Reanimated by Vienna Magic

This effect is based on a an old children’s toy of the 1930’s: “The man in the barrel”. Others, including: Fred Kaps, Ken Brooke, Herbert Martin Paufler, Tony Lackner, Vienna Magic, and more recently Francois Danis, have also created effects with the same basic principle.

Effect: You tell the story of a Chinese salesmen named Hing-Fong that by mistake once was accused of having stolen some gold coins. Hing-Fong was fated to die and as usual in old times he was beheaded. They put his dead body inside a death-barrel and buried his head somewhere else, because according to an old Chinese legend this action would make him a restless spirit that is cursed to wander on earth for all times. A few days later when an old and very wise sorcerer came into town it turned out that Hing-Fong indeed has been innocent.

So the sorcerer tried to bring the salesmen back from the dead. While you tell the story the head of the salesman can be seen traveling around, a billet that has the verdict on it changes mysteriously into something else and finally a small salesmen figure can bee seen returning from the dead and jumping (!) out of the barrel (of course with his head back on its body) A wonderful story-telling trick.

Francois Danis put out a very similar routine and collection of props in 2014 called Lian Chu Goes to The Market.

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