The illusion was designed by famed illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer, and is built exclusively by Bill Smith. Since its introduction, it has become a very popular illusion, especially for those magicians who like to use audience volunteers in their illusions in place of professional assistants. For many magicians, it has now taken over from the Bow Saw and Jig Saw illusions for performing the sawing in half of an audience member. This is because while the Bow Saw and Jig Saw are penetration illusions, where the saw simply passes through the audience member, Audience Dismember is a true division, with the audience member actually being divided in two and their halves clearly moved apart.