From Joe Nickell's Secrets of the Sideshows, a genial, anecdotal book:
* That's sideshow entrepeneur Chris Christ of Hall & Christ, not the Other Guy.
When throwing knives to outline a spread-eagled person on a rotating wheel, Christ* prefers a smaller, lighter knive (about ten and a half inches long and approximately nine ounces). A heavier knife, he says, will "sing out of there." Hitting the proper spot on a rotating wheel requires timing, so that the knife's trajectory intersects that of the moving spot. :And it's got to be vertical to you when it meets up," he says (Christ 2001). One bit of showmanship in this regard is that, for safety, the knives are aimed a bit farther away from the target person than it appears. While the wheel is moving, it is difficult for the audience to see how far away the blades are, and as the wheel slows to a stop, the person unobtrusively extends his or her arms to make it look as if the knives came closer than they actually did.Of course the target person―more often than not―has to make it look good, and for that they need to keep a cool head and keep their wits about them while being spun 360 degrees a bunch of times. There's more to the job of "lovely assistant" than there at first seems to be.
* That's sideshow entrepeneur Chris Christ of Hall & Christ, not the Other Guy.
2 comments:
That sounds like a pretty entertaining book you found to read. Sceptical witnesses to knife throwing acts usually imagine it's an already embedded blade coming out of the wheel. But since I've seen it done a number of times and have found that that explanation impossible it's good to know the answer is excellent timing. That 'lovely assistant' also has to have a lot of trust.
Speaking of timing, among the magicians we've been seeing during our nightly ten minute videos is Lu Chen. Not only is his timing incredible most of the tricks he does appear to be impossible. If you do find out we prefer not to know. :)
If you had a blade embedded in the wheel you'd have to distract the audience from seeing it before they were meant to. I'm not sure it could be done with any reliability, as you say. Obviously the knife thrower doesn't want to hurt the target - if for no other reason than that's his livelihood - but I imagine it must be tense for her the first couple of times.
Lu Chen appears to be quite good. I'm thinking about that trick where he drops the nut through the bottom of the upturned glass. I have ideas - removable bottom, second nut - but I have no idea how they'd actually work.
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