Teller & The Shadow Thief: What Really Happened?

A little over a decade ago, Teller fought a legal battle against a Belgian magician, Gerard Dogge, who had uploaded a version of Teller's signature illusion, Shadows, onto YouTube and offered to sell the secret for $3,050. 

Understandably, Teller did not want someone selling a method for his illusion, which had been a staple part of Penn & Teller’s act for nearly four decades.

However, no matter how much the magic community frowns upon magicians who watch tricks, come up with methods, and flog their own versions, there’s very little that can be done to stop them, legally that is. 

So, Teller took a slightly different approach, and what followed was an unprecedented Copyright Infringement case, involving Private Investigators, fierce debate, and legal fees up to $550,000.

Teller wanted to keep the secret of Shadows in the dark.

In performance, a spotlight illuminates a flower protruding from a vase and its shadow appears behind it on a blank canvas. With no music, dialogue or any sound, Teller approaches the canvas with a large knife, aiming the tip of the blade at the area close to the shadow of one of the flower's leafs. 

As the knife bores the shadow, the real leaf slips away.

The same happens again with another leaf, followed by the petals at the top of the flower, all while Teller never goes near the actual vase.

Then, Teller seems to mistakingly nick the tip of his thumb with the knife, so he holds his hand up to display its shadow, when a large, glooping silhouette of blood seems to drip from his thumb.

As a final motif, Teller brings his hand closer to the white canvas and sweeps across it, spreading a smear of glistening red blood, all whilst staring mournfully at the audience. The lights then fade away.

Teller knew just how good this piece of magic was. So much so, he actually ensured that the story of the effect was copyrighted in 1983 as a "dramatic pantomime."

In hindsight, I bet he was very glad that he did too! But what’s significant here is that he didn’t copyright the method, he couldn’t have. That would have required a patent to cover the details of the apparatus, and can be more expensive too. The other thing with patents is they require the methodology to be publicly listed.

So, in order to protect the secret. Teller had to copyright the expression of the trick, or the idea of it in the context of a pantomime or performance.

This is where Gerard Dogge comes in. Twenty years after Teller acquired the copyright for Shadows, a YouTube video is uploaded called The Rose & her Shadow Close up ! - Gerard Bakardy.

The video, which only had a handful of views before it was removed, depicts a flower in a vase, with its shadow behind it on a blank canvas, as a magician (Dogge) uses a knife to slice the shadows of the leaves and the petals away.