David Blaine

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:48 pm

Have any of you ever heard of him? This guy is a mind-blower. He combines incredible street magic with endurance and self-discipline acts that will curl your hair.

One thing that is so cool about his magic is that there is no fancy stage, no amazing effects, just a guy on the street, doing tricks that just boggle your mind.

I hate to describe his tricks, because it really doesn't do him justice, but I'll try. Two of my favorites:

He stops in front of a group of people hanging out by a store front. Opens a new deck of cards and hands them to one observer, telling him to shuffle them really good, and pick one card from the deck. The group does this and pulls out the 8 of spades, not showing it to David. They put the card back in the pile, and reshuffle. David then takes the deck back, throws it against the window of the store front, and there is the 8 of spades, stuck to the glass on THE INSIDE OF THE WINDOW.

My other favorite:

A man and woman are walking by and he stops them, showing them a simple card trick. The woman is holding the cards and he is positioning her hands for the trick, but what he's really doing is taking her watch. They go through the card trick, and then David takes them to the window of a jewlery store that's closed. He starts looking at the displays in the window, pointing out a particular watch. The woman looks closely at it and sees that it's hers. In the display window of the CLOSED jewlery store. If that's not weird enough for you, David picks up a piece of newspaper blowing by, holds it against the window, pushes his hand through it INTO THE DISPLAY CASE, and pulls her watch out. When he takes away the paper, obviously there's no hole in the window.

I've also seen him bite a quarter in half, levitate, and break a wine glass from 5 feet away while his hands are being held. All his tricks are done right in front of you, no props, right on the street. He's just amazing. He can be seen periodically on TLC.

His endurance stunts are pretty amazing, too. He had himself buried for 7 days and nights, living on water and air only. He encased himself in ice for 3 days. He also stood on a pillar, ten stories above the ground for 36 hours in downtown Manhattan, ending with a jump from the pillar into a pile of cardboard boxes.

He's a thousand times better than Houdini and Copperfield put together. If you have a chance, catch one of his shows.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:59 pm

He also did this http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/t ... id_blaine/

Mad!!! It was telvised very heavily over here, and he looked awful when he came out, but was it all just an illusion????

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:14 pm

The one I like is when he tells a guy to pick a card, look at it, put it back in the deck. Then Blain HURLS the deck at a restaurant window. Suddenly the chosen card is there - stuck to the window - inside the restaurant!

Another is when he has a mom pick a card which somehow ends up in the daughter's back pants pocket. He never gets within 3 feet of her!

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:12 am

Don't think he'll come back to the UK I don't think he appreciated having the **** taken out if him, not to mention the eggs and paint.

pantsonfire321@aol.com · Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:35 am

I saw him in the box here in london it was borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring .

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:47 am

pantsonfire321@aol.com wrote: I saw him in the box here in london it was borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring .
OK, so you're not into endurance....did you see any of his street magic?

Tombstone · Post by **Tombstone** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:51 am

Accountable wrote: The one I like is when he tells a guy to pick a card, look at it, put it back in the deck. Then Blain HURLS the deck at a restaurant window. Suddenly the chosen card is there - stuck to the window - inside the restaurant!

This is my favorite trick of his. Absolutely brilliant. I have it on video and have replayed it over and over.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:12 am

Tombstone wrote: This is my favorite trick of his. Absolutely brilliant. I have it on video and have replayed it over and over.
Attachment didn't come thru.

Tombstone · Post by **Tombstone** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:20 am

Accountable wrote: Attachment didn't come thru.

I have the pc video of him levitating..somewhere on one of my pcs. Sorry, can't attach the card trick!

Jives · Post by **Jives** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:21 am

BabyRider wrote: I've also seen him bite a quarter in half, levitate

This guy is my hero! he is really bringing the "magic' back into the magician's trade. I fancy myself an amateur magician, and I have a lot of fun in class pulling off a few tricks.

So after I saw David, I was obssessed with finding out some of his techniques. To date I've managed to master these two above. The levitation trick isn't hard at all after you learn it, and the quarter trick uses a prop.

Tombstone · Post by **Tombstone** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:35 am

Jives wrote: This guy is my hero! he is really bringing the "magic' back into the magician's trade. I fancy myself an amateur magician, and I have a lot of fun in class pulling off a few tricks.

So after I saw David, I was obssessed with finding out some of his techniques. To date I've managed to master these two above. The levitation trick isn't hard at all after you learn it, and the quarter trick uses a prop.

I've read/heard/seen how to do the levitation trick - perspective and using one foot to raise yourself up? Is this how you understand how he does it?

I could never get myself as high off the ground stepping on my tippy-toes the way he does though.

Comments?