aul Harris has been a hero of mine ever since I first saw Copperfield perform his Las Vegas Link over twenty years ago. His way of thinking and fresh approach has always been a big influence on me. So you can imagine how much hesitation it took to reply when he called me up one day out of the blue to ask if I wanted to work on some ideas for network television. Paul had a specific project in mind for a client. He wanted me to come up with a new approach to Horace Goldin's arm through body illusion. There had been numerous attempts, including my own, Lightstorm. Paul had something more challenging in mind. A version with no cover where you could actually see the hand break through the skin. And it had to be surroundable and easy to reset. No big deal. Right.
I worked on this for several months trying a multitude of approaches. I started with the original concept and then went off in some wild tangents. I wasn't happy with any of them. Although I felt we had some good modifications on the original, none of them were really revolutionary. Then one day it hit me. I built my first prototype that evening. The next day I sent Paul a video clip. He was pleased. That made me happy. But we both knew it could be better. Over the next several months I refined and reworked the illusion with Paul urging me to make it more visual and more practical. We eventually ended up with an illusion that surpassed all of our expectations.
I took this to the street to see what real people thought. They were blown away. The effect was so visual and shocking people didn't know if they should be amazed or frightened. They usually settled on both. The effect was so portable and practical it felt like real magic. Other magicians who have seen it have called it a new milestone for illusions. No boxes, no covers, no funny apparatus. People have said that Gut Buster is a pure illusion that ranks up there with the self-levitation. That makes me proud to hear that.
I'm also happy that I can share this with all of you. As part of the development arrangement, the client that we developed this for agreed to let me release this to the magic community. That should make many of you happy.
So who can use Gut Buster? Anyone that wants to perform a stunning visual illusion. You can do this up close, on the street, on stage or even television. You can use the illusion several ways. You can perform it with an assistant or even have a random stranger shove their hand through your body. Seriously. On the demo trailer you'll see part of a scene where I literally walked into a bar, asked a woman to step outside and had her shove her hand through my body with no advance set-up between us. I had to cut out part of the audio where another woman watching let out an expletive that would have threatened the PG-13 nature of the illusion. People will really react like that.
What is Gut Buster? Inside the package you'll find the necessary apparatus and the instructional DVD. I'll teach you the different methods for performing the effect on a helper or with a stranger. I'll also show you some of my earlier versions of Gut Buster, including a totally impromptu version that just requires a sheet of newspaper and a volunteer. This impromptu version is so good I've been told I should release it as a stand-alone DVD, but you can get it here with Gut Buster for no extra charge. The impromptu version is worth the price of the DVD alone. Once you learn it, you'll have an incredible illusion you can do anytime you don't have Gut Buster around.
I've tried to anticipate any questions that someone might ask, so here's a FAQ:
