subject: Top 10 Magicians [print this page] If you ask ten magic fans their favorite magician, you'll have different answers. It's pretty much guaranteed that Harry Houdini will be at the top of the list for wowing since the 1900s.
Houdini has escaped from chains, vaults, and handcuffs. Performing primarily on the Vaudeville circuit, he also developed a stage presence that elevated magic shows' believability and acceptance.
His greatest escape was probably from the Chinese water torture cell. Houdini's feet were in steel restraints and he was suspended from his ankles into a glass tank of water. A curtain covered the tank, hiding the machines. Houdini emerged with thunderous applause when he came out.
David Blaine, who burst on the magic scene in the late '90s, is considered by many to be the closest thing to Houdini since the original. Best known for his endurance tricks, in 1999 Blaine was entombed for seven days in an underground plastic box buried six feet deep under a three-ton tank filled with water in New York City. A team of construction workers finally dug him out. Houdini wanted to do a similar stunt, but died in 1926 before he could complete it.
David Copperfield is the flashy illusionist who is the most commercially successful magician in history with over $1 billion in earnings. On one of his 20 television specials from 1978 to 1998, Copperfield raised a huge curtain on Liberty Island and appeared to make the 305-foot-tall Statue of Liberty briefly disappear.
To follow in Houdini's footsteps, Harry Blackstine Sr. came along in the 1930s. He sawed a woman in half on stage!
Doug Henning's charm made him a family attraction. He also had a famous saw trick, where two women took the stage, one dressed in pink, the other in blue. Both were sawn in half. When they emerged, one had a pink top and a blue bottom, and the other was the opposite.
Criss Angel is a modern phenomenon whose TV show "Mindfreak" attracts a worldwide audience. Mindfreak has done stunts such as walking on water, getting run over by a steamroller, and levitated.
Siegfried and Roy drew crowds to their show at the Las Vegas Mirage for 30 years until Montecore, one of the white tigers used in their performances, critically injured Roy before a stunned audience in 2003. From locked enclosures, the tiger and Siegfried switched places.
With a Saturday morning show in 1960, Mark Wilson was the pioneer of TV magic. He did the kind of card and disappearing coin tricks that still introduce many children to the world of magic.
Lance Burton is another Las Vegas legend who stages a grand show at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. He escaped from a roller coaster going 80 MPH. He only missed getting hit by a tenth of a second.
Richiardi did most of his act in NYC from the 1940s to the 1970s. He was set apart by fake blood and sound effects. People who saw his shows live said he was unforgettable.
