David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Anyone watch this? It was a special on ABC. Aired on Tuesday. It was basically David Blaine doing magic for celebrities. A good amount of them were A-Listers too so I don't think they were in on it. Their reactions seemed genuine at least.

I guess I'm just a sucker for magic but I thought this was really great. David Blaine is a very talented illusionist and he's really creative with his tricks.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I missed it. Do you know if it will be airing again?

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I saw some news item about Harrison Ford freaking out over a card trick.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

He went all "Air Force One" on Blaine.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I would have liked to have watched this. Never heard anything about it though. That's why I hate network television, they never rerun anything anymore, whereas if you miss a cable show you have multiple chances to catch up.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I really enjoyed it. We were trying to figure out the whole impale his hand/arm tricks. My first thought was that he had tubes implanted so he could do it without hitting anything major but during the show he used both hands and different areas along with his arm. That's one where I truly don't know if it was an illusion or he somehow conditioned his body. I know some tribes do stuff like that but it's usually through the cheek.

The water spout was amazing. Not his version of it but that guy from Africa. That's almost like a minor evolution for the sake of survival.

I love watching his street magic like this. Can't stand the endurance stuff he does.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Same for me. Although there's just so much slowly stabbing yourself that I can take. If I heard the narration right I don't see how Woody Allen would let him stay for hours trying to expel the fish.

Ford looked really out of it. His "Get the F out of my house" did look genuine though.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

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Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

One of the more boring specials he has done.
It was a set of 4-5 tricks done over and over to several individuals/groups.
I think his Street Magic special was the better of all of his shows.

Favorite part of the show was ... *highlight text* Seeing Stephen Hawking smile at a trick *highlight text*

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Cris Angel has a reality/magic show airing every week on SpikeTV. The ability to manipulate so much on videotape has ruined magic acts on television for me. They used to really impress me...

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

For those that didn't see it: I can't attest to this for certain but I imagine it's available on demand. If not, you can catch clips on Youtube.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I liked how they showed him preparing for it. It made the whole thing much more impressive to know that it wasn't an illusion and that it was a 'trick' he taught his body to do.

The one tricks that got me was when he touched one person on the shoulder and the other person felt it. The only way I imagine that working is if the people involved were in on it. Which I suppose is a possibility but what do Will Smith and Jamie Foxx have to gain by doing that? Plus their reactions seemed genuine.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

So, we're just ruling out the possibility that people who act for a living are acting surprised?

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I watched the clip: some observations.

1) he has him look through a jumbled up deck - so for the 20 seconds he is not going to find the 'missing card'

2) There is a knife and cutting board set up in the kitchen. I assume that the producers staged the kitchen with what they need - bowl of oranges, cutting board and knife.

3) Before he cuts the fruit he has Ford say his card out loud - you don't get to see where Blain's hands are (I assume that at that time he goes into a pocket and retrieves the rolled up card, or someone gives it to him out of the camera shot)

4) Blain cuts the orange and slightly turns the fruit and 'rips' it open with his hand or inserts the card from below - so when it is ripped open the card is there when he turns it back in the direction of Ford.

Nice slight of hand

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

They weren't all actors. Stephen Hawking, a medical doctor and President Bush come to mind. Okay, President Bush is sorta an actor :)

But if you saw the show, there was some crazy shit. Rickey Gervais was genuinely baffled when he pulled a long needle out of David's arm and there was no blood or hole.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I've been watching this in bits and am enjoying it. I love the reactions of some of the people (and would probably be just as WTF?! as them were I there). I also agree with Noonan about his endurance stuff - kinda tedious. But I do like his street magic.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

What's fantastic is watching people's reactions is just as entertaining as the trick itself.

I too found the "behind the scenes" of him learning the water trick fascinating. I saw the kerosene trick on Kimmel before watching the special and at the time it was a cool trick. After seeing the training on the special it's much more intriguing. Just thinking about it, the people that saw the water trick on the street were marveling at the names appearing on the sidewalk without giving a second thought to how he managed to just up and spit out a liter of water. That's crazy.

Some channel had a Blaine marathon a few months back and I recorded 4 or 5 of his specials. He never fails to impress, but the celebs were a nice twist compared to the usual street stuff.

*edit - also I could watch an entire special of Blaine just performing for Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

The one that seemed like a setup was when he was with Foxx and touched his daughter's nose with a card. When he did the whole wave his hands over them to make the connection he could have touched Jamie's nose. Then he was loudly flicking the card in his hands when he asked Jamie what he felt.

After a 2nd viewing, you can clearly see him unbuckle Bush's watch when he's shaking his arms. That's some impressive pick-pocketing.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Speaking of watches, after seeing trick with Psy, I reviewed to see when he put the card under his watch. I believe I could see it at the start of the segment. I guess the tape caught him doing that earlier so they just started a little bit into the act.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Available for now...

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Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I watched it and thought it was pretty good. I don't know how he got a lot of those people to appear on it, maybe the Disney mafia forced them to make an appearance. It was about 50% magic tricks, 50% self mutilation (ice pick through the hand, skewer through the biceps) . He did the fire & water regurgitation bit on Kimmel, so that's probably online. That was a good hunk of the show. I've seen a lot of the card tricks (including the lemon one) done before, still it was pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the second half of the Almost Human pilot.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

It took three loops of that GIF before I noticed the race of the "white folks". :lol:

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:lol: "Get the fuck out of my house."

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

Or was it....?

No holes, no blood.

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Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

That whole scene looked odd to me. Harrison was acting all strange like he was told to ad-lib his whole demeanor for the trick.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I kinda think that's just how he acts. He was on one of the late night shows recently - which Walmart looped constantly for whatever reason so I saw it more times than I can recall (even though I don't remember what show it was! :lol: ) and he seemed very sedate - almost obliviously out-of-it. Haven't seen enough of his personal appearances to make a determination though.

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Yeah, Ford always seems high. I've heard he has anxiety during public appearances, so he's probably on something to calm his nerves when he does talk shows.

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the one where he took a picture of wills son and the picture changed was definitely staged

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I know in the past most of his street magic stunts relied heavily on "random man on the street" plants, very specific camera angles, and outright video edits to sexy them up for the at home audience. I don't doubt there was much of the same in this.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

ABC is airing this again tonight for those that missed it. Or those that saw it might try to watch the tricks more closely knowing the outcome.

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I couldn't stop thinking of this while watching the show. :lol:

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I haven't seen his new show, but his old one (Mindfreak) was the worst tv magic show I've ever seen. Blaine's show is at least edited in a manner that the reactions/tricks are plausible. Many of Mindfreak's illusions seemed staged to the point that they seemed to be wholly scripted and storyboarded.

Re: David Blaine: Real or Magic?
 

I didn't like Mindfreak either. I've watched a little of his new show. It's better but not by much.