The Bottle Conjuror Hoax
Kaushik Patowary Nov 9, 2022 In January 1749, an advertisement appeared on London papers for a new magical performance at the New Theater in Haymarket. An anonymous performer, latter dubbed ‘the Bottle Conjuror,’ was set to perform a variety of near-impossible feats, such as playing “the music of every instrument” on a common walking stick taken from the audience, and enabling any spectator to converse with a deceased person of their choice. But the most startling was the claim that the performer would squeeze himself into a common wine bottle in full view of the audience, and after doing so, the audience would be able to pass the bottle around and inspect the same, reassuring themselves that the magician was indeed contained within it. For days, all London could talk about was the man who was going to stuff himself into a quart bottle. On the appointed day, a huge crowd of eager spectators arrived at the theater to see the act of the century. Even the king's s...