Sleight of hand expert Ben Seidman is back with Vanity Fair once again to review more sleight of hand tricks, pickpocketing and psychological magic in films including 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,' 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,' 'Now You See Me 2,' 'The Illusionist' and more. Watch Ben demonstrate how these tricks work, how actors pull it off and more.
Follow Ben on Instagram: @benseidman
Ben's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecomedyandmagic
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: Dominic Czaczyk
Editor: Cory Stevens
Talent: Ben Seidman
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Creative Producer: Frank Cosgriff
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Camera Operator: Lucas Vilicich
Audio Engineer: Kara Johnson
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas
Hair & Make-Up: Vanessa Rene
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Follow Ben on Instagram: @benseidman
Ben's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecomedyandmagic
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: Dominic Czaczyk
Editor: Cory Stevens
Talent: Ben Seidman
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Creative Producer: Frank Cosgriff
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Camera Operator: Lucas Vilicich
Audio Engineer: Kara Johnson
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas
Hair & Make-Up: Vanessa Rene
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Is this a real magic trick?
00:07My name is Ben Seidman. I'm a magician.
00:09This is my third Vanity Fair video breaking down magic and sleight of hand in film and TV.
00:14If I do a fourth video, I get a free smoothie.
00:16So please share this video. I really want that smoothie.
00:20The Hunger Games. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
00:23I'm Lucretius Lucky Flickerman, a man who needs no introduction.
00:26You'll know me as your favorite weatherman and amateur magician.
00:29But guess where I am today?
00:31Is this a real magic trick?
00:36Some people would say that it isn't.
00:39So this was largely dependent on movie magic, but it didn't have to be.
00:43My job as a magician is to violate reality.
00:46But I'm also constrained by the laws of physics.
00:48That isn't the same in film and TV.
00:50There are no laws in the film and TV business.
00:52I mean, The Hunger Games is about a bunch of children murdering each other,
00:55and the target demo is children.
00:57But that effect could have been done for real.
00:59A core principle of magic deception is that our brains fill in the gaps
01:03whenever information is missing.
01:05We think we see a triangle, but it's not there.
01:07We see three circles.
01:09So the existence of something is implied.
01:11Take, for example, the simplicity of vanishing a coin.
01:18At a certain point, the existence of the coin is implied.
01:21If I wanted to perform a coin vanish that matched one of the coin vanishes
01:24in The Hunger Games, it might look something like this.
01:35What really takes a midair coin vanish from a magic trick to a miracle
01:39is that people swear that they see the coin vanish in midair.
01:42If you're watching it live, anyway.
01:44So exactly how does that trick our brains?
01:46The big fish principle.
01:48I caught a fish and it was this big five days later.
01:50Oh, I caught a fish, it was this big.
01:52You should have seen that fish.
01:54It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:56An audience's memory can actually enhance the possibility of a magic trick.
02:00People sometimes just misremember the details.
02:02That's why eyewitness testimonial is so unreliable.
02:05But a big magic secret, and I shouldn't even be telling you this,
02:08is that sometimes we plant the big fish principle in the viewer's mind,
02:13subtly convincing a person that what they're about to witness
02:16or witnessing is completely wrong.
02:18It's also known as the delusion of memory principle.
02:21Outside of magic, it's called gaslighting.
02:23Tobias Dostai is a brilliant magic consultant.
02:26Jason Schwartzman, he's a fantastic actor and improviser.
02:29I'm not mad at the result here.
02:31I would have just loved to see more of the magic that they developed
02:33leading up to this film because I know there was so much more.
02:41Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning.
02:44This key.
02:47The one you picked from that man's pocket.
02:49It's worthless.
02:51Without this key.
02:54But together,
02:56they're worth four million in cryptocurrency that man was carrying on a flash drive.
02:59I can definitely say without a doubt that this is real sleight of hand
03:02without any special apparatus.
03:04The director, Christopher McQuarrie, he wrote The Usual Suspects.
03:08So I'm venturing to say that he already thinks like a magician.
03:11They also had Ben Hart consulting,
03:13and I think that the method he chose was perfect for this.
03:16Magic consultants on a set have to be pragmatic.
03:18You have to get everything right.
