One hundred and forty-three years ago, on a dimly lit stage at the Berlin national theater, a Bavarian carpet maker turned director named Max Auzinger observed something that would change his life—and the craft of magic—forever. During a rehearsal for a dungeon scene, he saw that an actor in makeup to play a Moor virtually disappeared in the darkness, so that only the performer’s eyes and teeth were visible. Auzinger was stunned. By using a black background and a black object or cloth, he realized, one could make props seem to appear, disappear, and even levitate. Three years later, in 1885, after perfecting revolutionary methods of concealment and manipulation of light and shadow, he performed for the first time as the character Ben Ali Bey.…
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