Sublime

Hearing how my friends had come to invent their tricks fueled my ambition. My goal at the start of this entire adventure had been to understand the mind of a magician, someone who sees the world through the lens of deception—people who strive, as a career choice, to hack the concept of reality for the entertainment of others.

The real art is how the rubber band is handled with the finesse of a jewel cutter, how a mirror is used or concealed precisely, how a masterfulperformer can hint at impossibilities that are consummated with only a piece of thread.

Harry Kellar was also badly fooled when he saw it in the summer of 1901. He was America's greatest magician, a rough-and-tumble showman. He'd been born Heinrich Keller in 1848 in Erie, Pennsylvania. As a boy, Harry worked as a drugstore clerk, a newsboy, and custodian for the Erie Railroad before he ended up in Buffalo, New York and responded to a

The reveal, however, was a work of art. Jim Steinmeyer describes it in Hiding the Elephant: “One orange remained at the top of the tree. Gesturing with his wand one final time, he commanded this orange to open. It split into two sections, revealing the borrowed handkerchief tucked inside.