The Assistant's Revenge is a transposition

illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may ...

in which two performers change places. It was created by magician and inventor

Robert Harbin Robert Harbin (born Edward Richard Charles Williams; 12 February 1908 – 12 January 1978) was a British magician and author. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the '' Zig Zag Girl''. He also became an autho ...

Description

One of the two performers, the ''restrainee'', is placed in a standing position in a large frame and restrained there with various straps, manacles, chains and locks. The second performer, the ''restrainer'', circles the frame, drawing a curtain first across the front, and then around one side and the back. Almost as soon as the restrainer disappears behind the frame, the restrainee appears from the other side of the apparatus, drawing back the curtain as they come. This reveals the restrainer now restrained in the frame; the two seem to have changed places by magic. In practice, the roles of restrainer and restrainee have been interchangeable between

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

and

assistant Assistant may refer to: * Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones * Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration * Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google * ''The Assistant'' (TV seri ...

. Sometimes it begins with the assistant restraining the magician, with the implication that in this way the assistant is gaining "

revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

" for all the other tricks they do where the assistant is put in a box. However it is also performed with the assistant being restrained at the beginning and emerging at the end to with the magician restrained as "revenge" for the opening part.

Method

In ''

Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed ''Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed'' is a series of television shows in which the methods behind magic tricks and illusions are explained. In its original incarnation there were four shows in 1997–1998 an ...

'', it is shown that the assistant can come out from the back of the frame and switch places with the magician. Because it is hidden by the curtain, it looks like they magically switched places.

References

External links

Magic Makers version

{{magic-stub Magic tricks