Grand Illusions

I had the chance to take Little Smoot to see David Copperfield in Pittsburgh the other night. What a show!

I must admit it is a little frustrating to watch him make a classic car appear on stage... make audience members disappear... walk through a moving fan and appear in the middle of the audience seconds later, etc., and not have a clue how any of it was possible.

It all reminded me of my young days, when I had my own aspirations of performing magic. I can remember those early desires to dazzle audiences with my amazing illusions. I used to come up with some remarkable magic shows, and then perform them for my parents.

I think my parents only agreed to watch my "amazing" performances because whatever amount of time I was spending on them was time I was not devoting to beating the crap out of my little brother.

I don't remember too much about my magic acts, but I did find a stunning picture in one of my old photo albums which demonstrates just how much magical talent I really had back then. As you can see in the photo above, I had managed to invite an invisible man to the doorway of my room!

As I look at this picture, numerous questions come to mind. How did I manage to pull off such a convincing illusion, back in the days when fishing line probably hadn't been invented yet? Based on the height of the hat, exactly how tall was the invisible man? Why was he sitting in my doorway, instead of inside the room? Wouldn't the illusion have been even more convincing if the hat was also invisible, leaving just an image of the chair? Why was I allowing strangers into the house?

I wonder whether our David Copperfield experience will inspire Little Smoot to try her hand at some magic tricks, too. If that's the case, I have a bad feeling that the cat will be an unwilling participant in one way or another.