gee whiz, this dude is nutty! how does this guy perform his acts?!?!

It's magic!

Fox show a few episodes of revealing magic tricks. Since those street magic are taped, they will only show you the ones where they sucessfully fooled the people. Example, like guessing the number, writing a number/word in a piece of paper and the magican knew what you wrote, etc.

but then what about his levitation or the cig through the quarter? or even the part where he bites the quarter then spits the missing part back???? i want to see this dude live.... cant quite trust TV at the moment

The levitation is enhanced by tape before the audience can see it. Basically, at an angle, the few live audience can't see his other foot doing the levitation. In the tape video, they made his levitation from a few inches to like 2 feet!

He has a special quarter that has a hole the size of a cigarette. Basically, in the beginning it's a real quarter but when it comes to the trick he switch to a trick quarter.

Yeah, the quarter trick is just an old prop. I remember seeing that in a magazine ad when I was a kid. There are also ones you can buy that are spring loaded and fold in half so you can put them in a bottle with a mouth that would normally be to small to fit a quarter into.

I saw the Fox special too, but I still like David Blaine's act. I just wish he's stop doing the endurance tricks. Standing on a pole for days...how boring. I remember when he was in the block of ice he wasn't wearing a shirt at the beginning and at some point he got a shirt??? They also revealed the trick to that on the Fox special. There's enough space inside the ice block to give an igloo effect, it's not freezing cold inside. And they also claimed he had someone else stand in for him at times. I'm not so sure they revealed the tricks the way Blaine did them exactly, but they probably got most of it right.

I do agree he is nutty. I've seen a couple really boring interviews with him. He seems extremely shy when not doing tricks.

When he "levitates" a couple feet, it is a trick that the crowd is in on. They just use a harness and lift him. When he levitates a couple inches, it is just the standard Balducci levitation trick that anyone can do.

yeah, I wonder if fox was really right about the ice block thing.

Here are some David Blaine threads from last year that discuss some of his tricks.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...t=david+blaine
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...t=david+blaine
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...t=david+blaine

I suggest everyone read his book, Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic. You can get it at Amazon or most bookstores. It is any easy and interesting read, and explains why he does many of the stunts he does. He really does lead an amazing life, and my appreciation for him as both a illusionist and a person is greater after having read the book.