# Mindfreak guy on Snopes.com... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2006, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844 "2006-06-23T08:46:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844/41 "2006-06-25T00:07:17Z")
Here’s a related question: are there stricter “rules” about plants and such in other countries? Would it be a safer or less safe assumption that [Cyril Takayama](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=345613) uses “plants”? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844/42 "2006-06-26T10:39:41Z")
> [@diggleblop](#): > > Have you ever seen how the people act in most of his tricks? You can tell they’re all acting and doing a bad job of it at that. How are people supposed to react when they see a woman being pulled in half? You obviously have quite great deal of experience observing such reactions, so please share your observations with us. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844/43 "2006-06-26T11:42:34Z")
I haven’t seen the show in question, or even gone to the link (my workplace system blocks it), but it’s pretty clearly a “pulling” (or cutting) “a woman in half” trick, with the top half moving afterwards. On the DVd for Tod Browning’s **Freaks** they have some wonderful extras, and the bio on famed “half-man” Johnny Ecks (his body seemed to sto at his stomache) they relate how he and a magician did a “sawing a man in half” trick. Johnny had a normal but identical (from the stomache up) brother who was in the audience as an accomplice. The magician called him up, and he got uinto the coffin for the “sawing a guy in half” trick. During the getting-in proces, he rolled off away from the audience and Johnny got in the top half. The bottom half had a midget dressed up in a pair of parts that went up above his ghead, so he looked like the bottom half of a body. after the “sawing in half” part, Johnny emerged from the top and ran around on his hands, and the midget got out and ran around, an aparently headless bottom half. There is nothing new under the sun. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844/44 "2006-06-26T13:37:54Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > How are people supposed to react when they see a woman being pulled in half? You obviously have quite great deal of experience observing such reactions, so please share your observations with us. Let’s be clear about this. Unless they were small children or mentally subnormal, no genuine bystander would believe for an instant that they had literally witnessed a woman being pulled in half. Thus their reactions to such an event are beside the point. It follows that when I see and hear people acting as if they were shaken and shocked by an obvious stunt I’m going to be very suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844/45 "2006-06-26T14:46:01Z")
> [@Sequent](#): > > Hmmm…sounds vaguely familiar. You wanna know what I think? I think Snope’s lack of explanation has a lot less to do with their sacred allegiance to The Magician’s Code and a lot more to do with the fact that they just don’t know! > > Claim: We know but we’re not tellin’ > Status: Lame-ass cop-out Yeah “More than that we cannot say without running afoul of the magician’s code…” :rolleyes: :dubious: I sincerely doubt that Barbara or David Mikkelson are Professional stage magicians and beholden to that so called “code”. :dubious: Thank Prime we stopped that nonsense here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mindfreak-guy-on-snopes-com/361844.md?page=2)