Heh.. Exactly Mr H. The Husband and I actually watched when he was on. It was funny at best. Especially when he got out of the sphere after "failing" to beat the record.
SNL did a spoof on him Saturday night. It was funny as hell.
Heh.. Exactly Mr H. The Husband and I actually watched when he was on. It was funny at best. Especially when he got out of the sphere after "failing" to beat the record.
SNL did a spoof on him Saturday night. It was funny as hell.




My bf got a call to do the audience warm up for the big "Underwater" finale....believe me it was far from "magical"....afterwards, when the cameras went off...roughly 2000 people in that crowd just kinda shrugged their shoulders and went "hmmph" and walked away. Like "ok...that was interesting I guess".
All week my bf saw that "sphere" and the goings on across from ABC where he works.....like DW said....."misdirection (one of the primary principles in magic)".
Oddly enough the "Sphere" kept "fogging up" and they had a team of guys come out and wipe it down several times a day.....hmmmmm......![]()
Some of his street magic looks entertaining, but yeah, it's all staged.
I'll give Blaine credit for knowing how to play the media and create a spectacle.
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I thought the street trick with the teeth was kind of entertaining. I have no idea how he did that, but it looked cool, and made the people he did it to freak out. One girl started crying because 2 of her front teeth were gone for a few seconds. She even pushed her tongue through where her teeth were.
DW.. Can you tell me how that one was done? I'm dying to know.





Actually, in most cases this is the exact opposite. While many large illusions must be performed on stage in a certain setting with certain sight-lines, many illusionists and magicians perform their close-up magic close to the audience or in it. Blaine on the other hand cannot do this as most of his magic involves stooges/plants in the video shoots. If you think those people that he just walks up to and performs in front of on the street are just your everyday people who happen to be in the right place at the right time to catch his performance, you are mistaken. While I haven't seen his latest show, his first two specials were performed in more controlled settings than you realize. In fact, There were less people in on the illusion where David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear than there were on some of David Blaine's "street magic" card tricks.Originally Posted by lunchbox
Now, as for the missing teeth trick, I haven't seen the illusion Rhi so without actually seeing the performance myself, I couldn't give you an honest answer. One of the things I've learned by being in the industry for so many years is that when people describe how they saw an illusion, usually only 25% of the details the describe actually happened the way they happened. It's for this reason (among others) why magicians will never perform a trick twice. So while you thought you saw what you did and are describing it how you think you saw it, there may be some very subtle details you are not accounting for or are aware of that actually were involved with how the trick was done. I'll see if I can get some footage of it and let you know.
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here ya go! i want to know!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hSeMWtNLb...0blain%20teeth
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sr7zFrj95...0blain%20teeth
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It was just really cool.. He went up to some girl and first he pulled on his 2 teeth (I don't know exactly what their exact term is, but if you had fangs, that'd be the place). Then he asked the girl to trust him, and he pulled on those two teeth of hers, gently. He told her to breathe deeply, and then he blew at her, it sounded like spitting I guess. Then when she opened her mouth, those two teeth were gone. The look on her face was absolute horror, especially when she pushed her tongue through where those teeth were. The teeth next to them wiggled when she did that too. Then he blew at her again, and her teeth were back, good as new.
I was watching very closely (I was actually practically pressed up against the TV because I was trying to catch how it was done), so I remember it pretty clearly.
So it was a damn good illusion. LOL.
I probably didn't describe it well though, it's something you'd probably need to see. I just thought it was really really cool to watch.





