The Pledge, The Turn, The Prestige

In 2016 the magician The Great Bowie performed the last magic trick before his mysterious disappearance in front of a live crowd on the very last night of his residency in Las Vegas, Nevada. The trick was very well-known, and without fail the closing trick of the night during his time there:

1. A single door — open and close to demonstrate integrity.

2. Stamp on area behind door to prove lack of trapdoor.

3. Open, walk through and close.

4. Assistant to open and reveal no one behind the door.

5. Appear in the stands (or other location in the theater) to raucous applause.

On this final night, when The Great Bowie walked through the door, the door immediately went up in flames. His assistant jumped with a shock, ran offstage and returned with a fire extinguisher. When the fire was put out, the door was burnt black but still standing. He would not appear in the stands, or in any other location. The crowd was left bewildered, scratching their heads as they left the theatre. The police were called in. They interviewed the assistant, the architect who designed the trick, and the theater employees. They looked through security footage to try and catch sight of him. But in the end, there was no foul play, no evidence (other than the burnt door, which was later proven to be just a door), and no answers. So the police let everyone go, closed the books, and allowed the case of The Missing Magician to go cold.

Over the years since reports of sighting The Great Bowie have appeared on internet conspiracy websites, Reddit, Youtube, and other places. In 2017, A man claimed to have seen him working at a gas station in Kula, Hawaii, snapping a photo that purports to be of Bowie fixing a car. The photograph is blurry and the subject is out of focus, putting this story in doubt. Another in 2018 told an anecdote of seeing him in a bar in Kansas City, Missouri, performing one of his famous tricks to pay for his drink:

1. Have audience member pick and sign a card from a playing deck.

2. Place chosen card under a pint glass.

3. Shuffle deck and fan out to show that the chosen card is not in the deck.

4. Return deck to box and tap the box on the pint glass.

5. Reveal card under pint glass to NOT be the chosen card

6. Remove deck from box and reveal chosen card as the bottom card.

7. Drink beer while the audience claps.

There is no media available to corroborate the man’s anecdote.

Then, in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a channel simply called “bowie” quietly appeared on Youtube. In their first video, a man, whose face remained off-screen throughout, performed one of The Great Bowie’s first tricks:

1. Choose and mark a card from a deck of cards

2. cut the chosen card up into quarters and lay out in a single line

3. Flick the deck into the air and pick out a card from the air.

4. Place the picked-out card face down on the table.

5. Collect the cut-up quarters back into the card shape.

6. Reveal each quarter to show the cut-up card NOT be the marked card.

7. Turn the picked-out card face-up to reveal the chosen card, uncut.

Internet forums erupted in fierce discussions over its authenticity. Magic experts pored through every frame of the video, arguing amongst themselves if it was The Great Bowie or merely a copycat. While netizens were engaging in wars of words, the mysterious channel quietly uploaded more videos, once every two weeks, with each video equally scrutinised and examined for clues as to the identity of its creator. 

Some wondered, if this was really him, why did he pick this time to return? A theory was floated that he had caught the virus, and was demonstrating his repertoire online as a precaution in case he succumbed to the virus. Another was that this was his attempt to brighten the days of those trapped with the walls of their homes. A third thought was that he was returning back to the spotlight, and this was a marketing move to generate interest and views before he made his grand re-appearance. The more the people commented and asked for him to show his face, the more the man behind the channel remained silent, uploading video after video of merely his hands, reliving their days as vessels of magic and entertainment while running through all the magic tricks The Great Bowie had ever done.

Eventually the first copycat channel appeared. A skinny, pimply boy recreated the trick from the first video. Then he recreated the second, and the third. Other similar channels started showing up as well. From recreations, to explanations, to even step-by-step tutorials, The Great Bowie’s magic tricks were given a new lease of life on Youtube, and a new generation of magic aficionados learnt how the master did it.

As months passed, governments the world over implemented their strategies against COVID-19. Vaccines were made, tested, and placed into production. Plans were set to begin vaccinating the populations. Lockdowns were slowly lifted. Shops and restaurants reopened. People left their homes and went back to their offices. The world slowly began going back to normal. And the frequency of the videos uploaded to the channel began to get longer. At first it was fortnightly, then it became once every 3 weeks, then once a month. It was clear - He was not going to give away all his tricks. He was going to disappear one more time. It was only a matter of when.

When this was deduced by the forum commenters, and the Redditors, and the Youtubers, and the conspiracy website webmasters, they had only one question: Why did you come back? What was the point?

At the end of January 2021, the “bowie” channel uploaded what would be its last video. 

Titled “Goodbye”, the video opened with a closeup of a printout of a panel from a comic book. It was Neil Gaiman’s iconic “Ramadan” comic, issue No. 50 from his renowned Sandman series. In it, the Sultan of a then-glorious Baghdad proclaimed in the middle of a busy marketplace:

“Hear me, my people! I, your Caliph, Haroun Al Raschid, of the Hashimi bloodline, proclaim on this day, in this place, that I have given the Golden Age of Baghdad, of Araby, to this one who stands by my side. 

It is his forever, providing that as long as mankind lasts, our world is not forgotten.”

The comic frame was then taken away, revealing a wooden door, open to show nothing behind. A man wearing a mask stepped into frame and closed the door. Then he waved to the camera, and walked through the door. The door immediately burst into flames. The rest of the video was simply the camera continuing to roll as the fire died out, leaving a pile of charred and blackened wood.

The Internet was lit abuzz with comments, discussions, and analysis on this final video. Was that man truly The Great Bowie? Was he really going away for good again? For all the other videos that sprouted online almost immediately after its premiere, the most noteworthy of all was that the channels which specialised in recreating his tricks also uploaded their videos, but only weeks & months after the original video instead of the days that they normally took. And instead of recreating the door trick, they all admitted defeat — They could not work out the trick. The Great Bowie — if that was really him — left the spotlight with the same, unconquerable, unbreakable feat of magic.

So The Great Bowie, who once left the world behind through a fiery door before a live audience in that Las Vegas theatre years ago, resurfaced on The Internet, and after months recapturing his fans’ attention, disappeared again behind a fiery door in a video uploaded onto Youtube and seen by millions around the world. 

It remains to be seen if The Great Bowie will stay hidden forever this time, or if another return is imminent. In the meantime, the videos remain up on Youtube, amateur magicians upload their own versions of the tricks, professionals attempt to recreate the door trick, essayists wax lyrical on their interpretations, and the rest of the world keep tabs on their favourite conspiracy websites, subreddits, and that “bowie” Youtube channel, waiting for any sign of The Great Bowie to return again.

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1. Disappear behind a magic trick in front of a live audience

2. Keep yourself hidden for years while rumours circulate

3. Make your return, online, in the middle of a pandemic

4. Disappear behind your final trick again, this time for millions to watch on video

5. Live forever.

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Cover photo by Bernadetta Watts