Circus illusionists. Illusionists in the circus

As children, we didn’t think about how circus tricks worked - we simply believed in them. It is much more difficult to surprise an adult; it is not enough to simply pull a rabbit out of a hat. Illusionists such as David Copperfield and David Blaine work in this field - and then we see levitation, the disappearance of the Statue of Liberty and other impressive tricks. Sometimes magicians reveal their secrets - and it turns out that every trick has a completely reasonable explanation

1. Classic of the genre: sawing a woman in half

The assistant climbs into a long, coffin-like box. Then the magician announces that he will now saw this lady in half right in the box - and he successfully does this without any harm to her health!

There are several ways to perform this trick. Classic way, described in 1923, is shown in the picture below.

The box actually contains a secret, enough for the assistant to tuck her legs under. And the cut off legs are played by fake ones (they were controlled using a special mechanism to imitate movement). Therefore, they must wear shoes to cover them as much as possible.

And this is more modern way when not one assistant takes part in the trick, but two. Simply, one is hidden in a box in advance. After the “sawing,” one smiles, and the second moves her legs.

2. Levitation

The trick begins with the assistant lying down on the table in front of the magician. The crowd gasps in surprise when the magician suddenly clears the table and the woman continues to float in the air.

The assistant who helps perform this trick is usually dressed in a long, flowing dress, which the magician uses to hide the real magic: a mechanical "levitation" device that is attached to the magician and with which he holds the assistant. And here, sleight of hand comes into play: in order to distract the viewer’s attention, the magician takes out a hoop and begins to move it, showing that supposedly nothing is attached to the woman’s body.

3. Levitation of street “fakirs”

It would seem that if he actually levitates, why does he need a staff?

And this staff is the whole point: it is a very strong structure that holds a hidden platform on which a person sits.

Here it is shown how it works

4. Michael Jackson Tilt

Remember that incredible 45-degree tilt that Michael Jackson and his dancers did? They wore special boots with a specially shaped heel: at the right moment, pegs appeared on the surface of the stage, onto which the heel caught.

5. The most famous trick of all times: pulling a rabbit out of a hat

A rabbit can hardly be hidden in a hat, but where does it come from then? Surely there is a simple explanation.

Well, there are three ways to hide a rabbit:
1) In a secret hole in the table. When the magician puts down his hat, he matches it with the secret door.
2) He's really wearing a hat! But the hat has a clever flip flap.

3) In a linen bag, suspended from the edge of the table and covered with a tablecloth with a long fringe.

While the magician shows the crowd that the hat is completely empty, the rabbit is hidden under the table. The hard part comes when you pick up the hat and discreetly hide the rabbit underneath.

6. Zigzag Girl

To perform this trick, you first need a skilled assistant, because her task is to position herself correctly in a cramped closet. It is necessary to position yourself in such a way that the face, hand and foot maintain a natural straight position standing man, and the audience did not suspect anything.

7. David Copperfield's trick of making the Statue of Liberty disappear

In 1983, David Copperfield convinced a crowd of spectators for a few minutes that the Statue of Liberty had disappeared. He did this trick once and never repeated it again.

Disappearance of the Statue of Liberty

There are two towers in front of the Statue of Liberty. A brightly illuminated Statue is visible against the background of the night sky, and a mark from it is visible on the radar. A blanket rises on the towers, David covers the radar, the blanket falls - the statue has disappeared, only a ring of lights around it is visible. The radar blip also disappears. The blanket rises and falls again - the statue appears as if nothing had happened.

There are several guesses as to how this was done.

a) Turntable

The spectators did not notice it, but their viewing positions were located on a giant rotating platform. After looking at the statue at the very beginning, they were slowly turned to the point where it was no longer visible. How did they not notice the rotation? Everything happened at night, the statue is on the island, there are especially no identifying marks there.

b) Light curtain
At the appointed moment, the autonomous lighting of the statue turned off. Only 2 spotlights remained working on the island, crossing behind the towers, and spotlights on the towers, blinding the audience and not allowing them to see anything in detail. In fact, the spotlights did not illuminate the statue, but were directed upward and away from it.

c) Staging
That is, simply, deception, a hoax, and hired actors act as spectators. Skeptics usually favor this view.

The design of the equipment - special springs, double bottom, hidden partitions, specially designed mechanisms, specific installation of mirrors, etc. - allows the artist to mislead the viewer in a fascinating way.

