On Sunday, 100 years were completed since illusionist P.T
Selbit put a woman in a box and quite literally sawed through the wood, in what
would be celebrated as magic’s one of the most celebrated tricks of all time.

 Up on stage in London’s
Finsbury Park a century back, Selbit performed the trick which would be
celebrated on Sunday by magicians around the world who would pay a tribute to
mark the performance, according to a report by Reuters.

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Magician and historian Mike Caveney said, as per Reuters,
that the act of illusion became a landmark as “The magician wasn’t doing this
trick to an inanimate object. He was doing it to a human being, which raised it
up to a whole new level”.

The original version witnessed the saw slice through, with
the person inside emerging unharmed. However, that has not always been the case,
taking into account the many versions and refinements illusionists have adapted
in the coming years.

Famous magician David Copperfield, who took it a notch-up by
creating the ‘death saw’, a giant rotary blade which used to cut through him on
a platform, actually got injured a few times, as per his interview ahead of the
event on Sunday.

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“I got cut a few times by the blade because the blade was a
little bit off, you know, stages are different every theatre you have,”
Copperfield was quoted as saying.

Organised by London’s Magic Circle, the event is set to go
live on Facebook from 1800 GMT on Sunday, featuring Debbie McGee, wife of late
British illusionist Paul Daniels.