03:20Sometimes, even on the first take.
03:22Short answer, Tom did this for real.
03:24In order of difficulty, it goes,
03:26this trick is the most difficult,
03:28then hanging off a plane in midair,
03:30then running down the Burj Khalifa.
03:32Driving a motorcycle off a cliff is like, tied.
03:35Tom practiced this until it was invisible.
03:37Bravo, Tom.
03:38If that's the one magic trick that you can do,
03:40you're welcome at my magic jam anytime.
03:42I bet Tom could do this trick with his eyes closed or his eyes wide shut.
03:46This is real sleight of hand.
03:48It's risky business, you know.
03:50The director, the consultant, the prop master,
03:52a few good men, thus making Tom the top gun.
03:55Please stop me. Someone stop me.
03:57I will just keep going until someone stops me.
04:00Now you see me too.
04:02Who are you? What are you doing in my booth?
04:04How did you get into my booth?
04:06It's not, it's not as fun as Ha Ha.
04:08Or you might not think that it's fun as Ha Ha.
04:10I think it's fun.
04:11You know, I guess that's all kind of relative.
04:13I was actually, no, that's not,
04:15I made myself in the neighborhood and now I'm here and maybe,
04:17I'll think about it.
04:21Okay.
04:22Chopping people's heads off,
04:23it's been a lovely tradition for both magicians and for psychopaths.
04:27Have you ever read a history book?
04:29They're terrifying.
04:30In 1594, a guy named Reginald Scott
04:32writes this book called The Discovery of Witchcraft.
04:35This is the first magic book that we know of
04:37that has an English translation that early.
04:39In that book are all sorts of methods
04:41that were being used at the time.
04:43You see, in the 1500s,
04:44it was not a good time to be a magician.
04:46Doing magic tricks would get you burnt at the stake,
04:48or as the kids would say, getting lit.
04:53So Reginald Scott writes this book,
04:55which is basically a book on critical thinking.
04:57Like, hey, stop murdering these people.
04:59They're just doing magic tricks.
05:00Now the guillotine in this movie could have been CGI,
05:03and I think it actually might have been a practical effect.
05:05What's interesting to me is that she is talking
05:07right up until the point that the blade comes down.
05:09That's called a convincer.
05:11But in a live performance,
05:13convincers are meant to support the illusion.
05:15This right here is fun,
05:17but it's not that deceptive.
05:19If I wanted to add a convincer,
05:21I might put a ring on my finger.
05:27Removing body parts certainly exists
05:29as a plot in old school magic.
05:31In fact, I flew back to my parents' house in Wisconsin
05:34to bring these miniature guillotines
05:37and arm and finger choppers back from my parents' house.
05:41If you don't think these were worth all of my allowance money,
05:44you're right.
05:46If you put carrots in these holes, someone's arm here,
05:49the carrots will shatter as you bring the blade out.
05:51Now the carrots are acting as the convincers.
05:54Okay, Nicole, this is a very weird contraption here.
05:58I'm gonna have you put your hand in there,
05:59which I know sounds weird.
06:00I can't believe you're trusting me with this.
06:02This is great.
06:03And then right there, I'm just gonna close these up.
06:05That's to make sure that you don't change your mind.
06:08And then we have a couple of carrots.
06:10Here, this is very, very serious stuff right here.
06:13And you can see that the carrot is stopping the blade, right?
06:16That's going to prevent you from being harmed in any way.
06:19But keep your hand right there.
06:20Take a deep breath and relax.
06:22And on the count of three.
06:23One, three.
06:27You okay?
06:28Keep your hand there.
06:29Make sure that the blade is actually underneath your arm.
06:33And it is, you can take it out.
06:35And I'm glad you're okay.
06:37You're all right?
06:38Yes.
06:39Physically fine?
06:40Emotionally scarred?
06:41As a side note, one of the producers asked me
06:44how this plot in magic relates to sawing a woman in half.
06:47That story is mind-blowing.
06:49British magician P.T. Selbitt
06:51was the first to saw a woman in half.
06:53And he did this only three years
06:55after the woman's suffrage movement took hold in the UK.
06:58It's reasonable to speculate that cutting a woman in half
07:01was a big screw you to women's rights.
