Did you ever wonder why people always depict magicians dressed as Amish, undertakers out of a Charles Dickens movie? (Hint: It isn't just because one of the most famous magicians of the last twenty years is named David Copperfield nor is it because Abbott's is in the heart of Amish country.)

Hello, and welcome to Wunders. I'm Paul from Wunderground Magic, Inc. and I'll be wearing black tie and tails as we dig up the man, the mystery, and the myth of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, snappy dresser, all around fascinating person, and the father of modern magic.

Jean Eugene Robert, or "Dad" as I like to call him, was born in Blois, France, on December 6, 1805, well before the publication of the very first Tops Magazine in 1936, but he didn't start performing magic seriously until 1844, so it was actually pretty close. Most of what we know about him comes from Memoirs of Robert-Houdin surprisingly written by none other than Jean Robert-Houdin himself, and you know how magicians are about being sticklers for facts, so take everything you read here with a grain of salt. (This reminds me; look for my startling unauthorized autobiography Delusions of Paul Nielsen, available in the Bellevue Asylum Resident's Gift Shop and wherever fine books are sold.) Of course the best book currently in print about Jean is Essential Robert-Houdin from The Miracle Factory, but it's a $100 book, and they only pay me in free copies of the magazine for writing these articles.

Jean started out in life as a watch maker, and the fact that you don't picture Rolex wearers in top hat and tails suggests that he probably didn't leave as profound an impression on that field as he did on ours. He had a life changing experience when he attempted to purchase a set of books on clock making titled Traite de l'horlogerie and, discovered when he unwrapped the package that the clerk had made a mistake and given him a set of magic books titled Scientific Amusements instead. Much as you yourself must feel when you open a magazine on magic only to discover an article about an old, dead guy who dressed funny, Jean Eugene Robert immediately stormed back to the shop, demanded his money back, and went on to live a life of modest means and little account...Anyway, that's what should have happened, what actually really happened was that he kept the books, sought out more books, sought out magical performers that could teach him about presentation, practiced constantly, joined the local I.B.M. ring (all the more amazing since the I.B.M. wasn't founded until 1922, and Jean died in 1871, but I'm getting ahead of myself), and fanatically pursued magic as an amateur magician performing kid shows and garden parties. (In an attempt to restore balance to the universe, I've reversed the URLs of the above two book links above; so that some aspiring magician may accidentally click on the wrong link and go on to become a preeminent clockmaker. Look at how you're dressed now and ask yourself, "Wouldn't it be cool if all the clockmakers wore a t-shirt and jeans like me a hundred years from now?")

It was at one such party that Jean met Josephe Cecile Houdin the daughter of a famed Parisian watchmaker Monsieur Jacques Francois Houdin. History doesn't record what effect he performed to win her heart, but I'm thinking it was "Anniversary Waltz" (part of Doc Eason's Bar Magic DVD series and only $34.95 at Abbott's.) They were married in 1830, and he added her surname (Houdin) to his own, becoming Robert-Houdin (a piece of trivia that would become increasingly significant about fifty years later. Hint: Houdini)

According to Wikipedia, it is incorrect to refer to Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin as "Houdin." His last name was Robert-Houdin. His birth name was Jean Eugene Robert. He married Mademoiselle Houdin, and under special dispensation from the French government, was allowed to use the hyphenated last name. Referring to him as "Bob Houdin" is just plain wrong.

Jean continued to experiment with clockwork automata, and in 1844, P.T. Barnum (of circus fame) purchased from him a small android for seven thousand francs. Apparently that was a lot of hot dogs because he went on to use that money, plus a loan from a friend, to open a theater in the middle of Paris to present his magic performance which he called "Soirees Fantastiques."

Now, let's digress here for a moment, because frankly the first performance pretty much was a disaster. Instead what was important about this performance was that Jean demonstrated magic in a theater, rather than in the streets as it had been previously presented. He also performed in modern dress - wearing traditional evening clothes of the day, rather than the robes audiences had come to associate with Merlin and Harry Potter. No magician since that time has made such an impression on the public conscious to change their image of what a magician should look like.

Fortunately, Robert-Houdin persisted, regrouped, and continued to improve. The effect that rocketed him to success was called "Second Sight", where Jean would hold an object in his hand, and his son would describe it even though blindfolded. (I've tried recreating this effect with my own son, but he just takes off the blindfold to play video games. It's tough to be a famous magician when even your own son won't take you seriously.)

Jean continued to pack the house until he retired in 1854 at the ripe old age of 48. During his ten year run he introduced many famous illusions such as The Ethereal Suspension, where he used the properties of the newly discovered wonder drug, ether, to cause his son to levitate above the stage; The Fantastic Orange Tree, where he borrowed a ring and reproduced it from a tree that blossomed oranges, tied to the center of a handkerchief, pulled aloft by fluttering butterflies; the Inexhaustible Bottle, where he apparently chased a bottle all over the stage without it ever getting tired; and many others. Several of these illusions were reproduced in the movie The Illusionist, as if you needed another reason to see the movie again.

However, retirement was not to be peaceful for Jean. In 1856 an uprising in French Algeria caused unrest for France. It seems the Marabouts, who were shaman with supposed magical abilities, were convincing the locals that they could govern themselves. They demonstrated their amazing magical talents by eating glass, healing wounds, causing rude noises to emit from the chairs where their guests sat, and were rumored to have weapons of mass destruction.

Rather than commit billions in troops, equipment, and supplies in a long drawn out war, as any modern world leader would do, Emperor Napoleon III called Jean out of retirement to make the world safe for imperialism.

History does not record whether Jean Robert-Houdin wore blue tights and a red cape with an enormous "S" emblazoned upon his chest, but it does claim that he ended the war in French Algeria single handedly. Here's how it happened. At first, Jean would hold performances in which he recreated the effects of the Marabouts, demonstrating that they were just tricks and not really the miracles they claimed. Needless to say, the locals were unimpressed, so Jean had to raise the stakes. He brought out a box and set it in the middle of the stage, then invited a child to lift it up to demonstrate how light it was. Next he used his "French magic" to sap the strength of the strongest person in the room, to demonstrate that anyone who dared disobey would be left weak and helpless against the overwhelming might of the French army. To prove this, he invited the strongest warriors to try and lift the chest, but they were unable to raise the Light and Heavy Chest off the floor. Everywhere he went; locals would surrender lest they have their strength stolen away and they too be made weaker than a child.

Things were looking pretty good for the French team as Jean closed in on the leader of the insurrection and threatened him to a duel to the death at the O.K. Corral. At least that's what would have happened had Jean been in the American west about this time, what actually happened was way cooler. As Jean closed in, the leader of the insurrection threatened to shoot him. Robert-Houdin replied "Go ahead and shoot me" (or words to that effect spoken in French.) At high noon, in the middle of a dusty street, Jean stood unarmed at one end of town, the insurrection leader at the other; a bullet was marked for later identification then loaded into the barrel of a previously examined musket; a plate of glass was set between them to demonstrate the bullet's path of flight; and a laser sight was attached to ensure the chief Marabout would not miss. (At least that's the way I remember Penn and Teller doing it.) The gun was fired; a shot rang out; and from the other end of the street Jean staggered a step or two; looked up and smiled as if to say, "Your puny weapons mean nothing to us, earthling;" then spat the bullet from his mouth against a wall, where it bleed. The Marabout leader pretty much lost it and surrendered on the spot, and the Marabout's control over the population was lost. (Which is why, to this day, all the world's armies have magicians among their ranks, but they can't talk about it because, of course, it's a secret.)