In no particular order, here are some of the greatest magicians throughout history!
12 - Harry Blackstone Sr. We’ve all got that image in our heads of
what a proper magician looks like. White tie, black tuxedo, white gloves. Well, someone
had to have come up with that look! And that person was Harry Blackstone Senior. Born in
the late 19th-century, Harry Blackstone started magic in his teens, along with his brother
Pete. They built their own props, and traveled Illinois performing under the name of “Frederik
the Great”. The brothers’ fate changed when they bought a bread magician’s full
show. Now, they were ready to start for real. Harry decided to change his stage name to
Blackstone and he was often called The Great Blackstone. His most popular tricks included
the vanishing bird cage, the floating lightbulb, and his own version of sawing a woman in half.
If you ever watched the movie The Prestige starring Christian Bale, you’d know know
about the vanishing bird cage trick. As for his own version of sawing a woman in half?
He’d make the performance seem much more real by cutting through a piece of lumber
first with the saw, and THEN he’d go for the lady!
11 - David Blaine If you’re an older millennial, then you
know David Blaine and his ridiculous tricks. David Blaine was popular in the 90’s for
his TV show, where he showed street magic up close. Yeah, we’ve all wanted to know
how those tricks actually looked up close, and David Blaine knew that. His show was more
about getting genuine shocked reactions of people, and less about the showmanship of
magic. He became famous through his show, but Blaine had way more interesting tricks
up his sleeve. For example, back in 1999 he entombed himself in a plastic coffin underneath
a 3-ton water tank in New York City. He stayed in there 7 days with only a few inches to
move. On another occasion, he performed a stunt where he was inside a box of ice for
over 63 hours. Now that one….almost seems like real magic.
10 - Harry August Jansen The average person probably hasn’t heard
of Harry August Jansen, but if you like magic, you know Dante the Magician. Obviously, he
was quite talented! This Danish magician did a bit of everything. He worked in burlesque,
theater, films, and television. He organized a troupe of performers to tour
with around the world. “Sim-sala-bim” were his trademark words he’d say to acknowledge
applause, nonsensical words taken from a Danish children’s song. He performed for years
on end, but as the years went by, he retired to his house in California. Dante the Magician
made his last appearance just a week before his last breath. The King of Magicians lied
alone in his house, and many people consider his passing as the end of the Golden Age of
Magic.
9 - Harry Houdini Ahh, the great Harry Houdini. Everyone has
heard of Houdini. He wasn’t so much a magician as he was an escape artist. Shackles, boxes,
coffins, chains, he could escape anything. Well…..almost. You’ve gotta keep in mind
that his performances took place during the early 20th century, back when penicillin was
a myth and Albert Einstein hadn’t come up with his own magic in physics. You can imagine
how impressed and honestly, scared, people were with his abilities. In one of his famous
tricks, he swallowed 200 needles and threads in front of a shocked audience. He later proceeded
to remove every single one of them. In another stunt, he escaped in less than a minute from
a packing crate in New York’s East River. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Houdini trick
if he weren’t also in handcuffs, leg-irons, and a crate with the lid shut tight. However,
his buried alive trick almost cost him his life. Houdini was buried without a casket
in a pit six feet deep. He became exhausted and was panicking while digging his way to
the surface when he called for help. When his hand finally broke the surface, he became
unconscious and had to be pulled out. The list of seriously dangerous stunts Houdini
performed could just go on and on and on...…...
8 - David Copperfield When it comes to a bigger name in magic for
modern times, there may be none. David Copperfield was a child prodigy when it came to magic.
At the age of 12, he was accepted to the Society of American Magicians. Many children would
just be happy with that, but not Copperfield. Borrowing his name from a Charles Dickens’
novel, Copperfield has since racked up 12 Guinness World Records from his performances.
He’s made the impossible seem possible. He’s made the Statue of Liberty vanish and
he’s walked through the Great Wall of China like it wasn’t there. How about that time
when he sawed himself in half with lasers?! How’d he walk around on stage with his torso
seemingly holding on to his legs?!
7 - Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin Jean Robert-Houdin never intended to go into
magic. He trained to be a clockmaker, but he took up magic as a hobby. After a short
time, he decided to pursue magic as a career. That proved to be a good decision, because
he soon became renowned throughout France. Robert-Houdin eventually became considered
the father of the modern style of conjuring. The year was 1855 and France were having trouble
controlling its colonies. Algeria was about to rebel against the crown. So what did France
do? They made Robert-Houdin travel to Algeria and perform. His first tricks were simple
enough, such as pulling balls and flowers out of hats. But soon enough, the real magic
began. He asked for a volunteer to pick up a chest. After the volunteer picked it and
then set it down, he then said he had cast a spell upon on the volunteer to make him
weak. He then asked the volunteer to lift the chest again. Obviously the volunteer couldn’t!
So how’d this trick work?! With the help of magnetism of course. This trick was all
a great lie to scare Algerians with magic to stop any rebellions. Spoiler alert: it
worked.
6 - Siegfried and Roy There are people who like dogs and other people
who like cats. Then there are people like Roy Horn that make loving cats a way of living.
