It was weird, cos some of it was pretty obvious (but brilliantly done) slight of hand. But then other stuff I could only really explain by the fact that the public were all plants.
But the stuff where he touched that woman's heart and told her her friend would always be there was very powerful.
The only thing I could think of was that he was Satan.

Yeah - I saw his last special and thought 'brilliant slight of hand' (apart from the levitation and the one where the card ends up in the shop window) but last night... woah. He's not right I tell you. Ex CIA Remote Viewer? If the public in it are plants they are the best actors in the world.

You gullible fools! There's no such thing as magic or CIA remote viewing. It's all pretend. Of course they were plants. Why go to all that bother of developing preternatural abilities when you can just pay some doofus to pretend something miraculous has happened.

After all, that's what Jesus did.

No. I still think it's most likely that he is Satan.

On Tuesday 5th September at 9pm, Sky present "Secrets of National Security Revealed".

Er, sorry

"Secrets of Street Magicians Finally Revealed"

So maybe that will help.

Or not.

I'd prefer to see "secrets of street musicians finally revealed".

Apropos of the Dark Lord: I once entered a Christian teen chatroom and started asking the occupants about Satan and one response I got was:

CHRISTIAN #1: (IN A JIM CAREY ACE VENTURA VOICE) Satan is suuuuuuuch a loser!

Made me laugh all day.

S8N IZ LIKE REAL L4M3, d00d!

I'm tempted to type 'LOL' but acknowledge I should be kicked in the jaw for doing so.

When I tried to bring up that last message I clicked on the email address by mistake. For a second I contemplated an epistolary debate with a fictional Christian.

>On Tuesday 5th September at 9pm, Sky present "Secrets of National Security Revealed".
>
>Er, sorry
>
>"Secrets of Street Magicians Finally Revealed"
>
>So maybe that will help.
>
>Or not.
>
>I'd prefer to see "secrets of street musicians finally revealed".
>
> >>>>Damm, must be a print error in my Sky Guide. It's listed as "When Street Magicians Attack".

>You gullible fools! There's no such thing as magic or CIA remote viewing. It's all pretend. Of course they were plants.

I was told to leave the room after pointing out that all of the actors reacted to the tricks in identical 'i'm an out of work actor/he's going to give me some money' way, by just looking confused for a while/over-reacting and shouting a bit with their street freinds. I love the way the jaunty camera style handily allows vital bits of the trick to go out of shot - the real magic lies in the fact that the viewers would not believe such a cheap and crap lot of tricks would ever get made into a programme if they were as contrived as they so obviously are. ie. 'He wouldn't dare lie to us, surely?'
Example:
David B - think of a number
Woman - ok
DB - 333
Woman - oh my god! (looks stunned for too long), i don't beleive it.
DB - (looks cool, and at the same time smug)

But then again, i'm spoiling the magical illusion.

They're not actors. The thing about magic is that it's always one step ahead. The trick is to make things seem immediate when really they are planned long in advance. But you are only ever shown shots of the reactions of those he has performed tricks on, what you don't see are the strategic preparations. Forcing a card psycologically is so effective but still it's only a trick. There are visual and vocal means of doing so, notice he asks the lady a mathmatical selective process when choosing her card and guesses it correctly by the splendour of laws and averages.

Some tricks take hours of planning. Chances are he teamed up with the police officer's boss who slipped the card into his shoe earlier in the day, then for the magic to happen it's just a matter of forcing a card using sleight of hand and dazzling as the police officer in no way connects what he has just seen performed and previous events of the day.

Magicians always have accomplaces too, guessing personal info takes at least some cooperation with a close friend of theirs. And the trick where he projected a number into the little girl's mind was quite obviously done by bluffing that he wrote something initially and then as he misdirected by starring scarily into her eyes and asking her to say the number he simultaneously wrote it on the pad using a concealed writing utencil - perhaps lead under his nail.

But it's not that I wish to destroy the illusion.

P.S Just read somewhere that the fly trick was done by using a frozen fly and bringing it back to life by defrosting it with the heat of the mans hand. Incredible!

Surely the proof that magicians don't have supernatural powers lies in the fact that Jerry Sadowitz can't get a more inspiring TV slot than that C5 thing, and before then he only got 4 episodes of "The Pall Bearer's Revue", and his live album got withdrawn, and he's only done 1 video whereas Ben Elton's done loads of the fuckers... I could go on, but I think I've shown that science and reason can cast away the darkness of superstition.

And that American one in the film advert, he's just a fraud, simple as that.

he's quite brilliant at what he does, though, and it's triffic tv. but i once read how he levitates (it's more complicated than it seems, believe me) and i'm still fucking furious about what a sodding cheap trick it is in reality. but i like david blaine. big up his chest.

j xxx

From Variety Online:

'Last night, magic man David Blaine announced at a packed press conference that he was "in league with the devil" and he would be allowed to perform amazing and astounding tricks to the American public, all along the line of 'Pick a card, any card', in exchange for his soul at the end of a 25 year period. This announcement comes days after Ali G admitted to selling his soul to appear in the new Madonna video. 'It's a disgrace' says BBC programme controller Jane Root. 'In the past, only people with talent were allowed on television. Nowadays all you have to do is sign a contract with the eternal evil and pledge to throw your soul into the deepest recesses of hell for all eternity. What happened to people like Victoria Wood? Or John 'Parrot Face' Davies, that's what I want to know."
'"Well, I sold my soul as well," squarked John 'Parrot Face' Davies, let out for a rare interview from the very depths of Hell. "If it wasn't for that deal I made with Satan 40 odd years ago, I wouldn't be here talking to you now."
'He continued "I believe this admittance by Blaine could be a good thing. It may encourage other members of the entertainment community to admit to selling their soul in exchange for fame. It's not a new occurance. People like David Frost and Ronnie Corbett have been doing it since the sixties, but it was in the eighties when it hit it's peak, mainly in the music industry, however. Tony Hadley has admitted to 'doing a Faust', as we in the business call it, as have half the members of Duran Duran. Then it went rather quiet in the early ninties. It's only recently became popular again, mainly with saturday evening game show hosts and Big Breakfast presenters."
'We asked Jane Root for a comment on this but she was busy trying to delete Goodies epsiodes and told us to fuck off.'

