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THE VANISHING HEAD ILLUSION

This is one of the magic world’s most baffling illusions. If you have ever seen it presented we are sure you will agree. Now for the first time it is released to the general magic public. It has for many years been a closely guarded secret of a few top professionals. If you were to buy this illusion already made up, it would cost you from fifty dollars to several hundred, de-pending on the particular version and the quality of the workmanship.

EFFECT: The magician places a bottomless box over the head of his assistant or a spectator from the audience. When the front door of the box is opened, the head is seen to have completely vanished. Then to completely baffle the smart ones, the magician opens the door on the back of the box and the au-dience can look completely thru it and can see the curtains or whatever is in back of the box. To further prove the fairness of the feat, the magician takes out his pocket handkerchief and waves it up and down behind the box so that the audience can see it thru the box. To complete the routine, the doors are closed, the box is removed from the spectators head which is now seen to be back on his shoulders where it should be and is intact.

The secret? Mirrors. Disappointed? If you will take the little time necessary to build this effect, it will become one of your favorites. Plus, it can be built with cardboard boxes, so the cost is very low. You could also make it from plywood or Masonite if you want a quality piece of apparatus, although some performers prefer the cardboard box look because it looks unprepared. We will give the directions for making the cardboard version and you can easily adapt the plans to the use of plywood if you wish.

The first step is a trip to the grocery store for a couple of cardboard box-es. The ideal size is around 15 inches square and about 26 to 30 inches high. If you have trouble finding one near this size, simply get several very large ones and construct your own box from scratch by cutting out the pieces to size and gluing and taping them together. The box you will make does not have a bottom and does not need a top, although a top will help make it sturdi-er. You will want a partition about in the middle of the box for strength. The partition will have to have a hole cut in the center, about 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Some performers have made a thin wooden frame for the center of instead of using a sheet of cardboard. In either case, this should be strong-ly fastened to the box as it will support the weight of one of the mirrors. Figure 1 shows this step in the construction.

Now you are ready to cut the opening in the front of the box. It is cut in the lower part of the box. The bottom of the opening should be about one inch above the bottom edge of the box. The opening will be about ten inches high and l2 to 13 inches wide — the exact size will be regulated by the size of

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box you use. Make a flap or door large enough to cover the opening and then hinge it to the bottom with cloth or plastic tape. (Use regular hinges if you are making the box out of wood.) Now cut another opening of the same size in the back of the box at the upper end. Figure 2 shows the box with the door on the front open. Figure 3 shows a side view of the box with both the front and back doors open and gives an idea of their relative positions. The back door is not necessary, but will add a lot to the effect. The hole in the rear is necessary.

You are now ready to install the mirrors. The mirrors go into the box as shown in Figure 4. The mirrors are put in at a 45-degree angle. This is very important — 45 degrees. Use a protractor or triangle to measure the angle. Draw a line on the inside of the box and measure the line to get the length of the mirror from front to back. The mirror should be as wide as the inside of the box. Once again, these dimensions will vary according to the size of the box you are using. Make sure the mirrors are fastened into the box se-curely. You do not want them moving around when you move the box. The bottom mirror must be firmly in place so that it will not move when the spectators head is against it. The reflecting side of the top mirror goes to the rear and the reflecting side of the bottom mirror goes to the front. Thanks to this arrangement, you can now apparently look right thru the box. Fun isn’t it? Just make sure you keep the mirrors clean.

Fig 1. Basic construction of the illusion. Box has no bottom, but has a partition in the center of it. The partition has a hole cut in it 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Box is held together with gummed tape. For extra strength it may also be glued to-gether.

Figure 2 shows the box with door in front. A hole is cut in the box and the door or flap is hinged to the box with tape. Use regular hinges if the box is to be constructed of ply-wood.

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Figure 4 shows how the mirrors are installed in the box. The reflecting side of the bottom mirror faces the front of the box and the audience. The reflecting side of the top mir-ror faces the back of the box. Fas-ten them in the box tightly.

Figure 3 is a side view of the box with the front and back doors show-ing. It is not necessary to have a door on the back of the box, but it is necessary to have the opening. The door will, however, add much to the effect.

