Walking Through the Great Wall of China

Valentina asks, "How did David Copperfield walk through the Great Wall of China?"

Here's how it could be done:

The magician is pushed up to the wall on a giant table. The base of the table is hollow and the magician is able to fit inside. It is hard to believe because it is designed deceptively. These tables are commonly used by stage illusionists. It is referred to as a "thin base".

Translucent sides were raised and you could see only the shadow, actually a projection of a fake shadow as the magician immediately enters the base. The surface of the base usually has a trap door made from two overlapping pieces of black lycra. The magician can pass through easily and the lycra snaps shut automatically.

So we watch the projection of the shadow seem to enter the wall. This is just misdirection, distracting you from the base. As soon as the shadow is gone, they drop the sides and you see that the magician is gone also. The base is then wheeled off camera with the magician inside. the magician is removed from the base and passes to the other side of the wall by normal means outside of our view and away from the audience. Whether or not he traveled over in the camera crane is hard to say but odds are he did not.

The magician enters another thin base table contraption on the other side of the wall and the table is wheeled up to the wall at the point he is supposed to emerge from. Now a novel technique is employed to make it appear as though he is actually emerging from the flat wall rather than the table base. Two assistants hold up a cover piece and you see two hands attempting to push through from behind. Although the effect is very realistic, the hands actually belong to the assistants! If you watch closely you will see that only one hand from each assistant can be seen. The other is behind the cover piece and that creates the illusion of two hands pushing from the middle. Again, this is done to direct your attention to the wall and away from the table base, where the magician is hiding.

Finally, they put up the sides and project an image of the magician emerging from the wall. While this is going on, the magician has plenty of time to crawl out of the base and when the sides are removed, it appears as though he's magically passed through the wall.

Abracadabra!


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MM