The Man in the Machine has recruited the assistance of magician — and dedicated Dyson fan — Burt Spindler in order to master the guillotine stunt (because apparently, he is completely forgotten about when he tried it in Now You See Him, 13 years ago). The Man in the Mac, you see, has already worked out how his magicians guillotine works, and invites Blake over for one more bit of demoing. Between them, they have worked out how Blake pulled off his guillotine trick, and The Man in the Mac was able to obtain a court order that would prevent Blake and government spymaster Mr. Harrow from flying off into the unknown.
All The Man in the Mac needs to nail down a murderer is the ability to show that they know how to run his wizards guillotine. After demonstrating a safe blade, Elliott Blakes revealed he believes that the magician and psychic Max Dyson is going to cheat on him once more. Max worked the magic trick of a guillotine on the evening at his apartment, and then Elliott Blakes came over and discussed the way the two had tricked a group of experts together.
This trick is another well-known trick, and one the magician managed to perform with masterful skill, as all his other tricks do. The performer performed this trick, and the audience, including judges, were very amused. What makes this other famous street magic baffling is the fact that the performer actually got coins from members of the audience, rather than using prop coins to trick onlookers. This magicians trick involves asking people to walk onstage and encircle the carriage, and doing so holding hands.
The one holding the gun moves across the stage and the magician sets himself up holding the dish before himself. In the performance, the partner at the other end of the plate is allowed to view the cards for themselves, and they hit the cards on the plate, making the performance look like an improvisational street magic trick. The magician asks a female audience member to stick their fingers in the opening, which is cut in the clear glass.
The trick is performed by putting a finger into head opening, then activating a blade. This trick makes the guillotine blade appear to go through a persons neck, but does not injure the individual. Show cutting a carrot in half, then inserting the viewers fingers in a guillotine, plushing the blade, and it appears to go straight through the fingers with no damage. It looks just like his finger was cut, yet the audiences finger is totally undamaged as the magician raises up a sturdy blade.
Since the L is turned over, you can put the carrot into the >>> lower opening, and now the solid blade is in position to slice through. If a magician performing this trick allowed you to see the back of the playing card, you will see instead of the straight lines, there is a structure of the T holding the pot.
Be sure to put cucumbers through both of these guillotine cuts, set down the blade, and display the audiences smooth, perfect cuts both at the start of the trick to maximize effect. Run through the Guillotine several times to make sure that a lower blade works as you are performing a magic trick with guillotine. Magicians performing the illusion have the unwilling volunteer strapped down as a sharp blade is dropped on their head.
The internal workings of the Guillotine protect the volunteers head and arm, activating a lower blade as soon as the top blade hits the top of the front guard. There are small stop blocks which will keep the blade from reaching over the magicians neck, and trap doors which allow the head/shoulders of the magician to fall off-screen when the blade falls. In these, the apparatus is reduced in size by removing two of the vertical pieces, leaving the stock for the neck, with the smaller blade being thrust manually through the stock by the magician.
Other versions were sometimes presented as escapes, wherein the magician himself is locked inside the guillotine, and must try to break out before the blade falls. As is commonly performed, the magicians themselves seemingly cannot release themselves in time, and their heads are seemingly severed from the falling blade, only for the magicians to reappear theatrically elsewhere in the theatre unscathed. Sometimes, the error is minor, and the magician is able to regain performance without even being noticed by the audience. It is a sad announcement when the audience is not excited about the magician performing the big trick, they are excited about the fact you did not die.
Blakes fitted guillotine-neck mounts the deadly way, sending guillotine blades flying — but they were left gasping as Man In The Mac perked up, rain-right, with not so much as a scrape where there would have been a gaping, bleeding hole.