NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Bullet catch

The bullet catch is a conjuring illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at him – often in his mouth, sometimes in his hand. The bullet catch may also be referred to as the bullet trick, or occasionally the gun trick. Magician redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A bullet is a solid projectile propelled by a firearm or air gun and is normally made from metal (usually lead). ...

In performance

The trick usually involves a gun which is loaded and operated by someone with a knowledge of firearms to demonstrate that no deception is being used. In most instances, the bullet is marked by an audience member so that it can be identified later. Great efforts are usually made to show that the person firing the gun does not come in contact with the person catching the bullet. When magicians Penn and Teller perform the bullet catch, in which each simultaneously catches a bullet shot by the other, a line is drawn down the center of the stage, demonstrating that neither will cross to the other side. Penn (left) & Teller Penn and Teller are a two-man magic and comedy team, comprised of Penn Jillette and Teller. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The gun is then fired through a target (usually a pane of glass, which shatters) to demonstrate that the gun has actually fired a bullet and the catcher didn't just hide a bullet in their mouth or hand all along. The performer catching the bullet usually collapses, apparently as a result of performing such a feat, and then rises to produce the bullet which is most often spat onto a plate or tray. Historical accounts of the bullet catch describe the bullet being caught in a handkerchief, in a bottle, or even on the tip of a sword. The guns that Penn and Teller use in their effect are fitted with laser sights to add to the suspense and drama of the trick. Glass can be made transparent and flat, or into other shapes and colors as shown in this sphere from the Verrerie of Brehat in Brittany. ... Linen handkerchief A handkerchief or hanky is a square of fabric, usually carried in the pocket, for personal hygiene purposes such as wiping ones hands or blowing ones nose, but also used as a decorative accessory in a suit pocket. ... Swiss longsword, 15th or 16th century Look up Sword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... There are many scientific, military, medical and commercial laser applications which have been developed since the invention of the laser in the 1958. ...

History

One of the earliest documentations of the bullet catch appeared in the book Threats of God's Judgments by Reverend Thomas Beard in 1631 . Fifty years earlier in France, a magician by the name of Coullew of Lorraine had been successfully performing the bullet catch, demonstrating that he could catch bullets in his hand. (This early performer was clubbed to death with his own gun by an angry assistant in 1613.) Throughout the 1700s, variations of the bullet catch were developed by a number of street performers.

In his 1785 book, Natural Magic or Physical Amusements Revealed, Philip Astley wrote that he himself had invented the trick in 1762 . However, two books published in 1761 mentioned the bullet catch as described by Reverend Beard: The Conjuror Unmasked by Thomas Denton, and La Magie blanche dévoilée by Henri Decremps. Philip Astley (January 8, 1742â€“January 27, 1814) is regarded as the father of modern circus. ...

Around 1840, Scottish magician John Henry Anderson began demonstrating the gun trick in theatres throughout Britain. Anderson, or The Great Wizard of the North as he was called, performed for P.T. Barnum, Czar Nicholas, Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and toured in the United States and Australia, thus bringing the bullet catch into mainstream magic illusions. At least four of Anderson's rivals adapted and imitated his trick in their own performances. This article is about the country. ... John Henry Anderson (1814 â€“ 1874) was a professional magician, born in Kincardine, Scottland. ... Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891), American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. ... The name Nicholas is derived from the late Greek Nikolaos, a combination of the words for victory (Nike) and people (laos). ... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 â€“ 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901. ... Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (in full Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel) (26 August 1819 â€“ 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ...

The bullet catch is arguably one of the most dangerous and daring illusions that a magician can attempt, even when performed in a controlled situation. Legends surround the trick, claiming that more than twelve magicians have been killed while performing it ^[1]

Although there are few documented cases of actual death, there are several accounts of the performer actually being shot. The number of deaths surrounding the bullet catch has given rise to a story that the trick carries with it a curse to those who attempt to perform it, though in reality there have been far more successful performances than fatalities. This is a bit suspect, as magicians will often include stories of death, dismemberment, and curses as part of the staging of many tricks. Look up Curse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Thomas Frost in his 1876 book The Lives of the Conjurors wrote of two separate performers in the 1820s named Torrini De Grisy and De Linsky who were responsible for the deaths of their son and wife, respectively. In 1869 , a performer by the name of Dr. Epstein was killed when the tip of the wand he was using to ram the charge into the gun broke off inside and was subsequently launched at him when the gun was fired. Preparing C-4 explosive This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...

