Came, saw and conquered

The audience at Londonrsquos Finsbury Park Empire was left aghast on January 17 1921 when British magician PT Selbit sawed his attendant in half and then revived her unharmed Selbitrsquos performance which inspired several dismembering acts mostly involving women was regarded as the first documented instance of the sawinginhalf act And this Sunday a Londonbased magiciansrsquo club The Magic Circle is set to tip its hat to the trick with an online eventPC Sorcar Sr getting ready to cut a woman in half in London in 1956 Pic Courtesy GettyLondon magicMichael J Fitch the magician hosting the show reveals that iconic sorcerers will give viewers a lowdown on what itrsquos like to be outside and inside the box ldquoDavid Copperfield will show various versions and his own original development with his Death Sawrdquo he informs via an email interaction Fitch adds that Debbie McGee wife and onstage partner of British TV starmagician Paul Daniels ldquowho was probably sliced and diced more than anyone else on the planetrdquo will speak about her experience The lineup also includes entertainer Richard Caddell and his puppet SootyPC Sorcar Jr PicFacebookBig Indian momentAmong the countless illusions that followed Selbitrsquos first performance is the iconic moment when PC Sorcar Sr who redefined the art of magic in India sliced his assistant during a live BBC telecast in 1956 His son PC Sorcar Jr a Merlin Award recipient shares that while Selbitrsquos act involved sawing his assistant locked in a wooden box PC Sorcar Srrsquos genius lay in exposing his assistant without any coverldquoDuring the rehearsals he sawed through the woman and patched her up just fine But during the live show the moment he split her in half BBCrsquos time ran out leaving the audience tonguetied in suspense Viewers forgot all about the ensuing news bulletin phone lines were jammed with inquiries if the assistant was aliverdquo reminisces Sorcar Jr a thirdgrader thenKolkatabased Sorcar Jr who has performed technologically advanced versions of the same tells us although Selbitrsquos performance is completing 100 years the conceptrsquos history in India dates back thousands of years ldquoThe act of dismembering a personrsquos body and putting the pieces back together through magic has existed since the madaris who performed magic on the streets Itrsquos inspired by the rasa or the desire to revive dear injured ones As madaris didnrsquot wear suits and werenrsquot British they didnrsquot make it to history booksrdquo In fact the madarisrsquo excellence lay in performing the trick without any access to stage comforts surrounded by the publicrsquos gaze points out Sorcarrsquos magician daughter Maneka whose recent act in Paris was a tribute to the street magicians ldquoIt involved covering a man with a cloth plunging a dagger into him pulling out his head five feet away and then restoring himrdquo she claimsRole of women assistantsIn the lineup for The Magic Circlersquos online event Dr Naomi Paxton the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Officer is set to explore the trickrsquos ties with the suffrage movement which was all the rage then When we ask why itrsquos mostly women whorsquove served as assistants for the act Maneka notes that in India however women didnrsquot really have a place in showbiz back then ldquoWhen madaris performed their assistants were mostly boys In the West though they preferred to leverage a womanrsquos sex appeal to distract the audience thatrsquos still the norm of the day But in the Indian Indrajal the focus was on the illusion as it was aimed at the entertainment of the massesrdquo she elaborates adding in one act her mother has sawed through Sorcar Jr too Talk about casting a spellOn January 17 1130 pm ISTLog on to themagiccircleunlocked on Facebook