This is the very time Jim Steinmeyer Audience Acupuncture Illusion secret revealed and explained in full details.
The original article was published way back in December 2020.
I have rewritten and updated it.
Welcome to another post from the Info Ruckus Magic Trick Revealed series.
Let’s find out how the sharp metal spikes apparently impale through the person, without harming him.
Do the spikes really pierce through the person’s body, as seen?
By viewing the various videos, I think this is how this penetration illusion is done.
As a magic enthusiast, I love finding out how magic tricks and stage illusions work.
Not so much the methods and the mechanics of tricks, but rather the psychology behind magic.
The Audience Acupuncture Illusion is an amazing stage magic apparatus designed by Jim Steinmeyer.
If you are in the magic fraternity, you should know this talented designer and inventor of illusions and theatrical special effects.
The great illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer is the mind behind the famous David Copperfield’s “Vanishing of the Statue of Liberty” televised act in 2016.
Besides this spectacular magic stunt, Steinmeyer also created these equally popular stage illusions:
Walking Through A Brick Wall, Biting Yourself on the Forehead, The Windshear, Incubus, Osmosis, etc.
This spiker table illusion is a well-thought out conjuring trick design.
I will highlight the ingenuity of this stage prop by Jim Steinmeyer, as I go along.
The Audience Acupuncture is not meant to be what they called a dangerous magic trick, like the Bullet Catch.
Even though it has sharp spikes, I think it is supposed to be a fun interactive magical performance.
The Effect:
Get a member from the audience to lay on the perforated platform of the apparatus.
Then place a sheet of newspaper on top of the participant’s chest to waist.
Next the magician sets a box over the participant’s neck to his knees.
The magician pulls down down a big lever to raise a set of sharp metal spikes from beneath the apparatus.
These solid spikes protrude all the way through the top of the box which encased the body.
In other words, the spikes seem to penetrate through the spectator’s body.
The spikes are lowered, the box over the body is removed, and the spectator is left unharmed.
Finally the newspaper is shown to have multiple spike holes in it.
Watch Jim Steinmeyer Audience Acupuncture Illusion below:
Audience Acupuncture Illusion Secret
Firstly, we know the sharp metal spikes do not impaled the participant.
But visually the sharp-pointed spikes look like they go the body of the spectator.
Furthermore, they come out through the holes on top of the box which covered the body.
This Jim Steinmeyer‘s ingenious creation is primarily based on these two magic trick principles.
- Optical Illusion
- Black Art
There are five key secrets of the Audience Acupuncture illusion.
Now, let’s poke around and find how it is done.
Secret One: Audience Acupuncture Illusion Spikes And Bases
The solid metal spikes are definitely authentic and sharp.
There are no hidden spring-loaded mechanism inside the spikes, where they can be bent under pressure.
They are not like the gimmicked iron rod used in “Through The Eye Of A Needle” illusion as exposed by The Masked Magician.
Before they perform the penetration illusion, you can see the spikes rise up and thrust through the perforated platform.
Then the set of spikes plunge all the way down to the bottom of the apparatus.
At this stage, the long spikes really move up and down the Audience Acupuncture prop.
Audience Acupuncture Spikes Do Not Move
The truth is during the penetration act, when the magician pulls down the lever, the spikes DO NOT rise up.
Visually the spikes are moving upward, as they gradually become shorter, right?
The fact is, the spikes do not move at all.
But to your eyes, these sharp-pointed spikes are going up.
It is just an OPTICAL ILLUSION.
It is only the block base with rivets that is moving up, as highlighted below.
The spikes are actually affixed to another thinner base below the block base, which is not visible to your eyes.
The actual spikes base cannot be seen because it is blocked by a piece of black material.
I will explain about the black material in Secret Four.
Actually the block base is just a loose piece by itself with holes.
To get a clearer picture, see the illustration below:
In other words, there are two separate pieces that made up the base.
Before doing the trick, when the magician pulls the big lever arm, the two bases move up or down together as one.
It is the spikes thin base (not visible) that lifts up the block base together.
During the trick, only the BLOCK BASE with holes moves up by itself.
The spikes still remain down at the bottom of the prop.
Yes, the principle is similar to the popular pencil or pen up the nose trick.
For those who are not sure about the pencil/pen up the nose trick, watch this video.
Audience Acupuncture Long Spikes
To achieve this deceptive optical illusion it needs the long spikes.
The block base has to go up all the way from the bottom of the prop, so that it appears the spikes are pushed upward.
In addition, the length of the pointed spikes also appear fearsome to the audience.
That can help to heighten the impact of the penetration effect.
Rivet Your Attention
Another smart feature which helps this optical illusion effect is the row of rivets on the block base.
These innocent-looking rivets are meant to mislead your visual attention.
With just this row of rivets on the block base, you will see or think the spikes are firmly mounted onto it.
But as you have known by now, the spikes are NOT bolted onto the block base.
Secret Three: Hidden Lever To Release Spikes
To perform the illusion, the magician must detach the spikes from the block base.
This is the most important part for the magician to do, before he can perform this piercing trick successfully and also safely.
The magician has to secretly release or free the spikes from the perforated block base.
To do that, there is a hidden release lever/switch on the prop.
By viewing the few video clips, I notice the secret release lever is always on the same side with the big lever.
Obviously, it is easier for the magician to discreetly operate it without being noticed by the audience.
From this video clip, I can see magician Martin The Conjurer slides the secret release lever very quickly at 2:17, before he pulls down the big lever.
