This is just something I was playing around with. One of my nephews has a Superman costume and it got me to thinking. I faintly remember Paul Harris doing a levitation that involved a Superman cape and a bucket. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that being PH.

Anyway, most close up self-levitations require a cover at some point. Some such as the Pocket Levitator need to cover the legs. Other such as King Rising need cover for the set up and clean up.

So you can pull out a Superman cape. Tell some story about how Superman's real secret to flying isn't that he's from the distant planet of Krypton but the actual secret is in his cape. Then use it for your levitations.

Maybe you'll display the cape in front of you to show the big "S". While you're pointing this out you start to lift off the ground (Pocket Levitator type). Then set up from King rising. Put the cape on and levitate with that method. You can even use it for other levitations such as BroomFlight or even Fearson's Box (that requires cover as you step in and out of the box).

Don't go overboard and perform every levitation you know. Too much would be over-kill. Maybe just two or three.

Just an idea to play around with for presentation. I hope someone finds it fun and useful.

Ron Jaxon

I like the idea. Maybe a piece of green kryptonite appears under your feet whilst levitating: "Oh-oh!" and you fall back down to earth.

One nice thing about this idea is that by having your cover be a prepared prop, like a Superman cape, instead of something more common like a borrowed jacket, you not only have some sort of link between using the cover and the effect, but you create suspicion of the cape itself, distracting from the actual method.

Check out the old U.F. Grant one where you levitate holding a sheet in front of your legs.

Of course there is NONE BETTER than Veronin's.

Hmmmm, maybe you could even use the cape some other magic first. If it were a smaller cape (like for a child's costume), it could, perhaps, be used for zombie (fits with the flying theme)? Would it make any sense to replace the standard zombie with a piece of Kyptonite (some sort of good vs. evil power struggle plot)?

I don't know where you'd get the Kryptonite, but maybe it could be some chunk of plastic with battery powered lighting inside (green L.E.D.s)? Maybe you could make it out a ball of cellophane and/or that heat shrinkable stuff used on gift baskets.

Perhaps, the cape could be gimmicked to make it do something else magical and unexpected?

Just thinking aloud...

The superman trick with buckets was in Paul Harris' Close-up Entertainer. (I think a Looy Simanoff concept)

I had a version of that using a cape in my Pocket Levitator instructions (unknowingly 20 years after Looy Simanoff). Which I think shows that deep down we magicians really wanted to be super heroes when we grew up.

I did, but I gave up after I got busted trying to change into my Superhero outfit in a phone booth.