16:12 So I'm going to lean on my right foot.
16:14 I'm going to twist my shoulders as far to the right as I can and bring these two feet out like so,
16:19 like that, always trying to lead it more with my shoulders than the feet, and then bring them back.
16:25 So this is what it looks like without the cloth.
16:28 Leaning on my right foot, bringing these out, twisting my shoulders as far to the right as I can,
16:34 bringing that out. It's okay to be a little unsteady, but just don't fall down.
16:38 Bring it back and put your right foot back into the shoe as you pull away the cloth
16:43 to show there's no mechanical apparatus, there's no ninjas dressed in black or whatever.
16:48 After you've done that, we're going to go to the next phase.
16:51 We bring our feet back together, pull out the cloth.
16:54 You're going to bring the cloth over your toes like so.
16:57 You're going to pull the right foot back out, and you're going to begin to lift off.
17:02 As you do this, you want to point the feet down as much as possible.
17:06 The more you show of the front of the feet like that, the more convincing it is
17:10 that you're not actually standing on your heels on the edge of the chair.
17:13 Do this, go up and down a bit, and then gently float to the ground.
17:19 As you do that, in one clean motion, bring your right foot into your right shoe,
17:23 pull away the cloth, and step away from the chair.
17:27 And there you go. That's Levitator.
17:29 The thing you have to keep in mind with this effect, the most important aspect of it,
17:38 is the idea that you want to make things very fluid.
17:41 You want to watch yourself on video to make sure that your movements are fluid.
17:45 If you take too long getting your foot in and out of the shoe,
17:48 if it's awkward and you step up on top of that chair,
17:50 it's not going to be as strong as it possibly can.
17:53 And you want this thing to look amazing.
17:55 And it'll look amazing if your movements are fluid.
17:57 And that means practice it.
17:59 Don't watch this DVD, try it, and then go put a YouTube clip up tomorrow.
18:03 Okay? That would be stupid.
18:05 You want to practice it until it looks really fluid, until you watch yourself doing it.
18:09 And you don't know when your foot comes out,
18:11 you don't know when you're standing on the chair,
18:13 when it really looks like you are floating.
18:16 Another thing to remember with any and all levitations is don't overdo it.
18:21 Don't levitate for too long.
18:23 For Levitator, you want to get that first motion where your legs float out to the side,
18:28 and then float back, quickly pull away the cloth to reveal that there's nothing there.
18:33 Bring that cloth in front of you, then float out over the chair,
18:37 hover a bit, and then float to the ground and pull away the cloth.
18:41 Don't spend ten minutes doing it. Okay?
18:44 Have clear motion, come back, then you're going to float forward,
18:49 pause for just a beat, then float to the ground and pull away the cloth.
18:54 If you do it any longer than that, it's not going to be as impressive.
18:57 Don't do it too quickly, but really, please don't overdo it.
19:01 The difference between a really strong levitation and a weak levitation
19:04 is a strong levitation is as long as it needs to be and no longer.
19:10 [Music]
19:14 [Music]
19:42 [Music]
19:45 [Music]
20:11 [Music]
20:39 [Music]
20:42 I came up with Up because I like the idea of an indirect levitation.
20:46 That's a levitation where you're levitating, but it's not an overt thing,
20:49 where you're like, "Hey, look at me, I'm floating in midair."
20:52 For Up, you do this really strange thing where you're standing on a stage,
20:56 and then you just float up to the top of a chair,
20:59 and then you float back down to the stage floor,
21:03 creating a question in the audience's mind of what did they just see?
21:06 Did that guy just float? Did time slow down?
21:09 Something really mysterious happened, but they're not quite sure what it was,
21:12 but they were entertained.
21:14 Now, this ideally could be used as an MC bit or just some sort of quick throwaway
21:19 you do in the context of a larger show.
21:21 It could just be something you do really quickly to some music
21:24 and then carry on with something else, just leaving them scratching their heads,
21:27 wondering what happened.
21:29 To perform Up, you're going to need a regular piece of poster board with an arrow on it,
21:33 a chair, and your shoes using either the clip, the magnets, or the toe method.
