How To Shoot An Arrow Through A Woman
The ever-impressive David Zanthor demonstrates how to shoot an arrow through a woman. It's astonishing and he tells you how it's done!
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Step 1:
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The illusion
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Out of the blackness, beautiful lights puncture the scene. But where is the magician? Oh here he is making a true magician's entrance out of the earth. What now? A set appears! The magician plays around on the hay bails to show that they are real. Now he shows us the target to demonstrate how dangerous it is. It too is real.
Roxy Valentino arrives. Suspicions abound as to whether they are a real couple like Torvill and Dean, or a fake one like Richard and Judy. Either way, they put on a good show. -
He walks her over to the target and places her under a trance so the arrow can pass through her body. Here comes a stage hand. David takes an arrow and proves that is real. Roxy doesn't flinch. He ties a ribbon to the arrow so you can see the path of it, to prove that it goes through Roxy. He pushes the arrow into the gun, it's a tight fit. Deadly.
Now the gun is loaded from here on in, the danger is real. Zanthor takes the gun and mentally prepares himself. Everybody is tense. On false move could end in death. Zanthor makes his final checks.
That's incredible! It's gone right through her! Let's see that again. Incredible, it went right through her. -
Zanthor throws down his gun, the illusion a success. He snaps Roxy out of her trance and walks her to the front of the stage. The synthetic audience is going crazy. Take a bow, you've earned it. That's touching. Well done guys.
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Step 2:
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How it's done
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Despite recent uproar from elements of the magic community David's decided to reveal the best trick in his show.
Is he mad? Or is he just dedicated to the truth? Let's find out.
The secret to this trick is that the arrow never leaves the gun - it just appears to, by magic!
Let's take you through it step by step.
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Step 3:
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The Gun
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The gun itself is a fake, see no bang bang. The explosion you saw was real, but it was triggered by this man, Watson. He's in charge of the pyrotechnics, and what we call what in the industry, a pyromaniac. He's in charge of this - a control box - or detonator which is connected to the gun via some cables which run along the stage floor, up David's leg, down his sleeve, along the gun to this - an explosive charge, strapped to the end of the gun. When he presses this button, the explosion goes off as fast as magic.
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Step 4:
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The arrow
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The arrow is real and so is the ribbon. But as we said, the arrow never leaves the gun. But you saw it fly across the stage right? Wrong! What you actually saw was the ribbon shooting across the stage. The arrow never left the gun. How? Well the ribbon is only loosely tied around the arrow so that it will slip off when the gun is fired. Unbeknown to the audience, the ribbon is also attached to some fishing wire which runs slack across the length of the stage, up into Roxy's corset, and into the bull's-eye. I know what you're thinking, how does the fishing wire run through Roxy? and why? And how is David funding all this?
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Step 5:
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Roxy's corset
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One of the things concealed in Roxy's corset is some hollow copper piping. This is a conduit allowing the fishing line and ribbon to run through her without causing her death. See, she can pull on the ribbon either side. So when the gun fires, the fishing wire moves across the stage through Roxy and through the target pulling the ribbon - which you see, along with it. Suck on that William Tell!
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Step 6:
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The target
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But wait, if that arrow never left the gun, where did that arrow in the dartboard come from? The answer is Naomi, who was lurking behind the target all along. As the gun is shot, crafty Naomi shoves a decoy arrow through a second hole and wobbles it giving the impression that the arrow has struck home. Bull's-eye! Okay, so that all makes sense - unless you're a total thicko! But if the gun never fires, how does the whole thing move? Well now we come to it.
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Step 7:
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Physics 101
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As you already know the ribbon is loose, tied to a fishing line, which runs through the corset through a pipe, through the target, and past Naomi.
What we didn't tell you is that from here it runs off into the wings where it meets a pulley system that takes it up into the rig where it is attached to a sandbag which is being held in place by this man - Fluskey.
When Watson detonates the pyrotechnic, Fluskey drops the bag to the floor. As this drops it pulls the fishing line down with it pulling the ribbon out the gun, across the stage, through the pipe in the corset, through the target, and the illusion is complete.
Thanks David. That was a real spectacle and a half. You know, exposing all these magic tricks is a real service to the people. It's bound to get you into the magic circle one of these days. I hope it all goes well on the big night and that none of your paying audience has already seen this film.