Repository
What follows is an alphabetized list of major illusions and effects. The list includes PUBLIC DOMAIN, LICENSED, and PROTECTED illusions. Please review our DEFINITIONS page for more detail on the differences between these categories.
DISCLAIMER: The Illusion Repository assumes no risk or responsibility for the information listed here nor for your purchases or builds and provides this list as a professional courtesy.
If you are truly interested in purchasing one of the “protected” illusions, please call your favorite builder and see if they are authorized to build the illusion. Oftentimes a builder may simply pay a fee to the designer for the right to build a single unit (a one–off). In that case, the builder may not be listed, but would still be authorized by the designer to build the illusion as a one-off.
The other way to purchase an illusion from this list would be to directly contact the designer. Often the designer can recommend a preferred builder. (e.g. Jim Steinmeyer prefers that clients contact him directly.)
In some cases the illusions listed here are NOT available for purchase or performance. Some have been exclusively licensed to individual performers and are not available to the public. So when in doubt, CONTACT THE DESIGNER! And don’t worry – most designers (including the “big names”) are more than happy to help – it’s their job!
Short Description Five assistants are instantly produced and then instantly vanished.
Short Description A girl in a glass box on top of a pedestal changes instantly into a large python.
Short Description Six girls are produced from 3 doors in an empty cabinet.
Short Description An assistant is impossibly produced from an empty, canvas-framed box.
Designer Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin
Short Description A tree blossoms with oranges and flowers. The final orange splits in half and two butterflies come out holding a previously vanished lady's handkerchief.
Short Description The magician wheels a large piece of cheese still wrapped in red was to the center of the floor. The cheese stands on end and spectators are invited to try to push it over which they cannot.
Short Description A female assistant dressed as a princess is placed in a sarcophagus and stabbed with 30 blades and 12 rods. She emerges unharmed.
Short Description An assistant is bound inside a cabinet. Various objects then materialize in the cabinet. The assistant is led from the cabinet to the wings, but instantly reappears back in the cabinet and is firmly tied.
Short Description Various "spirit" effects occur in an empty cabinet. Flowers appear, mysterious writing appears on a slate, and multiple assistants appear as well.
Short Description 10 swords are sliced through an upright cabinet holding an assistant. The assistant emerges unharmed.
