Can you figure out how these tricks were done?

I've seen this guy twice now, and I still can't figure out how he does most of what he does. I was a volunteer to this trick under a different magician and saw it from the back and I STILL can't figure out how it's done:




And this is how he opened his act:



And even my mother, the everlasting skeptic, has no clue on this one either:

those were cool, but i have no clue

I showed them to my brother who all the time as a kid watched the Masked Magician reveal on TV how everything's done, and even he was in awe and couldn't figure it out.

Well in that first one there wasn't any shots that proved there was a back side to that crate, so I am guessing it was done because there was no back to the crate.

RedBedroom wrote:Well in that first one there wasn't any shots that proved there was a back side to that crate, so I am guessing it was done because there was no back to the crate.

Except the first thing he has the volunteers do, and I know this also from experience, is you go all around the crate and knock on all sides to see if the wood's sturdy and all that. Now, I can guess he was able to get out of the chains because he is double jointed, he proves this in the opening because he has everybody try to hold their arms out, fold them over, lock their thumbs together on the bottom, then pull them up and he can do it but nobody else can. But from there, how can in one second he pop up and the assistant gets in the bag in the crate, especially when he throws the sheet away we see his shadow standing but not hers anywhere?

Edit: Another thing I forgot...Reza doesn't do this, once he's chained up he sends the volunteers back to the audience, but when I was a volunteer for Metamorphosis when Eric Vaughn did it, we got to stand behind the crate and watch from there until the trick was done. But THEN, his assistant had a big bag AROUND the crate that she pulled up higher and higher as she counted '1, 2', and before 3, she disappeared and he popped up. But they didn't do that here, there's just the sheet over the crate, and no counting, just *blink* there he is. And Eric Vaughn used handcuffs, not chains and padlocks on his wrists, so there's a minor difference in how the two magicians do the trick, and maybe that has something to do with it, but I still can't figure it out.

Hmmm, then I haven't a clue! I am sure if you looked enough online, you could find the secrets of it.

I wanna say mirrors, but that's too cliche. I wish I knew, because it is interesting.

I'd have better luck explaining cheaps Chicken or Egg question.