The dude did well for himself deal with it

alan

For all the haters out there, I just have to say, there is no reason to hate him, just none of us were smart enough to do what he does, man I wish I could make 4 million a year off of no more then $200.00 dollars worth of tricks, like come on.

One thing about the levitation is you don't really know it is a camera effect, because there is an effect coming out for a street levi exactly like his, so he could of gotten the creator to let him use it, I'm not saying I'm right but you never know, just because people say that stuff, doesn't mean it's true,

I just don't see why there's haters and how he talks is just style, to me, he seems more like a miracle worker walking around. But hey what can I say, I'm just a magician. Remember what I said though.
Thank you and God bless

MagicPro,
You are absolutely correct.

I think a lot of people that hate him are actually resentful or jealous. I was watching a Stand-up Comedy competition where one of the comedians said a joke that seemed so obvious (Basically that surfing was the only sport that involves wild animals, namely sharks. It's like playing football and a Gorilla rushes out when the quarterback drops back to pass) Well one of the judges, who himself was a pro comic, was beside himself but was honest enough to say "****** why couldn't I think of that"
Well my point is DB probably makes a lot of magicians do the same thing. A true performer makes it look easy and effortless.

I had the same thought about his levitation. Copperfield, Burton etc. all have proprietary effects/illusions that are their private stock which they developed esspecially for ceratain shows and/or TV specials, why couldn't DB's levitation be like that. What if he developed with the money that ABC put up for pre-production, an effect for the special he was producing? I don't think that such a thing is so preposterous.

Creators of such effects like the Wild, Zero G, Elevator, Retro Gravity, etc. have been able to come up with these outstanding effects through ingenuity and tinkering/experimenting on their own. imagine if they had a couple hundred thousand and a professional production crew to play around with!

Just because you can't buy it, doesn't mean it doesn't possibly exsist.

It's funny that an Exposé show used to kill the ratings of a competing stations special is given any credance at all. Egos are funny things, and it is amazing that to seem knowledgeable or in the know, sometimes people resort to bending the truth. What somebody sees on a TV Exposé show for instance can magically turn into what someone's-"Friend who was part of the film crew" etc. said. If I had a nickle for everytime I have seen the above posted on various forums I have been to, I would be as rich as Dave.

By the way, I am not a DB groupie, nor do I idolize him in any way, but I just thought he deserved a little of the respect and courtesy that other magicians such as Penn & Teller, Copperfield and Burton would be and have been afforded

Oh well.
Cheers.
-Jeff
:patty:

David Blaine took simple tricks, and but a good act to them, therefore making them personal and interesting, he made a lot of money!! If you like him or not is not the question!! The question is, is it him or the stupid people mimicking him you hate?

A post somewhere in the forum pointed out that in the video where DB levitates, when the camera is filming the spectator, one of 'em got a bracelet and when the camera is in the back of this spectator, we don't see the bracelet but it should be there. I didn't look but I will when I get the time.

I don't get why there are so many Blaine haters either. I mean-so what if he uses gimmicks, so what if he has a crane lifting him in his levitation, if he didn't have that stuff-the magic he does would not be possible. It's what the spectators believe that makes the trick, not you knowing that you are using a gimmick. (I hope I am making sense)

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there are a lot more Blaine-defenders than there are Blaine-haters. Whenever someone starts a topic like this, there seem to be two kinds of responses, either "I love Blaine, he got me interested in magic" or "He's not my kind of thing, but I respect his showmanship." Very rarely do I see any Blaine bashing. Where are these people?

Here wo go, when I first saw DB on Oprah a while before the Street Magic special I thought, gee, here is a guy doing an ambitious routine then an Invisable deck, and a few other easy tricks...that I have been doing for many years. How did he get the attention of Oprah? Three words, Leonardo De Caprio. Goes to prove the old addage it is WHO not WHAT you know. Any way I am probably 10 times more happy being the "only slightly famous magician from a little town in Maryland" Final thought on DB-----

1) magician--mediocre
2) self promoter -- Great
3) position in life not knowing Leo-- just like the rest of us

jeff

David Blaine had a vision. He hired a camera crew. He planned his presentation. He went to where he had to go. He consulted with Paul Harris, who he didn’t know before, so he could plan his persona and one of his appearances.