07:03A lot of the versions of this trick
07:05didn't even have the woman getting put back together
07:07and the all-male audiences liked it.
07:09As a man, I would vote that we all stop doing that trick.
07:12By the way, P.T. Selbitt's wife got half in the divorce.
07:16The illusionist.
07:29When the illusionist first came out,
07:31I assumed that Ed Norton's character
07:33was based on the French conjurer Robert Houdin,
07:36who famously took advantage
07:38of modern scientific discoveries of the time.
07:41Electromagnetism, his mechanical knowledge of clockmaking,
07:44and also what has become known as Pepper's Ghost.
07:47Here's the mind-blowing thing.
07:49The effect of ghosts walking around on stage
07:51was actually witnessed live in the 1800s.
07:54I'm going to show you how to make your own ghost,
07:56but to understand how this is possible,
07:58we have to go back in time
08:00for a segment I like to call
08:02The Very Fast History Lesson That You Didn't Ask For.
08:04In 1558, Neapolitan scientist Giambattista della Porta
08:06described the basic technology that predates Pepper's Ghost
08:09as an optical curiosity.
08:11Fast forward 300 years, the French painter Peter Seguin
08:13filed a patent for a children's toy called a polyscope
08:15based on this technology.
08:17It was not very popular, it just did not take off.
08:19But the real leap forward came from a British civil engineer
08:21named Henry Dirks, who was the first person to suggest
08:23putting the idea on stage and making it big.
08:25Then came the Victorian science superstar John Henry Pepper,
08:27who realized that changing the design and angling the glass
08:29allows two images to be seen at the same time
08:31in a more efficient manner.
08:33So what's their connection to the French conjurer Robert Houdon,
08:35a.k.a. Ed Norton?
08:37Well, in 1863, Houdon reaches out to both Dirks and Pepper
08:39about using the ghost technology, and five years later,
08:41Houdon consults on a stage play,
08:43whose name I have no interest in mispronouncing,
08:45and he creates an elaborate scene where ghostly images
08:47resist the blows of swords.
08:49Does that sound familiar?
08:51I mean, it could just be a coincidence.
08:53It's not S4.
08:59To make your own Pepper's ghost,
09:01you need something to contain it.
09:03Probably the easiest thing to use is a glass bowl.
09:05You want something that's totally see-through.
09:07Next, you want some plastic that you can also see through.
09:09What works great is actually the packaging
09:11that you find on anything at the store.
09:13I got these paintbrushes at the dollar store.
09:15And you want to cut a section
09:17that's shaped approximately like this,
09:19like a half circle.
09:21You might have to adjust it several times,
09:23but this goes inside at an angle.
09:25And now you need something to reflect.
09:27They called this the oven
09:29back when this was first created.
09:31In that case, it was actors
09:33who were below the stage in a trap.
09:35The oven has to have a lot of light.
09:37That's actually where the term limelight came from,
09:39because of the green light that they used.
09:41But what works great for this,
09:43if you're going to fake making a Pepper's ghost,
09:45is a phone or a tablet.
09:47So if you have an image with a black background
09:49that is also pretty lit up,
09:51you can set your design on top,
09:53and if you line it up perfectly,
09:55you're going to get a ghost.
09:57It might require a little bit of tweaking,
09:59but you'll get it.
10:01What's interesting to me is that this version
10:03is pretty similar to what we saw
10:05in pop culture that has been called holograms.
10:07If you remember seeing the gorillas
10:09performing with Madonna,
10:11or Tupac performing live with Snoop,
10:13these are examples of things
10:15that are derivative from Pepper's ghost.
10:17But actually,
10:19those are 2D images being projected,
10:21much like what we're creating here with the tablet.
10:23If you think about it,
10:25the version in the 1800s was actually
10:27more technologically advanced in some ways,
10:29because it was a 3D image.
10:31Once you have your ghost created,
10:33it should look something like this.
10:35So here we have a ghost hummingbird.
10:37Isn't that cool?
10:39I love magic so much,
10:41and getting a chance to look back at these clips
10:43was so much fun.
10:45I learned a lot of knowledge from the greats before them,
10:47so I want to pause and say thank you to my mentors
10:49and my peers in the magic world.