Zig Zag Girl

The Zig-Zag Girl illusion is a stage illusion akin to the more famous sawing a woman in half illusion. In the Zig-Zag illusion, a magician divides an assistant into thirds, only to have them emerge from the illusion at the end of the performance completely unharmed.

Since its invention in the mid-1960s by magician Robert Harbin, it has been hailed as one of the greatest illusions ever invented due to both the apparent impossibility of the trick, and the fact that unlike many illusions it can be performed surrounded by spectators and withstand the scrutiny of audience members.

Harbin was frustrated by his illusions being pirated by other magicians, and this inspired him to publish the method in his book The Magic of Robert Harbin (1970). The book was limited to 500 copies, and owners of the book were granted permission to build or have built the Zig Zag Girl (or indeed any other of the items in the book). The rights to the book and the Zig Zag illusion were then in time passed to The Magic Circle in the wake of Harbin's death. The concept of dividing a lady assistant into two or three parts was something that Harbin experimented with throughout his career before creating his ultimate divide, the Zig Zag Girl. Evidence of his fascination with this concept of dividing an assistant can be found in his earlier publications; the closest relative to the Zig Zag is the "Little by Little" illusion, which was also explained in The Magic of Robert Harbin.

Harbin's original Zig Zag Girl illusion is currently on display in The Magic Circle museum.

The effect

The assistant (usually a woman) is placed in an upright cabinet, her face, hands, and left foot visible through openings in the front of the cabinet. Large metal blades are inserted horizontally in the cabinet's midsection, dividing it—and presumably the assistant inside—into thirds. The magician then slides the cabinet's midsection apart from the top and bottom thirds, giving the appearance that the assistant's midsection has been pulled away from the rest of her, giving her a "zig-zag" shape. While divided, a small door on the cabinet's midsection can be opened to examine—even touch—the assistant's body inside, a duty frequently performed by an audience member brought up on stage to help perform the illusion. At the completion of the illusion, the assistant's midsection is slid back into place, the two blades removed, and she steps out of the cabinet unscathed.

Further developments

In recent years, following exposure of the basic illusion by the Masked Magician, a number of magicians have begun performing variations on the basic illusion. In some, rather than the assistant's face being visible through a hole in the front of the cabinet, their entire head projects out of the cabinet through a hole in its upper surface. In another variation, rather than being divided into three pieces, the assistant is instead divided into five - This variation is commonly referred to as the "Five-Way Zig-Zag".

Cultural references

Films

• In the comedy film A Pleasure Doing Business (1979), actress Misty Rowe is shown inside of a trisected Zig Zag Girl box, although the trick itself is not depicted.

Literature

• In Elly Griffiths' mystery novel, The Zig Zag Girl (2014), detective Edgar Stephens enlists the help of his former military buddy, master magician and former Magic Circle member Max Mephisto, to solve the murder of a young woman whose body was cut in thirds like a Zig Zag Girl's, the body parts placed in boxes akin to magicians' Zig Zag Girl prop boxes.
• The title character in Steve Martin's play, The Zig-Zag Woman, spends the majority of the play in a Zig Zag Girl box.

Television

• In the TV series Monk (Season 7, Episode 15: "Mr Monk and the Magician"), a Zig Zag cabinet is used with Adrian Monk inside the cabinet.
• In the episode "Our Very First Telethon" of Full House. Joey performs this trick with Rebecca standing in as his assistant. The box gets stuck as Joey tries to put Rebecca back together and she must perform her song with Danny while still in the box.
• In season 4, episode 10 of the animation Bob's Burgers, Tina is left in the Zig Zag box after she volunteers for the role of assistant with her disinterested crush.

See also

• Making Magic. London: Multimedia Books, Ltd,. 1993. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

External links

• History of Magic on the Zig Zag Girl