Author
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Topic: David Blaine
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cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted November 30, 2000 09:31 PM
This guy is crazy. Liked the show okay, but didn't enjoy this special as much as the two prior. This was more of a stunt than a magic trick. Had assumed they were going to fill the non-"David Blaine in Ice" bits with more of his street magic. There was a little, but too few and those were the best parts of the show. I'd rather see these people walking through the city getting freaked out by really confusing tricks than a guy risk his life in a block of ice.IP: Logged |
cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted November 30, 2000 09:34 PM
Speaking of crazy, went to his website http://www.davidblaine.com to see if they had any post-ice news. Hadn't been updated, but had a headline from the 29th was still there that read "David let out a piercing scream when his catheter was accidently vaccumed by a production assistant who was cleaning the melting ice beneath the platform yesterday. OUCH!" Ouch seems an understatement.IP: Logged |
Skinnylb A-List Writer Posts: 4147 From:Glendora Ca 91740 Registered: Apr 2000
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posted November 30, 2000 09:47 PM
Now that is just gross!!! that guy is a nutjob!IP: Logged |
tulip49 Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted November 30, 2000 10:33 PM
What exactly was the point of being encased in ice and just standing there staring at people for 10 days (or whatever)? Who cares if he can do it? Where's the magic in being stupid?IP: Logged |
Aragorn278 A-List Writer Posts: 256 From:Clementwood, PA Registered: Apr 2000
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posted November 30, 2000 11:41 PM
May not be magic, but I thought it was pretty cool. (No pun intended.)IP: Logged |
fred A-List Writer Posts: 7112 From:Redmond, WA Registered: Apr 2000
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posted December 01, 2000 07:42 AM
This guy is an excellent magician - but I'm not sure I understood this stunt. Anybody have anymore details on why he was doing it? Was there any magic involved?IP: Logged |
Skinnylb A-List Writer Posts: 4147 From:Glendora Ca 91740 Registered: Apr 2000
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posted December 01, 2000 10:07 AM
Why did he do it????????..cuz he is crazy..plain old crazy..and I WOULD NOT want to run into the "Evil Pet Cemetary Bird" that he brought back to life!!!...the guy who was there w/ his pet bird was freaked..and so was his Bird!..His bird KNEW that dead bird come alive was SATAN!!IP: Logged |
cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted December 02, 2000 01:50 AM
Uh...I don't think his bird was any different after the trick. The guy claimed he was, but hell if I could see any difference. The most amazing part of that trick to me is how that wild squirrel kept running right up near Blaine and the dead bird without even getting spooked.The trick with the tatoo was okay. IP: Logged |
jpgordo A-List Writer Posts: 2883 From:Studio City, CA Registered: Apr 2000
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posted December 02, 2000 09:44 AM
Is it going to eventually come out that he wasn't actually in the block of ice? That that was the trick.IP: Logged |
cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted December 02, 2000 01:56 PM
At first my wife and I thought that might be true. Through the ice his head just swung back and forth and he was so pale he barely looked human (maybe even just some sort of animatronic dummy). But then every now and then he'd move and we'd realize it was him. I really don't think it was a trick of any sort in the sense that he didn't stay in the ice. I think this was more of a stunt.IP: Logged |
cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted December 03, 2000 07:18 PM
Thought this was kind of funny. I think it was from the Washington Post. Not sure. Don't have the link.------------------------ "All David Blaine is is a good-looking magician," Jillette, the acerbic vocal half of Penn & Teller, icily informed gossipist Baird Jones at the opening of Jason Alexander's flick "Just Looking." "They finally found a magician who did not have to pay a woman to stand next to him." And having a buff bod, which is very much on display in this latest stunt, performed shirtless, is not Blaine's only crime, according to Jillette. "This guy is incredibly bad," he says. "The tricks that he uses are all the magic stunts that David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy and [the late] Doug Henning fell in love with when they were in fifth grade. But we moved on." Blaine's current ice capade is hardly as death-defying as he'd have you believe, says Jillette. In fact, he says, it's "easy." "The air will completely insulate him just like he was an Eskimo in an ice igloo. The only hard part for Blaine will be standing still for 3 days." How does Jillette know? "My technicians built the ice box for Blaine," he says. "I know every detail about its construction, and he is just conning the media that there is anything challenging about being surrounded by ice like that. He won't even get a chill." Except, of course, from his fellow magicians.
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fred A-List Writer Posts: 7112 From:Redmond, WA Registered: Apr 2000
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posted December 04, 2000 07:39 PM
I don't know. I've never seen a fifth grader do the kinds of tricks David Blaine does. I don't know much about magic - but he seems pretty good to me.IP: Logged |
cstengel Hack Writer Posts: From: Registered:
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posted December 04, 2000 10:16 PM
Who knows? Maybe these ARE the kinds of tricks magicians learn on the way up. (One of the complaints I hear a lot is these are things you can basically mail order.) But regardless, I think they're appealing to a lot of people because the big stage magicians don't realize the further away they get from their audience with huge stages, tons of special effects, etc, actually makes their tricks less compelling. While everyone else was trying to be bigger, Blaine took exactly the opposite approach to good results. Maybe some of Blaine's up close tricks are simple when you know the secret, but the fact that he's doing them right in your face makes it much more mystifying than assuming anything can happen up on that stage 50 feet away from your seat. I mean, who couldn't do some of that crap up on a stage surrounded by all that smoke and flashing lights? I was actually surprised to hear Penn Jilette being critical of him though because I always thought Penn's beef was with the David Copperfields of the world who were more flash than substance. I'm a big Penn and Teller fan, but was surprised by his remarks. Maybe within his world (i.e. to magicians) these tricks are really something simplistic that they abandonded years ago. But to the average person, these are exactly the things they're not getting to see now.IP: Logged |
Imax_max A-List Writer Posts: 239 From:Sherman Oaks, California Registered: Jun 2000
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posted December 04, 2000 10:57 PM
Penn is just fat and bitter because he hasn't had a network special in a few years. David Blaine is an excellent magician. Cynics go home - he's great.IP: Logged |
PeopleHater A-List Writer Posts: 668 From: Registered: May 2000
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posted December 05, 2000 02:24 AM
This guy scares the hell out of me. He'll do a trick that seems pretty obvious and then he'll turn around and do something that makes you think he might be the devil himself.IP: Logged |