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In 1983, illusionist David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty vanish. Here's how he did it.

"When the curtain dropped the statue was not there. I didn't see it."

via Docebrown1955/YouTube

David Copperfield vanishes the Statue of Liberty in 1983.

In April 1983, 50 million Americans tuned in to see the legendary illusionist David Copperfield attempt the impossible. On live TV, he would vanish the 305-foot-tall Statue of Liberty, a symbol of American freedom and a beacon of hope to people worldwide.

Copperfield’s audacious illusion would stun the world and become one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of magic. The magician performed the act on a stage with an audience sitting before the statue. A helicopter flew above, shining light on the statue and a ring of lights lay on the ground below, illuminating Lady Liberty. Copperfield raised a curtain between 2 giant pillars, temporarily obscuring the audience’s view of the statue.

As loud music swelled, Copperfield concentrated intensely until the curtain dropped and the statue was missing.

The crowd screamed and yelled in disbelief as cameras revealed the spotlights pointing to a space where the statue used to be. Copperfield had pulled off the impossible.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

How did David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear?

Simply put, Copperfield didn’t move the statue; he rotated the audience away from it, which was sitting on top of a massive turntable. After the audience rotated, the statue was hidden behind one of the pillars.

“He had a helicopter with a bright spotlight shining on the statue for a considerable length of time, during which he apologized to the audience and said they were having ‘technical problems,’” Dan explained on the YouTube channel Mind Blown Magic Illusion. “Eventually, the curtain came across and the stage began to revolve imperceptibly slowly. However, the helicopter moved in sync with the stage. The beam of light appeared to be stationary in relation to the stage. When the curtain was lifted, they saw the helicopter in the same place but with no statue. The beam of light also helped black out the background. Otherwise, the audience would have seen a different skyline.”

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The key to the illusion was ensuring the audience didn’t know they were on a revolving platform. To do so, the stage rotated very slowly and the music had a lot of pounding bass that obscured any movement the audience may have felt.

A few minutes after the statue “disappeared,” the curtain went back up. When it was dropped again, Lady Liberty was back and America was whole again.

Why did David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear?

At the end of the TV special, Copperfield revealed that his goal for the illusion was to remind all Americans not to take their freedoms for granted because they could be gone in the blink of an eye. This was a heavy statement at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

"I want to tell you why I did this. My mother was the first to tell me about the Statue of Liberty,” Copperfield told the audience of millions. “She saw it first from the deck of a ship that brought her to America. She was an immigrant. She impressed upon me how precious our liberty is and how easily it can be lost. And then, one day, it occurred to me that I could show with magic how we take our freedom for granted. Sometimes, we don't realize how important something is until it's gone."

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Pop Culture

13-year-old autistic magician wows judges on 'Britain's Got Talent'

Simon Cowell remarked that “there's something really, really incredible” about the Irish teen.

via Britain's Got Talent/YouTube

Cillian O'Connor wows judges on "Britain's Got Talent."

Cillian O'Connor, a 13-year-old from County Meath, Ireland, wowed judges on “Britain’s Got Talent” on April 15 by making cards appear out of nowhere, making milk disappear and conjuring up a huge jar of jelly beans for Simon Cowell.

The appearance would have been incredible for any magician, let alone a teenager, but O’Connor’s was even more remarkable because he has autism spectrum disorder and dyspraxia.

Social anxiety is prevalent in people with autism, with reports showing it could be as high as 50%. Further, dyspraxia is a neurodevelopmental condition that makes it difficult for people to perform motor skills. Every magician needs two things: being comfortable in front of an audience and above-average fine motor skills. O’Connor believes that magic has helped him to develop both.

Before studying the art of magic, O’Connor says he didn’t want to be within “50 feet” of people. But all that changed after picking up his new skill.

“I have learned that having autism is not a disability, it’s an ability. When I was younger, I was unable to interact with people,” O’Connor said during his performance. “I felt a bit empty, incomplete. I felt invisible. After discovering magic, my life changed. It was like a light switch coming on inside my head."

“I found a way to interact with people through my magic,” he added.

During his routine, O'Connor took the audience on a journey. He discussed the transformative power of magic while transporting milk across the stage, helping Simon Cowell guess the exact number of jelly beans in a jar and pulling a 7 of diamonds out of nowhere.

And he did it all with amazing dexterity and confidence on stage.

After his performance, he received a standing ovation from the audience, and all four judges gave him “yesses” to move on to the next round.

Simon Cowell was particularly impressed—no easy feat.

“Wow, you are unbelievably talented. Seriously,” Cowell said, noting that the jelly bean trick freaked him out. “There is something really, really incredible about you, and I do believe in magic, and you are such an amazing performer. Brilliant, brilliant.”

Judge Bruno Tonioli held back tears when giving his appraisal.

“I was totally, totally captivated by what you were doing,” he exclaimed. “For somebody so young, it’s an incredible quality. You have a fantastic future in front of you.”

After the judges passed O’Connor, his mother rushed to the stage and hugged him.

“Six years ago our quiet, shy, anti-social, little boy saw a little girl, Issy Simpson, perform Magic on Britain's Got Talent. Cillian became obsessed with Magic, and he always dreamed of someday being just like that #youngmagician,” she wrote on Facebook.