The best documented instance of a performer being killed while performing the gun trick is the case of Chung Ling Soo who was shot dead by a malfunctioning firearm in London in 1918 . This event ended the popularity of the bullet catch trick for nearly 70 years. Escape artist and daredevil Harry Houdini wrote a historical account of the illusion and considered adding it to his repertoire but is said to have been afraid to actually perform it. To his friend Houdini, fellow magician Harry Kellar offered this pleading advice in the early 1900s:^{[citation needed]} Chung Ling Soo Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of U.S. stage magician William Robinson (1861-1918). ... Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 â€“ October 31, 1926), whose real name was Ehrich Weiss (which was changed from Erich Weisz when he emigrated to America), was a Hungarian-born American magician, escapologist (widely regarded as one of the greatest ever), stunt performer, as well as an investigator of spiritualists, film... Publicity Poster of Harry Kellar. ...

American mentalist Theodore Annemann successfully presented a dramatic outdoor version of the bullet catch throughout his career in the 1930s until his death in 1942. Mentalism is an ancient performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control. ... Theodore Ted Annemann (1907 - January 12, 1942) was a famous magician who specialized in the field of mentalism. ...

In the 1950s, Australian magician Maurice Rooklyn survived being hit in the shoulder by a bullet while performing the bullet catch. After this event, he wore a chainmail vest under his shirt for safety. When he was later hit in the scalp by another bullet, he decided to completely remove the trick from his repertoire. ^{[citation needed]} David rejects the unaccustomed armour (detail of fol. ...

Also in the 1950s, German magician Ralf Bialla started to perform the bullet catch, for a fee of 2,000 DM a performance. He wore bullet-proof glasses, strong gloves on his hands with which he covered parts of his face, and his front teeth were made of steel. A .22 rifle was fired, and the bullet had to go through three glass panes before Bialla caught it with his teeth. He was seriously wounded nine times, but survived. He was portrayed in the 1972 documentary film "Wer schießt auf Ralf Bialla?". In 1975, he died by falling off a cliff, supposedly because of constant dizziness caused by the injuries. ISO 4217 Code DEM User(s) Germany, Montenegro, Kosovo ERM Since 13 March 1979 Fixed rate since 31 December 1998 Replaced by â‚¬, non cash 1 January 1999 Replaced by â‚¬, cash 1 January 2002 â‚¬ = 1. ...

In 1980 , a little-known magician named Carl Skenes attempted what is the only verified performance of the bullet-catch (which is arguable because of Ralf Bialla's performance) using a .22 rifle firing actual bullets. Skenes wore a tooth-guard mouthpiece, and then placed a steel box into his mouth. A sharpshooter then fired the bullet into the dime-sized opening at the front of the box. Skenes first performed this stunt in 1980 on the television show That's Incredible, and later performed it on similar shows in Puerto Rico, Japan, and Venezuela. Carl Skenes is a magician, stunt performer, and balloon artist whose most notable contribution to the entertainment field is his 1980 performance of the bullet catch on the television show, Thats Incredible. ... Thats Incredible was a television show that ran from 1980 to 1984 in the USA. In the tradition of Believe It or Not and Real People, this television show had people perform stunts or descriptions and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events. ...

