Have you seen David Blaine's Magic? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Mansure]

I was watching TLC last night and they were doing a show on David Blaine.

He is the magican more recently famous for being frozen inside a huge block of ice in NY, live on television.

The show that TLC was showing last night was David Blaine's "Street Magic".

Basically he traveled all over the country performing his magic for anybody who wanted to watch right there on the street corner.

I was astounded by most of his performance.

No elaborate set, no beautiful stage girls, no fancy camera work (that I could tell), just unbelieveable magic.

Did anyone else catch this show?

Not knocking Cooperfield and other magicians and master illusionists but I think this guy has them all beat hands down.

Is his act pretty much all slight-of-hand or something more complicated?

It seemed a heck of alot more than simple card tricks to me.

Brian

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah, I saw one of his specials a few years ago and was amazed. Not so much with him, as with the reaction from the people on the street. That sold it to me.

 

[StanleyK]

Blaine is good, but he's not "magical".
Every one of his tricks is perfectly explainable.
In addition, his TV specials are all doctored, that is a fact. Especially his "levitation" bit. What you see on TV and what actually happened on the street are usually not exactly the same thing.

 

[MickeS]

I love those tricks, much prefer them to the Seigfried & Roy type shows.
I don't think the specials are doctored, however there are tricks that had to be redone sveral times before he got it exactly right, the levitation being one of them. The levitation is so easy to do, I did it myself for my wife a while ago, it takes some practice, but it looks pretty cool once you nail it.
/Mike

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

The levitation is so easy to do, I did it myself for my wife a while ago, it takes some practice, but it looks pretty cool once you nail it.

So how do you do it? My first guess was that he's standing on the outside edges of his little toes; that's why he turns his back to the onlookers. So his feet just look like they're dangling.

Either that, or he's got mirrors on the backs of his shoes.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The only trick I'd like to know is how he bagged Josie Maran.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

The only trick I'd like to know is how he bagged Josie Maran.

Patrick Sun has indeed mastered time itself. That's my first thought when I was watching the show. How did he get that woman? If there was a drool smiley, I'd put it in regards to Josie Maran.
I think it's one of his magic tricks he only shows to his lady friends.

 

[MickeS]

So how do you do it? My first guess was that he's standing on the outside edges of his little toes; that's why he turns his back to the onlookers. So his feet just look like they're dangling.

Try it in front of a mirror, looks almost creepy.
/Mike

 

[Ted Lee]

i thought the show was pretty cool...but it's hard to gauge anything without seeing it in person.

that being said...

i had an old roomate who sold his truck to a guy who did the cigarette/pen through the quarter trick.

IT BLEW ME AWAY...it looked so real!

i even gave him my own quarter and pen and made him do it like 4 times. it was really neat to see in person. i'm sure there's a reasonable explanation but without knowing it, i must say it looked TOTALLY real.

 

[MickeS]

By the way, I just saved you guys $14.95 by descriving the levitation trick above, that's how much it costs to buy it at http://www.magictricks.com/blaine/ I expect a payment of just $5, PayPal is fine.
They sell the "cigarette through a quarter" there too, I'll describe that one for just $10!
/Mike

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

David Blaine is the evil leader of a suicide cult. Time to call upon the superheroic powers of the Super Best Friends: Jesus, Joseph Smith, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Lao-Tsu, and Sea-Man (snicker).

 

[Aurel Savin]

OK MikeS:
I will send you a PayPal payment
I tried that in front of the mirror and it works like a charm ... it even creeped me out .... Freaky!
David Blaine has nothing on me ..

 

[StanleyK]

Quote:

This one is so easy you'd smack yourself on the head once you discovered the trick.

 

[Jon_Are]

Blaine's television special is deceptive. Watch it again. It consists of very quick shots of the actual trick, but extended expressions of disbelief from the onlookers. Many of the tricks are simply tricks of perspective; the audience has to be situated just right (especially with the levitating routine - watch how carefully he positions the two or three astoundees). The program is highly edited; for every reaction shot of amazement, there are, on the cutting room floor, piles of tricks that didn't go so well. It is for this reason that 'regular' magicians loathe Blaine; they feel he hasn't earned his reputation legitimately.

As for me, I was mighty impressed on first viewing. Afterwards, I read up on Blaine and magic a bit. Because I happpened to have taped the program, I viewed it again. Needless to say, I was much less impressed the second time 'round.

Jon

 

[MickeS]

Stanley, I guess we have different definitions of "doctored". Like I said, I know that several of the tricks had to be done over and over again until they got it right, and of course only some of the spectators will be in the right position to be awed by the tricks (like in any magic). Since it's a TV-show, it will of course be edited for the best effect, like Jon describes above.

However, I'm pretty sure that the audience that IS wowed by the tricks, did indeed see him perform it. Or is that fake too? That's what I meant by doctored, that he never even did the trick, and that the audience reactions are fake. Maybe that's the case, but I haven't seen anyone say that before.

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah, the different definitions of doctored really confuse me. I mean, everything is an illusion, right? So everything is doctored. Unless we are willing to concede that one of these illusionists/magicians really has some magical power...

He's just willing to take his show on the road.

 

[Jon_Are]

Micke...What is 'doctored' is the film, not the tricks. He really performed them, and the people shown on TV were really amazed. But remember that we're seeing only a very small percentage of what was filmed. Looking at the broadcast, it is easy to assume that the dude walks down the street making folks' jaws drop left and right. I'd love to see the outtakes.
Jon

 

[Gui A]

I used to be able to do one of his tricks...
It's the one where he grabs a pack of cards, sticks it close to your face and quickly flips through the entire deck.
He asks you think of one of the cards you SAW. Then he gets a card, and gives it to you. Shockingly, it's the one you were thinking of.
He even did it to the TV crowd at home.
The trick is to...
Get the pack, and cut about 1/4 (or smaller section) of the deck. Bend the small deck a bit, and put it back on the other deck. Now, when you flip through the cards, it's going to 'stutter' at the card where the cut was made.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I'm glad this subject came up, I am always both facinated AND irritated by magic at the same time. Facinated at the trick, and irritated because dammit, I want to know how they did it!
That's why I was so happy when the masked magician (aka Valentino) blew the lid off of most of those. I know that magic is supposed to be mysterious, but hey, I can't control my intellectual tendencies, I need to know how it was all done, that's just how I am.
That said, I find David Blain to be the strangest man i've ever seen. He's so, what's the word i'm searching for...wierd, he's wierd. He never laughs, and always looks like he's really sleepy. He does these amazing things for people, and he shows no emotion when they gasp and react. As for the levetation, he was not on his toes, he rose at least half a foot off the ground, and they're was an obvious gap between him and the ground.
I have no idea how he did that, but i'll be the first in line if someone would blow the lid off that one. I don't care for mysterious, I care about facts.
I prefer David Copperfield over Blain, simply because Copperfield really knows how to put on a show, he makes it an experience, like when he made it snow from his hands, or when he made sheets fly out over the audience like ghosts. Just spectacular.

 

[Bill Catherall]

As for the levetation, he was not on his toes, he rose at least half a foot off the ground, and they're was an obvious gap between him and the ground.

I have no idea how he did that, but i'll be the first in line if someone would blow the lid off that one. I don't care for mysterious, I care about facts.

I saw the show and can tell you...it's all about editing. He does the trick by rising on his toes and gets some reactions from the spectators. Then later they get some shots of his feet lifting off the ground (he's being lifted for these shots) and they edit it in to make it look like the spectators are reacting from what we saw. Simple.