Orson Welles performs Russian Roulette

[AmazingGordo]

Orson was AWESOME!!

[TheZebun]

being winner in roulette is really an amazing experience...now you too can experience victory in roulette with the winning tips from Roulette Secret..!!!

[scpeer]

I'll take the bullet over that lame laugh-track

[BullshiterBader]

Is this real? I mean could he have actually died?

[elvislennon]

@BullshiterBader - That my friend is the trick of this. This is perhaps the most dangerous trick to do and if you are not gifted in the world of Magic, I recommend not doing this one. As for Chung Lee Soo, was he real? Yes he was and died by doing this trick on March 23, 1918 and he was an American. His real name was William Ellsworth. To keep the world at ends meet if you want to put it that way. No one knew he could speak english except for family and friends.

[lordrampage]

WOW BRILLIANT!!!WOMDERFULL!!!

[TRaddcliff]

weird...his hands were tied. then they were not.

also strange how the bullet shattered the lightbulb but didnt go through the backing HA HA HA.

so dumb

[billytrack]

brilliant - ok he wasnt doing another kane, but that was riveting in a new way. still fresh today

[aliceboy]

That poor schmuck. I know that sort of cabaret was always in his blood, but it's sad to see that self-obsessed wonder reduced to vaudeville for an uncaring audience. And was Angie Dickinson really a sharpshooter, or was her sole qualification that she was on 'Police Woman'?

[MiraTempleton]

Holy cow!!! I've seen Orson perform some pretty corny magic tricks in the past, and I thought this was just going to be another one, but he really got me with this one. Bravo!!!

[gimickuk1]

Not sure Travis, I think it was on a section from the secret cabaret, you might want to search for that...

[gimickuk1]

WOnderful! Thanks for sharing...

On a similar note i remember when Ricky Jay performed in character as a gamber / con artist and really lost his temper...

A magic chat board was inundated with (so called) magicians slating him for getting angry, saying that he had a personality disorder...

I guess they are used to seeing flat, fake presentations that nobody cares about....

[SgtTravisBickle]

Hey, is there video of what you're talking about? Sounds interesting.

[lavverlylad]

Derren Brown reimagined this.

[rgould09]

My God, the showmanship!

So good it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

[SgtTravisBickle]

This started out cheesy with the audience laughing in weird places, but the drama builds and when he screams "TARGET, TARGET!!", that's the payoff! Most magicians have cheesy over-dramatic acting skills but Orson sells the effect with superior acting. This was a great clip!

[KommissarMakita]

Its almost like he knows he is the ONLY person in the room that knows when the real bullet will come and that it is not staged and therefore has to scream to the poor, ungifted people in the room that it IS the death bullet in now don't fire it at him!

[SgtTravisBickle]

I can't stand all the canned laughter in this...it's in all the wrong places.

[dancingdiplodocus]

@SgtTravisBickle it is tongue in cheek

[SgtTravisBickle]

Even still, his drama is amazing and I would have loved it if he played it straight the whole way... he gave the trick so much more depth.

[limeybadtooth]

orson welles must be the most charismatic man ive ever seen,im so glad this is on here,cheers ottervomit ;)

[KentAllard]

initially it was to be the pilot for a tv series, his 3rd attempt I might add with the previous two being chat shows, a network expressed interest but thought it might do better as a special, that ended somehow and from what I've read he was crafting it into another film essay like F for Fake but more straight forward

[spatrick]

This has got to be one of the most dramatic mentalism effects ever done and with Orsen Welles genius it is elevated even farther. Orson is certainly no hack, even when he is doing magic.

[KentAllard]

when they introduced F for Fake on Turner Classic Movies, Penn & Teller said that Orson was a hack, but that is very odd because Jim Steinmeyer (he worked with Welles on The Magic Show and on his talk show performances) has said Welles was a total pro who could have easily gone professional if he wanted

[burke2314]

Poor Orson, the world's greatest movie maker at twenty seven. Forced to be a hack in his old age.

[KentAllard]

he loved magic and he loved doing magic