Hi,

Recantly I watched David Blaines magic man again- what struck me was the stuff he performed was very different to what is sold commercially today- does anyone know what the kind of magic he used is called, or where I can find more of it?

I believe it's being called 'street magic'.

Some of the the things Blaine used were commercial props but quite a few of his tricks were taken from media sources such as books or possibly videos.

The stuff is out there, you just have to look.

Devplus, the magic that David uses is the same that everyone else uses. The biggest diffrence from what you may have seen other do is simply presentation. There are few if any of the things that David has done on TV that you couldn't find and use in your own performances.

Vandy

Im a begginer to magic and the first trick I bought was the Invisible Deck or Ultra Mental Deck. It is a good effect and was used by Blaine on national t. v. If you are intrested in cards this is a trick to buy. The Effect is (if you don't know already) you take out two decks. One if the decks is real and the other is "invisible." You hand them the invisible deck and ask them to shuffles and pick a card. Tell them to say the card out loud and put it in your real deck. You fan out the cards and the card they named is face down. With practice it's a killer.
Good Luck,

John

I'm not sure if the post refering it to street magic was correct !
Its just close-up or bar magic without a bar.
As everyone has said - its just standard stuff.

Exactly Eddie,

Devplus, unfortunately Blaine's stuff IS very commercial - the tricks he uses had a resurgence after his shows were aired. It is easy to buy an ID, raven, bite-out coin etc - infortunately many places online advertise these effects to laymen as a result of Blaine's success.

So, as mentioned, it is simply close up magic. Many people here will recommend avoiding the effects Blaine uses, however, to avoid becoming a Blaine clone. Find what you like, and adopt the presentation to suit you.

Simon

I posted about this elsewhere on the Café. I remember about 10 years ago everyone would have pictured a street busker magician when the term "Street magic" was used. Modern street magic is just close up magic. It's called "Street magic" now because the TV specials where titled Street magic and many of the tricks where performed on the street. Why? Because that's where they found people to perform for. They could make another TV special on "Coffee house" magic and if it's successful we'd have a new branch of Coffee House magicians.

This doesn't just happen in magic. People always catch on to new things and title themselves after others who are successful. A rock musician could be inspired by country performer and suddenly call themselves a country singer. Even though their music doesn't change. It's an image and a title that makes them feel they belong to something new. Even I remember a time when I tried to dress like David Copperfeild, but I didn't call myself anything other then a magician.

I agree with sjdavison when he said, "Unfortunately Blaine's stuff IS very commercial." Not that I have anything against Blaine. What I don't care for is how many are trying to be a carbon copy of him. I don't care if someone calls themselves a street magician or not either. It's just kind of strange to me because I've been in it before people started calling themselves that and everyone one I see that are calling themselves a street magician are pretty much performing the same things. Not just the same tricks but the same patter and presentation. Because it is so commercial and readily available there are many who are out there performing and getting some small success with it but they are limited because they are doing it like Blaine did. Sometimes word for word. In other words some are skipping the most important lessons in being an entertainer. Things that can only be learned from experience. As a result things go wrong and they don't have as many options to get out of the situation.

Before I get attached here. I'm not talking about anyone in particular here. It's just an observation I see and with me living right by Abbotts magic and meeting hundreds of magician every year. This is something I've seen and I hope will improve.

Ron Jaxon

One of the big attractions to Blaine's tricks is that they appear to be impromptu and from an average guy.

A lot of David Blaines effects/routines can be found easily as commercial tricks that can be performed by anoyone.

Which effects were you referring to.

I could point you in the right direction.

YOu could try http://www.ellusionsit.com, they have a lot of 'blainite' stuff. As for the man himself, some of his stunts I don't care, and whilst he has rekindled an interest in magic, I believe it may be detrimental. However you have got to hand it to him for coming up with a very good presentation for often simple tricks, such as the card on the inside of a window trick.