It’s hard to know the exact details of the illusion since the TV cameras cut away to the hosts at key moments, but I suspect I know some of how this was done. The incredible part of the illusion is how we see the top half of a man that is capable of lifting himself up while the magician waves his hand underneath. But it is only incredible if you started out with a whole person. Note the way the subject is poised at the desk-like table at the beginning. Now imagine that you are seeing two people here, one in the green pants who is bent over and his top half is hidden inside the table. The rest of the subject is a legless dwarf who is resting on top of the other man’s legs. He does all the stunts for himself, lifting himself up, etc. The magician and his male assistant carry him to the lower platform and it’s at this point (just before the “stapling”) that the cameras cut away at a crucial time. When they cut back, there have been some quick changes (such as the relocating of the “green legs” over to the shorter platform and the original table is now gone. What I suspect is happening is that the person who stands up “whole” at the end is in fact the person who was just the green legs and hidden in that table at the beginning. Note that the character wears a surgical mask and hat which I think is to help hide the fact that this person doesn’t look all that much like the original guy we saw “cut in half.” But at that point in the illusion, any approximate match will do because we’re amazed to see him “whole” again and dancing around.

You have a verry good point there, his chest dose look bigger to as if he was crouching in there.. hah i think you may be right! and the budge by the knees kinda adds to that theory.

Awesome job guys! lol that one has been bugging me for a bit trying to figure it out.

What about the fact that the ‘short’ guy kicks his feet outwards quite naturally?

Top half is someone suffering from Sacral Agenesis? I’ve seen two TV specials about the disease. (Rose Siggins and some guy who plays basketball.)

Wow this is f***ing magic.

Johnny Eck is an example of this being done in 1923.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Eck

Eck and Robert were recruited by illusionist/hypnotist Raja Raboid for his Miracles of 1937 show. Robert would be “recruited” from the audience for a hypnosis stunt, then kept on-stage for a sawing-in-half illusion. During the illusion, Robert would be switched with Eck and a dwarf wearing trousers that covered his whole body, disguising him as the subject’s pelvis and legs. Raboid would saw between Eck and the dwarf. Eck would then chase his “legs” across the stage. Stage hands would pluck Eck up, set him atop the dwarf, and twirl them off-stage, replacing them with Robert, who would then threaten to sue Raboid and storm out of the theater. Though the act met with applause and laughter, Eck would later tell stories of audience members fainting, screaming, or fleeing the theater in terror.[1]

Here’s the deal from what I see. You need to have the video supplied up above on and the YouTube Halloween video flano77 supplied.

The video with Hasselhoff is the same act as the Halloween one on YouTube flano77 supplied. The only difference is that the Hasselhoff show cut out the parts that occur in the Halloween act so you don’t see:
-when the cart rolls off (with the real legs and the guys upper 1/2 hidden inside the box)
-when Kevin comes back out from behind the curtain with the fake legs and wisks the 1/2 man off the stage
-when the assistant rolls back the whole man from behind the curtain

I think filmjeff is right in saying the 1/2 man and the whole man are different looking therefore a surgical mask is needed.

Also:
In the Hasslehoff video at 1:02 the assistant doesn’t have the staplegun (just the 1/2 man laying down) just like in the Halloween video at 3:54. But all of a sudden in the Hasslehoff video at 1:04 she all of a sudden has it in her hand just like at the Halloween video at 4:15, after they roll the (whole) man back on stage?

And 1 more thing. Notice in the Hasslehoff video the black guy, right after he stands up he quickly moves his hands up to his waist? I think he doesn’t want us to see now that it’s the whole man because his coat arms are shorter that the 1/2 mans!
Look at the Halloween video at 1:41, notice the 1/2 man’s length of white coat arm past the coat length of the chest area? Now frwd the Halloween video to

4:24, now the white coat arm length is almost the same length of the coast chest length (if that makes sense). Then BAM, when he stands up, the arms come up!

So I think in the Hasslehoff video they cut out scenes also because the music in the Halloween video is the same all the way through. The Hasslehoff video they change it to their own tune, because they shortened the act!

I say chopped black guy is either a contortionist or only has the upper 1/2 of his body in real life.

My 2 cents gents!

It is cut…
they take him off the operation table, then you see the judges and after 2 secs you see the actors again, but the operation table has disappeared! The girl and the magician moved away from the operation table before the camera changes, so they cant have put it away, and its unlikely that a fourth person has removed it within 2 secs, so the whole thing must be cut there

I have seen this performed live at Universal Studios Orlando by the same illusionist. No cuts or fancy editing. The live show is identical and amazing! I would support the Sacral Agenesis hypothesis.

Could it be a black magic? With help from satan, this is quite possible. Im terified now..God, help me.

See this video also, it cleanly say that man is really half in relay life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qFu6i08f9w

Hiren

I figured it out, but I feel bad telling everyone, kinda ruins the magic, know what I mean?
What more, I have names. =)
So only read on if you’re prepared to be … let down.

First off it is two people, or at least one person on top of moveable legs.
When he runs the chainsaw through the actor(s) the top actor jumps down onto the table, the second actor is bent in half with the top half inside the table. The legs are then moved by this person, and, then the person pulls inside the table, the legs they just moved are left standing by some kind of external support inside the pants, something like foam/rubber/plastic etc.

The person now on top of the table is one of two contortionists. The black guy goes by the name Lazarus Gitu, check him out on Youtube, you’ll see he’s capable of folding himself in half (hence the big chest). The white guy is a contortionist by the name of ‘Moukhtar’ something or other. Just search for ‘World’s most flexible man’ on Youtube. The real impressive thing is how the nurse is capable of lifting this guy with Kevin onto the stage/dolly.
The foam/rubber/plastic reinforced legs are now brought back over to the contortionist on the dolly where the contortionist slips his legs inside of them and pops up.

Really the simplest and most logical explanation I think

look at his arm when he is stood up on the table, you will notice his right arm stretches but the elbow dont move, the arms are fake, its a midget.

Well done illusion, but painfully easy to figure out for those familiar with magic… and medicine. A lot of folks in here have very inventive ideas, but many are REALLY overthinking this. There is absolutely NO question whatsoever that the “top half” is a person with sacral agenesis (a “half person”). Anyone who has seen a person with this very sad (and amazing) medical condition will instantly recognize the exact same shape of the upper body and the exact same arm positioning and hand-walking gait that these unfortunate folks have to do to get around (Criss Angel has also used a women with this condition in one of his illusions). Anyone at all familiar with sacral agenesis will very easily and instantly recognize the “top half” as a person with this condition. The “legs” are obviously a full-size person, bent over in the medical cart, who becomes the “whole” person at the end of the act. If it were not two different people, there would be absolutely NO reason WHATSOEVER for that person to be disguised with the surgical hat and mask… none.

To the person who said “Why would a magician be so low as to exploit a physical deformity? I would stop watching magic all together if that were the case, EVER!”… well, it’s an ethical question for sure, but that has been done for countless years in show business. Quite a few “showmen” through the years have made very handsome livings exploiting just such “freaks” in the name of entertainment.

he moves his feet when he lands from the jump they are real feet and real legs