Can some one who understands gravity explain this?

[russ_watters]

As for the walking on water, I'll list just one example:

At 1:55 we see his own viewpoint looking down into the water, where a girl swims under him. We can see no supports under his feet. How does he do this?

Quite simple. So simple, we daren't think he would insult our intelligence.

For that shot, he is hanging from an overhead crane; his feet are barely touching the water.

The illusion here, is the audience - and the editing - which, when crafted by an expert con man, leads us to believe that
a] the shot is continuous
b] the trick can be done without any apparent supports or props
c] the audience is there throughout all shots (including the ones where we see no audience)
d] the audience is not staged

In short, this is the TV equivalent of "PhotoShopping".

Dave, I really don't think it needed to be anywhere near that elaborate. The camera angle was pretty tight. All it required was to not have the supports in the frame.

 

[LightbulbSun]

I hate people like Criss Angel who toy with the impressionable.

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

Chris is a crappy magician - Penn and Teller all the way.

 

[CINA]

At 1:53 both of his feet appear to be in the air at the same time...

 

[mgb_phys]

At 1:53 both of his feet appear to be in the air at the same time...

Haven't seen the video but is his back is toward you and is he wearing baggy trousers?
The usual way to do this is to have a small magnet in the side of the shoes and a slit in the front of the trousers. You put the shoes together an slip one leg out forward through the trousers. You then stand up on this leg on a (hidden) platform in front of you. The other leg lifts the shoe and trousers held in place by the magnet - it looks like two legs off the ground.
It's been done for 100s of years.

I do dislike his shows for using stooges in the audience to check props - if you are going to do this you might as well do the whole show in CGI.

 

[russ_watters]

I checked that time. It doesn't look to me like both feet are off the bridge.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

How the hell did this guy make an elephant disappear without any mirrors, ropes or trapdoors in the pavement, if anyone saw that episode. The nature of these magicians simply confounds me.

I've seen this done for an elephant in a cage, on that show with Mitch Pelagi as host, in that particular one they used mirrors that slid out from the wooden bars of the cage to give the Illusion the elephant had vanished.

I saw another one where they made it appear a tank had just vanished by simply moving the entire curtain and camera, which are all on the same rig, about 10 ft to the left of the tank, it appeared seamless, when the curtain dropped the tank was no longer there, and then it was revealed again as if by magic; the truth is the tank was where it always was, but your perspective wasn't and you didn't notice the change. When the tricks are revealed it usually appears to be fairly simple.

 

[T.O.E Dream]

Green screen!

 

[DaveC426913]

I am fairly confident that Criss Angel pays people to stand there and say "WOWWWW". Its TV, things can be edited fairly easily. It is common practice for magicians to use 'stooges'.

This is critical to understanding his illusions. The clips you see on TV are edited together from different cuts. Some are real (but modest) versions of the stunt in front of real passersby, some are using obvious supports but with stooges who stand around and say "Wow". Cut them together properly, and you have a clip of what appears to be innocent strangers watching a fantastic illusion.

 

[DaveC426913]

Haven't seen the video but is his back is toward you and is he wearing baggy trousers?
The usual way to do this is to have a small magnet in the side of the shoes and a slit in the front of the trousers. You put the shoes together an slip one leg out forward through the trousers. You then stand up on this leg on a (hidden) platform in front of you. The other leg lifts the shoe and trousers held in place by the magnet - it looks like two legs off the ground.
It's been done for 100s of years.

Yes, there's a video out there somewhere of him (or someone) actually demonstrating it.

 

[NWH]

I didn't really read all this thread, but this trick is simple. Plexiglass platforms. It's all down to the camera angles, some you can see the platforms, others you can't, so they specifically use the angles where they can't be seen. You just use multiple platforms, so you can have convincers, like people swinning across the path in front or behind the magician to make you think there's no walkway there.

