Designer: Servais Le Roy

The Modern Cabinet is typically used as a production illusion where assistants are produced from an empty cabinet. The magician closes the front door (or curtain) and immediately opens it to reveal an assistant standing in the previously empty space.

Later modifications to the original routine included “switching” people under cover during the routine. One such routine would play as follows: the magician would show the cabinet empty. He would hold up a cloth in front of the cabinet and immediately it could be seen that a person was pushing the other side of the cloth. The magician would drape the cloth over the person and the person would stand to one side (still covered). The process would be repeated twice more so that 3 people were now standing covered. The magician would vanish within the cabinet and the 3 covered people would remove their covers, the last person being the magician himself.

Doug Henning performed an effect similar to the routine described above, but used a different method for achieving the illusion. Doug’s presentation was called “Things That Go Bump in the Night.”

Photo Credit: Smoky Mountain Magic (created a Phantom of the Opera theme for Duane Laflin), Magic Makers Inc. (Canada) (photo showing 3 people inside)