For those who like to experiment, Figure 6 shows how a halloween mask could be placed in the top of the box. When door is opened, it appears you have “CREATED A MONSTER!” Great for Spook Shows too with an appro-priate mask.

Figure 5 shows exactly how the il-lusion works. The dotted line and arrows show line of vision of the audience. They look in the front door but the mirrors “bend” their line of vision up over and past the head and out the back door. Mirrors must be set at 45-degree angle for best results. Always keep the mir-rors clean.

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Figure 7 is yet another idea for those who like to experiment. Using a box just half the standard size and hinging the top with a mirror fastened to the back of it, produces the same results. The front of the top should be deco-rated with dials, buttons knobs etc, to represent some scientific marvel.

The box is now ready to be decorated if you so desire. As mentioned before, some performers prefer to leave the box looking just like a cardboard box. It appears to be such a common everyday object that the audience will get the idea it has to be unprepared. Here are a few ideas for those that wish to decorate their trick. Painting of course is the obvious one. Some like an oriental appearance with bright Chinese red and a few Chinese characters in black. There is a product on the market called contact paper. It is a vinyl plastic with an adhesive backing. It comes in a large variety of colors and patterns and is ideal for this type of decorating.

Here is another idea that has been used quite successfully. Why not play the mad scientist? Decorate the top front and sides of the box with a bunch of dials, knobs, wires, tubes and assorted hardware to give the impression of it being some sort of weird scientific gadget. To cause the spectators head to vanish, you work the knows and dials, then open the box. If you let your imagination loose you will come up with lots of ideas for decorations of all sort.

PRESENTATION: You may use your own assistant or ask for a spectator to come up from the audience. If you have a spectator come up, he will of course, be aware that there is a bit of trickery connected with the box. Just whisper to him or her to cooperate and have some fun. After the trick just whisper to the spectator to keep the secret, give a little wink and they usually nev-er say a word — after all, they know something that the rest of the audience

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doesn’t know. Actually they can never be quite sure of the whole secret so you are pretty safe.

The box is placed over the person’s head. The front door is opened and the audience can look right into the box and it appears to be quite empty, thanks to the mirror. Now open the door on the back and they can apparently look right thru. Two important points — first, the audience does not get a look at the back of the box, so they do not know that the door on the back is at the top rather than at the bottom. Secondly, as you go to open the back door stand close to the side of the cabinet so they cannot tell that your hand is going near the top of the box. A little misdirection is good — just point into the front opening as your other hand opens the back door.

Now you may have a handkerchief in back of the box and they can see it thru the front opening. Make sure you keep it moving quickly, or they will be able to tell your arm outside the box isn’t quite where it appears to be as they look into the box. Try this in front of a mirror to practice, and you will see what we mean. Keep moving.

Finally close the doors, remove the box from the person’s head and it is back again. Dismiss the assistant and bow to the well deserved applause. You are a magician!

Here is an added idea for those that like to experiment. Build the bottom half of the box as described. That is, just the part from the partition down. Now put a top on the box and hinge the top at the front. To the inside of this top fasten a mirror. To the outside of the top fasten a few dials, knobs etc. The box is put over a spectators head and then the top is propped up at a 45-degree angle, “so that the audience can see the control panel.” Turn a few knobs and open the box, the head has vanished. You can wave a handker-chief as described, the effect is the same but the box is much smaller. Fig-ure 6 shows this idea and how the top is propped open. In this case you must use the dials and knobs so that you have a reason for lifting the top. You are supposedly showing the audience the controls of your scientific marvel.

One last idea. With the box about as in the original method, but without a mirror in the top, you can place a skull or Halloween mask in the top looking down. When the box is opened the audience sees a skull or the horrible Hal-loween mask instead of the spectator’s face. You might patter about creating a “Frankenstein monster,” etc. Figure 6 shows this idea. It’s only for those that like to experiment. The original idea may prove to be best, but try them all and pick the one you like best.

For best results, work the illusion above the audience’s eye level, keep the mirrors clean.