I've suddenly become enamored with illusions again. After doing the research on Ep 112 of my podcast, on the life of William Mozart Nicol, better known as NICOLA, my fire was lit! The first illusion to catch my eye was his Iron Maiden, which you can see above.
In truth, this was one of several illusions Nicola purchased from a British Illusionist. His name was P.T. Selbit and he was the father of mutilation type of illusions. He created, sawing, stretching, crushing, spiking, and all manner of illusions that would seemingly wreak havoc on the human body, only to find no harm was done to it.
This illusion by Selbit, was known as The Pin Cushion Illusion, and it's impressive. Selbit debuted the illusion in 1923. This thing resembles a real like medieval torture device. It has a giant crank on the side or back. It can be examined before and after. And the illusion is near perfection. It truly appears that 80 some steel spikes are shoved through the body of another human being.
Over time it's mostly become associated with Nicola. However, Thurston had one, I'm sure Carter likely had one, a European illusionist Carrerre had one. I found a photo of Jasper Maskylene performing one. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were others. The Pin Cushion Illusion gave way to different illusions using spikes. The Table of Death sure looks like The Pin Cushion illusion laying on it's side, but that's where the comparisons end. In some cases, the spikes were replaced with light bulbs as in the version that Blackstone used. And there was a version created by Alan Wakeling the uses neon lights. Slightly different methods to these various things, but all great mysteries.
The most non threatening version I would say is the Cane Cabinet by Jim Steinmeyer. It's actually more like a vertical sword cabinet done with canes. Of course, all of these things are distant cousins to a lot of Selbit ideas. This was featured by both Doug Henning and Lance Burton. Henning's cabinet no longer exists. It was originally purchased by a friend of mine at the first Doug Henning auction. Then he sold it to another magician, with the exception of the canes, which my friend kept. The new owner stored the illusion outside under a carport. And eventually the elements got the better of it. Incidentally, the canes from Henning's Cane Cabinet are now in my collection.
Below is Simon Drake performing the Nicola Iron Maiden, during an Iron Maiden rock concert. The trick begins at 5:14, so I would fast forward to that section.
