Popular extreme magicians have been making themselves float through the air
as proof of their unusual freakish powers. Tonight
the Masked Magician joins them. He's made his way to the top of his secret
warehouse and intends to demonstrate the extent of his unique abilities in broad
daylight.
As you can see he's completely alone on the roof and there are no visible wires
or hydraulic lifts around to aid him in his attempt to levitate.
Watch carefully and let's see if he's as good as the street magicians who claim
they can do this for real.
Wow he's floating off the roof!
Well it certainly looks like he's floating but that could be an illusion.
Let's watch some more.
He's now hovering over the building without any visible means of support.
This actually does look pretty freaky.
He's floating in mid-air.
It's effortless! Maybe he's just thinking happy wonderful thoughts like Peter Pan.
You couldn't possibly be thinking about the three-story fall to the concrete
below.
As we can see from the back, he's not wearing any kind of James Bond jetpack.
These incredible angles show a complete view of the magician and the area around
him. He's achieving the impossible.
Watch now as he begins to float down toward the earth with nothing above and
nothing below to help him accomplish this trick through devious means.
There he is safe on the ground. So how does the magician rise up off the roof
and float through the sky like a superhero?
The secret may come as a bit of a surprise so I'll let you down easy.
He doesn't have superpowers, he's not even in control of his own flight path.
The man in charge is right here sitting in the cab of a 50-foot crane.
Dangling from the top of this crane is a set of very thin air craft cables.
The same kind used to make Peter Pan fly on broadway and in theaters across the
country and around the world.
Concealed beneath the magician's jacket specially designed harness that has
been used on stage for decades. Before the trick begins the crane operator
lowers the cables down to the stagehands to attach them securely to the harness.
Once they're double and triple checked
the magician is ready to fly with the greatest of ease.
But why don't we see the cable suspending him in the air?
The secret is the bright sky.
Remember I said he wanted to show you his power in broad daylight and that there
were no visible wires?
That's because the glare from the bright Sun and sky makes the wires impossible
for the cameras and even the human eye to detect. From the proper angle the
brightness of the sky blocks the cables making them invisible. From this angle
you can see that the camera can pick up the wires shattering the illusion.
While demonstrating his supposedly magical abilities
we saw the magician alters flight pattern with nothing above or near him.
The secret here involves moving the crane.
In between shots of the magician in the air the crane was repositioned to allow
the operator the freedom to fly the magician in different directions.
Clever editing of the various angles makes it look like he's flying around
the parking lot.
The most difficult part of this trick is lowering the magician to a soft landing.
How about that. It is done with wires after all.