 

[chayced]

I doubt there was any creative editing done. Also I'm sure that most of the people around the pool had no idea what was going on. The pool area is closed off for the trick early in the morning. The assistants come in with plexiglass boxes and place them in the water. Plexiglass is almost completely invisible in water (ask anyone in the nuclear industry, they will tell you!). The boxes are positioned by the assistants who are now in the water preparing for the shoot. Criss takes one practice walk across so that he can memorize the positions of the boxes since they are slightly below the surface and invisible to him. After this people are invited into watch the show so that there can be real reactions. He then walks across. He drops his shoe to prove that there is nothing beneith his feet, and since the boxes are only placed in the specific places he steps the shoe falls to the bottom. Then halfway across the girl swims underneath him. This is only possible because plexiglass is very slightly visible underwater, and even then there may have been markings added to increase her visability. There the whole trick is ruined, I hope you are all happy now. There is no Santa Clause either!

Edit: forgot to mention. The boxes don't float, they sit on the bottom.

 

[SDetection]

I doubt there was any creative editing done. Also I'm sure that most of the people around the pool had no idea what was going on...

I think he is hanging from something in the shot with the ball, where the girl is about to swim underneath him.

 

[ibcnunabit]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here, so I figure I would make it the most interesting thing I can think of. Which is walking on water. Some say it's a magic trick, others say it's something only Jesus can do. But how does Criss Angel do it? How can he walk on water? Some of you think he's a magician and illusionist. He claims he does some of his stunts as an illusion, though some of his stunts contradict his released statements on how he does them. (i.e. levitation) Some of the others he does are claimed by him, that they are done through meditation.

Please, I would like anyone who is interested in this post to watch this video if they haven't already seen it. Here Criss Angel walks on water and shows no signs of hoax.

If you watch the whole thing through, you'll notice when he steps on the water, the water doesn't seem to ripple much at all, if the water does at all from mass exerted by his body weight. Nor does he sink when he steps in the water. Which I don't get. He kicks off his shoes around 2:31 and a girl swam underneath him. So there couldn't of been glass or anything underneath him that would be solid enough to walk across.
?

I've seen another magician duplicate this trick and then reveal how it is done. It is indeed plexiglas that is slightly underneath the water's surface. He used plexiglas planks (about an inch) supported by plexiglas rods, and indeed a girl did swim underneath him. From the angle it was filmed, the plexiglas was absolutely invisible, although occasionally you could see a faint edge effect of the waves lapping over it.

But there WAS a definite indication that it was a hoax. It was being performed by a magician!

--Mike

 

[Ivan Seeking]

But there WAS a definite indication that it was a hoax. It was being performed by a magician!

Is it a hoax if everyone is supposed to understand that it is a trick?

When I was a kid, everyone knew that magicians were performing tricks. Somehow that simple and implicit understanding seems to have been lost along the way.

 

[ZacharyFino]

he is walking on arc shaped platforms which allow people to move under him appearing as if there is no platform

 

[ibcnunabit]

I've seen this done for an elephant in a cage, on that show with Mitch Pelagi as host, in that particular one they used mirrors that slid out from the wooden bars of the cage to give the Illusion the elephant had vanished.

I saw another one where they made it appear a tank had just vanished by simply moving the entire curtain and camera, which are all on the same rig, about 10 ft to the left of the tank, it appeared seamless, when the curtain dropped the tank was no longer there, and then it was revealed again as if by magic; the truth is the tank was where it always was, but your perspective wasn't and you didn't notice the change. When the tricks are revealed it usually appears to be fairly simple.

That's what Copperfield did with the Statue of Liberty trick. The audience was on a slowly revolving stage, The lights on Liberty were turned out, and another ring of lights was turned on to the side, where the audience (and the camera) was facing when the stage stopped revolving. The slowness of the rotation meant that they had to kill a LOT of time, and Copperfield had to launch into this long speech about liberty, and America, land of the free and home of the brave, blah, blah, blah for quite awhile.

 

[ibcnunabit]

Yes, there's a video out there somewhere of him (or someone) actually demonstrating it.

Angel has used that trick to great effect on an escalator--it's brilliant in that the sides of the escalator mask him from the sides, and forces the audience and camera to see it from the perfect perspective to hide the trick. Makes it look like he's gliding or even flying up the escalator about a foot above the steps. Very clever.

