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TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks
''TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks'' is a one-off list show that was produced by Objective Productions for Channel 5. The programme counts down the fifty greatest magic tricks – The Magic Bullet by Penn & Teller is the illusion at number one. The show was presented by the British actress Fay Ripley, and was directed by Helen Albon. ''TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks'' was first broadcast on Channel 5 on 31 December 2011. The list of magic tricks features set pieces, stunts and rabbit-out-of-the-hat tricks. Contributors to the programme included Penn & Teller, Paul Daniels and Dynamo. Two tricks by the British magician Pete Firman featured in the list, with his Goldfish Trick in the top ten. Magic tricks # The Magic Bullet (Penn & Teller, 1996) # Death Saw (David Copperfield) # Russian Roulette (Derren Brown, 2003) # Chop Cup (Paul Daniels, 1985) #The Cardboard Box Illusion ( Shahid & Lisa Malik, 2000) #Walking on Water (Dynamo, 2011) #Goldfish Trick (Pete Firman, 2005) #Challenge o ...
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Fay Ripley
Fay Ripley (born 26 February 1966)Ripley, Fay (25 February 2011).Don't tell me you are going to get my followers up to 5,000 for my birthday tomorrow...I say my birthday tomorrow. Twitter. Retrieved 26 February 2011. is an English actress, television presenter and recipe author. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1990). Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of ''Around the World in 80 Days''. Ripley's early film and television appearances were limited, so she supplemented her earnings by working as a children's entertainer and by selling menswear door-to-door. After her scenes as a prostitute were cut from ''Frankenstein'' (1994), Ripley gained her first major film role playing Karen Hughes in ''Mute Witness'' (1995). In 1996, Ripley was cast in her breakthrough role of Jenny Gifford in the ITV series ''Cold Feet''. Initially a supporting role in the pilot episode, Ripley's character was expanded when a series was commiss ...
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Shahid & Lisa Malik
''Shaheed'' ( ,  ,   ; pa, ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) denotes a martyr in Islam. The word is used frequently in the Quran in the generic sense of "witness" but only once in the sense of "martyr" (i.e. one who dies for his faith); the latter sense acquires wider usage in the ''hadith''. The term is commonly used as a posthumous title for those who are considered to have accepted or even consciously sought out their own death in order to bear witness to their beliefs. Like the English-language word ''martyr'', in the 20th century, the word ''shahid'' came to have both religious and non-religious connotations, and has often been used to describe those who died for non-religious ideological causes. This suggests that there is no single fixed and immutable concept of martyrdom among Muslims and Sikhs. It is also used in Sikhism. Etymology In Arabic, the word ''shahid'' means "witness". Its development closely parallels that of the Greek word ''martys'' ( gr, μάρτ ...
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Mathieu Bich
Mathieu is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * André Mathieu (1929–1968), Canadian pianist and composer * Anselme Mathieu (1828–1895), French Provençal poet * Claude-Louis Mathieu (1783–1875), French mathematician and astronomer * Émile Léonard Mathieu (1835–1890), French mathematician * Gail D. Mathieu, United States ambassador to Namibia * Georges Mathieu (1921–2012), French painter * Jérémy Mathieu (born 1983), French footballer * Luc Mathieu (born 1972), French journalist * Marie-Alexandrine Mathieu (1838–1908), French artist known for her etchings * Michel Mathieu (other), multiple people, including: ** Michel Mathieu (Canadian politician) (1838–1916), Canadian politician **Michel Mathieu (French politician) (1944–2010), French diplomat * Mireille Mathieu (born 1946), French singer * Paul-Henri Mathieu (born 1982), French tennis player * Simonne Mathieu (1908–1980), French tennis player * Tyra ...
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Franz Harary
Franz Harary (born July 18, 1962) is an American magician and inventor who has appeared on television shows such as the first episode of NBC's ''The World's Greatest Magic'', on which Harary made the Space Shuttle appear to vanish. While studying music at Eastern Michigan University and aspiring to be a singer and dancer on Broadway, Harary was designing illusions as a hobby. He began performing publicly after persuading the university's marching band leader to let him appear as part of the halftime show. Between 1982 and 1984, Harary's Odyssey In Illusion team designed and executed illusions for ballet troupes, ice revues, marching bands, and symphony orchestras. It was featured on ABC-TV's live telecast of the 1983 Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit. At the end of 1983, Harary sent Michael Jackson a videotape of Odyssey In Illusions greatest hits and within a week was invited to perform as part of the Jacksons' "Victory Tour" in 1984. Harary made Jackson levitate and disappear ...
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Paul Zenon
Paul Zenon (born Paul Collins) is an English stage and TV magician, comedian, presenter and writer. He is the author of three books on magic, proposition bets and practical jokes, and an expert on the history of magic and magicians, variety, and unusual entertainments. His specialist subjects include magician and escape artiste Harry Houdini, faux Chinese magician Chung Ling Soo, and Jasper Maskelyne, the 'War Magician'. He is a sceptic with strong views on claims of psychic abilities and the paranormal. Zenon is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star status and was the recipient of the Carlton Award for Comedy in 2015, the Sir Ken Dodd Comedy Award in 2017, presented by the man himself, the Neville King Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019 and the David Berglas Award for Outstanding Contribution to Magic, also in 2019. Career Throughout his teenage years, Zenon spent the summer holidays working in the Blackpool magic and joke shop 'The House of Secrets' which ...