21:38 Once you have these, you're ready to perform the effect.
21:41 To begin the effect, explain that this board with the arrow on it
21:48 is actually an anti-gravity machine.
21:51 When I do this, I hold it out like that to show that there's really nothing to it.
21:54 It's just a board with an arrow on it.
21:56 Once you've done that, you want to step back to the chair.
21:59 You're going to bring your feet next to each other like so,
22:02 place the board over your toes,
22:05 pull your right foot out of your shoe,
22:07 set it onto the chair, and doing this as casually as you can,
22:10 and then look up.
22:12 As you do that, you're going to bring yourself up,
22:15 bring your feet back onto the chair,
22:17 put your right foot back in,
22:19 pull away the board,
22:21 revealing that there's nothing to see.
22:23 Now, bring the board back,
22:26 point to the arrow,
22:28 turn it towards the ground.
22:30 After you do that, you're going to pull your right foot out,
22:33 but point towards the arrow, point to the ground,
22:36 and then lift up the board and your feet,
22:39 float out, and then gently float down,
22:41 bring your right foot into the shoe,
22:43 and as you do that, pull away the board
22:45 to reveal there's nothing to be seen.
22:48 I think the most important factor in making up look good,
22:55 and by looking good, I mean just looking smooth,
22:57 is to get your foot in and out of the shoe pretty quickly,
23:00 and to get it onto the back chair
23:02 without moving your shoulders too much
23:04 or telegraphing your movements too much to your audience.
23:06 Practice that in front of a video camera.
23:08 Get an idea of how your shoulders look and how your movements are.
23:11 I think you'll have a really cool effect
23:13 if you get those movements down really smoothly.
23:16 [music]
23:20 [music]
23:48 [music]
24:15 [music]
24:18 Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to fly?
24:20 I know I do.
24:22 And sometimes when I'm alone, I actually think I can.
24:25 [music]
24:28 [music]
24:44 [music]
24:47 So here we are filming "Flight" late at night
24:53 in the back alley in the back of my warehouse.
24:55 We like to shoot late at night
24:57 because usually there's nobody around.
24:59 Well, as soon as I go float myself using "Flight,"
25:01 we get a crowd because some people were working in a garage
25:04 a couple of warehouse bays down.
25:06 They come down, and they're all gathered around to watch this thing,
25:09 and they're totally blown away by what I thought
25:11 was just kind of a simple, cool little effect.
25:13 But to them, it was a miracle.
25:15 They kept asking us, "How are you flying? How are you doing this?"
25:17 They were looking for wires. They wanted to know if there was a crane,
25:19 which showed me this idea was probably a lot stronger
25:22 than I gave it credit for.
25:24 I thought it was just kind of a really cool, quickie effect,
25:26 but to them, it was a miracle.
25:28 To perform "Flight," you're going to need a chair,
25:30 your shoes with either the clip method, the magnets,
25:34 or just use the toe method if you practice that enough
25:36 and feel comfortable doing this very quickly.
25:38 You'll also need a cape.
25:40 This is just a piece of fabric.
25:42 It's about two yards long and standard fabric width.
25:44 Now, you want to make sure that your cape reaches
25:46 all the way to the floor when it's placed over your shoulders,
25:49 not too much further beyond, and definitely not too short.
25:53 Once you have these materials, you're ready to perform the effect.
25:56 To start off the effect, you want to have your chair in the middle of the stage.
26:04 Now, you can just move this into position if you want,
26:06 or already have it there.
26:08 You can just put on your cape and your shoes, and then you're ready to go.
26:11 I start off by explaining that I always wondered what it would be like to fly,
26:14 and then tell the audience that sometimes I think I actually can
26:17 when nobody's looking.
26:19 I then pull out my cape, which is just a piece of fabric,
26:22 place it over my shoulders.
26:24 I start at the front of the stage, and then I walk towards the chair.
26:26 As I do that, I unfurl the cape, place it over my shoulders,
26:29 make sure that it's in the right position,
26:31 step up right in front of the chairs, bring my shoes together.
