The Newest Tops

Of the Indian Rope Trick

Imagine, if you will, the midday scene in a crowded marketplace in India.  A well dressed magician in flowing robes opens a wicker basket and pulls out a long coil of rope.  After making some magical gestures he flings the rope high into the air.  Instead of falling to the ground, the rope seems to climb snakelike, ever higher and remains suspended as if pulled by the hand of an invisible god into the sky.  Now a young boy climbs the rope and keeps ascending up, up, up until he is completely out of view.  The magician repeatedly calls out to him, but there is no answer.  Furious, the magician takes up a long knife and begins climbing the rope after him.  There is a heated argument, and then a shower of severed arms and legs and body parts descends from the sky.  The magician climbs back down still clutching the now bloody knife.  The magician gathers up the limbs and throws them all into the basket then covers it with a cloth.  From beneath the cloth a shape begins to emerge which is the young boy, restored to life once more.
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Did you ever wonder what the most dangerous effect in magic is? There was that guy out in Vegas who got mauled by a tiger, and my friend in school once cut himself on a sponge ball, but when they say “Don’t try this at home” are they serious or are magic tricks so safe that no one could ever really get hurt if they just knew the secret.

Hello, and welcome to Wunders. I’m Paul Nielsen from Wunderground Magic, Inc. in beautiful Clawson, Michigan, just outside of Detroit (the testing range for all manner of exotic ammunitions.) I’ll be wearing safety glasses and a bulletproof vest as we explore the history of the bullet catch, the most dangerous effect in magic in terms of actual body counts. (continue reading…)

Did you ever wonder why people always depict magicians dressed as Amish, undertakers out of a Charles Dickens movie? (Hint: It isn’t just because one of the most famous magicians of the last twenty years is named David Copperfield nor is it because Abbott’s is in the heart of Amish country.)

Hello, and welcome to Wunders. I’m Paul from Wunderground Magic, Inc. and I’ll be wearing black tie and tails as we dig up the man, the mystery, and the myth of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (continue reading…)

Did you ever wonder where magic came from? Who were the first magic performers and what were their tricks?

Hello, and welcome to “Wunders.” I’m Paul from Wunderground Magic, Inc. and I’ll be your tour guide as we answer questions and dig beneath the surface to discover the fascinating and mysterious methods beneath our deceptions. This month we explore the Wunders of History and take an exciting journey through time (continue reading…)

Paul is an avid magic performer, collector, and owner of two magic shops in metro Detroit, Wunderground Magic and Wunderground Magic West. He has been performing magic since he was nine, but took a short hiatus to get a Ph.D. in computer science, serve on the faculty of a major university, and founded a software company that builds massive-scale simulations. Paul has authored over fifty papers, articles, and book chapters and does lectures on the history of magic.