 

[ibcnunabit]

Is it a hoax if everyone is supposed to understand that it is a trick?

When I was a kid, everyone knew that magicians were performing tricks. Somehow that simple and implicit understanding seems to have been lost along the way.

I only used the word "hoax" because of replying to someone seeming to believe it is REAL, and because the magician is able to convince so many people that what he does is real. For myself, I enjoy "magic" and admire the abilities of skillful magicians. What I see being lost along the way (for magic and other things) is people's basic skepticism. Has anyone else noticed this? So, so many people don't want to hear skepticism, they "want to believe" in things that are demonstrably untrue. It's like we're living in the gullible generation. Look at all the new "ghost shows" popping up on cable. They're ridiculous and fake! But people take them seriously.

 

[DaveC426913]

I only used the word "hoax" because of replying to someone seeming to believe it is REAL, and because the magician is able to convince so many people that what he does is real. For myself, I enjoy "magic" and admire the abilities of skillful magicians. What I see being lost along the way (for magic and other things) is people's basic skepticism. Has anyone else noticed this? So, so many people don't want to hear skepticism, they "want to believe" in things that are demonstrably untrue. It's like we're living in the gullible generation. Look at all the new "ghost shows" popping up on cable. They're ridiculous and fake! But people take them seriously.

I too am a skeptic but I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a moment.

What is the harm in following ghost stories and magicians? People's lives are generally full of reality - bills, health issues, etc. When they can escape or shut their brain off, why not?

This is the same rationale that has people reading grocery store rags and watching celebrity shows on TV. They know it's trash but so what? They have nothing to prove to anyone, it's not like they are judged on what they watch or read just for entertainment. I don't think they are truly taken in by this stuff, they simply recognize it for what it is and don't care if skeptics or science geeks look on in horror. In that sense at least, these people are more self-assured than us skeptics. We are on-guard all the time, making sure no one can ever pull a fast one on us. They are more open to a willing suspension of disbelief.


(Notice the slick straw man there? Went from ghost stories and magicians to grocery store rags and celebrity shows...)

 

[ibcnunabit]

Chris is a crappy magician - Penn and Teller all the way.

Well, he's not my favorite, but any magician that can convince LOTS of people that "it's for real" and not a trick can't be too crappy, IMO.

Mike

 

[elfmotat]

that was on tv a while back.

 

[LawrenceM]

We watch because we can't figure it out. His job to create illusions that are not easy or readily explainable. He wouldn't be much good if he did stunts that were easily explainable. He's one of the best in his craft for sure.

 

[cosmo123]

Chris is a crappy magician - Penn and Teller all the way.

Argh...I hate Penn and Teller...always giving away how OTHER PEOPLES' tricks are done, then acting like they're superior to them because of it. People like Criss Angel put a lot of work into performing incredible tricks and stunts, and easily make Penn and Teller seem pretty talentless.

 

[DaveC426913]

Argh...I hate Penn and Teller...always giving away how OTHER PEOPLES' tricks are done, then acting like they're superior to them because of it. People like Criss Angel put a lot of work into performing incredible tricks and stunts, and easily make Penn and Teller seem pretty talentless.

IMO, Penn and Teller are great magicians.

But beyond that, there's a rationale in what they are doing. They are trying to do is force the magician industry to come up with some new tricks. The industry has been resting on some very, very old laurels - flogging the same hackneyed sawing-a-guy-in-half and doves-from-flowers for centuries.

 

[molinaro]

Any good sources on how the 'walk on water' trick is pulled off? Because my girlfriend keeps claiming that Criss Angel does his tricks based on psychology, and I think that's a load of crap. How is a 'walk on water' trick based on psychology?

I would describe the fact that some viewers believe that the witnesses, the camera people and anyone else present with Chris are not in on it, as psychology.

That is the #1 point you have to accept with his shows. Every single person present is in on it.

Once you accept that, it's easy to come up with rational explanations for his tricks.