26:34 I'm going to pull my right foot out, just like that,
26:37 and set it on top of the chair.
26:39 I use my hands to grasp the cape,
26:41 and I want to make sure that the cape is right over my heels,
26:44 but not too far back and not too far forward.
26:47 Once I've done that, I'm going to take a step up
26:50 and begin the levitation part of the effect.
26:53 Now, notice how I use my hands to keep the cape out.
26:57 If I let the cape fall in, it'll become obvious how I'm doing this.
27:00 So, the hands are holding the cape out like that.
27:03 I'm going to move and kind of shake just a little bit,
27:05 it's not the most easy thing to fly.
27:07 And after I've done that a little bit,
27:09 I'm going to bring my feet back down.
27:11 Now, before I do that, notice how I'm pointing my toes towards the floor.
27:15 By pointing my toes towards the floor,
27:17 it gives the idea that I'm really, really floating off the ground,
27:21 and it gives them a lot of foot area to see below the line of the cape.
27:25 After I've done that, I'm going to go back down,
27:28 make touchdown, bring my right foot back into here,
27:31 and just nonchalantly turn around, pull the cape away,
27:34 off my shoulders, and face the audience,
27:37 and go into whatever I'm going to do next.
27:40 When you perform flight, you want to be careful of your staging.
27:47 Now, you use a chair there, but you don't want to bring that chair out
27:50 for no apparent reason, because then it becomes obvious
27:52 that maybe you're using it as a support.
27:54 That chair should already be there for some other reason.
27:57 A great way to start it out might be to have your cape draped over the top of the chair.
28:01 You can be sitting in the chair explaining.
28:03 You always want it to be like to fly, but you're afraid to try, whatever.
28:06 Then you pick up the cape, put it around, and then you fill it up in the air,
28:09 and then you fill it back down and sit back down in the chair.
28:11 It gives a reason for the chair to be there,
28:13 other than the reason that it actually needs to be there.
28:16 Think about your staging.
28:18 If you want to go perform this for friends or on the street,
28:20 you can use other things.
28:22 You can use a park bench, you can use a curb,
28:24 you can use anything in your environment that will give you enough elevation.
28:27 But if you perform it on stage, think of a reason for that chair to be there,
28:31 other than just using it as a support.
28:35 [music]
28:39 [music]
28:42 [music]
28:57 [music]
29:00 [music]
29:11 [music]
29:18 Have you heard about the anti-gravity machine?
29:23 I saw this at a party. It's just a science stunt.
29:25 There's no real practical application to it, but still it's pretty neat.
29:28 You get a big sheet of newspaper like this,
29:30 and then you rub it against itself to build up some static.
29:33 Sometimes you can wave it through the air to get a little more static.
29:38 And once you have enough static, the thing is just fully charged.
29:41 I'll show you what I mean.
29:43 It's called the anti-gravity machine for a reason.
29:46 So let's give it just a little bit more of a rub here.
29:49 And I think we're good.
29:51 I can feel the charge already. It's starting to straighten out.
29:53 As it straightens out, it's pretty neat,
29:55 because what happens is it can actually lift a full-sized human,
30:00 which is pretty neat.
30:02 Once the charge is starting to leave, though, you feel it start to leave,
30:05 and it starts to lower itself back down, and then, well, it's over.
30:09 And that's the anti-gravity machine, which is pretty cool.
30:12 I love cool party stunts.
30:18 I especially love stunts that are a complete lie,
30:21 where the audience thinks they're getting some sort of insight
30:24 or special knowledge about science or what have you,
30:27 and I'm actually just lying to their face,
30:29 showing them something that's really an impossibility,
30:31 and they'll look like an idiot if they try to explain to their friends the next day
30:34 that it was real.
30:36 The anti-gravity machine is an example of that.
30:39 You take a piece of newspaper, you offer to demonstrate
30:41 what's supposed to be some sort of science stunt,
30:43 and then you make yourself float, and then you hand them back the newspaper.
30:47 It's an impromptu effect. It's not a huge, big stage illusion.
