The Icarus Effect

HERE IT IS : ALL ABOUT ICARUS (Grab a Coke, this is gonna be a long one )
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There is a slit in the back of one pant leg which extends up from the top of the back of the shoe to where the knee joint bends so that there is leeway to exit from. In addition, you leave the last two to three inches of the pant uncut so that the pant leg doesn't flop around when your foot is in. This also makes so that the slit begins right where the top of the shoe ends.

This should be a pretty easy step. First of all, make sure you purchase or use a fairly baggy pair of cargo pants, or jeans. I would recommend a color close to your skin tone for safety, just in case there is a flash. They should extend at least to the bottom of your shoes. All you need to do is to make sure that the slit begins where your knees join bends, and it ends right where the top of the shoe is. You need to do some measurements on yourself. First, put on the jeans and mark where your knee joint bends on whatever leg you feel more comfortable with. (Right handed/left handed.). Do this directly on the back side of the pants. Then, measure off about two to three inches on the bottom to leave uncut and mark that on the back side of your pants. Also mark where your knee joint bends. At this point, lay down the pants flat on the ground. With a ruler and thin marker or pen, draw a straight line from the knee joint to two to three inches from the bottom. Make sure it is directly on the back side of the pants. Finally, with a knife, scissors, or box cutter, carefully make the slit on the back layer of the pant leg exactly where the line is.

The bottom of one of the pant legs is attached to its corresponding shoe where the rubber on the back heel begins so that it doesn't come up and reveal that your leg is not inside during levitation.

This is a fairly easy process. I recommend you attach the pant leg to the shoe where the rubber on the back heel of the shoe begins. You can do this with either a heavy duty staple gun, strong tacky or hot glue. If you don’t want to really ruin the shoe, I would recommend you use either tacky or staples. Just make sure that you even up the back and attach or staple it right on the edge of the back half of the shoe. This step is pretty self-explanatory. One thing you need to make sure of is that the other pant leg is always baggy down to the same point that the other pant leg is attached at. It will look more even and natural. When the jeans are attached, you should realize that when you put on the jeans, the slit begins right about where the top of the shoe ends.

There is a type of durable shell (Hard plastic or thin metal.)(SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW ON HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT SHELL) which retains the shape of the exited leg. It begins at the knee and extends all the way into the front of the shoe as a hook and inside the sides of the shoe. Its purpose is so that pant leg, when exited, doesn't go limp. It goes into the shoe so that it holds up the shoe while giving the effect extra durability during levitation. This shell extends around a bit more than the front half of your leg and is attached to the pant leg. It only goes around the front because the spectators only view from the front and it will give you space to move around your leg inside the pant leg and also exit the pant leg.