All devices and devices of the illusionist are carefully disguised; his actions, as well as the actions of his assistants, are thought out and worked out in detail. Each gesture of the artist or his assistants has its own purpose; unnecessary movements are unacceptable. Illusionists, like manipulators, widely use distracting techniques. At the right moment, assistants can quietly block the illusionist from the public eye, invisibly hand him or take away the desired object from him. In short, the role of assistants in illusionist performances is very responsible. The success of performing tricks largely depends on them.
In other cases, an illusionist cannot perform at all without assistants. An illusionist's assistant must have certain training, including physical training. To hide in a very cramped apparatus and then suddenly appear, the assistant requires acrobatic dexterity - after all, the trick occurs in a matter of seconds. This is why experienced assistants are highly valued by artists in this genre.

No accidents or mistakes are allowed in an illusionary attraction. However, technically well-performed tricks are not art. In order for the demonstration of individual tricks to be embodied in an artistic act, a lot of directorial work is needed to determine its composition, style and design. And, of course, the performer requires genuine acting talent. When creating extensive programs, magicians typically combine the performance of manipulation tricks with illusion tricks. Many interesting tricks passed down from generation to generation have survived to this day. We must pay tribute to the ingenuity and invention of magicians of the past. Traveling artists were sometimes skilled craftsmen of various devices and apparatus. Even now their props and some of the complex and “cunning” devices are used.

Illusionary art uses achievements of both science and technology: moving and sounding automata, a “magic” lantern (“Laterna magica”) and various optical instruments. The possibilities of the genre expanded significantly due to the discovery of new laws of physics and chemistry in the 18th-19th centuries.

From Egypt and Assyro-Babylonia, illusionary art came to Syria and Byzantium, and from there it came to Russia.

Since the 18th century. Many foreign magicians visited Russia. The high society public favorably received the guest performers and treated Russian artists with disdain. To make it easier to obtain a contract, many of them were forced to hide their names under foreign pseudonyms.

One of the first to break these traditions was Russian circus artist Gordey Ivanov. Having purchased excellent illusion equipment abroad, he performed in Russia under his own name. His booth, which was called " People's Theater", moved from city to city.

Magicians pre-revolutionary Russia(and even in the first post-revolutionary years) performed mainly in booths and on theater stages - the circus arena has an all-round view, and this makes it difficult to demonstrate most tricks.

After October revolution, in accordance with the tasks of the new circus, the “Tricks” genre received a different direction of development. First of all, the rooms began to be cleaned of tinsel, deliberate mystery, and mysticism. Sword and frog swallowers, all kinds of pseudo-fakirs, “kings of chains,” “Egyptian magicians,” imitators of hara-kiri with their crude, anti-aesthetic tricks and techniques began to gradually disappear. The genre was freed from everything that did not meet the needs of the new viewer.

In 1929, the partner of the famous Kasfikis, the first female illusionist Cleo Dorotti (K. Karasik), created an illusion attraction with large equipment and a large number of assistants, adapting its show to the conditions of the circus.

Following her, other masters of this genre - Alli-Vad (A. Vadimov), Kio, M. Marches - began performing in circuses. They created many new original tricks, invented many new techniques that made it possible to demonstrate highly artistic illusion performances in the arena.

Many tricks are no longer a mystery. You can read about the secrets and techniques of their implementation, about the structure of the equipment in books written by masters of this genre (1). Although at first glance, the exposure of tricks reduces “secrecy” (tricks have interesting themes that force the viewer to think about their performance), but partial exposure promotes creative exploration, the creation of new tricks and techniques.

A huge role in the development of the illusionary attraction of the Soviet circus belongs to to the famous master Kio's tricks (Emil Teodorovich Renard). With the help of authors, directors, and artists, Kio managed to find interesting shape theatrical presentation of illusion. These were complete performances with their own scenery, production effects, mechanical stunt devices, and with the participation of a whole ensemble of specially selected assistants and assistants.

Kyo has significantly expanded the possibilities ancient genre. In his performances, various transformations and disappearances received an ironic overtone - it is no coincidence that clowns also found something to do here.

______________________________________________________________
(1) Kio, Tricks and magicians, M., "Iskusstvo", 1958; A. Vadimov, The Art of Focus, M., "Iskusstvo", 1959.

Keogh's illusion numbers responded to international and everyday themes, which were presented in a satirical manner. This significantly enriched the genre and gave it a contemporary sound. Before Kyo, in our arena, not a single illusionist turned to political satire.
The sharply satirical pamphlet "The Head from Wall Street" depicted heroes of American comic books, villains from gangster films, and parodied fashionable Western dances. The pantomime "House on the Outskirts of Paris" revealed a topical topic at the time - the collection of signatures for peace under the Stockholm Appeal. In "The House" several figures of our political enemies were presented in a caricatured and satirical manner. The episode “Speech of the Warmonger” was presented expressively. IN in this case Keogh successfully used the ability of the artist Y. Shekhtman to spew fire from his mouth to create a figurative, poster-like vivid characterization of the “fire-breathing” warmonger.

