Xavier Mortimer is one of the most well-known illusionist in France,
who earned popularity through performing some splendid magic tricks on social
media platforms. In this video, we are going to reveal the secrets behind some of these tricks.
Trick No.1: Cutting and Restoring Arm
This trick is one of Xavier best tricks that stunned the viewers. Although Xavier is famous
for it, he is not the first to perform it. In fact, many magicians have preceded him
including the well-known magician "Hans Klok". In the beginning, the magician shows a rectangular
wooden box with two doors and two slots . He inserts his arm in one door until it shows up
from the other one where his assistant is waiting to tie it up. Then, the assistant sticks a small
guillotine into the slot until it reaches the bottom of the box. Another guillotine is applied
in the other slot. The assistant then removes the middle part of the box that supposedly includes a
fraction of the arm. But the magician's hand is still moving. The trick doesn't stop here,
the magician opens the lower part of the box and it appeared empty, as if the magician's arm was
indeed cut off. After that, the assistant places the middle part of the box back in its position,
and the magician takes his arm back with no sign of harm. How did this happen?
The secret of this complex trick lies in the design of the box. In fact, the magician doesn't
insert his arm straight in the upper part of the box, but bends it in the lower part as you can
see. This means that sticking the guillotines into the slots and removing the middle part
will not affect the magician's arm at all. But you must be thinking that the magician
opened the lower part of the box and it was empty, his hand didn't show up there.
The secret here is that when the lower part was opened, there was a special type of glass behind
it. This glass is manufactured in a very complex ways using a technique called " invisibility
glass". This technique allows glass to hide some objects and shows others in a magical way, as
you can see in this scene. So, when the magician opened the lower part, his arm didn't appear, but
the background did. So thanks to the invisibility glass and the impossible mission accomplished.
Trick No.2: Turning 1$ to 100$ A smart trick done by many street magicians.
At first the magician shows us one dollar bill, wipes it with his hand,
and magically it turns into one hundred dollars bill… Let me try doing something similar...
So, what is the secret? The secret lies in the design of this banknote,
it is real of course, but that is one face of it. It actually consists of three banknotes
(one of 1 dollar, and two of 100 dollars) stuck to each other in a certain way that allows the
magician to switch between them in a single wipe. So, the 1 dollar banknote actually disappeared
between the other two 100 dollars banknotes. In this moment of the trick,
the magician's assistant changed it with a flat banknote that she was hiding from the camera.
Trick No.3: Turning a Can Cover to a Whole Drink Can
In this trick, the magician shows this young man a can cover, and tells him that he could turn
it to a whole drinkable can. He soon puts the can cover on the floor, and hits it hard by his foot.
Surprisingly the cover turns into a full-sized energy drink. How did he do that?
In fact, this trick is quite silly, and doesn't need extensive explanation. The secret is that
the magician tied up a full-sized can on the bottom of his leg, and when he hit the ground,
the drink can fell on the floor. In this scene,
you can see a shape of a hidden object under his pants, an energy drink to be specific.
However, you might wonder where the can cover disappeared after he stepped on it?
Actually, a proper explanation might be that the magician used a double face
sticky piece down of his shoe, and when he stepped on the cover, it stuck beneath.
Trick No.4: A Plastic Cover into a Plastic Bottle
In this trick, the magician appears gripping a Coca Cola bottle, and drinks the remaining liquid,
then hits the plastic cover in his hand right on the empty bottle from the outside.
Magically, the cover penetrates the bottle and settles inside,
and the bottle appears solid with no sign of holes.
Let me try that before revealing the secret.. As you can see, this bottle is solid,
with only one strike, the cover in my hand sneaks inside, so how did that happen?
The secret is that the magician takes a solid bottle and temporary removes the sticker out,
then makes a small hole underneath. After that, he places a double-face sticky piece inside,
and sticks the plastic cover of the bottle on it, then he places back the sticker which totally
hides the hole and the plastic cover. So, the bottle appears solid and intact. During the act,
the magician took the original cover of the bottle and pretended that he was going to teleport it to
the inside, but the fact is that he hid or threw it away using his sleight of hand, and struck the
bottle to release the plastic cover and make it fall down appearing like it was teleported.
Trick No.5: Slicing and Restoring a Chocolate Bar
This trick is simply beautiful, and done by many illusionists. At first, the illusionist shows a
chocolate bar and takes a small slice of it, then passes his hand over the sliced bar, and promptly
it rebuilds the messing part and becomes as good as it gets. So, what is the secret of this trick?
The secret lies in the chocolate bar itself, it is not actually real, but a gimmick made
of chocolate-like rubber that can be bended and folded in a certain way. Let me show you.
Let's assume that this piece of paper is the chocolate bar, I will make a cut
from one side this way. But with a single fast move, I am restoring the missing part,
and showing you a complete solid paper. The secret is in the design of the chocolate bar
that allows it to rotate inside and hides the missing slice in the middle of it.