The sawing a woman in half trick was probably first performed by a UK magician named P. T. Selbit in 1921. His original performance would probably not be very satisfying to a contemporary audience as the woman was entirely enclosed in a wooden box so that she was out of sight when the sawing took place. Before entering the box her hands and feet were tied with ropes. Selbit's female assistant was called Betty Barker and as far as we know was the first woman ever to be publicly sawn in half!
Horace Goldin performed the version of how to saw a woman in half that we are more familiar with today: in which the woman's head and feet stick of the ends of the box and the box halves are separated briefly once she has been sawn through. Once the halves are replaced together, the assistant gets out unscathed.
Since then we have seen and continue to see all kinds of variations of how to saw a woman in half, ever more spectacular, including use of a transparent box (first performed by 'The Pendragons') and an especially gruesome version by Penn and Teller involving a lot of latex innards and fake blood!
Despite all these variations, all these sawing in half illusions employ one of two basic principles. The illusion is fundamentally a mechanical one.
In one method, the box is constructed in such a way as to give the illusion of being much thinner and narrower than it really is. In reality, there is plenty of room for the assistant to simply curl up in one side of the box. Frequently, in this case, false feet are put in place under cover of various forms of misdirection.
In another method the box has a false bottom in the middle section, which slides away allowing the assistant to lower her midriff out of harm's way whilst the sawing takes place. Frequently, from the outset the assistant has been wearing a false midsection made of fibre glass, so that even in exposed situations such as the transparent box version mentioned earlier, there is the illusion that the woman is still in exactly the same position. In fact she has slipped out of her false middle.
So the famous sawing a woman in half magic trick is achieved through a combination of mechanics, optical illusion and misdirection.
Interestingly, despite its long heritage, modern magicians are constantly trying to find new expressions of this old theme. A most shocking and famous example was performed on television by Criss Angel as part of his show in which instead of sawing a woman in half he had members of the public pull a woman in half on a park bench! This was achieved by the use of two stooges, one of whom was a woman born with a deformity known as 'sacral agenesis' in which the person effectively has a normal head, shoulders and arms but seems to lack the lower sections of the body, all the vital organs existing in the growth-inhibited body and the other a professional circus performer. Needless to say the effect caused a deal of controversy.
So, now you know how to saw a woman in half. However, popular as this magic trick remains with the general public and even armed with the knowledge of how it is done, I would caution you to think and plan very carefully before attempting to do it as it can still be very dangerous if it is not set-up exactly right.
Austin is a performing magician, entertainer, theatre practioner and writer of many years standing, always keen to share his experience and encourage the novice. His website, The Magic Tricks Homepage is a great free resource for magic tutorials, articles, visual guides, eBooks and more.
Austin specialises in coin tricks and manipulation. Having worked in 'the real world' all his life, he is gaining a reputation on the web. His passion for the art and science of magical illusion shows in all his work.
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