30:50 It's not something you do with a whole lot of fanfare.
30:52 You just go do this thing and hand them the newspaper,
30:54 and the best part about it is when they try to do it,
30:57 and when they try to build up that static energy
30:59 and try to sit on it and straddle it and make themselves float,
31:02 they're going to look like an idiot,
31:04 because half the people there know you did some kind of magic trick.
31:06 They're not sure what you did, but they know you did some sort of magician,
31:09 levitate-yourself thing.
31:10 The other half think, "Man, this is like Mr. Wizard.
31:12 I just learned science," and they're going to go try and do it,
31:15 and that's where most of the enjoyment for me comes out of an effect like this,
31:19 watching other people to try and do it, and only looking desperate and futile.
31:24 The anti-gravity machine is a complete lie, but it's a fun lie.
31:28 It's a lie you tell at a party to make people think that you can take
31:31 two pieces of newspaper taped together here
31:33 and turn it into a magical, mystical anti-gravity device.
31:37 All this is is two sheets of newspaper taped here,
31:40 and I have a little more newspaper up here rolled up in the top.
31:42 This is based upon my broom-flight levitation.
31:45 That was a method I came up with for making it look like you could float on a broom,
31:48 and that appears in my Wizard School DVD.
31:50 Here we've just sort of changed the premise and the props a little bit
31:53 so you can create what looks like a science demonstration.
31:56 You can do this impromptu just about any time you want,
31:59 and it's pretty easy to do.
32:01 Let me show you.
32:02 Here's how you perform this effect.
32:08 Now, you start off with two or three sheets of newspaper rolled up at the top.
32:11 You want to roll it at the top so it has some rigidity there.
32:14 And now to begin, you're going to tell your audience,
32:17 the people you're performing this for, probably best at a party,
32:19 that you've got to build up some static.
32:21 Just do that by rubbing the newspaper together.
32:24 Look real serious.
32:26 Hold it near your face like you're trying to detect how much static is there.
32:31 You can wave it through the air.
32:33 Now, if you need to move your audience,
32:35 because let's say you have some people around you,
32:37 you have a perfect opportunity to do that.
32:38 You say, "Oh, if you need to get everybody to this side,
32:41 and you want to stand over here, say, 'Oh, I've got to stand over here
32:44 because the tile is better here,'
32:45 or, 'If there's carpet, because the carpet is better here,'
32:47 or whatever, 'Oh, it feels like there's more static.'"
32:50 Use that as an excuse to move yourself to wherever you need to be
32:53 so the angles will work right.
32:55 Here's what's happening on the other side.
32:57 After you've built up your static charge,
32:59 you're going to straddle this, bring this between your legs.
33:02 This side, my right side, is going to be away from the audience.
33:06 The audience should be all over here.
33:08 If they're over here, your trick's not going to fool them.
33:10 So audience is over here.
33:12 This is the back side.
33:13 This is the way side.
33:14 You're going to rub the newspaper a little bit more.
33:16 As I do that, I'm going to take this foot out of the shoe like that.
33:20 I'm going to come down with my right hand, grab that shoe,
33:23 and then clip my thumb over here for a second to adjust the newspaper.
33:27 This just gives them sort of the unconscious idea that both hands
33:31 are gripping this part of the newspaper like that.
33:34 So once I've got the newspaper right where I need it to,
33:37 and I have my shoe, I'm going to tense up, I'm going to bend at the knees,
33:41 and then I'm going to start to float up.
33:42 Let this hand come back with the shoe.
33:45 I'm going to raise my left foot like that, come back,
33:49 and then bring this shoe over my ankle and then float for a little while.
33:55 My right shoe should now be visible to the audience on the other side.
33:58 They're looking at that, and they have this indirect evidence
34:00 that both feet are off the ground.
34:02 I'm going to float a little bit, not too much, and I'm going to say,
34:04 "Well, you know, the static doesn't last very long."
34:07 I'm going to come back to the ground, bring this shoe out,
34:10 bring my other foot out, crouch down to the ground as I stand up,
34:14 put this foot back into the shoe, pull away the newspaper like that,
34:19 crumple it up, toss it aside, what have you,
34:22 and that's the anti-gravity effect.
