Magician Performs Mind-Blowing Levitation!

Popular extreme magicians have been making themselves float through the air as proof of their unusual freakish powers. Tonight, the masked magician joins them. He's made his way to the top of his secret warehouse and intends to demonstrate the extent of his unique abilities in broad daylight. As you can see, he's completely alone on the roof, and there are no visible wires or hydraulic lifts around to aid him in his attempt to levitate. Watch carefully, and let's see if he's as good as the street magicians who claim they can do this for real. He's floating off the roof. Well, it certainly looks like he's floating, but that could be an illusion. Let's watch some more. He's now hovering over the building without any visible means of support. This actually does look pretty freaky. He's floating in midair. It's effortless. Maybe he's just thinking happy, wonderful thoughts like Peter Pan. You couldn't possibly be thinking about the three-story fall to the concrete below. As we can see from the back, he's not wearing any kind of James Bond jet pack. These incredible angles show a complete view of the magician and the area around him. He's achieving the impossible. Watch now as he begins to float down toward the earth with nothing above and nothing below to help him accomplish this trick through devious means. And there he is, safe on the ground. So how does the magician rise up off the roof and float through the sky like a superhero? The secret may come as a bit of a surprise, so I'll let you down easy. He doesn't have superpowers. He's not even in control of his own flight path. The man in charge is right here, sitting in the cab of a 50-foot crane. Dangling from the top of this crane is a set of very thin aircraft cables, the same kind used to make Peter Pan fly on Broadway and in theaters across the country and around the world. Concealed beneath the magician's jacket is a specially designed harness that has been used on stage for decades. Before the trick begins, the crane operator lowers the cables down to the stagehands who attach them securely to the harness. Once they're double and triple checked, the magician is ready to fly with the greatest of ease. But why don't we see the cables suspending him in the air? The secret is the bright sky. Remember I said he wanted to show you his power in broad daylight and that there were no visible wires? That's because the glare from the bright sun and sky makes the wires impossible for the cameras and even the human eye to detect. From the proper angle, the brightness of the sky blocks the cables, making them invisible. From this angle, you can see that the camera can pick up the wires, shattering the illusion. While demonstrating his supposedly magical abilities, we saw the magician alter his flight pattern with nothing above or near him. The secret here involves moving the crane. In between shots of the magician in the air, the crane was repositioned to allow the operator the freedom to fly the magician in different directions. Clever editing of the various angles makes it look like he's flying around the parking lot. The most difficult part of this trick is lowering the magician to a soft landing. How about that? It is done with wires after all.