Real big cats. Siegfried and Roy are both Germans who were born during the second world
wore. Among the bombs and the shortages, they grew up believing in magic.Siegfried found
work performing magic on a steam ship under the stage name Delmare, and that’s when
he met Roy. Siegfried was performing and asked Roy to help him out during a show, and there
was an instant connection. The rest is history. Siegfried and Roy immediately began doing
shows that included wild animals such as white tigers and lions. Everything went great until
one day when it didn’t. While performing at The Mirage in Las Vegas in 2003, one of
the tigers named Montecore turned on Roy during the middle of a show. Roy was bitten in the
neck, causing severe injuries to him. Still, Sigfried and Roy always said Montecore wasn’t
to blame. They believed Montecore sensed Roy was having a mini-stroke and was dragging
him to safety. Siegfried and Roy continued to perform with Montecore after the accident,
and their final performance with Montecore was in 2009.
5 - Alexander Herrmann Alexander Herrmann was everything a magician
should be. He had a German name. He had a French accent. He had a crazy mustache and
a goatee. He went by the name Herrmann the Great. Yeah, you can say he definitely looked
the part of a magician. Herrmann was trained by his older brother, Carl, who also was an
accomplished magician. They first began touring together beginning in Russia. But, the student
soon surpassed the teacher. When Alexander’s skills increased, he became a more integral
part of Carl’s show. By the time they arrived in the US back in 1860, audiences were noticing
Alexander’s dexterity. Soon after, the magical Hermann brothers parted ways. Alexander traveled
around Europe for a while. He became famous in London after performing a trick involving
policemen. He was strolling down a park when he gathered a crowd and asked for a handkerchief.
He “disappeared” the said handkerchief along with a wristwatch, and the audience
was outraged. Two policemen walking by stopped to make sure everything was ok. The audience
accused Herrmann of stealing. Herrmann asked the policemen to search him. They found nothing,
of course. Hermann then asked the officers to search themselves. And what did they found?
You guessed it, one had the watch, the other had the handkerchief. He was still arrested,
though. And that’s when his arrest made it to the newspapers and became a sensation,
propelling Herrman to stardom.
4 - Penn and Teller Many people aren’t sure whether Penn and
Teller are magicians or just plain entertainers, as their show is a mix between magic tricks,
jokes, and political commentary. But really, that question doesn’t matter. They’re
just great at what they do! If you’re a fan of Penn and Teller, you’d
know that Teller doesn’t Talk. In an interview with Oprah, Penn admitted that Teller didn’t
talk because at the beginning of Teller’s career, he was working rough environments
where he was consistently getting heckled. Teller just thought that if he stayed quiet,
the audience would get tired of heckling him! Anyway, you may be surprised to know Penn
and Teller began as a trio. Their partner helped them develop several tricks they continue
to do, such as the rose trick where it looks like Teller is clipping a shadow, but it turns
out to be a rose. Magic seemed to be coming to an end in the late 90s, so Penn and Teller
created a magic show where they performed magic while explaining everything about the
most basic tricks. When the audience thought they knew how a particular trick worked, Penn
and Teller would perform said trick in a much more difficult and “magical” way so to
speak.
3 - Dai Vernon Dai Vernon was probably the greatest expert
the world has seen when it comes to card tricks. Vernon first fell in love with magic when
he was seven years old after his father took him to see a magic show. The first magic book
he ever owned was an early edition of perhaps the most famous card book of them all, The
Expert at the Card Table, by S. W. Erdnase. By the time he was 13 he had memorized the
book! Eventually, he began working at a magic shop in New York, where he met other great
magicians. In the back of the magic shop was where Dai would develop his tricks. Because
of his expertise in sleight of hand, Dai became known as The Professor. He’s so good, he’s
even fooled Houdini himself, who called himself the King of Kards in his early years! Houdini
prided himself on being able to figure out any trick once he saw it three times. Vernon
showed Houdini a trick where he removed the top card from the deck and then placed that
card under the new top card of the deck. When he flipped up the new top card of the deck,
it was the original card. Houdini had to ask to see the trick seven times before his wife
told him to give up, and Dai used the title “The Man Who Fooled Houdini”in his ads!
2 - Harry Kellar Have you ever wanted to run away from home?
Well, okay, everyone has, but some of us actually went through with their plans! When Harry
Kellar was just a child, he worked in a pharmacy in Pennsylvania at the age of 10. One day,
while playing with some chemicals that were obviously off limits to him, he blew a hole
through the ground. Instead of staying and waiting for the punishment, he packed a few
things, jumped on a train and never looked back. He became an apprentice for a traveling
magician that passed through his new town, The Fakir of Ava. He started training and
soon after, began performing. Many of his most famous tricks were later adopted by Harry
Blackstone Senior, such as the levitating woman, the vanishing lamp, and the vanishing
birdcage. He was often referred to as the "Dean of American Magicians
1 - Sigmund Neuberger For everyone who says magic doesn’t pay,
you might wanna think again, folks. Sigmund Neuberger was known in his time as the Great
Lafayette because nothing brings in the crowd as a good ol’ French name. The Great Lafayette
had a vast array of tricks, such as the “Lion’s Bride” in which he turned a woman into a
Lion. His tricks might not have been the greatest of his time, but the Great Lafayette was definitely
the best-paid magician of his time. Sounds a little like Floyd Mayweather to me! That’s
no knock on Mayweather’s once in a generation boxing talents; it’s a nod to his ability
marketing himself to generate interest for his fights. Anyways, because Neuberger had
more money than he knew what to do with, he pampered his most precious belonging: his
dog Beauty, given to him by Harry Houdini. Beauty had her own suite of rooms, ate five-course
meals, and wore a diamond-studded collar. Wow is this Paris Hilton’s dog? And who
knew magicians gave each other things other than just pranks!
Here’s what’s next!