Robert-Houdin placed a small box with a handle on the ground and asked their strongest warrior to come lift the box. By a miracle (or should we say, by magic), he caught the bullet between his teeth!Īs if that wasn’t wild enough, he then proceeded to prove to the marabouts how weak they were - literally.

He also allowed a rebel to shoot a marked bullet at him voluntarily. Robert-Houdin met local leaders at a theater and performed a variety of tricks, including pulling a seemingly impossible number of objects from a hat. There was hope that this tactic would catch the rebels by surprise and weaken their excitement to rebel and take back the colony. To avoid a battle of bloodshed, Napoleon III sought to simply prove French magic could outdo Algerian magic. These performances would help convince their people that the mission (a.k.a. Some examples of these acts by marabouts were fire walking and snake charming. The emperor wanted to keep control of the colony and stop the religious holy men of the region, also known as marabouts, from encouraging rebellion, which they did through performing illusions. In 1856, French Emperor Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte III requested Robert-Houdin’s help in acquiring the French colony of Algeria after a rebellion of Algerian natives struck concern. His biggest feat of all wasn’t just building his own theater - although that’s surely impressive enough. He was a natural on stage, and the fact that he wore regular evening attire rather than elaborate robes while performing caught the eyes of his colleagues and audience members. Robert-Houdin even built a theater he could call his own at the old Palais Royal in Paris. With this experience, he branched out and created other devices, including a small automaton that was later bought by circus legend P.T. Robert-Houdin would attend his famous friends’ magic shows, making sure to pay close attention to any mistakes or mishaps they made along the way in case he ever took his tricks to the big leagues.īy day, Robert-Houdin spent his time building clocks for his family’s business.

Widely considered the father of modern magic, French performer Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) discovered his deep-rooted love for these tricks at a young age.