Female Magician floats a round ball about 8 inches in diameter around and passes a solid hoop over it to show there arn't any connections, then She performs more magic with the ball...
#44.5 Floating Ball Illusion
Uses these magic procedures: Special Props, hidden assistants
The Illusion is done by using Magician's Thread (available at all magic stores) ... at the start, the thread is connected to the very top of the first ball which is already inside the box... the thread passes out thru the spaces around the box's top door edges and runs thru a small release hook at the top door's top left corner...
SEE ILLUSTRATION IMAGE: Click Here
Two Hidden Assistants each control each end of the thread which extends SIDEWAYS from the top center of the ball, all the way to them...
They are located off the Stage at the sides and can move around freely to tighten or loosen the slack of the thread or to raise or lower the ball...
They CAREFULLY raise and lower the ends of the thread to control the up and down and sideways movement of the ball...
SEE ILLUSTRATION IMAGE: Click Here
Now comes the Deceiving part! How does the solid hula hoop pass around the ball without severing or disrupting the control thread? It is VERY Deceiving, but the way the Magician rotates the hula hoop starting from below and then moving upwards while turning it over the ball rearwards... and then back across the above side... makes you think it severed any sideways connections BUT actually it does NOT... it simply Rotates Around The Connected Ball and then
moves out off and towards the front... [David Copperfield uses this same method in his Flying Illusion]
SEE ILLUSTRATION IMAGE: Click Here
SEE ILLUSTRATION VIDEO: Click Here
You need to watch the movements in SLOW MOTION to see this deceiving trick!
The Hanging Large Cloths each have a semi-dome-like curved thin wire metal collapsable frame attached to their center underside (making it look like a round ball is underneath) each is also connected by magician's thread on the top side of the cloth to the hidden assistants so they can control the movement...
The large box hides a Third Assistant who is also a female and has blond hair (to apparently match the Magician's) and this assistant secretly moves the ball to and from a hidden chamber ...into position for the next floating... (so then the Magician never actually places the ball under each cloth) and at the end the real Magician moves out under the last large cloth onto the floor, while the female (with blond hair) is shown moving down into the box, pretending to be the real Magician...
Finally the Real Magician suddenly APPEARS from under the last cloth, while at the same time the hidden assistants loosen the slack of the other two cloths (with the wire frames under them) so they seemingly dissapear down to the floor...
There are 4 total people, and 1 ball, plus 3 cloths and 2 wire frames used in this illusion...
The Magician's movements, background music and lighting, all add to the misdirection away from these secrets... this whole Illusion requires much PRACTICE to insure complete success...