Levitation Tricks
As the interest in magic is increasing with the general public and the thrill of street magic is making a comeback, one of the best loved of all the tricks in the magicians bag are the levitation tricks. Even people who have no interest in learning magic, are fascinated by levitation tricks and trying to figure out how they are done.
The reason for this most likely is that we can't seem to figure out just how the magician does the levitation tricks, and try as we may, we can't find a flaw in his presentation that lets us in on how it is done, even though we know it is a trick.
Needless to say, this is a frustrating situation for the audience; but don't forget, there are always two factors that enter into a magician's levitation tricks that keep you from figuring out what he is doing and how he is doing it.
First, the most important factor of all is the tons of time and practice that a magician puts into learning his act, and this is most certainly true of levitation tricks. The more time and practice, the smoother the presentation and the less chance of making a mistake or letting on to the audience how the trick is done. Even folks who know what he is doing should not be able to see it if the presentation is perfect.
Second, the factor that follows on the heels of the first one, is something a magician injects into making all his acts flawless and memorable, not just the levitation tricks; and that is acting and stage presence. The moves the magician makes to distract the audience and take your eyes away from what he is really doing are tantamount to performing a great act; and in this way, the magician becomes a believable actor who convinces his audience that what they are seeing with their own eyes is the real thing.
But for the amateur magician wanting to learn how to perform some simple levitation tricks; the following is a short description of the levitation method known as the Balducci levitation. It is pretty easy to learn for most people, and not hard to perform once you have done it enough times to really feel comfortable in performing it making it the most popular method used by lots of people just starting out.
The first thing you need to remember when doing this trick, is to limit the number of people in the audience. You can't perform it effectively on a big crowd of people because the trick to the eye depends on the angle you are standing in relation to the crowd. If the crowd is too big, your angle is off and they can see what you're doing and not getting the effect of the trick. Nobody said this was going to be a snap.
To start, face your audience at an angle. Imagine the face of a clock on the floor...the audience should be in the twelve o'clock position and you stand in the center of the imaginary watch facing five o'clock. Also, make sure you are at least six feet or more away from the audience.
When you go to move into the five o'clock position, don't make a big deal of it; do it very low key and natural so no one suspects you are positioning yourself. Now, here's where all your hours of practice in balancing come into play. Stand on tiptoe on your right foot and slowly lift your left foot off the ground. Make sure the left foot stays parallel to the ground so it looks like you are just lifting up from the floor and really levitating. Hold the pose for a few seconds, at least five; and then come back down to the floor again very slowly and gently.
That's all there is to it; one of the many levitation tricks out there made simple and fun.