34:26 [Music]
34:30 [Music]
34:34 [Music]
34:37 [Music]
34:46 [Music]
35:01 [Music]
35:30 Here's the secret behind the ultimate levitator.
35:33 To do this effect, you need to do this on stage.
35:36 You're going to want a backdrop or some sort of stage setting like this.
35:39 The reason for that is the apparatus that makes you float is behind here.
35:43 There's a seat that comes out that then lifts me a couple feet into the air.
35:46 Let me show you what that looks like from over here.
35:49 This is a totally human-powered illusion just based on a Fulcrum and Pivot.
35:56 We have this big, long rod here that gets pushed through the curtain.
36:00 This is made out of angle iron. I picked this up at Home Depot.
36:03 I just bolted these pieces together, put a 2x4 here and a piece of 2x4 here,
36:07 and then mounted. Down at this end, we have the bicycle seat.
36:10 This is actually attached to a piece of 2x4 right here.
36:14 I drilled two bolts right through the seat and then into the 2x4
36:17 and then fixed the 2x4 between these two pieces of angle iron like this.
36:22 The duct tape was just to keep it secure as I bolted that through.
36:25 It's really not a complicated effect to put together.
36:28 It'll take you maybe an hour to build one of these.
36:30 The only power tool you're really going to need is a drill to drill through this metal,
36:33 which is pretty tough metal and you're going to need a really good bit.
36:36 But other than that, it's a pretty easy illusion to put together.
36:39 The biggest part about this whole effect is having a stage with a backstage
36:42 large enough to perform this.
36:44 But if you've got that, you've got a couple hours to kill,
36:46 you can put together a really neat illusion.
36:48 The way the effect works is your stagehand, in this case, Justin Robert Young,
36:53 will pick this up, slide it through the opening in the curtain like that,
36:59 and then on top of this pivot.
37:02 And then once I'm on there, to lift me up, he simply applies his weight
37:06 and pushes down like that, lifting me up into the air.
37:10 Let me show you how that works.
37:12 At the beginning of the illusion, the support that Justin's going to use to raise me up
37:21 is resting on a stool to the right, and then in front of that, it's on a sawhorse.
37:25 He's got this in position and it's all set to go, just ready for me to walk on stage
37:29 and to do the effect.
37:31 Now, I introduce the effect by saying something like, "Hey, let's levitate," whatever,
37:35 and then I'm going to step into position.
37:37 I actually have marked on the floor here where I need to be standing.
37:40 Once I'm here, I can either give Justin a cue and say, "Go," or we can have a music cue
37:45 that tells him that it's time to push the support through the curtain,
37:48 which he's going to do right now.
37:51 Now, the support's going to come through the curtain, the bike seat's going to come
37:54 between my thighs, and it's going to raise up and basically go to a high point,
37:58 and I'm going to sit back down on it.
38:00 I recommend you only do this with somebody you trust.
38:03 Once he's done that, he's going to raise me up in the air, and I'll use my hands
38:07 to choreograph whatever my levitating gestures are going to be.
38:11 I float up in the air. We hold it for just a little bit.
38:13 You don't want to float too much, and then gently go back to the ground.
38:17 Once I'm back on the ground, I'm going to bring my arms back down,
38:21 take a little while to step forward as Justin pulls the support back through the curtain.
38:26 Once it's through the curtain, I can step away and present myself to the audience
38:30 as if I did this all by myself.
38:34 I've played with dozens of different kinds of apparatus for making people float,
38:42 from stuff you wear on your body to make an assistant levitate,
38:45 to large pieces of apparatus that you can use to make multiple people float.
38:49 I'm always looking for ways to simplify all this for several reasons.
38:53 One, it makes it easier to transport it.
38:55 Two, it makes it easier to set up.
38:57 And three, it makes it easier to store it.
38:59 But the key, of course, is to always have something that looks really cool.
39:02 What I love about the Ultimate Levitation is it's a very, very mechanically simple levitation
39:07 that can be put together very quickly and very inexpensively.
