Of course its a trick, I know its a trick, ain’t no such thing, never was, never will, and that’s that. But saw David Blaine and Cris Mindfreak do a very convincing illusion, and can’t, for the life of me, figure out How They Do That?
So, OK, smartass…How They Do That?
David Blaine did a combination of the Balducci Levitation and camera trickery.
http://www.levitation.org/balducci-levitation.htm
Never saw Mind Freak, but there are dozens of ways to do levitation tricks.
How do they do it on an intimate, table-top scale? For instance, how do they make the cigarette or card rise from the pack, seemingly by just waving the hand over it?
Of course for large scale levitation of human subjects, they use a 'oop with a 'ole in it.
Of course it’s got a 'ole! Would be a bleeding ‘oop otherwise!. Now shut yer festerin’ gob…
Magnets or invisible thread, usually. Everything else is part of the art of magic.
For small stuff you can use invisible thread. Not really invisible but thin enough where you can only really see it from 2-3 feet away against a white background. One end tied to the object the other end to their hand, mouth, top collar button, etc.
Chris Angel does a cool one where he stands facing a low wall, park bench, etc.
He has his back to the observer who watches from about 10 feet away.
He stands with his legs together then levitates into the air and onto the wall or bench. The illusion is amazing. He does it by having a slit cut from the front of his right shoe up the shoe and up the front of his pant leg. He then steps out of his shoe and pant leg with his right leg onto the wall and just steps up. Of course you can’t see his leg because it’s blocked by the back of his pants and shoes. The right shoe sticks to the left when raising with magents in the sides of the soles.
At the top of the levitation he just steps back into the shoe and pant leg.
There are lots of ways. The exact method used depends upon other circumstances. For instance, you don’t specify if the pack of cards or cigarettes is held in the other hand or not. If it is, there are methods using rubber bands or paper clips or whatever to make it rise (in addition to the aforementioned black thread). There are sneakier ways involving trick decks, or simple “self-working” mechanisms that don’t require the magician to be touching the pack.
there is significantly more to these tricks than a cataloguing of mere mechanical methods. There’s buildup, nd the planting of false impressions, and very subtle misdirection. For example – just because someone says that black thread is responsible doesn’t necessarily mean that the black thread is overhead, pulling the card directly upwards.
Here Chris Angel demonstrates how he pulls off a levitation illusion.
That levitation thing of Angel’s is a really clever, well designed, great-looking illusion. And it’s fair. It’s a real trick, not TV trick. Well done, Chris. That’s so much more satisfying than finding out it’s a camera trick. Camera tricks shouldn’t even count as illusions, IMO.