Kyo had many such skits and topical pantomimes. And each of them was solved by means of the illusion genre. The merits of the outstanding artist have received worldwide recognition. By a resolution of the International Artistic Lodge in 1960, Keogh was awarded a gold medal, which in all the years of the Lodge’s existence was awarded to only four circus performers: Italian juggler E. Rastelli, Mexican gymnast A. Codona (the first performer of a triple somersault in aerial flight), famous clown C. Rives and Keogh. The London Magic Club, which unites professional and amateur magicians, elected Keogh as an honorary member, and on the Board of Fame, which records the names of the best illusionists in the world, Keogh's name is in first place. The attraction he created still decorates circus programs. The father's work is continued by his sons - Emil and Igor.

Kyo's achievements had a huge influence on the work of our masters of this genre. Artists A. and R. Sokol created the original attraction “Miracles without Miracles” (nowadays their son O. Sokol performs). Let's name a few tricks of this attraction. The artist lets the viewer hold a light bulb without wires, and it lights up. Scrambled eggs are frying over the refrigerator. From his seat, the viewer can talk on the phone with any subscriber in the city and hear his answer, without having a telephone in his hands. The robot located in the arena accurately performs the spectator’s tasks, etc.

Probably, not everything in the attraction “Miracles Without Miracles” corresponds to the nature of circus art. However, without the search for new forms there can be no development of the genre.

I. Simvolokov also said a new word in illusion. Its attraction "Water Extravaganza" is a bright, exciting, spectacular spectacle... We are convinced - ancient art focus acquired new content in the Soviet circus.

____________________________________________________________
(1) Prestidigitator (from Italian “presto” - fast, “digito” - finger) - a magician who performs tricks through sleight of hand.

Literature:
3.B. Gurevich, On the genres of the Soviet circus, M., 1977.

Scenario of thematic conversation for students primary school"Let's talk about magicians."

Progress of the event

Alexander German 19th century

The circus is the only place on earth where you will be deceived, and you will rejoice, admire and laugh good-naturedly. This happens when an illusionist appears in the arena to the sounds of mysterious melodies.

Illusionary art, illusionism, is a circus genre that is based on focus. Every person knows from childhood: a magic trick is a trick that a magician-illusionist shows to the audience, and it is based on an optical illusion, the ability to distract the public’s attention at the right moment with any movements, active gestures, or a look and a remark. Moreover, the trick is so reliable and truthful that we, sitting in the auditorium, watching the manipulations of the circus magician, conscientiously rack our brains: how did he create a miracle? Maybe he really is blessed supernatural power and the inhuman ability to create another from one thing, to move people and objects to any point he pleases?

Illusionary art has two types: manipulation and illusionism. Both types presuppose the artist’s masterly ability to create an illusion, a deception, in front of the audience. The difference lies only in the methods, techniques, and the assistance of technical means through which this illusion is achieved. Without special equipment, illusionism will burst like soap ball. And the manipulator can make do with the props that he hid in the recesses of his suit...

The roots of illusionary art are hidden in time immemorial and stretch in our days from Ancient Syria, Ancient Egypt, Byzantium, Assyro-Babylonia, and the first magicians-illusionists were, oddly enough, serious, smart people- priests.

“How to capture the imagination of believing citizens? How to create a miracle so that, having believed in it, more and more more people hurried to the temples? The priests posed such questions to themselves and in the end successfully resolved them. The amazed people could watch sudden appearance under the arches of temples there are statues of gods, fire on the altar and much more.

IN Ancient Greece the art of performing various tricks (it was then called thaumaturgy) entered every home. Taumaturges - performers of magic tricks - amused guests and owners of a particular house during the holidays, for which artists were specially invited.

In the end XVIII-early XIX centuries began the era of illusionary machines. Entire performances were based on the use of intricately invented mechanisms, and they offered so much to the simple-minded viewer! In 1759, a certain Peter Dumolin invented the “mechanical weaver”. The famous Russian inventor Pyotr Kulibin, with the help of the devices he invented, staged grandiose illusionary shows, the fame of which went on as miraculous miracles. The minds of the illusionists worked without getting tired.

They demonstrated and mechanical cabinets", and mechanical dolls. The common people only had time to gasp and marvel.

At the beginning of the 20th century, performances during which artists quickly, in front of the audience, easily freed themselves from ropes and chains, climbed out of tightly closed chests, became especially beloved and popular among the audience... The magician-illusionist of our time, David Copperfield, continues with great enthusiasm (now the truth has died down) this tradition and demonstrated to the whole world how easily he frees himself from ropes, chains, a locked box, falling into the deadly jaws of Niagara Falls...

