No secret props, no extra pieces: just one balloon. I spent months developing this trick, perfecting the psychology and the physiology. Then I spent weeks filming and editing the trick with magic distributor Theory11.com. We released “Detach” in February of 2012.

Some company in Russia copied it a couple months later. But they didn’t just copy my trick — move for move, beat for beat — they copied the look and feel of the marketing in the trailer, too. [You can see for yourself by comparing those two links.]

In the field of magic, theft is rampant. Close-up magic wholesalers steal from close-up magic wholesalers. Parlor manipulators steal from parlor manipulators. Large-scale illusionists steal from large-scale illusionists.

Why do they do it? Because they can.