P1Fanatic

OK I watched a bit of his programme Vertigo on Sky One (IIRC) Sunday night and me and my housemate were gobsmacked at his tricks. Standing on a pole, living in ice etc I can understand but these tricks were mental.

1. Takes a small snake, eats it - I mean you see the head disappear, him chew then an empty mouth. Without moving it then ends up in a kids bag a few metres away.

2. Gives a homeless man a cup of coffee (open) which he then holds and turns it into coins. I mean the liquid coffee turns into coins in front of your eyes, no hand covering the top etc.

3. Putting his hand through a jewellery shop window and retrieving a watch. Glass is unbroken, cut, damaged, marked etc but you saw his hand sticking right through the glass.

4. Taking a picknicking couples empty crushed beer can, reforming it and resealing the ringpull, filling it with beer then re-opening it and getting guy to taste it - all without moving or hiding the can.

Is it really an illusion or are the participants in on the act? Im intrigued as most magic you have an idea about what they do but I have no idea how he does this stuff.

Simon.

Tiggs

did you not see the programme that revelaed the secrets of "street magic"? it was basicaly a 1hr special on how to wreck blanes reputation!

he uses camera tricks, stooges, a lot of craty editing and just cause it looks like something dont mean it is! (for example the trick he does where a card rises from the deck uses a pulley and counter balance hidden inside a fake deck!!!

having seen the show i wouldnt bother watching the bloke now- and as for standing on a pole i bet theres some of the blokes who stand duty at buck palace who like to have a go at that for some of his millions!

Tiggs

Jodster

I read somewhere that he was sent home from school at the age of five because the teachers thought he was hypnotising his classmates.

Yes, a lot of his tricks maximise the illusion that can be created by TV, like his levitation. But standing in a block of ice or being buried alive takes a great deal of skill and mind control.

[Edited by Jodster - 5/29/2002 10:04:08 AM]

NotoriousREV

Let me bury you alive and see how much skill it takes

Tiggs

ask an eskimo how hard it is to live inside a block of ice, i bet he was lovely and warm in there, his own little igloo!

i bet he was sent home from school for being a weirdo!

Tiggs

David_Wallis

LOL at N...Rev

MarkJackon

It takes a lot of skill and mind control to avoid being put in a block of ice, I hanaged this trick for a record 31 years.

P1Fanatic

U gotta love people who sat at their PC can make out that such things are so easy - until youve attempted it yourself I see no way that you can make such a comment. If it was that easy then any monkey would have done it. I have enough issues staying on my office chair on a night shift for 12 hours let alone not falling off a 150ft pole with gusting winds whilst trying to stay awake.

And there was me just thinking it was an illusion

rr_ww

P1Fanatic

This is how I think some were done. So i could be miles off

1. Classic palming trick, but do you really think it was the same snake in the kids bag. Could you tell them apart?

2. No clue, looks weird though

3. He took the womans watch off, kept it on him. Someone copies it and put it in the window. He put a sheet of newspaper up against the window and pushes his sleve up to the glass whilst his assistant reaches round (inside the shop and hidded from view) and picks it up and hides in the shop again

4. he has a tube up his sleve with beer in. He straightens the can manually, fills it with some from the tube. and I don't think he actually reseals it. Some form of device that creates a spray as if its been opened.

But half the funs trying to work out how though!

P1Fanatic

1. I doubt it was the same snake but how do you explain where the snake went in his mouth as you saw it all go in and the head protruding with the snake still alive. Unless of course he really does eat one every time he does this trick.

2. You and me both - was freaky. I thought it was going to change to coke and solid object were ice cubes but no it turned into coins.

3. Feasible - but would take a lot of coordination to get the guy insides arm matching up with Davids - what with the lady and the man watching his every move against the window.

4. I thought about the tube to fill the beer back up but what about the fact the can was crushed and he made it look like new. Also the ring pull was put back on as you saw him pull it back and open it.

Probably some very easy answers with a lot of practive. But as you say half the fun is trying to figure it all out.

whip

No 2 is straightforward. The bottom half of the cup is already filled with coins, and is merely pushed upwards. The coffee drains down into the lower portion of the cup as this happens. Notice his hand always disappears under the cup just as this starts to happen.

Whip

Jodster

What I meant by skill was the ability to control his fear of being trapped in what in essence is a coffin, with no food or water and have people staring at him through a perspex top for seven days. Reasons for doing it? Self discovery and a cool 3 million dollars.

N.REV, your wit must be the envy of all your friend.

uncle buck

there are lots of websites that reveal the secrets, but the impact he has on people is amazing....

I prefer not to know 'how it's done'

rr_ww

Quote "Unless of course he really does eat one every time he does this trick."

Given his habit of trying to kill himslef in his endurance stunts I wouldn't put it past him

Richard

NotoriousREV

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

While I agree that mental stamina is vital to these "tricks" he's performing, I don't consider them skills. The other stuff he does is skillful though.

You could sit here all day and work out how each trcik is done, but the fact is IT'S NOT MAGIC, IT'S DECEPTION, therefore there's always a method to how he does it. It doesn't make him a fake, it makes him the same as every other magician.

NotoriousREV

Anybody else watch "Secrets of Magic Finally Revealed 5"? Interesting take on the "sealed in a block of ice for 7 days" trick

boomer

Go on - spill the beans

mb

NotoriousREV

OK, well first of all, the temperature inside the block of ice was measured at 50-odd F (10C) so not freezing at all, but this wasn't the interesting part!

Apparently, every so often, they would spray the ice block with something to keep it cold (dry ice? Liquid Mitrogen?) that would create a mist around the ice block. Guess what folks? During this time, a trap door under the ice block would open and the magician would swap places with a body double. Under the ice block was a rest area with a bed, food, water and a TV so that the magician "could watch the live news broadcasts covering the trick"

The TV monitor that was apparently showing the inside of the block was in fact a looped video tape.

Now they didn't name David Blain specifically, but I can't think of any other magician who has done this trick recently

boomer

...and of course we would never see this, or at least the cameras would not get too close to show anything.

It does seem strange that the "pole" use for his pole-standing stunt was easily wide enough to contain a human body or two. I wonder whether there was a similar "mist" or maybe the lights failed temporarily, giving him time to retire to the tube and be replaced by a double?

Cheers for the info

mb

rr_ww

Whilst its interesting to know how the tricks are done. I really don't know what they've (the masked magicains) have got against Blaine. Jealousy maybe because hes made around $30M from his tricks? All these shows concentrate on him, and his performances (Levitation, Card levitating trick, *** through the coin). Maybe hes not part of their clique.

Richard

Little Miss WRX

You gotta give him that, he has made millions from it

skiddusmarkus

I can make a pint of beer disappear pretty quickly and would be prepared to do repeat performances.

subster

Am I right but I heard he had a bag fitted for the vertigo stunt then he jumped 45 feet onto cardboard boxes...UUUGGGGGHHHH