Sawing A Woman in Half - Methods and Exposure

Methods and Exposure

As suggested by the various effects, detailed above, there are numerous methods for accomplishing sawing illusions. Over the years a number of these have been exposed and several have been published and are easily obtainable.

Publishing of magic methods has proved a controversial subject at times. It has involved battles between those determined to expose methods and magicians, who have sometimes resorted to legal action to try to preserve secrecy. The sawing illusion has had a prominent role in the history of such battles and has thus contributed to case law.

In September 1921, motivated by concerns about preventing competition from other magicians who might copy him, Horace Goldin forwent secrecy and applied for a patent for Sawing a woman in half. He was awarded U.S. patent number 1,458,575 on 12 June 1923. In an unforeseen side effect, the content of Goldin's patent documents was later used to expose his methods. The following is an outline summary of some of that material.

One variant presents the front of the box to the audience (A). Expecting the box is the size of an ordinary chest, they may assume that the "victim" is arranged (B), crossing the path of the saw. In reality, the box may be deeper (which the audience cannot see from their perspective), and the "victim" curled up to clear the blade (C).

Another variant has a false table on which the box rests. This allows the carved out table to be used as a place for the woman to crawl up in and avoid the saw. Her feet are replaced with fakes that are moved with electric motors. These motors have the ability to move the feet, but only slightly, as no technology exists to make realistic-looking feet of flesh or the ability to move the toes of the feet; this means that all fake feet must be wearing shoes during the performance. This method is generally not in use today, as the false table must be extremely thick to conceal the assistant.

Penn and Teller use the second variant of this trick on a regular basis in Las Vegas. They have also performed this trick on television at least twice: on Home Improvement and during the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend. They always reveal how the trick is done.