Simon Drake's Twisted Take on Sawing a Woman in Half

 Long before television magic became dominated by large-scale specials and competition shows, British magician Simon Drake was bringing audiences something much darker, stranger, and more theatrical.

A fantastic piece of that history can be seen in this 1990 clip from The Secret Cabaret, featuring Drake performing his version of one of magic’s most famous illusions — Sawing a Woman in Half.

This Definitely Wasn’t Your Grandfather’s Magic Show

By 1990, audiences were certainly familiar with the basic premise of sawing a woman in half. The illusion had been performed in countless variations for decades.

Simon Drake approached magic very differently.

Rather than presenting the illusion simply as a glamorous stage spectacle, Drake surrounded his magic with an atmosphere that could be bizarre, macabre, funny and occasionally unsettling.

That style was a perfect match for The Secret Cabaret.

The British television series presented magic in a way that felt considerably different from the polished variety-show magic audiences were accustomed to seeing. Drake served as host and performer, introducing viewers to unusual acts, sideshow performers and some genuinely strange entertainment.

Making an Old Illusion Feel Dangerous Again

One of the challenges with performing a classic illusion is overcoming the audience’s familiarity with it.

Everybody knows the phrase “sawing a woman in half.”

Even people who have never attended a magic show understand what is supposed to happen.

That means the magician has to find another way to make the audience care.

Drake accomplishes that through presentation.

The staging, his personality and the slightly sinister atmosphere transform an illusion audiences already recognize into something that feels unpredictable.

For magicians, that’s an important lesson.

Sometimes creating something original doesn’t necessarily require inventing an entirely new illusion. A performer can take an established piece of magic and completely change the audience’s experience simply by changing the character, presentation and world surrounding it.

The Secret Cabaret Was Unlike Almost Anything Else on Television

The Secret Cabaret arrived on British television at the beginning of the 1990s and developed something of a cult following.

It wasn’t simply a television magic show.

It mixed magic with unusual variety entertainment and the sideshow tradition, with Drake acting as the audience’s guide into this wonderfully strange world.

Looking back at clips today, the program also provides an interesting snapshot of an era when television producers were willing to experiment with the way magic was presented.

More than three decades later, Simon Drake’s performances still don’t look like everybody else’s.

And that may be the biggest lesson of all.

You don’t necessarily have to perform different tricks. Sometimes you need to perform the tricks differently.