Think of a vegetable.

Was it a carrot?

See, that's how its done.

>Was it a carrot?

No. I thought of a potato.

And that's why internet magic doesn't work.

Because the internet pixies interfere with it, stupid.

BTW I'm sure Kinder is right about the complexity of Blaine's tricks - I'm almost positive the members of the public aren't plants.

BTW2 CIA Remote Viewing did and does exist. Ask Jane's Defence Weekly if you don't believe me. The Pentagon spent several million dollars on it through the 70s, 80s and 90s. Doesn't mean it works though...

And how did he do the 'Dawn' thing eh?

>Some tricks take hours of planning. Chances are he teamed up with the police officer's boss who slipped the card into his shoe earlier in the day...

Is that really part of an American Police Chief's powers, Kinder? They all have right of access to all their sub-ordinates shoes?

Police officer:"Sir, what in the name of tarnation are you doing with my leg?"
Chief: "Dagnabbit, Abbernacky, quit the jibber-jabber and remove the goddam shoe!"
P.O: "Gee Willerkins, sir, this ain't in the NYPD training fosset ass alluminum.."
C: "Fanny-sack, wiener garbage hash-brown."


They're American, you see.

He is really impressive though. I too decided that a lot of his tricks were so bloomin' odd that actors must have been involved.
I'm willing to accept that this is not the case, though, having read the explanations.
In fact, I'd like to accept it as magic.
Satan, though? Not sure about that.

"I'm almost positive the members of the public aren't plants."

Did they stay in the same place, contain chlorophyll, and photosynthesise glucose from carbon dioxide and water? My biology teacher told me those were the tell-tale signs.

If they were just ordinary morons off the street, they'd go along with anything anyway. Hapless plebs.

Richard: I like the Satan theory very much, but he didn't seem to be particularly evil... Are you suggesting that Christanity has misrepresented Satan all these years?

Are you suggesting that christian based religions might encompass some LIES?!

Since he's not all that evil, could he possibly be God?

>Richard: I like the Satan theory very much, but he didn't seem to be particularly evil... Are you suggesting that Christanity has misrepresented Satan all these years?

Yeah, we were *totally* lied to by our album covers!

That levitation trick is evilly simple.

Even *I* could do it. In fact, I just did.

>P.O: "Gee Willerkins, sir, this ain't in the NYPD training fosset ass alluminum.."
>C: "Fanny-sack, wiener garbage hash-brown."
>
>
>They're American, you see.
>

<snigger>

I remember seeing a programme about David Blaine a while back in which he was interviewed by Leonardo DiCaprio and I was very impressed with him then - he was obviously very talented and I liked his laid-back, humourous style. However on that programme the other night I thought he came across as rather smug and pompous, and all the fun and humour was gone. Shame.

Yeah, but what about the chickens head? how'd he do that?

By trickery.

>>Some tricks take hours of planning. Chances are he teamed up with the police officer's boss who slipped the card into his shoe earlier in the day...
>
>Is that really part of an American Police Chief's powers, Kinder? They all have right of access to all their sub-ordinates shoes?
>
>Police officer:"Sir, what in the name of tarnation are you doing with my leg?"
>Chief: "Dagnabbit, Abbernacky, quit the jibber-jabber and remove the goddam shoe!"
>P.O: "Gee Willerkins, sir, this ain't in the NYPD training fosset ass alluminum.."
>C: "Fanny-sack, wiener garbage hash-brown."
>
>
>They're American, you see.
>

LMAO! Oh dear that was funny. My explanations were quite anal weren't they? Are you a member of the magic circle Sam?

Anal.. circle... geddit?

Where have you been, kinder?

Unfortunately not, but I did get a Paul Daniels Annual for Christmas in about 1980.
Why would anyone do that to their son?

>Anal.. circle... geddit?
>
>Where have you been, kinder?

Which time span are we referring to Jon? The 27 years in which you were unaware of me?

>Unfortunately not, but I did get a Paul Daniels Annual for Christmas in about 1980.
>Why would anyone do that to their son?

lol. I take it 'annual' is in reference to an activity he partakes in rather than a hardback.

Re what R.Herring said about the "moving" scene from David Blaine's show...

Bearing in mind that David Blaine is an entertainer, and says so in his programmes, his crossing over into the world of spiritualism (after he had guessed the name of that woman's dead best friend) was EXTREMELY DODGY. He'd finished the trick, and impressed her (and the audience), but he pushed it too far when he said "She's all right" or "She misses you" or whatever it was...

That's really screwing with a punter's emotions. Blaine is a trickster - and a very good one - but he can't speak with the dead. No-one can. An entertainer giving false hope like this is like, oh I don't know, Bruce Forsyth giving medical advice...

That was the one moment where the psychological manipulation of his victims went too far. It really jarred and spoilt the show.

And, yes, he did look smug, didn't he?