In one of Blaine's specials, Magic Man I believe, Blaine would go up to (supposedly) random people and ask them to think of someone who is important to them. He would then burn his clothes or something, and the name or picture of that person was there on his skin. I know how the taxi cab stunt was done, but what about these other things?

All the dirty work has been done ahead of time with a couple of supposedly random people. I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about

Yeah, let all be enlightened to the fact that TV magic is far from the magic we perform in "real time" in the "real streets." its a whole other ball game...

we live in a time where anything goes..."trick" cameras are considered magic...

BUT, don't get the Baba wrong, I respect Blaine and his interpretation of the ancient craft, but that's a whole other thread...

Baba

If you are asking how he actually made the name appear in ashes, there are special pens you can buy from magic shops that make this possible. As for getting the names, he just used a C*nt*r T**r off camera

I have to agree with Baba. Blaine used the medium he was performing in as a gimmick to entertain the home audience. People forget that Blaine didn't always have that luxury and spent a lot of time performing in the trenches.

Can you be more specific on those pens? Do they have a name, and what specific shop carries them?

Just use a chunk of soap. wet it a little than write it on ur arm.

I've done the soap method before, but I never realized there was a pen specially made to do the job.

I only know the soap method. Never heard of a special pen for this.

ITs called an "ash pen."

It used to be sold at ellusionist. Im pretty sure it still is.

google it.

Soap, transparent lipstick and candle wax do the job. The pen only exist, because someone decided he could make a few bucks with that, knowing, that magicians would prefer the expensive pen over cheap alternatives.

Chapstick works great for this. To perform this you don't even need to use a CT. Just pick the peoples brains for a bit and you will find out info that they will write down.

Now I see! Thanks!

Actually for the name tricks, I don't think he knew the poeple and it was justa tv trick, all they did was cut out a bit of stuff, he used the method of getting someone to right in the centre of the page, and then he some how told them they did it wrong, and he rips up the paper, but he keeps the corner of the folded paper,this part has the name, he goes away while they write the name again, and while they are doing that he uses something to write on his arm, they rest is what you see on the show

Stooges, and camera editing. I am not a blaine fan at all.

One simple word-stooges.

David Blaine would ask the person the name of someone. Once the spectator thinks of the name because that person is so important a higher energy field is created by the spectator. David Blaine is able to absorb this energy via a thinner than usual part of his skull, thanks to an accidental fall he had whilst visiting his grandmothers grave as a child resulting in a concusion. Oddly David is not always able to voice the name of the individual but what does happen is the brain, in need of an outlet and not finding a traditional one, alters the cells in Blaines arm. This is simular to goosebumps but subconcious knowledge of how to spell the name works with the unexpressed energy as absorbed causing selective goose bumps to develope. This is refered to in research as Subliminal Selective Processing, not to be confused with Concious Selective Processing as is done by some. Either way you then have these slightly elevated cells, or goose bumps, and when the ashes are applied the elevated bumps naturally pick up the majority of the ash in passing causing the appearance of a shadow effect look and the name can be read. There are methods to reproduce this effect using manipulative methodology as these other street magicians are expressing but whilst their approach is like a green screen in a move, giving us only the appearance of the activity, David Blaine, coming from an ancenstory steep in the powers of other dimensions, does it using actual methods not those perceived and delivered. I hope that makes it clear. I suggest unless you have the ability to absorb the energy you consider one of these common methods.
Steve V

The ASh pen. I was about to order this a while ago but got turned off by a crapload of bad reviews...stick to chapstick.

If you watch the taxi cab mind reading, when David Blaine says "Dawn" The guy with the lady responds like how did he know that. But the lady never said the name during the scene so how did the guy also know what the name was. Just a reinforcer of scenes being chopped up but I like David Blaine more than any other Tv magician and had inspired me to get into magic.

I dunno bout these ash pens - never used one, BUT what works great is some soap and a moistened Q-tip