How to saw a person in half: 100 years of a sensational illusion From David Copperfield to Paul Daniels, the trick is as iconic as pulling a rabbit from a hat
Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 06:00 Mark Brown
Sorcar, the Indian magician, cuts his assistant Dipty Dey in half in London in 1956. Photograph: Terry Fincher/Keystone/Getty
A hundred years ago next weekend a magician named Percy Thomas Tibbles literally and laboriously sawed through a sealed wooden box that contained a woman.
It was a sensation that has since become one of the best-known magic tricks, performed with all manner of tools and varying degrees of blood – always involving someone cut in half and nearly always with them miraculously put back together.
100 Years of One Sensational Magical Illusion!
When we think of magicians there are many “safe” tricks that they always have up their sleeve. Some involved cards, others involve a bunny out of a hat, and others involve sawing a person in half!
A hundred years ago one magician called Percy Thomas Tibbles pretty much literally sawed through a wooden box, that contained a woman.
100 years ago, as it still is today, this illusion is quite a sensational one, performed and tweaked according to the magician’s wishes and desires, and even with varying degrees of blood sometimes. We have all sat to watch someone being but in half and miraculously put back together.
Last modified on Sun 10 Jan 2021 23.36 EST
One hundred years ago next weekend, an English magician called Percy Thomas Tibbles literally and laboriously sawed through a sealed wooden box that contained a woman.
It was a sensation and has since become one of the best known magic tricks, performed with all manner of tools and varying degrees of blood – always involving someone cut in half and nearly always with them miraculously put back together.
On Sunday 17 January, the Magic Circle will mark the centenary of sawing someone in half, an illusion as iconic, its president Noel Britten said, as pulling a rabbit out of a hat.