How is This Magic Trick Done?

Does anyone know how this trick is done?

I don’t know but it wasn’t a very convincing one in my opinion. Too many cut aways - especially the whole taking off his shoes bit - and a rather obvious move by him to block the opening he’s just made in the paper.

Yes, I know how it’s done. No, I’m not going to tell, but I will give some helpful hints to point you in the right direction.
The guy who went inside with him is in on it.

They use the paper to hide how it is done.

Remember, it is a window.

Wow, that’s like, incredible, thanks Bob. I hadn’t even noticed the window, or the paper.

I don’t have a clue but let’s see what we know. Even if everyone on camera is in on the trick, it’s still a pretty good one. We know that it’s a window, appears solid. The paper is not taped to the window, it’s just held against it. The paper does not go edge to edge, so the window can’t be entirely taken out of place and put back. It does not seem reasonable that the accomplice inside could pull out a section of the window, let the guy crawl through, and replace it, without the seams being visible. The guy clearly went into the building so it’s not the case that he was between the paper and the glass the whole time.

Well, I guess if it were easy to figure this out it wouldn’t be so astonishing to watch,

I know a guy who claimed to have invented this trick. I suspect he knew about it but didn’t invent it. So.

Keep in mind:

  1. Yes, it’s a trick.

  2. It doesn’t depend on videotape, but it does depend on perspective.

  3. The people you see applauding aren’t necessarily doing so because they’re mystified, rather than really impressed, or for some other reason.

  4. Anybody who isn’t you might well be in on it.

  5. Time flies. Sometimes in more than one direction.

I think this one has pretty straightforward mechanics.
For my next trick, I’ll make ianzin appear. Hey presto!
The glass is a few feet taller than the frame, and can be slid up and down, inside the wall.

It has a large notch cut out in the middle, at the bottom. A lever inside the room raises the inner frame so that the notch is above the sill. This is worked while the boots are being taken off. Buddy walks around, pokes the paper, crawls through the hole, and as he jumps down with a flourish, the inside guy drops the window back to its original position.

At a minimum, the inside guy and the paper-holders have to be aware of the gimmick.

I believe the window, after he removes his shoes is no longer perpendicular to the ground, but tilted, like a garage door; closer to us than the top. am I close?

I was thinking that might be the case, but the reflections make it appear as though the glass remains parallel to the frame.

Hate these dickish posts. See Graham Wellington. :frowning:

I’m thinking that Bob Loblaw ought to request a name change, to avoid folks confusing him with bob_loblaw, who’s been posting here for over a year.

As a “trick” it’s kind of lame because it’s overwhelmingly obvious that practically everyone in the video is in on it. I’ve seem better “surprised” acting on informercials. The glass tilts out/up/sideways/whatever. Watch the how the reflection of the “OPEN” sign changes slightly before (flat and easy to see) after he takes off his shoes (tilted and more difficult to see - Time sequence 1:34 - 1:40) . It stays changed while the trick happens and he crawls through the opening, and out of the paper. Then the reflection is back to flat after he hops through and the guy inside re-closes the window pane after him while he blocks the hole with his body.

It’s all about perspective. The slight tilt can’t be caught be the camera or observers at a distance.

Long step by step explanation (last post) in this thread

I was unaware I was stompting on an established user’s name. (and me being such an ass in the pit isn’t fair to him/her either, but, let’s just not tell them.) My guest status expires in about 10 days, so I’ll sign up permanently under a new name after that if I decide to join. Sorry to the other guy.
Oh, and one of the posters above hit the nail right on the head. I’ll let you guys figure out which one, but Mange, it’s a window, it opens. Of course. He crawls through the opening, and then closes it again.

It’s a standard trick although on a larger scale than the ones that come with kiddie magic kits.

astro, I’m pretty sure that the changes in the appearance of the “open” sign are incidental – the camera operator adjusted the white balance/exposure while shooting the boot removal. At no point is the reflection of the “open” sign visible – the reflection of the sky over the sign sometimes overwhelms it.

It’s clear that the angle of the glass is the same while he is climbing out and when the glass is returned to its original position – because you can see the boom mike reflected in it the entire time, and a change in angle would be obvious. It remains totally constant, and is visible when the transition takes place. Therefore, any motion that the glass makes must be along the plane.

Beyond that, when he’s climbing through, it’s clear that his body extends more than a full foot into the room – and the edges of the glass go right up to the window frame, top to bottom. There’s no way that you could tilt the glass and still have it appear to meet the edges – unless the glass was considerably wider than the frame – because of perspective. We can see in the close shots, though, that the glass is set in the middle of the window frame.

If it were tilted out of the frame to allow him to climb out, we wouldn’t see any reflections at the bottom edges while he climbed out. We do.

previews

Ah, I see you’ve come around. :smiley:

Email a moderator about a name change instead. Technically, creating a second user name is a violation of the user agreement (even if the original is a guest name that no longer has posting privileges). It is better to just ask for a name change.

the “open” sign does not move because it’s not attached to the pane of glass.
It’s attached to or suspended from the non-moving window frame.

I know it’s been mentioned, but the bit where he tells the cameraman to “keep the camera on me all the time, don’t cut away” just before he decides to take off his shoes and the camera … cuts away to his feet, is particularly cheesy.

Anybody who thinks this is a good trick after that deserves it.

Actually the trick is nothing more than an enlarged version of

this trick .

The plane of glass slides within it’s frame revealing the opening in the glass hidden behind the sheet of paper.

Well, thank goodness you protected the brotherhood of magicians; otherwise, somebody might have posted the answer, and then where would be?

You might want to read up there, at the top of the page, what it says under “THE STRAIGHT DOPE”