He might have been lucky. He might have been in the right place at the right time. He might have known someone, but he also did the leg work necessary to become famous.

I have seen some of his close-up. I would call him a pretty good magician. He is not a world class sleight artist such as Michael Ammar, or any of the other F.I.S.M. championship winners. But he’s a pretty capable performer.

There is a bottom line in magic. Dai Vernon recognized it clearly. The effect is what matters. To the public nothing else matters.

If a magician astonishes an audience by vanishing a handkerchief, and another magician astonishes the same audience by performing complicated sleights, who is the better magician? We as magicians might have one opinion, but the audience might feel differently. Generally speaking, the public are better than most of us at deciding who the best magician is. They generally don’t know the secrets. Their perception is not tainted.

I see no difference in using film-editing, the television media, stooges, or any other method for gaining an effect. There is no cheating in magic, or rather; magic is all about cheating perceptions! I frankly don’t know if David Blaine is brilliant, lucky or both, but I do know he astonishes his audiences.

As far as his stunts go, just because he is a magician, doesn’t mean he should be restricted to only doing magic. The stunts do not detract from the magic in any way. These endurance tests are actually quite similar to what Harry Houdini did by letting someone punch him as hard as they could in the stomach.

Building the myth of David Blaine’s power is part of his act. It is the effect that matters (have I mentioned that enough?).

I do not see any reason to dislike David Blaine.

very well spoken.

two thumbs up

DB has done as much damage to the art of magic as DC has. NOT!!!

During the height of David Copperfield's popularity he spawned numerous clones wearing black pants and white shirts. Is this his fault? NO. Nor is it David Blaines.

Lots of folks should go back and edit their posts. This thread is adding fuel to the fire talking about methods and secrets.

Shawn

I have been following these DB threads for some time. I have watched his specials and to be quite honest I was not entertained. This is just a matter of personal taste issues not issues with his skill. I can't understand why when someone says they don't like Blaine someone always responds along the lines of "because you're jealous".

People can just not enjoy his work and have the right to say so with out being told they dislike him only because of their short comings. This only spawns defensive arguments about who has better skills and whether Batman would beat Superman in a fight.

If the Blaine loving minions would like to see less people complaining about Blaine here are a few guidleines.

1. Stop responding to negative posts with "Because you suck"

2. Try being yourself when you perform. Blaine would probably want it that way.

3. Realize that Blaine's has not come up with any effects/Sleights of his own. Only the handling is his. In other words there is no such thing as "Blaines's Double lift".

As for the Blaine Pundits remember that there are always waves of people getting into magic for one reason or another. Some stay and some don't. The ones who stay will learn about Vernon, Marlo and all the other greats.

Just my 2 cents

Dave

Greetings...

I posted this question to one of the (too many) previous threads about DB:

If some TV person called you one day and offered you the opportunity to do a TV special for PHAT money, but they wanted the show "jazzed up" and would used whatever means necessary to do that, including stooges and camera tricks, honestly now-- would you say no???

Why would you say no? To uphold the purity of our art form (you've got your principals) ? Or because you don't think you're good enough for TV? If you knew they'd shoot as many takes as needed to get it right, it would be REAL hard to say no, wouldn't it?

Joe

David Blaine went into a box for 44 days suspended over water without food and water. What is magical about that? As far as I see it, nothing.

That is because David Blaine is not just a magician, he is a showman. Any good business knows it needs to diversify to stay competitive and that is what DB is doing, he is diversifying.

Diversifying? No, he's floundering. I'm a Blaine fan and even I can't go for this stunt.

He has you talking about it—welcome to the magic of self promotion. That IS a vital part of the entertainment game. It's not what I would choose to do (I think it's kind of silly personally, maybe I'm just too big a fan of eating and bathing, so I leave the 44 day hunger strikes to the Ghandis of the world) but I'm sure you saw some of the "exciting and entertaining" footage of him in his box. How much footage is there of you or I that has been on network TV lately? Answer that and that's why he did it.

On a side note, if he REALLY wanted to do this for some "deep spiritual journey" what's the camera crew for?

Having spent some months being an avowed anti-Blaineian, I somehow found myself overcome with curiosity about his book.

