Aerial suspension
Open-knowledge reference entry
The aerial suspension, ethereal suspension or broomstick illusion is an illusion in which the performer appears to be suspended in mid-air for some minutes, with either inadequate support or no apparent support of the performer's weight. This trick was first recorded in India and Europe in the early 19th century.
Early performers
This illusion was first recorded by Thomas Frost in Lives of the Conjurors, 1876, as a performance by an old Brahmin in India in 1828 or 1829. The Brahmin died in 1830 without explaining his trick. He was followed by Sheshal, the Brahmin of the Air, who exhibited the illusion at Madras in 1832, apparently using only a stool, a hollow piece of bamboo, a piece of hide and some beads (pictured). Frost thought that it was "probably not very far from the truth" that there were supporting steel rods concealed within the bamboo and the hide, and that the rods were connected with a seat concealed within the performer's robes. The performer was set in place behind a screen.
Ching Lau Lauro
The first recorded instance of it in Europe was performed in 1832 or 1833 by Ching Lau Lauro in England, and known as sitting in the air upon nothing. In an early version, he appeared to be just touching his hand against some beads hung on a hollow bamboo pole, which in turn was set in a wooden stool. In reality the bamboo, his hand and loose Chinese or buffo costume concealed iron bars, connections and supports.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aerial suspension” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.