In every more or less self-respecting town of the 20th century, Indian fakirs, Egyptian magicians, Chinese wizards. Their performances in the circus arenas were shrouded in mystery and mystery, and the names on these theater posters were attractive with their unusualness and whimsicality - Ali, Linga-Sing, To-Rama.

The circus has already created new names, presented the audience with new illusionists, magicians, such as Y. Averino, Kio, Cleo Dorotti, I. Simvolokov, E. Tarasov, A. Furmanov, A. Shag, and many others.

Kyo... When viewers hear this surname, their hearts skip a beat in anticipation of miracles.

The founder of the family of circus illusionists Kio was Emil Teodorovich Kio (his real name was Girshfeld-Renard, 1894-1965). In his youth he worked a simple actor at the Theater of Miniatures in Moscow, then as a uniform artist, bereitor, and administrator at the A. Ciniselli circus in Poland.

In 1921, Emil Teodorovich purchased special equipment from the Berlin company Conradi-Horster and began performing as an illusionist on the stage. His first numbers were “Rejuvenation” and “Lightning Man”. Kio the illusionist began his career in the circus in 1932.

Kyo appeared before the audience in an unusual appearance: wearing a turban, to the sounds of oriental music, constantly changing costumes, secrets trailed behind him like trains. He was surrounded by assistants - according to the poster, 75 people!

Emil Teodorovich never stopped at success achieved. He was constantly coming up with new numbers, constantly looking for new techniques to bewitch and surprise the audience. In 1961, Keogh received a gold medal from the International Artistic Lodge (England).

His father’s “deceptive” profession was continued by his sons - Emil Emilievich (1938) and Igor Emilievich (1944). The whole world knows them as the greatest magicians of the arena and stage.

And yet, when the illusionist enters the circus arena and you watch dozens of doves fly out of his sleeves, and an inexhaustible stream of multi-colored scarves stretches from his hat, when before your eyes the lion turns into the conductor of a circus orchestra, and fountains of water begin to flow from the arena like geysers, at least for a second, but you believe that there is no deception, no illusion. There is a miracle, without the feeling of which it is impossible to live!

Props: An ordinary pen, preferably a light one.

Show the audience the pen. Concentrate attention on it, invite everyone to look at it, touch it, make sure that it is the most ordinary pen.

Now clench the pen in your fist, as shown in the photo, and hold the wrist of this hand with your free hand, as if you needed it to adjust the cuff.

Unclench the fist in which you are holding the pen. Now your fingers are free, but the pen has not fallen - it seems to be stuck to your palm or floating in the air! (applause)

The secret of execution: Hold the handle with your finger around your wrist. Few people will immediately notice that you are showing only 4 fingers of the hand lying on the wrist. When, before the trick, you asked the audience to make sure that the pen was an ordinary one, you focused the audience's attention on the props. In this way, you motivated them to look for the solution in the features of the object.

2. Handle in the air - no joke this time!

Props: An ordinary pen, a spoon with a long handle (or another suitable object), a shirt or jacket with long sleeve, the cuffs of which fit tightly to the wrists.

Hide the spoon in the sleeve of the hand in which you will hold the pen. Before you begin the trick, do the same as in the previous trick: let the audience make sure that the pen is an ordinary one.

Repeat the previous trick, but then remove the hand with which you were holding your wrist.

The secret of execution: No one will guess that you managed to deftly pull the spoon out of your sleeve, and it is she who is holding the handle.

With this trick you show that the previous one, similar to this one, was just a warm-up, but now a miracle is really happening. Viewers will begin to think about more complex ways to make a pen float near your palm, and will not think about such an obvious and in a simple way, like a fastener hidden in a sleeve.

3. The disappearance of the coin

Props: Pen, coin.

Show the audience the coin in the same way as you did with the pen in previous tricks.

Place the coin in your palm, take a pen in your other hand and point it at the coin in your palm.

Make a fist with your hand and hide the coin from view of the public, then wave your other hand as if it were a pen. Magic wand, touch the pen to the fist with the coin.

Repeat this movement, but at the same time quietly hide the pen behind your ear when the hand shoots up in a magical gesture: then this time you will touch the hand with the coin with the already invisible “magic wand”.

With fast movements, the audience will not notice this. Now slightly tilt your body forward with the side with the handle hidden behind your ear, and draw the audience’s attention to an unexpected moment: “Ale-up!” - take the pen out from behind your ear.

Then turn your body around, extend your hand towards the audience, which should contain a coin, unclench your fist - oops! - and the palm is empty!

The secret of execution: It is important to quietly put the pen behind your ear; for this, the gestures must be confident, quick, and the second wave of the hand must be completely identical to the first.

When you remove the pen from behind your ear, with this unexpected gesture you completely distract the audience's attention from the action of the other hand - while she puts the coin in her pocket.