Guillotine Illusion

Chester Morris...John Calvert...Milbourne Christopher...Ben Robinson...all performed with the same

Guillotine Illusion

by Ben Robinson

July 2000/April 2008

"Uh oh, there's a little red headed child next to the chopper..." July 4, 2000 rooftop show in Brooklyn, NY.

At right, Ben Robinson is abut to cut off the head of famous magic store owner, Denny Haney, in Baltimore, MD, November 2003

As a magician, one stands on the shoulders of giant predecessors. In my case, a prized illusion is the guillotine I own that formerly belonged to the comedic film star and vaudevillian, Chester Morris (seen from 1943 at right).

My acquisition of this remarkable stage illusion comes through the generosity of Mrs. Milbourne Christopher.

I studied with her husband for the last five years of his life and the guillotine was her engagement present to me and my wife-to-be.

This amazing piece of ponderous paraphernalia is a dogged veteran of thousands of vaudeville performances by Chester Morris -- well known from the popular Boston Blackie series. The famous comedien also lent this exact prop to newcomer film star John Calvert during his extended 1940's run in Los Angeles at the Los Palmas Theatre. Milbourne Christopher acquired the prop and traveling case from Morris and performed with it on Broadway and in his tours of the British Isles during the 1960's.

In April 1999 my newly engaged girlfriend and I commandeered a truck , entered a warehouse and at the invitation and instruction of Mrs. Christopher, removed a piece of theatrical history (albeit zany vaudeville) and brought it to our production facility. One week later the guillotine concluded my 10-week engagement at Times Square's famous China Club.


Update April 2008: Above, after a recent fact-finding trip to Paris, Ben Robinson stands outside the home of the original Guillotine, where the first heads were chopped in the 18th century!

In this final performance I put my fiancee's alabaster neck in stocks, locked her in place, and asked the audience to witness her beheading. The tale? What happened to those in the 17th century who were redheaded, left handed and blue-eyed. She is...and such people were suspected to be occult practitioners of the tainted practice...witchcraft! To kill a witch, she was decapitated, burnt, at the stake, stoned or drowned. Our choice was for the first.

AHHHHH! Ben Robinson's New York City Midnight Halloween 2000 Show in SoHo at Circa Tabac.

A rare performance photo (by TV host Kate Milliken) at the moment the guillotine blade is falling through the victim's neck!

I informed the rowdy nightclub audience that to prove her powers, she would have to demonstrate her invulnerability. The blade was demonstrated to be sharp enough to neatly slice a fresh head of lettuce in half. Now came time for the dramatic moment witnessed by public gatherings in times gone by. Would I decapitate my wife-to-be's head in full view?

"One!" I shouted as the blade was positioned above her neck.

"Two" I held the blade inches from her spinal cord, just ready to smash through...

"Three!!!" And the blade sharply fell through her neck. A woman in the audience fainted, another screamed "Oh my god!!!"and still another drunkenly yelled, "Pull her head offffffff!"

Well, she obviously survived. I'm not writing from prison.

Was the illusion actually dangerous? Yes, definitely.

Though we had rehearsed the illusion, the apparatus had been in storage for nearly two decades. Our performance was kin to starting a car that hadn't been driven in 20 years and driving down a mountain hill without having a mechanic check out the brakes.

Why did we do it? Our schedules of travel and business dictated a now or never moment. We also had the opportunity to be filmed by a cult director pal of mine -- Karl Petry (Iron Bound Vampire). You can buy the tape of this death-defying performance at during our show in Central Park from The Store.

The illusion has since been refurbished by a master illusion builder and can be seen in our shows traveling nation wide.

(R: About to knock the block off "Cartoonlust" composer, Rebecca Moore during the Indpendent Festival for Downtown Culture, produced by The Culture Project at the Naumburg Bandshell, August, 2001. New York.)