Ok ill put it bluntly NONE of the tricks he does is his own BUT he dosent call him self a magician hes a PREFORMER, The thing with david blaine is the way he presents himself! magic isn't just the trick its the preformance too




kas

I don´t like Blaine. Even i don´t like how he perfoms the effects.

But i dislike most three things about "Blaine´s World". The firs is all of these new webpages, that teach you that in two-three days, just learning a few mini videos, you will become as Blaine... you will become a magician. And of course... if you do a trick with money... maybe the spectator tell you to keep the money. Woooo, it´s great!!! (Totally ironic).

Magic is an art, and as an art must be performed.

The second thing i hate is hearing Mr Blaine talking with Di Caprio, and discrediting the stage magic "with his boxes and so on". Hey man, i perform card magic now, among others, but i could swear to you the spectacle that for example David Copperfield, Lance Burton, Pendragons and so on, give to them spectators, Mr Blaine could not give them though he was dreaming. I don´t saying that one magic is better than the other (though for me of course is more magical Copperfield than Blaine), i only say that Blaine could not appear in television criticizing stage magic. Why he does? Because he will never could do stage magic well?

And the third thing i dislike a lot, is to fool people. But not to fool people with magic, i mean fool people, with people on the street, that they are actors, not real people. I mean fool people with a levitation, that is a camera trick, i mean fool people, not with magic. And we do magic, not fool people.

Of course, it depends on what you like. Mr. Blaine has good things for me too, just a few, but he has.

And i agree that most of us, do not do original tricks of ourselves. But i think that at least the famous magicians, must do original tricks. And Blaine is a famouse magician, isn´t it? And did he performed original tricks? Did he performed original presentation, original character?

Don´t you have a magician in your magical circle in your city that performed as a guru, a mysthic, years before Blaine appears? Here in Spain we have.

So what´s the original in Mr Blaine characther, magic, and so on? I could not find anything. Maybe others could. Any idea?

All the best magic,

Pablo Tejero

P.S. Of course i didn´t pretend to offend anyone of you, even i didn´t pretend to offend Mr Blaine too. Just telling you my opinion. Hope you understand it. Regards.

I'm inclined to think it's his character - promoting a side of magic unknown to the public, Street Magic! Because to many people, magic just involves pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Do you think really what Blaine does is street magic?

I don´t think so. He does magic, but not street magic. He does card magic (two card montes, triumpsh, cards in the mouth and so on), restaurant magic (breaking the glass, the healed and sealed soda)... and so on. But street magic?

Why? Because he perform his magic on street? David Copperfiel make a jumbo and a train dispearing on the streets too, not in a theatre, or the Liberty Statue... that´s street magic?

Just asking.

All the best magic,

Pablo Tejero

I think Blaine does perform "street" magic in as much as he will go up to strangers on the street who were not expecting to see a magic trick (often times chasing them down in the process). Ithink the definition of street magic is magic performed in an impromptu session in a non-traditional setting. Do I like Blaine as a performer? Not really. I am not a fan of his presentation (the monotone delivery, and all the "watch, watch, watch" drives me up a tree). He does not do original tricks, but does present them in a different way (eg . the stolen watch through the window is merely the throught the picture frame illusion). I do credit him (good or bad) for getting a whole new generation of younger people interested in magic.

The reason he was criticizing stage magic is that it's not in your face, up close and personal. It's amazing, yes, but the audience doesn't feel THEY were affected. Personally I don't find stage magic impressive for this reason. I like participating. I think that's all that he meant, not that his was better, only more hands-on.

I must say that Stage magic is more to enjoy a crowd and therefore more suitable for it.

Close up is more personal related and more emotions are drawn upon a single person (or a minor crowd)- it's also more closer viewed by the spectator(s).

I think that BOTH are as good but it depends on the magician and the taste of the person who is watching.

the ones where he gets paid big bucks and lots of publicity.

Ellen says: "Well, I'm definitely not in love with him (Blaine) but his "character" has gotten him on national tv/"

Hmmm, well, I'm not in LOVE with Charles Manson, either, but his character has got him on national TV, too.

That's HARDLY a standard to judge someone by!

On a TV-Show, David Blaine pulled his heart out, you could see his skin when he dig inside the stomach. Real fun.

Did he invent this trick?

Of course not. This kind of trick, more or less is use to fool people, by psyquist doctors that solve health problems just with their hands.

And about if stage magic is less personal than close up magic and so on. Well, i don´t think that say everytime "hey you... watch" it is personal magic. When i see Blaine performing his "close up" magic, i remember myself doing magic for my friends, not doing a real close up magic sesion or stage sesion.

Of course, it depends in what you like. But i know a lot of people not magical, who think is more magical, more killer see for example David Copperfield on a stage, than one magician doing them a two card monte on their faces.

But as always... that´s just my opinion

All the best magic,

Pablo Tejero

Hey, limhanchung,

Q: You asked "which Blaine trick is original"?

A: Please, don't make me laugh when my lips are chapped.

Seriously, David Blaine is a "good" performer with his own personality. He is not my cup of tea, but he has his own schtick and he seems to entertain those for whom he performs.

Like many magicians, as I see him perform, I am saying to myself: "I know how he did that; I can do that; I've done the same thing to others for years, etc., etc., etc."

Sure he uses "old chestnuts" and known (to magicians) gaffs. Might there just be a little bit of jealousy and envy amoung magicians because he has national exposure and is making big bucks...and I can do the same thing..So, why aren't I famous and making money?

I don't begrudge David any of his wealth and fame. He worked to get to where he is....and he hasn't exposed magic (to the layman) in his rise to fame. Rather, he has exposed magicians to the fact that he can do "dumb tricks", use little or no originality, do these tricks entertainingly well (from a layman's point of view) and make money and have fame at the same time.

Originality? He never claimed originality. Basically, he takes "off the shelf" magic gimmicks and gaffs and performs them well enough for an appreciative lay audience.

As I said at the beginning, I don't like his presentation (it's not "me") but I certainly don't begrudge him for his presentation and "being able to pull it off".

Turk

I think this thread you should be locked now as we all know and should now understand that Mr. Blaine is not original but he may be a disputed good, great, or average performer. What i say is good luck to him.

Well, this is not going to be a good first post for me.I'm an old man who is just getting in to magic. I have been a musician most of my life. I see a lot of parrallels with magic. Here is an unfortunate one.

Here is an old gutarist joke.

Q: How many gutarists does it take to play a solo?
A: All of them. One to play it and the rest to say "Ah, it's O.K. but I could have done it better".

Same thing here. This guy obviously tapped into something no one else was doing at the time. He had the drive it took to get a T.V. contract and then showed a lot of people a side of magic they hadn't seen before. Is he the best? The most original? Nope! Nor does he claim to be. He put it out there for the T.V. audience and they have responded. The real question all of you should be asking is "what is he doing that I'm not that is connecting with such a large amount of people?"

As fellow "magicians" or "performers" you should be very thankful that guys like David Blaine and Chris Angel have found a way to present magic to a younger, hipper crowd. Not to mention inspire a lot of new people tobecome interested in your art form.

Maybe the one thing that they have figured out is it is better to impress the lay....people (for lack of a better term) than a bunch of fellow magicians. They out number you greatly.

Don't canibilize your peers.

Sorry for the rant but I just find this thread very ugly.

> do these tricks entertainingly well (from a layman's point of view)

In my opinion, the "layman's" point of view is the only one that matters!

///ark