Avenue C & Eagle Drive

Because of the unfortunate demise of Michael Jackson this past week, I feel obligated to post at least something about him. Instead of commenting on his oddities or health problems, I thought it would be much more respectable to post about something that showcased the man’s sheer talent when it came to putting on the perfect show.

I came across a great write-up on Boing Boing Gadgets yesterday talking about one of the special effects in the video of my favorite MJ song, Smooth Criminal. Near the end of the music video, Jackson, along with the dancers surrounding him, seem to lean so far as to defy gravity. While filming the video, they used a mix of strings and magnets to achieve this effect. Of course, strings would look stupid onstage, so Michael came up with an ingenius idea to achieve the same effect with no wires.

Special shoes were constructed with a groove placed in the heel. These grooves were designed to anchor to pegs that would pop-out of the stage floor at appropriate times. Once the dancers and Jackson locked their heels onto the pegs, they could lean forward or backward just like in the video. Here’s a live version of Smooth Criminal, so you can take a look. Notice what after they complete the move (about 3:50 in,) you can see a dancer on the right of Michael have trouble disconnecting his shoe from the peg.

So cool! Here’s to the guy that thought of it all. Turns out he patented the shoe design, too! Head over to Boing Boing Gadgets at the link below to check it out.

Michael Jackson’s patented “Smooth Criminal” leaning shoes | Boing Boing Gadgets.