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60 free magic trivia questions with answers. Stage magic has a history as strange as any trick. This quiz covers it from the Roman cups and balls and Reginald Scot's 1584 exposé to Robert-Houdin's orange tree, Houdini's water torture cell and Australian flight, Chung Ling Soo's fatal bullet catch, the first sawing of a woman in half, and the modern giants: David Copperfield vanishing the Statue of Liberty, Penn & Teller at the Rio, David Blaine's endurance stunts, Siegfried & Roy at the Mirage, Doug Henning, Ricky Jay, Criss Angel and the Magic Castle's talking owl. Easy questions ask which monument Copperfield vanished and where Penn & Teller perform. The hard ones want Copperfield's birth name, the newspaper behind the Indian rope trick hoax, and the code word Houdini left his wife. It suits a family quiz night or a round for a pub full of sceptics. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the magicians, illusions and venues, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Harry Houdini took his stage name from which French magician?
Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin
He later turned on his idol, publishing The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin in 1908.
Q 02In which city was Houdini born?
Budapest
He was born Erik Weisz in 1874; the family emigrated to Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1878.
Q 03What escape did Houdini introduce at the Circus Busch in Berlin in 1912?
The Chinese Water Torture Cell
He was suspended upside-down in a locked, water-filled cabinet, holding his breath for more than three minutes.
Q 04Which London newspaper challenged Houdini in 1904 with handcuffs said to have taken five years to make?
The Daily Mirror
He emerged free after an hour and ten minutes and broke down in tears; many now think the stunt was arranged.
Q 05Houdini was the first person to do what in Australia, in 1910?
Fly a powered aircraft
He flew a French Voisin biplane at Diggers Rest, Victoria, and never flew again after the tour.
Q 06What large animal did Houdini famously vanish on stage at the New York Hippodrome?
An elephant
He bought the trick from magician Charles Morritt.
Q 07On what date did Houdini die?
October 31, 1926
He died of peritonitis after refusing surgery for appendicitis; his wife held Halloween seances for ten years afterwards.
Q 08What secret code did Houdini agree with his wife Bess to prove communication from beyond the grave?
'Rosabelle believe'
Rosabelle was their favourite song; a medium named Arthur Ford claimed to convey it in 1929.
Q 09Houdini's crusade against fake mediums cost him his friendship with which famous author?
Arthur Conan Doyle
Doyle, a devout spiritualist, believed Houdini himself had supernatural powers.
Q 10Houdini served as president of which organisation from 1917 until his death?
The Society of American Magicians
He was elected nine successive times and built it into a national network of clubs.
Q 11Under what surname was Copperfield born?
Kotkin
He took his stage name from the Dickens novel because he liked its sound.
Q 12Which monument did David Copperfield make disappear on live television in April 1983?
The Statue of Liberty
He raised a curtain in front of 20 tourists on Liberty Island and lowered it to reveal empty space.
Q 13Which famous structure did Copperfield appear to walk through in 1986?
The Great Wall of China
The following year he escaped from Alcatraz.
Q 21At which Las Vegas hotel have Penn & Teller performed since 2001?
The Rio
They are the longest-running headliners at the same hotel in Las Vegas history.
Q 22Which card do Penn & Teller force on spectators in nearly all their card tricks?
The Three of Clubs
Their bullet catch has each of them firing through glass and catching the other's bullet in his teeth.
Q 23What was the name of Penn & Teller's Showtime series that debunked psychics and pseudoscience?
Bullshit!
It ran from 2003 to 2010.
Q 14What is Copperfield's illusion in which he appears to be sawn in half by a giant rotary blade?
Death Saw
Presented as an escape gone wrong, it debuted in 1986.
Q 15Copperfield's private resort in the Bahamas is called what?
Musha Cay
He claims the islands may hold the Fountain of Youth, which won him a Dubious Achievement Award.
Q 16How many Emmy Awards has Copperfield won?
21
From 38 nominations, plus 11 Guinness World Records.
Q 17Which supermodel was engaged to Copperfield in the 1990s and appeared in his act?
Claudia Schiffer
They sued Paris Match after it claimed the relationship was a paid sham, and won.
Q 18What did Copperfield found in 1982 to help disabled patients regain dexterity?
Project Magic
It uses sleight of hand as physical therapy in more than 1,100 hospitals.
Q 19Copperfield's magic secrets are etched on nickel plates aboard what?
A 'lunar library' that crashed onto the Moon in 2019
The Arch Mission Foundation payload was on Israel's Beresheet lander.
Q 20In which year did Penn and Teller first perform together?
1975
Their debut was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on August 19.
Q 24On which channel did Penn & Teller: Fool Us originally air in 2011?
ITV
Jonathan Ross hosted the first two seasons before Alyson Hannigan took over.
Q 25What do magicians who baffle Penn & Teller on Fool Us win?
A trophy and a spot in their Las Vegas show
The trophy is cheekily branded with the initials 'FU'.
Q 26Blaine's breakthrough 1997 TV special was subtitled what?
Street Magic
Penn Jillette said it 'really, really does break new ground'.
Q 27Where was David Blaine suspended in a Plexiglas box for 44 days in 2003?
Beside the River Thames in London
The stunt was called Above the Below; George W. Bush joked about it in a London speech.
Q 28For how long did David Blaine hold his breath in 2008 to set an oxygen-assisted world record?
17 minutes 4 seconds
His Drowned Alive stunt two years earlier had left him with kidney and liver damage.
Q 29How many helium balloons carried David Blaine aloft in his 2020 Ascension stunt?
52
He floated over Page, Arizona, in a stunt streamed live on YouTube.
Q 30Blaine's 2002 stunt Vertigo involved standing for 35 hours on top of what?
An 80-foot pillar in Bryant Park
The pillar was only 22 inches wide and he was not harnessed.