Goat3001

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.

Cardsfan111

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

bunkaroo

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

The Valeyard

He went all "Air Force One" on Blaine.

Groucho

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.

Noonan

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.

dalbowski

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.

HN

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VHS?

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*

PhantomStranger

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...

Goat3001

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.

Goat3001

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.

Palaver

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

CPA-ESQ.

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

TomOpus

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.

Bronkster

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.

Michael Corvin

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.

Noonan

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.

TomOpus

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.

HN

Available for now...

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Quatermass

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.

DaveyJoe

Groucho

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

CharlieK

"Get the fuck out of my house."

TomOpus

Or was it....?

No holes, no blood.

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