It is near to the right side of the participant’s face.
This is the hidden release lever of his prop captured from the video at 2:03.
Here is another Martin The Conjuring act, where he secretly operates the hidden lever at 3:02 with his right hand.
Then he pretends to take a quick look at the participant’s face.
You can clearly see the secret release lever from this Japanese TV show.
This is another image of the release lever or switch taken from Chicago magician Chezaday TV performance.
Here is another Audience Acupuncture act which you can see the man manipulating the hidden release lever/switch at 1:16-1:18.
Below is the caught-in-the-act scene taken from the video.
NOTE: If the release lever mechanism does not function properly, the participant lying on the platform could be hurt by the sharp spikes.
I have seen a performance in YouTube, where Audience Acupuncture prop is malfunctioned, and the lady lying on the platform is slightly pricked by the spikes.
Secret Four: Black Color Material
Earlier on, I mentioned that you cannot see the thin base of the spikes below the hole-riddled block base.
It is because the spikes base is shielded by a black color material that is attached to the block base.
When the spikes are down at the bottom of the box, you actually see the three black color interior walls of the box.
But each time when the spikes are raised (before or during the trick), what you see below the spikes is NOT the black color interior walls of the box.
It is a actually a piece of flexible black color material which is fixed to the block base onto one end.
The other end is probably attached to a retractable roller hidden below the box.
See the illustration below:
Every time when the spikes actually (before trick) or seemingly (during trick) go upward, your eyes are focusing on the gleaming metal spikes, and not the black color below the block base.
You will not realize it because both the box interior walls and the material are black in color.
In magic tricks, this confusing black color effect is called the Black Art.
Black Art is a principle where anything painted black cannot be seen clearly when placed against a black background.
Secret Five: Audience Acupuncture Gimmick Box
If the spikes do not go through the body and out of the top of the box, then where do the short sharpened ends come from?
Obviously those short sharp spike endings must come from the the box itself.
If you observe the routine in all the video clips, the magicians do not show you the upper interior of the box.
They just lift it up and mount it onto the platform.
These sets of short spiky endings are hidden inside, or to be precise, just below the holes on top of the box.
Look carefully at the two endings of the box, where the cut-outs for the neck and the legs.
They distance from the top of the box to the cut-out holes are rather far apart or wide.
It is deep enough to conceal the short sharp spikes.
The audience could overlook this wide spacing at the two ends of the box, is because it is in black color and they are not facing directly at them.
The hidden short spikes are rested on a metal frame, to be pushed out by these four movable rods from the platform, when the lever is pulled or pushed.
Now as you already know, during the so-called penetration act, the block base is the one which rises. (Secret One)
There are four rods or plugs on each corner of this block base that come up to push the hidden spikes out of the box which covered the body.
Before performing the trick, when the magician raises the spikes through the holes on the platform, you can see these four rods thrust out together at each corner.
You can see the movement of these four short protrusions at the platform from JC Sum video at 0:51-0:54
They are just outside the rows of spikes, and they move up and down with them (spikes).
Similarly, you can see the short four rods/plugs thrusting in and out of the platform in this video, when magician Chezaday demonstrates the spikes to the lady participant at: 0:35-0:38.
These four short rods are the ones which push the hidden short sharp spike endings out from the top of the box.
To see what I mean, look at the illustration below.
It is the side view of the gimmicked box.
Messed Up Your Vision And Perception
Here is another brilliant design feature of this stage prop.
The two mesh screen side windows at both sides of the box.
They are not meant for design or decorative purpose.
Their aim is to mislead the audience to see it an ‘opened’ box with nothing hidden inside.
As the color of the box is black, the white background against the mesh screen will distract the audience’s attention from the height of the box.
Even though they are not see-through, but the mesh screen gives the impression there is an opening where you can see inside of the box.
In addition, the size of the mesh screen windows are wide right up almost to the edges of the box.
This black narrow spacing around the mesh-screen window will further mislead the audience, there is no space to hide the short spikes.
Additional Secret: Perforated Newspaper
The use of the newspaper is originally part of this illusion.
I know some magicians perform this Audience Acupuncture trick without the newspaper.
They want to perform this as a serious and dangerous magic trick.
As I have mentioned in the beginning of the post, this magical illusion is intended to be a fun interactive act.
Why do I say that?
After viewing the video clips, I think in order to include the punctured newspaper effect in the act, the participant has to secretly help out the magicians.
What the magic folks called it a stooge or confederate.
The purpose of a stooge is to secretly helping the magician in the trick.
From my observation, I notice two obvious findings.
Firstly, the participant is not surprised or shocked with the punctured newspaper or poster.
Secondly, the newspaper or poster itself is full of holes, so to speak.
In this video, you can see there is more than one poster being laid on Jessica Ennis-Hill before the act at 0:32.
After the so-called penetration trick, the British former track and field athlete Jessica held up just one hole-riddled poster at 1:09-1:11.
Here is another performance by magician Papa Chico, where you can see two sheets of newspaper as it is placed on the participant.
From 1:17 to 1:20, you can see two sheets of newspaper as he spreads them on the lady.
You can actually see the perforated paper underneath when the top piece hovers briefly.
Then at the finale, the magician Papa Chico shows just one piece of perforated newspaper.
I think once the box covered the body and hands, the participant quickly removed the intact newspaper or poster.
Then hide them in a concealed pocket on either side interior walls of the box.
This is how Jim Stenmeyer Audience Acupuncture illusion is done.