The magician brings out a mysterious object on a tray, hidden under a velvet cloth. “Tonight,” he says, “I will introduce you to …” — he whisks away the cloth with a flourish — “my Uncle Clarence.” He reveals a life-size, grinning papier-mâché head.

After a few bad jokes (“My uncle always wanted to help me get a-head in this business”), the magician selects a volunteer from the audience and helps him to thread a plastic-covered wire into one ear of the head. “Hmm,” says the magician. “Seems to be a fleshy obstruction in there. Possibly the brain — although, in Clarence’s case, that would be unlikely.” The wire finally emerges from the other ear and the magician encourages the volunteer to make

the head levitate. “Just hold the wire vertically, and exert your mental powers …” But it doesn’t work; the head falls to the floor with a thud.

“Hardly surprising,” the magician says, picking up the head. He shows a clean, straight hole that runs from ear to ear, and slides a knitting needle through it to eliminate any suspicion that the hole is some kind of illusion. Then he threads the wire again, holds it vertically — and this time the head remains fixed in midair. Amazingly, as the magician speaks encouragingly to Uncle Clarence, the head descends, stops, and resumes its descent on command.

Charles Platt is a contributing editor to MAKE.

Photograph by Garry McLeod

78 Make: Volume 13