So we couldn’t help but wonder: How did magic go from condemnation to celebration? Jonathan Creek may be fictional, but real-life magicians have become some of our most influential entertainers.

Since ancient times, those accused of magic and sorcery had been deemed outcasts by society. Humans have long been fascinated by magic. Magic, crimes, and mystery – what more could you want? Creek designs magic tricks and illusions for a living, and uses those skills of deception to solve impossible crimes. 'If he didn't invent it, he came bloody close.We are so excited that everyone’s favorite magical mastermind, Jonathan Creek, is returning to WGBH this week. 'I think he was very, very important, I think he contributed to some of the most important techniques.' While he is not held in the same esteem as Houdini, who would bring his own feats of illusion to Australia many years later, Arnold believes Dr Lynn's contribution is worthy of a reappraisal. 'Everything he says contains some unexpected form of merriment everything he does produces some unexpected and strange result,' the reviewer wrote.Īfter his 1886 trip to Australia, Simmons continued to take his illusions as far afield as India and South Africa, performing until his death in 1899 at the age of 63. The key to the trick is a complicated trapdoor mechanism, but it was Dr Lynn's stagecraft that sold the illusion.Īs one reviewer wrote in the Sydney Daily Telegraph in 1886, 'Dr Lynn is a gentleman full of surprises'. In the Vanishing Lady, an assistant sits on a chair, has a sheet thrown over her and vanishes into thin air - an illusion so simple and effective that variations of it are still performed today.

He persuaded illusion inventor Buatier De Kolta to allow him to use his new Vanishing Lady trick on his Australian tour - it's believed to be the first time the illusion was performed. Dr Lynn's 'Thauma' illusion featured a woman who appeared to be missing the bottom half of her body.

Harry houdini illusions