I was excited about buying the elevator. Then I read on one site how this guy was guessing that it was a doorstop on a rope up his leg. He bought it and said he was wrong and it was even worse than what he thought. He also said one needs to be an acrobat to be successful with it. Now I am confused, given that it is $100 bucks.

Scott

That was 50% of magic or something like that. I think that site is complete crap. Its apparent he doesn't give much thought into his reviews. It sounds like he opens a trick, reads the instructions and gives a review. Very little tricks work well withought a lot of practise. None of what he said was true. I say buy it. You will be happy with what you get.

James

I've only been practicing with the Elevator for 2 weeks, and the reaction is so big that I'm almost afraid to perform it. I did it in the Olive Garden parking lot last night and the people I performed it for got literally scared for a minute! It is hands down my favorite levitation. My second favorite is the King's Rising as an impromptu levitation. The Elevator is techinically impromptu if you have the necessary equipment ready to go.
I disagree that you need to be an acrobat to perform the Elevator. You need to be patient, and you need to practice, like any other good effect. There are too many Instant Magicians out there unfortunately that want to master the effects they purchase right out of the box. I'm glad they exist though, because they make serious magicians that put effort and rehearsal into their effects look sooooo much better!

I've been reading with interest and amusement your many posts here and I noticed something very characteristic of magicians who have been performing for some time. I'm also guilty of this sometimes and it is that we focus too much on the methods by which we accomplish a certain effect.

Spectators who are not familiar with magic secrets usually react and remember a magic effect very differently. Even if they saw the magician levitate a few inches, usually they would remember (and talk about) the magician as having rose much higher than he did.

You have been discussing here about which method is better or the best. I believe that as long as the method achieves the desired effect on the audience, it deserves to be practised well and performed in the right situation or condition.

You don't have to choose 1 method over another. For example, in the case of levitation our objective is to build up a convincing and strong illusion of levitation in both the spectator's eyes and mind.

I could start off with a levitation that's covered with a jacket. Now the spectator thinks I'm hiding something behind the jacket. Then I throw his mind off-balance by performing an uncovered levitation but not facing him. Now he thinks "Why the strange angle? Maybe he's hiding something that cannot be shown from the front." Finally, I do the Elevator facing him and he's left with no more explanations.

David Copperfield tackled the audience similarly with his "Cut" illusion in which his body was severed in half by a laser. He started off "weak" by just moving his supposedly severed body behind a cloth held by 2 assistants. Then he flipped out the audience by ditching the cloth, pushed his upper body to the side and hopped down the ramp in full view.

So my point is regardless of which method you employ, you've won the battle if you have created a very strong illusion in the spectator's eyes while at the same time countered all possible explanations in his mind.

Alex Tsui

Very well said!

Personally, I'd rather perform a levitation uncovered. But I wouldn't necessarily mind if I had to do it covered either.

As for all the people on here talking about David Copperfield, sure, he was fun to watch in your pre-teens and earlier. But then when you found out that 93-96% of his stage magic is nothing more than "smoke and mirrors" and camera tricks, weren't you dissappointed? I know I was. My point is, you can't bring up Copperfield while talking about Street levitation or Street Magic. Street and Stage Magic are COMPLETELY different.

This is just my two cents on this Wild Levitation..... I just checked it out at penquin for the first time and something bothered me about the way it looked...it doesn't look right for your feet to come off the ground and your body (i.e. head, torso) not go up also...just something I noticed

Your body does go up in WILD levitation... Maybe you saw a bad demo.

James

It sounds as though you did see a bad demo, I agree.