TVPast Forums - Wanted: Clearly Impossible Magic Tricks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Funnybook (Post 86796)

I've never seen one, and never heard of one until today. It's where the magician saws the woman in half, but the box she's in is transparent as opposed to wood. It even has its own Wikipedia page!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearly_Impossible

I also discovered that Christina Applegate was the woman in the box once, way back in April of 2005, in the annual Broadway Cares Easter Bonnet Competition. Would I ever love to get my hands on that one! And Claudia Schiffer went in the transparent box for David Copperfield once. Anybody got that one?

I'd love to see any and all 'Clearly Impossible' you may have. Truckloads to trade etc. etc.

I've been collecting videos of TV magic for a while, plus assorted YouTube clips, so may be able to help out here.

First, I don't think that the Christina Applegate performance was filmed, so I doubt that you'll find footage of it.

As for Claudia Schiffer, it wasn't just once that she went in the box for David Copperfield. While they were together, she often used to join him in his shows and get sawed in half in his 'Clearly Impossible' sawing. Unfortunately, Copperfield has a strict policy of no filming or photography at his shows, so I'm not aware of any footage of the sawing from them. Apparently, there is an extended version of his '15 Years of Magic' TV special that does feature it, but I've never found a copy anywhere. There was one other occasion where Copperfield sawed Claudia in half and where footage may exist as, before they began dating, they appeared on the same German TV talk show and Copperfield sawed her in half in the traditional wooden box. Unfortunately, I don't know which show, just that it was in 1993.

Another 'lost' performance of this illusion would seem to be when Heather Graham was sawed in half by a magician during a 2003 photoshoot. There's pictures from that photoshoot of her being levitated, but none of the sawing.

In my own collection of tapes, I do have a couple of examples of the illusion being performed, including a brief clip of the UK premiere of it from about 1994, being performed by The Pendragons on an old TV magic show (just have the clip, not the full show) - It is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TXphYbrJOY

The other performance I have is of UK illusionists The Twins appearing on the BBC kids show Blue Peter to perform it on one of the BBC's news presenters, Sonali Shah.

There are quite a few other televised performances of 'Clearly Impossible' that I don't have on tape or DVD, but which may be out there somewhere. (Some of these are on YouTube.)

Shania Twain being sawed in half on the 2004 BBC Children in Need telethon.
Cat Deeley was the first British celebrity to take part in it, on the Saturday morning Kid's show SMTV Live.
Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon was sawed in half in 'Clearly Impossible' on an episode of the show where she had a go at being a magician's assistant.
When she was in the Netherlands publicizing The Dukes of Hazzard, Jessica Simpson was sawed in half by magician Hans Klok on a local TV show.
A local magician sawed Penelope Cruz in half in his 'Clearly Impossible' when she appeared on a Mexican TV talk show.
While she was in Japan doing some publicity work, Mischa Barton went in the box for a local magician on one of their TV shows.
British TV presenter Holly Willoughby has gone in the box several times on various shows, each time being sawed by her regular kid's TV co-host, magician Stephen Mulhern.
In 2008, Pamela Anderson went in the box on Australian TV when she made a guest appearance on their version of Big Brother.
Italian singer Sabrina Salerno was sawed in half by a magician called Martin on Italian TV - video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUVn4HtiW1U).

I'm sure there's others out there too, but those are the ones I know about and am looking for myself.