39:11 You can get everything at a Home Depot or a Lowe's or some other hardware store,
39:14 you only need a power drill to put it together,
39:16 and it puts together really quickly in under an hour.
39:19 Next, all you need is just an assistant you can trust.
39:22 The setup we used for this version of the effect is very simple.
39:25 I have three lights that are right in back of me,
39:28 and then a little black curtain that hides the apparatus and the assistant that's making me levitate.
39:33 You can set this up on a stage if you don't have a large curtain that you can push the thing through.
39:37 Just put your lights there, put a black curtain in back of the lights,
39:39 and create kind of a black artifact to hide them.
39:42 It's a very, very simplified setup, yet it looks really cool.
39:45 It looks like I'm floating in the middle of the stage.
39:49 [Music]
40:18 The first time I ever performed a levitation was actually not on stage,
40:22 but it was in front of a TV audience.
40:24 A local TV weatherman had come into a magic shop where I was a demonstrator
40:28 and asked me to go on the local news show, and so I did.
40:31 And I said, "Oh, I can do something really cool. I can make somebody levitate."
40:34 I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I figured I'd find a way.
40:37 My dad helped me weld a prop that was based upon that first Super X I had,
40:41 but a little bit lower to the ground, and I figured I would go levitate the weatherman.
40:45 Well, the problem was I didn't realize how heavy the guy was.
40:49 So before I'm supposed to go on, we sit this guy down on the levitation, and it snaps.
40:54 Now, we only fell a couple of inches onto the supports that were below the seat,
40:57 but he fell down like two inches, didn't get hurt, and I didn't know what to do.
41:01 Here was my levitation. I was supposed to make this guy levitate.
41:04 Well, I promised them a levitation, and I couldn't do it because my prop was broken.
41:08 And they'd already said on the news, "Coming up later, magician Andrew Mayne,
41:11 and he's going to do a levitation."
41:13 So what do you do? You're in a situation.
41:15 You've got 20 minutes before you're supposed to go live on the air.
41:18 You've promised them a levitation, and your levitation apparatus has broken.
41:23 Well, I looked around, and I found a pile of wood and a couple of sawhorses,
41:29 and I looked at the set they were going to have me on.
41:31 It was a morning-style show with a chair and living room set up,
41:35 and I took a board, laid it across one of the chairs, put that on a stool on the back.
41:40 I put my buddy Ken Montgomery on the back of the stool, sitting on that part of the support,
41:44 and then I sat on the front of it, Indian-style, and put a stool underneath me.
41:48 So I'm just sitting there like this, and they say, "Oh, and Andrew's going to levitate."
41:51 And I'm like, "Yeah, hey, what's going on, folks?"
41:53 But I pull the stool out from underneath me, and I levitate in midair there.
41:56 Just using materials I was able to find in the studio 20 minutes before we went live on the air.
42:02 It worked out better than we could have expected.
42:04 As soon as we were finished, the guys in the newsroom upstairs came running downstairs
42:08 into the studio during the commercial break to see how we did it.
42:12 But because it was just a board and a stool, there was nothing for them to see.
42:16 We had already set the board back to where it came from, got rid of the stool.
42:19 There was no apparatus, there was no wires, there was nothing there for them to see.
42:23 And this was a levitation made from materials that were on hand there.
42:27 Now the lesson here is that if you improvise, you can come up with some really amazing things.
42:31 In this situation, I looked over, saw a pile of lumber, and realized,
42:35 given the situation I was in, I could actually make a levitation that would work.
42:39 And it worked really well, and it was a thing people talked about for weeks to come.
42:43 Thank you for watching the Levitator DVD. I hope you found something on here you can use.
42:48 I recommend you try multiple methods, just because it will make you more agile and flexible,
42:52 and will make whatever you do look that much more smooth.
42:55 If you're interested in other stage effects, you might want to check out my Illusion Effects DVD,
42:59 or my Buy Section Unlimited, or any of my books or plans on illusions,
43:04 which you can find at my website at shockmagic.com.
43:07 [music]