TracerBullet42
First Post
If it's any credit to Mr. Blaine....Michael Jackson believes in him and thinks his magic is real.punkorange said:
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David Blaine
- Thread starter punkorange
- Start date
zepherus
Explorer
One word of warning about DB...what you see on TV ( which is really the only way most people have seen him ) is not what you think. There is A LOT of editing to create the TV show that you see, that appears to make him look like an incredible magician.
Being a practioner of the art myself, I am not at liberty to divuldge how any of his "effects" work...but I will say this:
If you walk up to 100 complete strangers on the street, and ask them to think of a card...any card...at least 5 out of 100 will say "King of Hearts". Now, think of how many people you see on the shows you see on TV does he "magically" know what card they are thinking of. Usually 5 or 6. If you've got a camera crew willing to follow you around for a few hours, then edit out the wrong matches ( and just show the correct ones ), you too can appear to be a great magician like DB.
The whole "levitation" deal that made him famous...most of what you see on TV was done in post production. What you think you see isn't what really happens on the street. He just uses a technique created by a man named Balducci many, many years ago ( sometime in the late 1800's, if memory serves me correct ).
Everything he does in his TV specials can be done by anyone, with a little practice. He does a few card tricks extremely well, but I would not call him an excellent card magician. "The Great Cardini" was an excellent card magician. He could perform for days, and never do the same trick twice.
Many of his illusions rely on gaffed objects ( things that look "normal" to the average person, but in fact are not ).
And, before anyone asks...yes, I know how every one of his illusions work...I'm just not as practiced and refined as he is.
So, in a nutshell, he is a very charismatic, and well practiced magician, but for my money, he's got nothing on James Randi or Penn and Teller. He's just a guy that seems a little creepy ( which adds to his persona ) that can use that creepy charisma to make you think you saw something that you really didn't see. But of couse, that's what magic is.
L8R - Zeph
Being a practioner of the art myself, I am not at liberty to divuldge how any of his "effects" work...but I will say this:
If you walk up to 100 complete strangers on the street, and ask them to think of a card...any card...at least 5 out of 100 will say "King of Hearts". Now, think of how many people you see on the shows you see on TV does he "magically" know what card they are thinking of. Usually 5 or 6. If you've got a camera crew willing to follow you around for a few hours, then edit out the wrong matches ( and just show the correct ones ), you too can appear to be a great magician like DB.
The whole "levitation" deal that made him famous...most of what you see on TV was done in post production. What you think you see isn't what really happens on the street. He just uses a technique created by a man named Balducci many, many years ago ( sometime in the late 1800's, if memory serves me correct ).
Everything he does in his TV specials can be done by anyone, with a little practice. He does a few card tricks extremely well, but I would not call him an excellent card magician. "The Great Cardini" was an excellent card magician. He could perform for days, and never do the same trick twice.
Many of his illusions rely on gaffed objects ( things that look "normal" to the average person, but in fact are not ).
And, before anyone asks...yes, I know how every one of his illusions work...I'm just not as practiced and refined as he is.
So, in a nutshell, he is a very charismatic, and well practiced magician, but for my money, he's got nothing on James Randi or Penn and Teller. He's just a guy that seems a little creepy ( which adds to his persona ) that can use that creepy charisma to make you think you saw something that you really didn't see. But of couse, that's what magic is.
L8R - Zeph
Wild Gazebo
Explorer
Hmmm. And I always considered Penn and Teller kind of slow and awkward...though very funny.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
I've been on messageboards with professional magicians, and they tend to despise David Blaine: they consider it cheating to use postproduction techniques to enhance the appearance of magic tricks, and that's what Blaine does.
Eh. I find him pretty fun to watch, if just a wee bit pretentious
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Daniel
Eh. I find him pretty fun to watch, if just a wee bit pretentious
.Daniel
