Public Levitation
Technique
What you're going to do, of course, is the famous Balducci Levitation, a completely improptu method of floating off the ground used by everyone from David Roth to David Blaine. The good news is that this illusion is extremely easy to do. The bad, that the angles involved will require careful study to perfect.
To begin, you need to be about 4 feet from your observer and approximately a foot to their left, with your back to them. Your feet should be together and at about a 45 degree angle to the right of the observer. The basic idea is to keep the toe of your left foot hidden from your observer's view.
Bend up and down at your knees a couple of times and come up on your toes a bit. This causes the observer to focus their attention on your feet, which is vital to successful execution.
You now put all your weight on your left foot and lift yourself up on the toes of your left foot alone. Your right foot you keep straight out and horozontial to the ground as you raise it off the floor.
Because your observer will be unable to see the toes of your left foot, to them it will appear as if you are levitating up off the ground. You can also raise your arms as you ascend, as if about to take full flight. Remember, though, if the observer can see your left toes you're at the wrong angle and the illusion will be exposed.
Only stay up for a few seconds, and when you come back down bend at the knees again as if absorbing the shock of landing.
And that's it, a great illusion which can be presented as a straight close-up magic feat or an act of Magical Anarchy. What it will require on your part is some practice to aquire the balance you'll need and careful study of the angles involved. For that last, a trusted friend can be an invaluable aid. Or, if you don't have any friends, you could try using a video camera.
A while back this trick was presented on Fox's vile Secrets Of Street Magicians Exposed and it's all over the internet. But trust me: It doesn't matter. If you get this thing working smoothly I guarntee you'll blow the doors off people seeing it.
I never thought much of this trick untill I was fooling around with it one day and my daughter walked into the room and FREAKED. I tell you, it works. I've done this literally hundreds of times, both in formal preformance and as an act of Magical Anarchy and have never failed to get a wide eyed reaction. I even had one guy follow me around a department store for fifteen minutes after I did it, never quite daring to question me. I can only imagine the thoughts tumbling through his mind, the incomprehension flooding his being. And did that make me feel good?
You're damn skippy.
The question is: Do you have what it takes?