IF YOU DONT WANT TO MAKE A PROPER LEG SHELL FAKE IT LIKE THIS ( it wont look as good)
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You need to buy or acquire a hard, yet flexible sheet of plastic from a hardware store that measures about three feet by one foot (You can also use a thin piece of metal.). It all depends on the size of your legs. The color is irrelevant, but if you’d like, get it closer to your skin tone. Then, you need to do some measurements on yourself. First, put the sheet on the ground vertically touching the ground, and mark where it comes even with the middle of your knee joint. Then, add about eight inches to a foot, depending on your size, to that measurement to compensate for the plastic threading inside the front of the shoe. Then, with the plastic straight up again, loosely wrap the plastic along the front side of your shin. Make sure that it wraps a good length of way around your leg while still having enough space to take your leg out of it. Now, mark off how much of the one foot is not needed to wrap along your leg. You now have two marks; one for length and one for width. Now with a ruler and thin marker, draw straight lines along those marks. Then, with a knife or box cutter, carefully cut of the excess plastic that is on the other side of the mark. Now, on the bottom eight inches of the plastic, cut two slits in the plastic. You should leave about three or four inches in width in the middle of the two slits to accommodate the width of the inside of your shoe. There should be equal space on each side of the three to four inches in the middle. It depends on the size of your leg. At this point, just fold up and crease the middle three to four inches. Next, just try to bend and form the plastic to stay in a half-cylindrical shape (It doesn‘t need to be perfect because it will do so later anyway.). You are now done with setup. Again, you can use either a heavy duty staple gun, strong tacky, or hot glue. If you don’t want to really ruin the shoe, I would recommend you use either tacky or staples. There are only really two steps to installation. You can complete the process with either the pants on or by turning the pants inside out. You first match up the top of the shell with the center of where your knee joint would meet on the front of the inside of the jeans. Then, attach or staple the very top of the shell (I will refer to the plastic or metal as, “shell”.) to where the top of the shell meets up the knee part of the pant leg. You do so by just attaching or stapling along the edge of the top. The jean can drape over the rest and stay very baggy and look natural and normal. The middle part is free to move. The last step is to push the shell all the way down to the bottom of the shoe and thread on the inside of the shoe and on the insides or sides of the shoe. Now, attach or staple the three to four inch flap in the inside of the shoe, and attach or staple the two sides on the inside of the shoe all the way to the bottom. This will help retain the half-cylindrical shape to emulate the shape of your shin. After this is done, the shell will not be apparent. If you would like to make it even more normal looking, continue shaping the plastic to be as the shape of your shin. It will be very baggy and natural, yet the shell is well in place. Additionally, because the pants are baggy and the bottom part isn’t cut, the slit will be fairly camouflaged.

HOW TO PERFORM
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When you are done with your setup and ready to perform, put on your gimmick (Gimmicked pants and shoe.), and you are ready to perform. You are ready at any time without set-up, as Aaron Paterson claims. Once you have it on, you could wear it all day, but I don’t recommend it. When you are ready to perform, slide your heel that you’ve prepared the gimmick on top of your shoe, and that will cut down fidgeting and fishy movement later. Then, go up to either a step or flat ground. It’s recommended that you put your hands on top of your spectators and do the levitation one on one. You could though, get away with two or three spectators if you need to. Once you are directly in front of the step or on flat ground and ready with your heel in ready position, take your leg out of the slit and place it onto the step or ground. At this point, the spectator will be directly in front of you, and you will need to keep it that way. Once your leg is there, slowly lift onto the step or into the air. Then, slowly descend. Finally, immediately put your leg back into the slit and shell. You’re then done! Your spectators are amazed. From there, you can walk away. Just watch out that they don’t look too closely at the pant leg that has the slit in it, or you can get busted. That’s all there really is to the presentation.


HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LEG SHELL (perhaps even better than whats supplied:)
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You will need :

1. Fibre Glass and resin (get it from your hardware)
2. Plaster of Paris ( lots of it - get it from the hardware)
3. A shallow tub ( you'll see why just now)
3 sandpaper
4. Pantyhose (optional)

* Note: you will need to shave your leg ( no, I'm not kidding - no one said magic was easy)*

Mix the plaster of paris into the tub and let it start to harden. When its at the consistency of clay
and will retain a shape press your leg into it .


The Red part in pic 2 is the shape you of your leg once the plaster of paris has dried. You can fill the toes part up with some more plaster of paris because all you want is the red part. This is your mold.


MAKING THE SHELL
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Take your fibreglass matting and resin and mold it to the shape of the mold. It will take a while and will be a mess. don't worry! Make sure you smooth it out and the the fibre glass covers all the areas in the mold evenly.

Allow to cure for a day.

After its cured and you are happy with how thick it is etc.. remove it from the mold. (if it sticks - just use a hammer to crack the plaster around it. However once you got the mold made i suggest your make a few more fibreglass casts for more pants and if you break it.

Take your sand paper and smooth out the fibreglass shell on the inside then on the outside. It will also take a while but you can get it to be as smooth as the surface of a cars bumper!


Then put it into the panty hose and trim off all the excess edges. Glue the ends neatly. And there you have your leg shell!!! Follow the instructions above , read and re-read it! then do stuff!

Special thanks to TheMac for the detailed explanation.