I took a look at it. Here are my thoughts going in blind to this. First, it really didn't look like she actually moved her tongue THROUGH the hole in her teeth...only moved it on the outside of her teeth. It looked close enough, but her tounge really didn't look like it went through the hole. Now, this all being said, there were a lot of ways this could have been done.Originally Posted by sassysummer
The most obvious way (and knowing Blaine this wouldn't shock me) is if he used a stooge with missing teeth. It's possible but unlikely. This leads me to concept #2.
First, I still think she was a stooge, but I don't think she had missing teeth, just small enough ones to make this work. I noticed a few interesting things. First, when he approached the girl, his thumb and forefinger were pinched together and his hand was palmed down. Most likely, he was holding something and judging by the angle of the camera relative to his body, that would most likely be the case. If the camera were over his left shoulder instead of his right, the trick would have most likely been exposed.
My bet is he had some sort of cap in his fingers that was black with some fake teeth underneath that he could pop out later to make it look like her teeth. When his hands went into her mouth, they covered the teeth completely covering up his maneuver. He slipped on the black caps and "popped" out the teeth (which were fake). She moves her tongue over the teeth and the caps to hide it better. Again, I didn't actually see her tongue go THROUGH the hole, just around it good enough to make it look convincing.
One other thing that was very convenient about this trick was that right after he blew on her she acted like she fainted and then magically her teeth were back. During that moment, she fell foward and was out of camera sight for a brief moment, most likely spitting out the black caps and getting rid of the evidence.
If I had to design this illusion blind, that's probably how I'd do it. I'll ponder it a bit and think of another possibility but most likely how it's really done is some derivative of how I described it.
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln
Cool thread! Thanks for all the interesting info DW!
"All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending."
--Avril Lavigne
LOL. David Bland. That man bores me to tears with his crap stunts.
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DW, I'm not referring to just his card tricks. Please tell me, what is the tremendous amount of help needed with second dealing and forced cards?Originally Posted by DancerWealth
Let's compare control factors on major events/stunts. Copperfield rotated the entire seating gallery. Blaine did it or faked it with people banging on the glass. How about the audience watching Copperfield break out of Alcatraz over closed circuit television, vs. Blaine behind plexiglass....





Could you please rephrase this? I'm not completely sure I understand what you mean.Originally Posted by lunchbox
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln
Hijack warning. I haven't seen Mr. Blaine. I've seen David Copperfield live, which was entertaining, but my favorite all-time is Doug Henning. Swings a diaphanous net through the air, and you can see a flapping bird in it. Takes it out, swings the net again, there's another bird. If it was a camera trick, it was a darned good one, since this was well before computer graphics, and the show was billed live (which I don't necessarily believe, either). Admittedlly, I don't get out much to magic shows.




Ah....the 1970's/early 80's at it's finest...I remember him.....looks much creepier now that I'm older.......
http://www.doughenning.com/
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While, in my opinion, nobody beats Copperfield for the most talented, Henning was a true great. He had a great flair for the era and was a very wonderful performer. I even liked how all of his TV specials were live broadcasts (not many people remember that). He was a great who will be missed.
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln
Was Doug Henning the guy who said "Thank You!" constantly after his tricks and it sounded like "'Nkyouuu! Nkyouuu!"
"All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending."
--Avril Lavigne
I don't remember that. He had an overbite and was from Canada. It's possible. (That's a joke, my dear Canadians.)
I remember, of all things, an appearance by Doug Henning on the Muppet Show. He did a little presentation called "The sands of Egypt" or something like that. I enjoy magic, but I know it's a trick, after all, whether I can figure it out or not. But he got me that time. I was lost in amazement.




It was more speicfically in response to this:Originally Posted by DancerWealth
The majority of his card tricks are done by second dealing or forced cards, and don't require stooges, so how can you say that? Then I go onto to discuss their large scale 'acts' and the level of control (over the audience).In fact, There were less people in on the illusion where David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear than there were on some of David Blaine's "street magic" card tricks.
I'm not saying Blaine is the greatest, I'm saying you are hating on him for the wrong reasons.





Of course most of his card tricks involved forcing cards...virtually all good card tricks do. The thing with Blaine is not that he's forcing cards...that's a given. The challenge is that his setup to the trick requires a uniqe ending (such as producing the chosen card inside a basketball) which requires stooges to be involved. It's complicated, and I don't want to get into specifics because some of those tricks I don't want to reveal. You just have to understand that his "street magic" is nowhere near as genuine as you may think. It's not just his card work either.Originally Posted by lunchbox
For example, his levitation that he did in his first special was done using the Balducci Levitation method (Google "Balducci Levitation") however the conclusion of the illusion required two special rigs, a crane, speically placed cameras, stooges standing in EXACTLY the right places, no other spectators or bystanders, special costuming to hide the rigs, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention some very specific editing and camera tricks. Hence, this piece of "street magic" might as well have been shot in the sound stages on the Universal lot. Get my drift?
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln




