El Maga Margot - The Stunt

This is a description of the stunt that brought El Maga Margot to prominence. It is based on the six remaining original videos of the events; it is rumoured that the event was captured by twelve cameras, but the other six video-tapes were destroyed, because either they were poorly shot and did nothing to capture the event or, more probably, captured something that would show how it was achieved.

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The scene is a football stadium, which has since been confirmed as 'Estadio Metropolitano de Cabudare' in Margot's home country of Venezuela. On the balcony at one end, a platform has been constructed. On the platform stand three men and a women. Two of the men are masked, the other is a cameraman and is never seen, except for at a distance, by the other cameras dotted around the stadium. They are all dressed in black suits. The woman is El Maga Margot; she is wearing a white body suit that clings to her curvy figure leaving only her head, hands and bare feet exposed and her black hair hangs loose down to her shoulder blades.

She tells the camera that she will be attempting an escape, but what is an escape without jeopardy? To demonstrate the peril she will be in she draws the camera's attention to pig's carcass that lies at the back of the platform. The two masked men, together pick up the carcass and hang it by the hook embedded in its rear ankles from a cable that is suspended from the back of the platform.

The camera pans along this cable from its origin at the top of a frame at the back of the platform, to a similar frame that has been anchored into the turf behind the goalposts at the other end of the football pitch (the goalposts have been removed and lie on the ground to the side). Above the platform there is a spring loaded device attached to the cable that prevents the pig from sliding down the sloping cable.

Another camera provides a view of the only other thing of import, which is situated at the front of the six-yard box. A sturdy rectangular frame rises from the grass, about six feet wide and tall enough that the cable traversing the length of the stadium goes through it, just below its upper beam.

A third camera shows that this frame has been strung with taut wires, similar to an egg-slicer, but with narrow metal strands strung in every direction. This camera also reveals the presence of a large metal tray placed on the ground behind the frame; this is also six feet wide, and it is ten feet long, with sides that rise to a foot all round.

Margot announces it is time to show what her peril will be. She speaks into a microphone that is hooked into the public address system. "Are you ready?"

The footage from the camera that showed the detail of the frame, with its mesh of wires ready to slice anything coming down the cable, makes a hasty retreat to the position of the corner flag. The camera on the platform scans the stadium picking up flashes of light as the many camera operators indicate their readiness. These flashes come from eleven positions in the stadium, hence the assumption that there were originally twelve cameras shooting the stunt.

Margot counts down on the P.A., "Three... Two... One... Go!"

One of the masked men on the platform pulls the handle of the device preventing the pig's carcass from sliding down the cable and it comes away. The carcass begins its journey down the cable, swinging slightly. Once the pig is on its way the platform cameraman focuses on Margot; under her calm exterior it is possible to detect the faintest hint of tension, perhaps she had not realised that there would be a slightly swinging from side to side involved.

Other cameras follow the pig carcass on its swoop across the football field. It accelerates all the way until it reaches the wire-strung frame, where it seems to disappear. The cameraman on the field rushes forward. The frame is still vibrating from the impact, but is intact, as are most of the wires strung across it. The camera pans down to the tray behind the frame to show the fate of the dead pig; the tray is the final resting place for chunks of pig meat.

"Now, gentlemen, you are going to tie me up and hook me to the line and when I am ready send me on my way. I will have the same time as the pig had, to escape and drop safely to the ground. I trust you brought sufficient stuff to make this a challenge."

The next six minutes consist of the masked men binding Margot. First they put a loose strap round her knees and then strap her calves and shins to her thighs. This done, one of the masked men replaces the stop device on the line and sets another hook in place. The two men then lift Margot and hang her from the hook by the strap clamped by her knees. She then has her wrists cuffed behind her back and a belt put round her waist that is looped through the chain between the wristlets of the cuffs. Another strap is tightened round her body, cinching her elbows together behind her back. And finally, a hood in placed over her head; one of the men makes a point of stuffing all of Margot's hair inside the hood.

One of the men holds the microphone up to the hooded head and asks, "Are you ready?"

A muffled voice asks to be given a few moments to compose herself. The platform camera pans the stadium once more picking up the flashes from the eleven other cameramen, signalling that they are ready.

"I am ready," says the muffled voice. "Release when I say 'go'! Three... Two... One... Go!"

The other man pulls the handle on the device and the trussed form of El Maga Margot begins its descent down the cable. The figure struggles and there is a flash in the floodlighting as the handcuffs fall from the inverted figure. A hand appears to have commenced working on the waist-strap, when the body arrives at the frame with its multitude of wires taut across it.

There is a moment of total silence; you would not have thought that fourteen men in a football stadium could generate such a noticeable silence. Then the cameraman stationed by the corner flag rushes forward to see if there is any help he can give. He looks into the tray and sees more flesh added to the pig's fragmented carcass, oozing blood and also shreds of white fabric; he is promptly and violently sick.

The camera with the men on the platform, registers the disbelief and horror on their faces. Moments later, the sound of a whistle being blown is heard. All the cameras, swaying, seek the source of the noise, and find El Maga Margot standing in the centre circle of the football pitch, dressed in her, now trademark, evening gown with a red bodice and white calf-length skirt and red stockings and shoes (the colours of Lara F.C.).

Then she tells the cameramen to switch off their cameras and bring her the video tapes.

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There has been a lot of speculation about how this stunt was achieved. And a lot of unanswered questions. And, of course, numerous theories of varying degrees of believability.

Chief among the questions is:- where did the bleeding flesh come from and was this related to the announcement of the retirement of 'La chica mágica' and her subsequent disappearance two days before?