In 1988 , magician Dorothy Dietrich performed the bullet trick in a performance at Resorts International in Atlantic City. This was shown throughout the world on a TV special called "Just For The Record, The best of everything." She also performed it as a featured performer for a world wide yearly convention of The International Brotherhood of Magicians that was featured on Network TV's "Evening Magazine", and on another occasion for the television show "You Asked for It" with Rich Little as host. On another occasion she performed it for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on a show called "Autobus du Canada," and was paid the highest amount ever paid a magician on Canadian television. She advertised that she was the first and only woman to perform the illusion of catching a bullet in her mouth. (In the 1850s, a young woman named Annie Vernone had performed the trick with her sister, and in the 1890s, Adelaide Herrmann, wife of The Great Herrmann, continued to perform her husband's routines after his death; however, they usually caught it in a plate held in front of them, and neither of them caught it in her mouth.) Dietrich advertised a $10,000 reward to anyone who could prove that a bullet did not actually leave the rifle. She has been called "The First Lady of Magic," America's Number One Female Magician," and "The first woman to saw a man in half." She was also featured in a Home Box Office special starring Tony Curtis, who played Houdini in the Paramount bio-flick, doing a straitjacket escape 15 stories in the air from a burning rope. She is currently head of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA, and appears on national TV several times a year. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alternate meanings: See Atlantic City (disambiguation) Atlantic City is a city located in USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 40,517. ... Alexander Herrmann (1843 â€“ 1896) was a German magician, better known as The Great Herrmann. ... HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network with headquarters in New York City. ...

In 2006 , the bullet catch trick was tested on the TV show "MythBusters". The crew used a slaughtered pig's head to see if it were actually feasible for a human jaw to withstand the force of a bullet. Despite having stronger teeth than a human, the pig's teeth and jaw were badly damaged. After judging the trick "busted", the crew was challenged to design a precisely timed mechanical bullet catching rig. This device was only modestly successful at actually catching a bullet, and only after the "jaws" were switched from a human shaped metal jaw to a longer duckbill one with more surface area. Even with perfect timing aided by ultra-high speed photography, the bullet deteriorated into an almost unrecognizable mass of metal upon impact. MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors and urban legends in popular culture. ...

The trick was featured in the 2006 movie The Prestige (film). The Prestige is a 2006 period film directed by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay adapted by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan from Christopher Priests award-winning 1995 novel of the same name. ...

Method

No matter what speed a bullet leaves the muzzle, it must eventually come to rest. If the gun were perfectly aimed using an appropriate distance, such a trick would seem plausible. This is the line of reasoning the performer of the bullet catch encourages the audience to accept. A muzzle can be: The mouth of a firearm, see firearm muzzle The projecting nose of an animal, see animal muzzle An arrangement of straps used to bind an animal muzzle shut, or otherwise prevent it from biting. ... Reasoning is the mental (cognitive) process of looking for reasons to support beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings. ...

As is often the case with other magic illusions, there is no single way the bullet catch is performed. The method a magician may use will vary from performer to performer. It should come as no surprise that the gun or the bullet is rigged in some way. In the simplest form of the bullet catch, the gun is made to fire blanks. The target through which the "bullet" passes is set to destruct using a squib. All the performer must do is keep the bullet in his or her mouth until ready to produce it. Blank cartridges, as used in nail guns Yugoslavian 7. ... A squib is a small explosive device which has a wide range of uses, such as generating mechanical forces as well as in pyrotechnic use. ...

If the gun is to be loaded in front of the audience, a wax bullet is loaded into the firearm. The spray of liquid wax from the barrel of the gun is enough to break the pane of glass. A good magician is able to use misdirection to exchange the marked bullet with one made of wax and place the marked bullet into his or her mouth. There are also electronic guns, which will simulate the sound, smoke, and flash of a firing, but not actually affect the bullet. Another method when loading in front of the audience or by an audience member is to have a small magnet attached to the ramrod, that removes the bullet immediately after loading. When the magician takes the stick, he removes the bullet, and holds it in his or her mouth until producing it. In that case, the gun is always gimmicked, it only simulates a shot. This method is now of course somewhat obsolete, given that modern firearms do not use a ramrod. Wax bullets are made of paraffin wax, and are pressed into a primed cartridge case. ... Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. ... For other uses, see Magnet (disambiguation). ... Look up ramrod in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In cases where the bullet is marked by an audience member, the marked bullet is then transferred to the magician through sleight-of-hand, or a similar bullet is duplicated by an off-stage assistant and transferred to the magician.

