Growing up in the 1990s, well before YouTube, Wikipedia, and persistent spoilers, I was never at a loss for magic entertainment.
David Copperfield was at his zenith, Penn & Teller had their own show, and in 1997, David Blaine reinvigorated the art with his prominent special Street Magic. It was also during this time, the Discovery Channel, TLC, and PBS were all airing their own specials delving into the history of performance magic.
Recently, I recalled watching one of these specials in which Penn & Teller are interviewed about a Peruvian magician named Richiardi Jr. who developed a “different” version of the sawing-a-woman-in-half illusion.
The trick is a standard of performance magic. It includes a magician’s assistant entering a wooden box and having the box split into three sections. In another variation of the illusion, the assistant lays on a table inside a box and has steel blades cut through her middle. The box is broken into two to show that the assistant has miraculously been cut in half but remains alive. Classic.
However, in Richiardi’s version, there was no box and no clean cut, but there was plenty of blood and viscera. According to popular belief, Richiardi performed this illusion by first pumping the theatre full of the smell of formaldehyde before forcibly putting his assistant under the influence of chloroform and mangling her in front of an audience. Truly, I can not imagine what it must have been like to see this performed live, but the words panic and terror come to mind.
Bishop Walker has built a career in and around the strange and unusual. Noted in certain circles for his photoplays and verbal recitations, you may have seen his humorous animations in Victorian Cut-out Theatre as well as read his work in the Spectre Review, Crash Philosophy, The Hard Times, and Points in Case.
Dark and Weird 