You did magic related work for 10 years, how often was "genuine" used to describe a performance? So basically you are saying, it is OK for every other magician to do certain things, but not for Blaine because he is on a street, and calling it street magic?Originally Posted by DancerWealth
First special, unknown guy, and the clip that was in every commercial. I assume that network forced that one. I may not be forgiving enough to buy a German car, but to hold this one against him forever is a little harsh. Technically it's not all that different from Copperfield focusing everyone's line of site to make the Statue of Liberty disappear
Hm.... as I said, I enjoyed David Copperfield. But wasn't his "walk through the Great Wall of China" just a camera trick where the overhead camera reversed midway and came back to the starting point?
On the Copperfield stage show that I saw, he did a "walk through a wall" that was more impressive.





No, what I'm saying is that in, say, a David Copperfield show, David is the entertainer and the focal point of what makes the magic "magic." In a David Blaine performance, you could replace him with a large Pink Panther stuffed animal and the illusion would pretty much be identical. If anything, the stuffed animal would have more personality than Blaine. Don't get me wrong, in my opinion about 95% of all magicians are of the same if not less talent level than Blaine. They all rely on the gimmick rather than on their talent to make the magic happen. I call these guys "furniture movers" where all they do is move a box onto the stage, point at it and have a tiger/panther/girl etc. jump out of it and they go "tada!".Originally Posted by lunchbox
While most magicians use some form of gimmick, misdirection, lighting, mirrors, etc. to make their trick work, the better ones simply use it as an instrument in the performance. So whereas David Copperfield may play a piano to make his music, Blaine needs a player-piano to make his. The best magicians in the world are of the ones who work first on theatrical presence, staging, costuming, and creating an overall performance to go along with the magic. Blaine has none of those abilities so he is stuck with "hehehe...choose a card...hehehe...choose a card...hehehe." The reason I come down so hard on David Blaine is because he has less talent in magic than my Dippy Bird on my office desk. The reason I'm not alone in the magic community on this is because most amateur-night Bar Mitzvah magicians perform the same schlocky tricks he does and here comes along some guy who can barely say a structured sentence without sounding like a goofball getting network TV specials performing tricks sold at Houdini's Magic in the MGM Grand in Vegas for $11.95 + tax.
I'm not saying this out of jealousy...heck I'm all for Blaine's success if it brings back a resurgence of magic into the world and gets people wanting to learn more and have fun with it. Make no bones about it though, he's successful because he has a good agent and was in the right place at the right time, not because he is talented.
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln





Most of these stunts I really don't care about much so I tend not to pay a lot of attention to them. This one, I'm not sure about. I'll do a bit of research. One thing I can tell you though is that a lot of his "Blaine Baiters" are actually on his payroll. I'd make a pretty hefty bet that the person who suspended the burger in front of him with the helicopter was on his payroll. After all, a publicity stunt doesn't work without publicity. It's like how women still throw their panties on stage during a Tom Jones concert...most of those women are paid to do it to add to the phonomenon that is Tom Jones and this legend. It just makes for good publicity.
The ORIGINAL Stripper Sales School
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln




DW, so you are saying Blaine sucks for not being more like Copperfield?
So if Copperfield does something it is theatrical presentation, but Blaine is just using gimmicks. I guess I'm crazy in thinking Blaine has excellent delivery of his tricks, which don't involve incredibly loud Phil Collins music, or twenty Vegas showgirls.





You're missing the point (again) lunchbox. What I'm saying is that without David Copperfield, Lance Burton, Ricky Jay, Thurston, Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, Blackstone, Henning, Alexander, Carter, etc., you have no magic. It's the performance of the artist that makes the magic. Blaine on the other hand can be replaced by a Post-It note and the magic would be identical.
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln




I see your point, I just think it's retarded to keep saying that about just Blaine, when it is true for them all. A year or two of ballet and you could prance around on stage in tights just as well as any of those guys can.
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