The gun that Soo used was set to fire a blank in an adjacent barrel. When the gun malfunctioned, the bullet that had been loaded into the main barrel was accidentally fired into Soo's lung. Chung Ling Soo Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of U.S. stage magician William Robinson (1861-1918). ... The barrel of a firearm is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion is released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at great speed. ... Human respiratory system The lungs flank the heart and great vessels in the chest cavity. ...

Carl Skenes used no gimmicks in his performance. The .22 rifle was mounted onto a number of gun stands to keep it steady, and the protective gear and target box he placed into his mouth were put in as part of the performance.^{[citation needed]} Carl Skenes is a magician, stunt performer, and balloon artist whose most notable contribution to the entertainment field is his 1980 performance of the bullet catch on the television show, Thats Incredible. ...

Despite frequent rumors to the contrary, in a radio interview with Penn Jillette in February, 2006, magician Criss Angel seemed to indicate his unaired performance of the bullet catch was an illusion, saying that it "was so believable" that television network A&E barred it from airing. In Angel's performance, his musician friend Jonathan Davis fired a high-powered rifle into a titanium cup custom-made to fit into Criss' mouth.^[2] This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Criss Angel (born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos on December 19, 1967) is an American magician, illusionist , musician, mentalist, hypnotist, escapologist, stunt performer, and actor. ... Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ... â€œInstrumentalistâ€ redirects here. ... Jonathan Houseman Davis (born January 18, 1971) is the vocalist for the multiplatinum Nu Metal[1] band, Korn. ... General Name, symbol, number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 47. ...

Famous performers

† died as a result, or consequence of the trick For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... John Henry Anderson (1814 â€“ 1874) was a professional magician, born in Kincardine, Scottland. ... Jean EugÃ¨ne Robert-Houdin (Zhean Yuzhean Ro-bayr oo-da) (December 6, 1805 - June 13, 1871) was a French magician. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Alexander Herrmann (1843 â€“ 1896) was a German magician, better known as The Great Herrmann. ... Chung Ling Soo Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of U.S. stage magician William Robinson (1861-1918). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Theodore Ted Annemann (1907 - January 12, 1942) was a famous magician who specialized in the field of mentalism. ... Carl Skenes is a magician, stunt performer, and balloon artist whose most notable contribution to the entertainment field is his 1980 performance of the bullet catch on the television show, Thats Incredible. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Paul Daniels (born 6 April 1938 in South Bank, Middlesbrough) is a television magician from the United Kingdom. ... Banachek is the stage name for a mentalist named Steven Shaw. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Joe Labero (stage name of Johansson, Lars Bengt Roland) (born July 28, 1963 in Alvesta, Sweden) is a Swedish magician. ... Penn & Teller at the 1988 Emmy Awards Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. ... Criss Angel (born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos on December 19, 1967) is an American magician, illusionist , musician, mentalist, hypnotist, escapologist, stunt performer, and actor. ...

References

James Randi (born August 7, 1928), stage name The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. ... Conjuring is a book by James Randi. ...

External links

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Magic tricks This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... 2700BC - The first known performance of a conjuring effect (cups and balls) by the magician Dedi in ancient Egypt 100AD - The Acetabularii performed the Cups and balls in ancient Rome using stones and small vinegar cups (hence the name Acetabularii) 1584 - Reginald Scott publishes The Discoverie of Witchcraft (sic) a... Parlor magic is done for larger audiences than close-up magic (which is for a few people or even one person) and for smaller audiences than stage magic. ... A card manipulator performing a flourish with a deck of playing cards. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Mentalism is an ancient performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Harry Houdini, a famous escapologist and magician. ... Exposure in magic refers to the practice of making magical methods (the secrets of how magic tricks are performed) available to those who are not magicians. ... This article may contain original research or unverified claims. ... The following is a list of terms used by magicians, sorted alphabetically. ... This page contains a list of magic tricks. ...

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