Plastic Pipe

So complete, so widespread, and so disarming were his charms, that he could not pass a lady on the street without flushing her face and stealing her breath, could not touch a flower without it exploding into a cloud of dizzy pollen, and could not put a pipe to his lips without it shivering, then curling itself into a tight knot with sheer ecstasy.

Plastic Pipe II

Levitationism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Levitationism was a popular vaudeville act in the early 1900s, involving the illusion of causing items to float by use of concealed or transparent string. Levitationists would often levitate solicited items from the audience, such as gloves, snuff boxes, or cravats.

The illusion was famously exposed when noted French levitationist Josephe Pujol was asked to perform for the Archbishop of Ste. Rouen-Caste. The archbishop, who was drinking heavily, was so delighted with Pujol’s skill that he demanded Pujol repeat the entire act several times. After a few hours, Pujol ran out of the necessary transparent twine and was forced to levitate the final object of the evening (an unusually shaped pipe belonging to the archbishop’s father) with plain white thread. The thread was easily visible and the enraged archbishop expelled the entertainer from the manor abruptly and with some violence (by many accounts grotesque).

Shortly thereafter, the archbishop pronounced the infamous Magicians Excommunication of 1909, which was eventually repealed by Pope Auguste XI in 1972.