Kevin James latest magic illusion of sawing a man in half has to be one of the best magic optical illusions I have seen in a long time. In this illusion he uses a chain saw to saw a man in half, the top half of the body is placed on an operating table. At first the upper portion of the body lifts it self in the air as Kevin James waves his hand underneath him to show that he is actually holding his upper half in the air; at first I thought this could be done with animatronics. Kevin and his lovely assistant proceed to place the upper half on a rolling table and wheel it to the front of the stage, followed by retrieving his bottom half and “stapling” it back together. The part that astonished me was once the patient was stapled back together he jumped up in the air and walked off stage; this is currently not possible by todays robotics.. at least not that moves so fluently. It is beyond me as of how this trick was pulled off. View the Video below. Dose anyone have any ideas how this trick was pulled off?
After reading filmjeff’s explanation, I watched the video again, in frames by constantly hitting the pause button about every second. I think I have it figured out.
The complete body is a midget on short stilts. (Stilts are from the knee down.)
The white binding around the waist is missing when they “reconnect” the lower half, as that section probably contains an electronic device that raises the one leg at a given time interval.
Notice how thick the upper half of the body is around the mid-section, as if he’s kneeling with his legs tucked up under the shirt.
When the legs are put back beside him on the table, the lower part of the leg is very thin compared to the “thigh” section and immediately when the upper half is in place, you see a “bump” at the knee section, as if a tiny foot (the toes) are sticking up.
The legs don’t curve downward when he’s on his back and, again, the shin section is very thin.
It’s at this point, that if you watch it very slowly, as they help him up from the table, you will see that the “knee” section is very visible and looks like a tiny pair of shoes, making the knee stick out prominently.
When he stands up and lifts his one leg, then the other to the side, it is done with the sort of little “kick” that a person with an artifical leg makes when they walk - an almost, but not quite natural flow. Watching it fast, you might miss that small movement. Notice the knees don’t bend when he jumps up and lands. Most people upon landing bend their knees for the impact - but not if they’re on short stilts like painters might use.
Finally, notice that his green shirt is now longer, coming down past the waist to hide the join (the part with the white binding was not brought over with the leg section, as the lower section had to be open to allow the legs to go into them quickly upon “rejoining” the two parts).
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.