“When I grow up, I want to be a magician,” O’Connor said before his routine. “What I like about magic is just trying to make people smile." Well, Cillian. There’s no need for you to wait to grow up to be a magician. After that performance, you have all the right in the world to start calling yourself one now.

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Joy

A mentalist did mind-reading tricks on the Seattle Seahawks and their reactions are hilarious

Seriously, though. How?!?

Photo by Philip Robertson

The Seattle Seahawks football team got a fun lesson in mental training from Oz Pearlman.

We know people can't really read minds, but there are people who sure seem like they can. If you've ever witnessed an experienced mentalist do their thing, you understand. Sleight-of-hand tricks are one thing; even if they're impressive, you kind of know the "magic" is simply well-practiced trickery. But with mentalism, you simply can't figure out how they do it. It genuinely seems like they're reading people's minds.

I have an amateur magician friend who does mentalism tricks and it's super trippy. One time, I watched him pull a piece of paper out of his wallet with a word my other friend was thinking of. He refuses to tell me how he does it, but he insists it's something pretty much anyone can learn to do.

Famous mentalist Oz Pearlman recently joined the Seattle Seahawks at a team meeting about mental training. Pearlman made a name for himself as a contestant on "America's Got Talent" and has since been in high demand. He wowed the whole team with his skills, and the reactions of the players and coaches were hilarious.

In a clip from the meeting, shared by ESPN, we can see Pearlman guess wide receiver DK Metcalf's phone passcode, somehow transfer the name of a person wide receiver Penny Hart was thinking about onto the palm of his hand, and more.

The joy and befuddlement of the whole team are so relatable. How could anyone not be blown away by these feats?

Check it out:

Penny Hart was just done. Can't really blame him.

I have no idea how Pearlman did any of these tricks, but I know that my friend is right—anyone can learn to do (at least some) mentalism tricks. After watching this video, I did a little Googling to see if I could learn a simple mentalism trick to try out on my teenager. It was surprisingly easy to do successfully. (Disturbingly easy, in fact. I was able to plant a specific playing card—number and suit—in my son's head with just a few simple and subtle hand gestures. Totally freaked him out.)

While traditional magic tricks rely on illusion and distraction, mentalism focuses primarily on the psychology of the audience. A mentalist knows how to read subtle body language and facial cues and also knows how to create their own physical and verbal cues that make people think about specific things.

Advanced mentalists like Pearlman, though are mind-blowing. How did he know that Penny Hart was thinking of his uncle Steve? Clearly, he didn't plant that. And how did he get the word "Steve" onto his hand? Truly amazing.

Unfortunately, mentalism can easily be abused by con men and grifters, but when it's done for pure entertainment purposes it's so fun to watch. And in this case, the Seahawks also got a lesson on how powerful our minds and reading other people's cues truly can be. Wise choice to drive home a point, Coach Carroll.

Somebody go check on Penny Hart, though. Poor guy's going through some things.

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Joy

Why this simple finger trick forces your foot to change direction

@CheriJacobus/Twitter, Photo by Vitamina Poleznova on Unsplash

This foot and finger trick is mind-blowing.

Our bodies are so amazing and weird. The fact that human beings have gone from banging rocks together to creating the most intricately detailed works of art is a testament to what our bodies can do. Just think about the kinds of physical feats we (well, some of us, anyway) have mastered, from brain surgery to playing musical instruments to Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics.

Humans are marvels. Through coordination and balance and muscle training and practice, there are so many incredible things our bodies can do.

But honest to goodness, I cannot make my foot not change direction while doing this stupid physical trick.

It goes like this:

Sitting in a chair, lift your right foot off the ground a few inches and rotate your foot to the right (clockwise), making a circle in the air. While making that circle, use your right finger and draw the number "6" in the air.

I tried this a dozen times. A full 12 in a row. And every single time, no matter how hard I would concentrate, my foot would change direction as soon as I started to draw the "6." I tried it fast. I tried it slow. I tried concentrating only on my foot or only on the "6." It didn't matter. My finger influenced what my foot was doing no matter what.

It's not a new trick, but it was new to me and to the people who responded to a tweet sharing the trick with various iterations of "What is this sorcery?!?"

If you are one of those people who were able to do it without any problem, congrats. You have some kind of superhuman coordination.

That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. My teen and young adult children were somehow able to keep their foot going clockwise. One of them is a musician and one is left-handed, so maybe that's why? Drummers and ballet dancers in the comments said they didn't have any problem with it.

As it turns out, there is a scientific explanation for why it's pretty much impossible for most of us.

The Curious Crew folks at Michigan State University explain why it works:

"The cerebellum part of the brain manages body movements, like the circling of the foot or the drawing of the number 6. However, the nerve fibers from the right side of the body cross the brain stem and connect with the left side of the brain, just as the fibers on the left side of the body connect with the right side of the brain. When you try to draw the number 6 with your right hand, those signals are coming from the left side of the brain. Even though circling your foot is easy to do in either direction, you cannot rotate your foot in the opposite motion of the drawn six at the same moment. The left side of the brain cannot manage two opposite movements in the same moment, so the brain combines the movement to a similar motion. When you switch to the left foot, there is no problem because the right side of the brain controls your foot movement, while the left side can focus on drawing the number 6."

So there you have it. The old brain controlling the two sides of your body thing. Clearly, there must be a way to train yourself to not have your foot wig out when making the "6" in the air, so pardon me while I spend the next six hours trying to make my body do my bidding.

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