Zombie

See also: Zombie (magazine).

Zombie is one-person floating ball illusion invented by Joe Karson in which a silver ball floats behind a Foulard.

Ad in Tops (1943)

The inspiration came to Karson when he was fooling around with the simple impromptu trick where the magician interlocks the fingers of both hands and a lighted match appears to magically suspend in air behind it. He patented the Zombie in 1940.

History of the Floating Ball routine

• A version of the floating ball by Harrison Davies appeared in the September issue of The Sphinx in 1905.
• David P. Abbott developed a version based on Davies and taught it to Howard Thurston and Theo Bamberg (Okito). Okito passed his routine onto his son, David, who performed as Fu Manchu.
• Karson patents his one man version in 1940.

Bibliography

• 1946 - Tips on Zombie By Joe Karson
• 1963 - Further Tips on Zombie By Neil Foster
• 1965 - A la Zombie By Ian Adair
• 1970 - A la Zombie Plus By Ian Adair
• 1977 - Teach-in Series: Zombie, the Floating Ball By Lewis Ganson
• 1981 - Al Schneider on Zombie
• 1983 - The Ken Brooke Series No. 7: The Finn Jon Zombie Routine
• 1983 - The "How To" Book on Zombie By Merlyn Shute
• 1991 - Magic City Library of Magic No. 20 - Zombie Ball By Leo Behnke

References

• http://www.themagicdetective.com/2014/07/the-floating-ball-illusion-history.html?spref=fb