Crazyman's handcuff as performed by DC and also Misled. Gee, small tricks have very high impact.

David Blaine's performance of:

- The 2 Card Monte
- Ambitious Card

Those two blew me away as it was the first time I had seen them!!!

It's what got me into Professional Magician's Routines.

First to come to my mind is David Blaine's raven trick. But since it's on TV, after being amazed, I thought that it may be out of some editing or stooging (at that time I didn't know the method). It largely weakened the effect. But he's the one who made me start learning this art seriously (and that trick is one of my favorite), even though later I learned there're so many magicians much better than him in terms of creativity and sleights of hand.

But the flying by David Copperfield, as many of you mentioned, is really a miracle for me. Not the method (I don't know how exactly he did it, but I prefer not to know) , but the story/plot, music, etc..., just perfect.

A nice thread.

I remember loving the trick Paul Daniels did on the F1 track where he tries to escape from the box - I almost had an accident when the car hit the crate!

David Copperfield's Flying illusion , The Death saw and when he makes the Learjet vanish. Awesome magician and incredible illusions.

I remember an illusion that Lance Burton would perform on various occasions--he would take this girl into a restaurant on stage, then some fellow in a skeleton mask would swordfight Lance, toss him on a table and make him disappear in a puff of smoke. Then he'd unveil himself, and it was Lance Burton! I saw it when I was fairly young, and I was completely gobsmacked--easily one of my favorite illusions.

David Blaines 2 Card Monte, Coin Bite

I saw that Lance Burton swordfight, that was pretty cool. Though I like most things he does because he's entertaining. David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear was neat. I may get slapped for this, but a lot of Penn and Teller tricks are pretty amazing to me.

When I was Little Mis-Made was amazing. When Doug Henning did it on the Muppet Show I was very disturbed.

Criss Angel-where the coin moved in the arm then came out.

When I was a kid (9 years old going on 10) I had to figure that out when I saw it performed by Mark Wilson. that's what got me started in magic.

Paul Daniels chop cup routine.. done at speed.

Howard

Seeing Hillary Clinton get elected as a Senator from New York!

Cheers!

:lol:

Second only to that was the first time I saw Topsy Tervy performed by Bill Bixby on The Magician.

Paul Daniels, too, but his cups and ball routine, amazing.

Doug Henning performing the Vanishing Nickel and on some local cable access show or something, Paul Harris performing 'Linking Cards'(not sure of the name). I used to have the manuscript and probably still do, I just can't find it.

Rene Lavand's "I can't do it any slower" and Teller's effect where he clips the petals off the rose's shadow and the real petals fall from the rose.

For me it was David Copperfield's Flying. It still gives me chills every time I see it.

Mike

Peter marvey's manipulation routine on worlds greatest magic 3. This is what inspired me to do magic and after seeing the routine I bet Jeff McBride's art of card manipulation. Several years later, I'm a part time magician.

Having a general working knowledge of magic since age 8, most magic I have seen on TV was very easy to explain and perform. Anything with a box was non-magical to me. Cards, coins and rope were very passe to me. I would watch each special and easily be able to figure out how they did it. That was until I saw Copperfields "Laser". Without post production video trickery, I had finally been fooled. For those of you unfamiliar with this effect performed on Tornado of Fire special in 2001, I have a video of it HERE.

What a great illusion and NO BOX!!

BTW, some of my methods for what I saw on TV from years past were actually wrong when I finally got the "low down" on some illusions. My methods were actually very "complicated" (but they worked) when in reality they were really quite simple.