The Drill of Death is a large-scale stage illusion in which a performer appears to be impaled on a giant drill. It was created by magician André Kole and illusion designer Ken Whitaker for magician Melinda Saxe.[1] It was one of Saxe's signature tricks and featured as a highlight in her various First Lady of Magic shows.
The illusion featured in several network television magic specials. It was first shown on television in November 1995, when Melinda performed it on The World's Greatest Magic II broadcast by NBC.[2][3] It later served as one of the big set pieces in Melinda's own Melinda, First Lady of Magic special produced by Disney and broadcast on CBS in March 1997.[4] The television special 50 Greatest Magic Tricks, broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 in May 2002, named Drill of Death as number 41 in its list of the 50 greatest magic tricks of all time.[5]
During Melinda's performing career she was the only magician presenting the illusion. She ceased performing in 2002 to raise a family, and since then, the drill has been performed by two illusionists in Europe, German illusionist Jan Rouven and Dutch Christian Farla. It featured in the 2005 edition of the annual German television special Stars in der Manege, in which actress, model, and TV presenter Arabella Kiesbauer played the role of victim.[6]
- ^ "Resource Information compiled by Steve Zigmont of MagicFX". Foster Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ The World's Greatest Magic II at IMDb
- ^ "World's Greatest Magic II". Magic Television. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
- ^ "Words from the Sphinx". Little Egypt Gazette. 2 (8). April 1997.
- ^ Rowland, Ian (2002). "Fifty Greatest Magic Tricks". Magic Week. Archived from the original on 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Stars in der Manege 2005". Circus Krone. Archived from the original on 2006-01-03. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
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