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Simon Drake
Simon Drake (born Simon Alexander; 1 March 1957) is an English magician based in London. He is best known for the television series ''The Secret Cabaret'' made for Britain's Channel 4. Early life Born in London, Drake is the son of a GP. Drake worked as a record plugger at Decca Records when he met Arthur Brown. Brown would become a mentor to Drake as he trained as a magician. Performing career He first came to wider attention in Kate Bush's UK live tour in 1979 for which he co-devised visuals and played seven characters. He has a wide and diverse performing history, performing at Tenjō Sajiki in Japan, to the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium before Queen Elizabeth II. He advised Nicolas Roeg for the film Castaway, coaching Oliver Reed in sleight of hand, and was magic advisor to Harvey Keitel on FairyTale: A True Story. He has performed and consulted with many performers including Elton John, Phil Collins, Madness, David Gilmour, Meat Loaf, Steve Miller, Dar ...
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Guillotine (magic Trick)
The Guillotine is a magic trick where it appears that a blade of a guillotine passes through a person's neck without harming them. Variations on the theme have been performed for hundreds of years, with documented examples appearing in print in the 16th century. The most common modern variation is the finger guillotine or finger chopper, a pocked-sized version that appears to chop off the magician's finger. History The Guillotine is probably the most famous member of a family of illusions featuring the apparent decapitation of a person or other living subject. Decapitation illusions have a long history, with the first documented example dating from the reign of Khufu in ancient Egypt, when a magician named Dedi apparently decapitated and restored birds and other livestock. A method for performing a decapitation illusion, where a person's head is apparently severed and displayed on a plate next to their headless body, was described in ''The Discoverie of Witchcraft'' by Reginald ...
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The Great Soprendo
Geoffrey Durham (born 22 July 1949) is a British comedy magician and actor who was known for many years as "the Great Soprendo". Early life Durham was born in East Molesey, Surrey, England. At the age of ten, he developed an interest in magic and performed occasional shows for friends and relatives. By the age of 13, however, that interest had waned. He later studied Spanish at Leeds University and then took a job as a stage-hand at the Leeds City Varieties Theatre. He worked there for 18 months, ending up as head flyman, and then left to become an actor. After working in various stage shows for several years his interest in magic was rekindled while preparing for a show in Liverpool, in which his character performed some tricks. He dug out some of his old props and found he enjoyed learning and performing magic so much that he decided to make it his new career. Magic career Durham presented a magic act as an outrageous Spanish magician for at least 15 years before perfor ...
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Siegfried & Roy
Siegfried & Roy were a duo of German-American magicians and entertainers, best known for their appearances with white lions and white tigers. It was composed of Siegfried Fischbacher (June 13, 1939 – January 13, 2021) and Roy Horn (born Uwe Ludwig Horn; October 3, 1944 – May 8, 2020). From February 1, 1990, until Horn's career-ending injury on his birthday on October 3, 2003, the duo formed ''Siegfried & Roy at the Mirage Resort and Casino'', which was regarded as the most-visited show in Las Vegas, Nevada. From August 2004 to May 2005, Fischbacher and Horn were executive producers of the animated sitcom ''Father of the Pride''. Early life Fischbacher and Horn were born and raised in Germany. They moved to the United States and became naturalized citizens in 1988. Siegfried Siegfried Fischbacher was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany, on June 13, 1939, to Martin and Maria Fischbacher. His mother was a housewife, and his father a professional painter who during World War I ...
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John Lenahan
John Lenahan (born 1961 in Philadelphia, US) is an American illusionist and entertainer resident in the UK since 1984. A successful corporate entertainer, he came to greater fame as a result of a 1994 appearance on the BBC One show ''How Do They Do That?'' explaining the sleight of hand trick known as Three-card Monte, as a result of which he became the first person in 85 years to be expelled from The Magic Circle. His subsequent television appearances have included his own 1997 series for BBC Two, ''Stuff the White Rabbit''; and the ''Secrets of Magic'' specials for BBC One. He is a former holder of the title Street Magician of the Year. Lenahan also provided the voice of Talkie Toaster in the first series of ''Red Dwarf'' and presented a 1987 factual series on BBC Two called ''The Open Road''. The 1987 series featured Lenahan travelling across the UK and finding out about the lives and traditions of British people. Lenahan's first novel, ''Shadowmagic'', was originally re ...
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The Pendragons
Jonathan and Charlotte Pendragon were a husband-and-wife team of American illusionists who called their work "physical grand illusion". They are widely known due to numerous national and international television appearances. Performing partnership The couple met at the University of California, Irvine, where Jonathan was studying theatre and Charlotte was studying dance under choreographers Eugene Loring and George Balanchine. They married soon after. Charlotte (born Charlotte Ann Brown in Kalispell, Montana) is a dancer and former gymnast and body builder. Jonathan (born Claude Douglas Yarbrough) was a gymnast, spring board diver, martial arts expert and fencer. He used his athletic skills in a career as a Hollywood stuntman, performing the back hand springs for John Belushi down the church aisle in ''The Blues Brothers''. He became Belushi's stunt double and friend, coordinating stunts and second directing in the movie ''Continental Divide''. Jonathan and Charlotte's athle ...
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Metamorphosis (illusion)
Metamorphosis is the name of a stage illusion invented by John Nevil Maskelyne, but most often associated with famous escape artist Harry Houdini and performed to some renown (for speed) by The Pendragons, among others. It is also known amongst magicians as the Substitution Trunk (often abbreviated to Sub Trunk). In the illusion, an assistant (Houdini employed his wife Bess) is locked inside a large box or trunk, often after being restrained with handcuffs, ropes, bags, etc. The magician stands on the trunk and holds a curtain up to momentarily conceal his entire body. When the curtain is lowered, it is now revealed to be the assistant standing atop the box, the magician and assistant having changed places instantaneously. When the box is opened, it is shown to contain the magician, restrained as the assistant had been. In some acts, the magician is locked in the box first, then appears standing atop the box. Variations include the Aquarian Illusion created in the 1970s by Ala ...
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