David Blain

[Shift]

Now I just recently saw a video of David Blain's stunt of being frozen in ice for 3 days, basically where he stood in a icecube, without food. It also shows him roaming the streets of New York pulling off all these magic tricks.

Now some of them he explains, but then again some of them really did baffle me and leave me speechless to how he did them. For example, he was in a basketball court with the team, he asked one of the players to pick a card from the deck, and show everyone but Blain obviously, then reshuffle them back in the deck. Blain then spilled all cards through the air over four basket balls on the floor next to the group, these hadn't been touched at all, just the cards fell over them. He then took one of them and asked one of the players to puncture it, and feel inside to which it was the card that he picked.

Thats just one of the tricks though, he does things like actually reading you mind because sometimes there is never any other explanation to how knows the card you pick. There was one where he melted a nickle from a strangers pocket using the coffee he was drinking as if it was acid, reincarnating a dead bird and a dead ant, pulling a snake out of a strangers cap and telling one dude to pick a card, shuffle it like crazy, and instead of pulling out the right card, he somehow had that exact card implanted on his right shoulder, like properly tatooed on, he even went to some random homeless guy who said he wanted to win the lottery, told him to go and pick any three lucky dips, he did, Blain picked the one he should go for, the guy scratched it and won something like 10,000 dollers.

The most insane one was he went over to a couple next to this shop display at night, he did a small card trick on them, and someone how, by the end of it, he pretended to do a mistake by somehow taking her watch off her wrist without knowing and some making it appear within that display, and THEN, for the encore, he takes a piece newspaper off the floor, spreads it across the window, and reaches inside the display and gets the watch back, and gives it to her. It was like he creates a invisible hole it that window. The couple were left gob smacked.

Not to mention that he defies human limits like with his seven days without in a close coffin, the 3 days in a frozen envoiroment, standing perfectly still without food, standing on a small vertical piller suspended way up in the air for 3 days without any saftey before plunging into a stack boxes at the bottom for the encore and obviously his latest, fasting for 40 days and night in a glass box in London.

I have never believed magicians and always ridiculued them, but when it comes to Blain, I just cant find any explanation to a lot of the tricks he pulls off.

 

[StardogChampion]

Some of them aren't even proper tricks, they're just bullshit. He'll film different parts at different times of the day and with different people wearing the same clothes etc etc.

http://www.goodtricks.net/frameset6.html

http://www.goodtricks.net/david-blaine-street-magic-tricks.html

 

[Shift]

Ah cool, impressive how he does them though I must say.

 

[Lucid]

And the fact that you're watching them in a video that could've been very easily doctored.

 

[Dog--]

Another cool one was when he told someone to think of a number between 1 and 10, they picked 7, and (it was night) on one of the buildings in the backround, the lights for the rooms made a "7".

It's hard to explain but it was cool.

And then theres the one where someone picked a card, and he chucked the deck at a window, and the card the person picked was on the other side.


EDIT: It's not about how fake it is, it's about how entertained you are, and it's entertaining. That's what magic is, just entertainment, nothing else.

 

[AntiAnto]

And then theres the one where someone picked a card, and he chucked the deck at a window, and the card the person picked was on the other side.

http://www.goodtricks.net/cardwindow.html

 

[Shift]

Indeed, he is there to entertain people, and I love watching his tricks. I mean even the most insane ones have an explanation but they are still very cool.

 

[AKIRA]

no on is as big as a fake as criss angel. Almost all of the shit he performs has GOT to be some sort of trick..like for example:

There was a trick where he was going to crawl through a window without breaking it or anything. He then proceeds inside the building and locks the door. You can even see him inside the building through the window.

He then tells the volunteer to put newspaper all over the entire window so you cannot see him anymore (keep in mind there's another "volunteer" inside the building with criss angel the whole time to "verify" that he's not being cheap". He then proceeds to crawl through the glass, and alas the window hasn't been harmed.

If he's genuine, why the hell did he need the window to be covered with newspaper in the first place? If he's even willing to allow a person off the street to stand INSIDE the building with him while he's doing it, WHY not share with the rest of the crowd?

answer: fake.

 

[Dog--]

I still watch his show sometimes, though.

