The classic age old trick of sawing someone in half. It’s been around for as long as stage magic has been around. A woman lies down in a box with only her feet and head sticking out on both ends. The magician then saws the board in half, and then splits them apart.
To the untrained eye, it appears that the woman is sawed in half. However, Penn & Teller reveals that this is a really straight out-of-the-box trick that anybody can do. All they need to do is order the entire stage setup from a magic dealer.
Wait there’s more
In this video, Penn & Teller reveals how the trick is done, but then goes further and actually saws her in half! Now, that one will require some more thinking.
Here is Video Transcript:
eventually every act in Las Vegas Nevada
does some version of this trick sawing a
woman into halves so we thought we would
do our version to save you from having
to see any other shows in Las Vegas and
it features a woman from our live show
in Vegas our fire-eating showgirl
Georgie Byrne a sec right here Georgie
does all the hazardous duty in the Penn
& Teller show watch watch the saw blade
there click now after putting her in a
cheap plywood box and filling her
beautiful legs with splinters we then
add insult to injury and put these up
stocks around her here you hear out of
your face near what you shoulder it this
is the only trick in the Penn & Teller
show that is right off the rack you can
buy this whole set up just like this
from a magic dealer the one change we
made is it the saw blade the one that
comes with it is really fake cheap
aluminum we book out of a nice heavy
steel blade in there and y’all said
Georgie and give me a hand with this
challenge kind of heavy and a little bit
of acting George
and then to show that she really is
separated and then put these blades in
and there you have it Georgie and burn
assic a woman sawn into halves right
there
now when you see real magicians do this
trick at this point they start moving
really fast and they put the box back
together really quickly pull out the
blades have her stand up and get her off
on good off stage quickly as they can
and the reason they hurry so is the
magicians worried that this moment is
the most vulnerable part of the whole
trick and they worry that they let an
audience stare at this moment for too
long they’ll figure out how the trick is
being done we’re okay with that and the
first thing you realize it’s based on a
pretty flimsy psychological principle
you’re not supposed to notice the change
in height when someone goes from
vertical to horizontal
now Georgie’s a rather special case
Georgie’s almost six-foot grade so bring
her on a my side of the stage I’m six
seven you’re not supposed to notice when
she lay down she shrunk right up to five
foot ten one should noticed that he
start to realize that the tabletop is
not as thin as your first thought but
trim is thin but the black goes back in
a wedge by the time it’s under the box
that has plenty of depth conceal that
part of Georgie that’s no longer
accounted for and the blade doesn’t
really come near her eyelet
let’s show you here get in here here
tell it ah George you came in feel the
breeze off that can you George under and
it’s completely safe there’s a metal rod
in place it stops the saw blade from
going too
don’t tell her she’s not done she’s okay
she’s okay she’s cheese cheese cheese
actually she’s not
there’s some pathology there is fine
he’s plan
tellers fault was tellers fault uh he’s
supposed to hold it back there you know
jury of my peers could never
oh I don’t know what just happened
Wow she’s okay
need a band-aids and meals for you good
yeah she’s good be it’s magic ladies and
gentlemen now that is a classic magic
act
but wherever you guys put your own spin
on it when you when you’re involved in
magic at all some of you always says you
know why don’t you solve woman in half
it’s been working on this for years to
find a way to do the classic trick but
do our little version of it and during
that trick not only do we do a different
trick we also give away how everybody
else does it yeah we saw they stepped it
up a lot right I believe that’s the lady
that’s you know I’ve never seen it
before in my life ha ha ha hi and if you
want to see more of these guys magic
they perform live at Rio Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas Nevada let’s hear it
one more time for Penn & Teller
great job ok