This article was taken from the July 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
A-list illusionists such as Derren Brown and David Blaine may draw large crowds and command high television ratings, but the most innovative work is to be found in the underground magic world.
Alex Stone, author of Fooling Houdini: Adventures in the World of Magic, says, "There are highly secretive magicians who perform their signature tricks right under your nose, using regular, everyday objects. No gaffs. No gimmicks. No camera trickery. Just pure magic." Stone picks three heroes of the underground and explains their signature tricks.
Lennart Green's Laser Deal
Swedish close-up magician Lennart Green deals cards into the beam of a laser: as they pass through it, they vanish. It's an auditory illusion too -- you hear the cards hitting the table as they disappear. Green then reproduces the cards from nothingness.
To do this, he devised new sleights that shattered assumptions about what was possible with a deck of cards.
Armando Lucero's Coin Menagerie
A classic trick reinvented by Armando Lucero, four coins are placed at the corners of a mat and each is covered with a card.
Lucero mimes placing three coins on one card. He turns over the other cards to reveal all four coins in one corner. He ends with one coin and two cards, placing the coin half-under the right-hand card. He lifts it to reveal... nothing. The coin is under the left card.
Garrett Thomas's The Ring Thing
Garrett Thomas showcased an effect that fried some of the world's top conjurors. Standing before the audience, Thomas removes a ring from his first finger and tosses it back toward his hand. Before anyone has time to blink, the ring materialises back on his finger. An entire ring-based magic routine has the ring jump between his fingers, dance as though possessed, vanish and reappear on command, and even turn into a coin.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