Some of the stuff Criss Angel does is cool, like when he was dragged by the ATV, and escaped the (handcuffs, or straight jacket? can't remember) thing, while being dragged.

The tricks are obviously fake (magic does not exist...), but the stunts they do are mostly real. (I think)

 

[xcellerate]

For example, he was in a basketball court with the team, he asked one of the players to pick a card from the deck, and show everyone but Blain obviously, then reshuffle them back in the deck. Blain then spilled all cards through the air over four basket balls on the floor next to the group, these hadn't been touched at all, just the cards fell over them. He then took one of them and asked one of the players to puncture it, and feel inside to which it was the card that he picked.

I can do this trick also. It's called put a card in a basketball before the trick, and then have a 'random person' draw the same card that's in the basketball. It takes no skill, except maybe for some minor basketball patching.

Criss Angel ****ing pisses the ****ing **** outta me, I ****ing swear to **** how the **** does somebody that is as huge of a ****ing ****** as Criss Angel get a ****ing TV show. **** HIM, seriously, I ****ING HATE CRISS ANGEL.

My favorite criss angel trick is where he had a dude pick a card and show the audience that was a deck of cards.

Then the camera cuts, so it doesn't matter what the **** he showed us since they could have replace the deck of cards with a bowl of fruit (clearly we would notice, but they still could have done it).

So then he draws a card and signs it and puts it back in the deck.

of course he's signing it to prove that it's really his card and not some double or extra card criss angel pulled. However, since the camera cuts are everywhere, they could have had him sign every card in the deck and then later edit him signing that one at the end.
or
They could have just gotten 52 of the exact same card and have him sign every one of them. It doesn't matter because there's another ****ing camera cut!

Then he puts the signed card back in the deck in a random place.

but the camera cut away, so criss angel could have put the card anywhere he wanted too

Basically criss angel is going to drive past this guy holding the deck of cards, and the guy is going to throw the card at criss and criss is going to pick his card out of the air...

Then he does that and PICKS his card out of the air.

Of course since there was so many camera cuts, he could have just palmed the card, or he could have just caught some random card and they later edit him in holding the correct card.

If you watch the trick, you can actually see that he had the card in his hand the whole time because when he 'grabs' the card, there was no card near his hand, and the card sorta 'pops' outta nowhere. Even on youtube you can see the gayness in low quality.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlHceySWgMw[/youtube]

It boggles my mind that this ****ing queer has a ****ing TV show and probably makes in every shitty episode what I do in a year.




------------------------------------------


but with that said, I haven't seen david blain in a very long time, and if he's who I remember him being his tricks were just as explainable and relied on the audience to believe there was NO setup and the people truly are random. Which I don't believe either.

If there's people involved and/or there's a location, then everything is in on it. Have you ever tried to do a card trick in front of people? It never works out like it does on film. It always goes something like this:

me: Pick a card.
them: Let me have the deck and I'll draw one myself.
me: ...ok...

*i give them the deck, they pick a card, and I get the deck back*

me: Alright, now put the card back in the deck.
them: You give me the deck and I'll put the card back in.

*If you give them the deck they open it up looking at the face side, to make sure all the cards are out of order, then they put the card in, then they square the deck off, then give it back to you*

me: alright, now I'm going to shuffle it.
them: woa woa woa woa woa...give me the deck, I'll shuffle it.

*at this point, I normally give them the deck and tell them to have fun doing the trick themselves*

 

[Dog--]

lol, that's funny.

 

[Polaris]

He is great illusionist, he even (probably) have reference in Half-Life 2.

 

[Fliko]

no on is as big as a fake as criss angel. Almost all of the shit he performs has GOT to be some sort of trick..like for example:

There was a trick where he was going to crawl through a window without breaking it or anything. He then proceeds inside the building and locks the door. You can even see him inside the building through the window.

He then tells the volunteer to put newspaper all over the entire window so you cannot see him anymore (keep in mind there's another "volunteer" inside the building with criss angel the whole time to "verify" that he's not being cheap". He then proceeds to crawl through the glass, and alas the window hasn't been harmed.

If he's genuine, why the hell did he need the window to be covered with newspaper in the first place? If he's even willing to allow a person off the street to stand INSIDE the building with him while he's doing it, WHY not share with the rest of the crowd?

answer: fake.

