C'mon then oh wise ones, hows does he do this then?

[totallyfreaky]

news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91059-1289571,.html

He's obviously using some arcane magical art to defy gravity and float above his walking stick. I mean, duh, what else would it be?

even weirder is the fact that barely anyone is taking any notice!!

Well, why would they? There's a bloke two streets over from us does it every Tuesday. He usually wears a jumper, though.

That's a bit on the freaky side!
How on earth does he do it? He must have increadibly strong muscles!

Blimey. My computer doesn't think it's April 1st...

The mat hides a heavy rigid base to which the stick is firmly attached. The stick has a rigidly attached structure coming at the top at right angles, upon which he perches.

I'd like to see him setting up or dismounting.

I'm not sure it counts as levitation when he has a visible means of support

He's sitting on a seat attached to the top of pole (the seat is covered by his trousers). The bottom of the pole is buried in the ground to make it stable to support his weight.

crosspost with Emsmum - spent too long watching the vid

Ooooo where did the witches hats come from?

I bet the ring of flowers around the mat hide the fact that the mat is signifcant;y higher (i,e there is a heafty supporting plate) than the surrounding ground...

he has big floppy trousers on .. I reckon he's sitting on something attached to that pole which is actually firmly embedded in teh floor and reinforced with metal inside the wood so can take the pressure

or something like that

I thought about a seat until I saw the bloke looking and when I considered that someone must be there when he sets up and gets down. They would then know he was a fraud.

Fairly sure it is a trick but still looks impressive - well I think so anyway

What does he do if he needs a piss?

arcane magical art, people. Heat magazine have an advert in the back all about it.

Looking really carefully at the end of the vid; I thought I may have seen a plate type thing under his magical bottie - got to be hasn't it....

Either way he can levitate above me any day of the week

This is actually a really good example of Occam's Razor in action. The most simple explanation is that he has a means of support. We can't see it because it's cleverly hidden. We don't need to know what it is - levitation doesn't exist, so there must BE one.

Oh UQD, you cynic you!!

Many years ago my mum was called out in a school assembly (she was a teacher) by a visiting Magician. He got 2 children to find 2 school chairs and he laid a plank between them. He got my mum to lie on the plank the he took one of the chairs away and she stayed there, with just the top 6 inches or so resting on the remaining chair.

C'mon you cynics, explain that one!

All you actually need to make an object "levitate" is a force in the opposite direction equal to the force of gravity acting on the object's mass - i.e. its weight. This can be done with magnets, electrostatics, currents of air, etc. I expect the magician used something much simpler - most illusions are very dull when you find out how they were done.

giggling @ UQD's superior brain...

I agree with Emsmum. I reckon he waits until there is no-one around to do the setup. You can bet if the setup was part of the act - ie he floats up there impressively - it would be videoed too. The fact that we don't see it implies to me it's the weak spot of the performance.

I suppose the 'seat' could be incorporated into his trousers with an attachment in one hip which is hidden in the folds of material. That way he could, with practice, get up and down quite quickly.

Oh, wish I hadn't thought about this so much, it kind of takes the fun out of it

There is a seat!! I just rewatched the vid - you can totally see it, about 1.32 in. Tcha.