Editing Balducci levitation (section)

== Method ==
The magician positions themself at an angle to their audience, a little distance away, in such a way that the audience can only see the rearward portion of one foot and most of the other foot&nbsp;– concealing the toe end of the "far" (upstage) foot.  The audience group must be small enough that they can be grouped close together. The magician, with the rearward portion of their feet held together, lifts the "near" foot off the ground, standing on only the front part of their "far" foot (the one which is partially concealed) while lifting the rearward part of the "far" foot and all of the "near" foot and keeping their ankles together. The audience sees only one foot and the heel of the other (the "far" foot), which appear to rise off the floor.  The hidden part of the "far" (upstage) foot supports the weight of the magician as they appear to levitate one or two inches.

Simply put: the magician stands on the front of one foot, while raising the one foot and the visible part of the other foot, blocking the view of the front of the supporting foot with the other foot and rear part of the supporting foot.

The ''reverse Balducci'' illusion is similar to the Balducci illusion, but the magician faces towards the audience at a 90-degree angle rather than facing away.  The magician slowly stands on the heel of their "far" foot as they lift the "near" foot and the front of the "far" foot.  To improve the appearance of the effect, the magician will try to maintain the near foot parallel to the ground.

Another variation that is sometimes shown on TV shows is done by performing a normal "Balducci", filming the audience reaction, then later returning and performing the illusion with the aid of wires to get more height or to get a shot from the front or underneath. These shots will be edited into the footage of the original performance, thus allowing the levitation effect to be exaggerated, while still using genuine onlookers in the shot.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.learnmagictricks.org/ebook/david_blaines_magic_revealed.pdf|title=David Blaine's Magic Tricks Revealed!|access-date=2007-08-03}}</ref>

There is a principle in theatrical magic that "the audience will often remember or describe an exaggerated effect"{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}&nbsp;– so the audience members may not notice the increased height caused by the "faked second shot" (if the additional height is not more than a few extra centimeters) when watching the combined footage later, believing that they are seeing a genuine recreation of the performance.  This is even more likely if, during the original performance, cameras are positioned in the same place as those from which the "faked" footage was later shot.