Rofl, it's part of where he got the trick from.

He got the trick from a little square thing glass plastic thing, where you stick cards in the front and the back and you can stick a pencil through the glass, and then when you take the cards out there is still the solid piece of glass there.


I find it REALLY funny that people always are like "OMG HE'S USING SLEIGHT OF HAND! OMG THE TRICK ISN'T REAL".
No ****ing shit, its called a magic trick, no matter who does it, you'll still see the same sleight of hand, it's how they perform it.

 

[xcellerate]

I find it REALLY funny that people always are like "OMG HE'S USING SLEIGHT OF HAND! OMG THE TRICK ISN'T REAL".
No ****ing shit, its called a magic trick, no matter who does it, you'll still see the same sleight of hand, it's how they perform it.

nobody believes magic is real, but the difference between criss angel and other magicians is they do it WELL. They don't use camera cuts every 15 seconds, they don't try and over dramatize it with "random spectators" all screaming "omg he's the ****ing devil that can't be real, this isn't happening, omg omgomgogmogmogogmogmogmgogmo!@!!)ke11*H!"

There's plenty of stage magicians I've seen where they do simple stuff like popping a card out of 'mid air', clearly they had the card in the their hand and just flipped it up, but the trick is how the hell did the card go from being hidden somewhere on his body, to behind his hand without us seeing. Criss angel can do the same thing, but he needs like 9 camera cuts and 11 spectators.

Again with the motorcycle trick, it's obvious that in one of the many camera cut he just removed the card from the deck and placed it in his hand. Big. ****ing. Deal. It takes more skill the ride the motorcycle than do that trick.

 

[Solaris]

no on is as big as a fake as criss angel. Almost all of the shit he performs has GOT to be some sort of trick..like for example:

There was a trick where he was going to crawl through a window without breaking it or anything. He then proceeds inside the building and locks the door. You can even see him inside the building through the window.

He then tells the volunteer to put newspaper all over the entire window so you cannot see him anymore (keep in mind there's another "volunteer" inside the building with criss angel the whole time to "verify" that he's not being cheap". He then proceeds to crawl through the glass, and alas the window hasn't been harmed.

If he's genuine, why the hell did he need the window to be covered with newspaper in the first place? If he's even willing to allow a person off the street to stand INSIDE the building with him while he's doing it, WHY not share with the rest of the crowd?

answer: fake.

Of course, he's a ****ing magician. What, did you really think he had magical powers?

 

[AKIRA]

Of course, he's a ****ing magician. What, did you really think he had magical powers?

no but he makes it so people think it's actually beyond logic. Like he always talks about using mind spirit blah blah blah, like shutup you clown you clearly aren't using any of that so stop making the crowd go along with it..it's really annoying.

 

[Solaris]

no but he makes it so people think it's actually beyond logic. Like he always talks about using mind spirit blah blah blah, like shutup you clown you clearly aren't using any of that so stop making the crowd go along with it..it's really annoying.

It's called patter, if you believe it, you're an idiot.

He knows when he says it that you know it's bullshit but he says it because it makes it more interesting.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Blain did a pretty good one where he appears to float like a foot above the ground right in front of people. That was very cool looking, though I would have liked to have seen it in person. His "magic" of late, though, has left a lot to be desired. Publicity stunts != magic. :dozey:

 

[StardogChampion]

Blain did a pretty good one where he appears to float like a foot above the ground right in front of people. That was very cool looking, though I would have liked to have seen it in person.

That's the one I'm talking about when he films it at different times of the day.

He does the tiny levitation first by standing at an angle then standing on his tiptoe on one foot. He only goes a few inches off the ground. Anyone can do that. The audience still clap and cheer etc. Later that day he dresses extras up in similar clothing, then attaches wires to himself that lift him up. Then he applies the reaction from the first levitation to the fake levitation.

EDIT: It's here:
http://www.goodtricks.net/blainelev1.html

 

[Shift]

Still, he is no ordinary man though, with his stunts that he has done. I mean fasting for 40 days and nights would kill or leave any ordinary man close to death. Not to mention standing verticle still in an icecube for three days without food, I mean my god, how the **** did he survive that.