The Practical effect reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Practical effect

A practical special effect is one in which a prop object appears to work in a situation where it obviously could not (such as a ringing telephone on stage) or works in a manner that is physically impossible (such as a bottle breaking over an actor's head.) No trick photography or post-production editing is involved. This type of effect is normally found in live theatre.

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