When you think of magic, you quickly think of the rabbit coming out of the hat, the magic wand... and the woman sawn in half! But have you ever wondered where this illusion came from, and how it came to be so categorically established as a benchmark illusion in our art? We tell you more in this article!
A type of effect that is not new
The woman sawn in half effect is one of the "mutilation" type effects, in which the magician tortures a poor assistant in front of the audience, before proving that it was all just an illusion and that the person actually suffered nothing. While the woman sawn in half effect dates back to the 20th century, as we will see later, this type of torture effect is not new.
For example, traces of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist effect can be found as early as 1584, in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, which describes nothing less than how to decapitate a person and return their head, without scratching the assistant!
This effect continued to be presented over the following centuries, with methods that improved over time... to the point of having its secret revealed on small advertising images offered with Liebig meat in the 19th century.
In the 1920s, in London, the magician P. T. Selbit (real name Percy Thomas Tibbles) offered the speakerine Christabel Pankhurst to be the assistant for his brand new illusion: the woman sawn in half! Although the suffragette refused, the illusion was visual, and this communication stunt brought the spotlight on this new trick which then spread everywhere, to the point of seeing copies of the illusion presented in the United States!
P. T. Selbit presenting the woman sawn in half
Seeing the success of this trick, the illusionist Horace Goldin filed a patent in the United States in September 1921 concerning the illusion of the woman sawn in half to be sure to cut off his competitors and prevent them from reusing this effect. Unfortunately for him, by deciding to patent this trick, it publicly exposed the method, so much so that the Camel cigarette brand used it to print on the back of its packets. As an advertising argument, they revealed the secrets of this mythical trick!
The evolution of the trick
Over the years, the woman sawn in half effect evolved and improved. While P. T. Selbit's first version did not show the head, later versions attempted to find new methods to gradually remove the imposing initial box. This is how Horace Goldin's version appeared, where the assistant's head, feet, and hands emerge.
Yanco's version
Horace Goldin continued to perfect the illusion and even found a way to do it without any box, with a simple giant circular saw that visibly cuts through the poor woman. Learning from his mistake of having filed a patent and having seen the illusion revealed to the public, he kept the plans for this new presentation to himself.
The American illusionist David Copperfield was also inspired by Horace Goldin's version to present his own version in 1988, visible below:
Subsequently, other versions emerged. David Copperfield (him again!), presented his laser illusion, where he appears as a bust holding his legs and able to walk:
Finally, let's conclude our article with a remarkable version of the man sawn in half, which is Kevin James' version and which you can admire below:
