Servais Le Roy, (1865 – 1953) a Belgian magician and illusion designer and his life partner, Talma,  (Mary Ann Ford 1861- 1944), first performed their extraordinary Asrah Levitation in South Africa in 1905. Talma would lie on a couch and Servais would cover her with a sheet. She would rise into the air and Le Roy would pass a hoop over her body before pulling away the sheet whereupon Talma would seem to vanish. They often performed with Bosco, who provided comedy to the act. There were in fact eight Boscos in total. Talma was much more than Le Roy’s assistant: she performed sleight of hand specialising in the manipulation of coins. Houdini once described her as the greatest sleight of hand artist he had ever seen.