Now reading it, I have a slightly different view of him and what he's up to.

I agree with all those who have said that he has brought close-up magic into a more familiar realm for the lay public, and I sense an increased tolerance, if not interest, in strolling magic from my audiences.

By the way, I have found it interesting that when I didn't like him, my wife (an outsider) loved his stuff and would be talking about some of his effects days after watching the TV shows. Now that my opinion is evolving, she has grown tired of the shenanigans.

Funny, the Yin-Yang...

Good day Blaine-haters, Blaine-defenders, and the rest of us who kind of laugh at you (no offense...well, a little).

I don't mean to anger people, but it's kind of funny if you look at both sides of the spectrum. I am neither a Blaine-hater or a Blain-defender, but I wish for the facts to be clear to people, along with an honest opinion or two.

Some have said that Blaine is wrong for using camera tricks. From the magician perspective, a few of us purists would agree with that idea. Mark Wilson set a standard of not using camera tricks and it continued, but many magicians do use such things. Is it wrong? It's for you to decide. But remember that one of magic's original TV selling points is that no TV trickery is used. Whether you think that is acceptable or not, it's up to you.

For those who say that Blaine opened up a "whole-new form of magic" is sorely mistaken. Strolling magic has been around for years and there are so many greats, naming them would take too long. But if you mean his style, the "everyday guy doing magic," has also been around for quite some time. If you mean his "shocking magic," again you are mistaken for that is on the shoulders of men like Andruzzi, Raven, etc. And for those who say, "Well, he's got publicity like no other," it's also not true, Houdini did many of the same things. And Blaine is a modern-day Houdini, but for those who may not know, Houdini was not the greatest magician! He was a promotion artist. Blackstone was said to be far greater in ability than Houdini but his ability for promotion overshadowed skill. As is the case here, plain and simple. This argument is over 80 years old, ladies and gentlemen.

I personally have two issues with Blaine, but I also have two things I'm pleased with:

Issue One: The creation of all of the Blaine wannabes out there. I don't enjoy Blaine's lethargic attitude towards magic, making people think that an "ordinary person" has to be without a decent story, or a fair-sized vocabulary. It makes young magicians lazy, thinking that the ability to think is overrated.

Praise One: He's brought a spark into magic that was starting to dim slightly. Can't deny that. His ability to promote is much like Houdini's and Copperfield's and he should be praised for it.

Issue Two: He shouldn't be going to some remote tribe in Africa and showing them card tricks for one of his specials. Magick is sacred to them and he toyed with it like they were fools. It was quite unsettling and rude in my opinion.

Praise Two: He's a laugh riot! He stood on top of a pole for three days...STOOD there and people watched him like he was Jesus. And then his big finish was jumping into a bunch of boxes! I love it because he brought people in. The clear box thing was clever and I wouldn't be suprised if some of the people who attacked his box weren't set up by him to keep interest because that's what did it while he was in there. We shouldn't be vexing him or honoring him, we should be laughing WITH him, because he is in on this.

He's a promotional artist and whether you love him or hate him or see the different sides and get the joke, by talking about him we're doing exactly what he strives to do: create controversy. Remember: "It doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they spell your name right."

That's my two cents,
Malak

The only reason I got back into magic is BECAUSE of Blaine. While I knew that his stuff was over-the-counter old school stuff, I found his style VERY, VERY effective. Isn't that the whole idea, to "freak people out" to make them think that odd things are possible?

I'm so sick and tired of seeing the guy in a top hat and tux, doing ring magic and dove work...while some people are somewhat amused by it as I, it gets really old fast, (like 20 years ago old).

Blaine's entertainment value is fresh (trick old, performance fresh), and the facts that he's done well proves that he's doing something right. Way more effective than the guys up on stage who do their stuff to a timed soundtrack because you didn't see Blaine coming!

The normal-guy routine is the direction I hope magicians take. It's the best way because it has more value to me as an observer to see a regular guy like me, doing the impossible. That's why Superman only worked so well where Batman you could identify with, he was human, he could get hurt.

Blaine is our modern day Batman of "effect" and it has "effected" many.

BTW I've started up a class learning traditional magic at the Magic Castle, but at some point, I'll try to change these ideas into something less showy, and more real world.