Is this ancient illusion still performed anywhere do you know?

Bob.

Is this a setup line?

Bill, I come to this forum for advice.

I have seen old illustrations of this illusion, and I am interested in the interaction of Christianity and magic. As I now live in Spain it would be a feasible proposition here.

Bob.

Christianity and Magic... Andre Kole is your man

You have to realize that with the current climate of world conditions, "beheading" is not a good thing. Living in Spain, I figure that you would be even more sensitive to this than we are over here.

Regarding this illusion, unless you really revamp the method, you might as well be doing the ld "levitation under the bedsheet with two long sticks" routine.

It is a very old-fashioned illusion which in its original form would not fool a chimpanzee. The chief difficulty would be in disguising the split in the platter. With decent prosthetic makeup on the "body," and application of some reasonable illusion principles, it would be doable.

Recently, Copperfield and others have done this with a separate box for the head to rest upon.

But much of the presentation depends on the surroundings. Where do you plan to stage it? "Spain" is a rather broad term. Are you going to do it on the streets, in a theatre or in a living room. How are you planning to choreograph the routine. Where do you go with it, once you have the head on the platter.

Is the head going to open its eyes and speak? (a real decapitated head could not speak)

Does this give you enough help?

Thank you Bill. I would perfrm it outside in semi darkness. Lot of events held outside in Spain at fiesta time. In its original mediaeval form. The secret is not of importance as much as the recreation of the illusion in it's middle ages form. The grotesque is normal at fiesta time where fabulous large images, many sexual and religious in content, are burned.

Bob

This could be very effective under torchlight. Go for it!

Is this similar to the guilotine performed by Simon Drake on the TV show secret caberet in the UK?
He got beheaded and you saw his head roll out of the stocks into a bucket! This was awesome!

Sean

If you use a sphinx table, you can have the head and body completely separate.

This sounds like a great opportunity.

No, this is an illusion that is pictured in Hocus Pocus Jr. and Discoverie of Witchcraft. It uses one table. The headless body is placed on the table with the decaptitated head at the feet.

It is called "The Decollation of John the Baptist."

This is not to be confused with "The Decollatage of Marianne the Ecdysiast."

Simon Drake did do a more up to date version of the the John the Baptist beheading trick on the Farewell Performance Tour of Iron Maiden.
I think you can still get this on tape at Amazon.com