The Astral Pulse

Does he use?  Does anyone know about what practices he has studied?

i know that most of his tricks are fake because i can do them to......the art of illusion is beautiful,  but if you trully believe he is using magick then tell me examples of why you think it.  By the way...i know how he does the levitation and i have done it and scared people (its an illusion) on the other hand Criss Angels levitation is quite impressive.

He uses street magick, great for grafting wallets and getting several book deals and Discovery Channel specials.

Bloodsong

I have heard many times he uses tricks of the eyes.  However some on the tricks, I cant see how he does it.  When he told a lil girls mom to pick a card, she did then gave it back to david blane.  He he mixed it in the card deck and then told the lil girl to reach in her pocket and the card was there.  How could that be an illuision?

plus standing on a post for 2 days has to atleast give him credit for extended mental and physical focus.
but i think a lot of his stuff could be learned by anyone

A lot of Blaine's stuff has to do with a variety of tricks.  And yes, he does have extremely good mental focus and physical awareness!

The thing with the card, you saw on TV.  You have to remember, he knew he was making a show for broadcast.  The television viewer was the main audience, so anyone that was not in your living room was potentially a part of the act!  Something like this is usually the product of one of two things, reverse pickpocketing, or planting, or the plants were the girl and her mother as well.

With something like this, you must be careful to watch what someone is NOT drawing attention to.  If the person makes a show of what is happening with the hands, pay attention to the legs, if they are showing only one hand, pay attention to the "inactive" one.  That is usually where the graft happens.

Kind of like the levitation trick.  When you see him just a few inches off the ground, the camera's perspective is behind and a few feet to one side, or doesn't show his feet.  That is because only one leaves the ground, the one that isn't completely seen is on tiptoe!  When you see him a few feet of the ground, that is only done on TV, and those who act so surprised are in on the trick.  The "trick" in this case involves a small crane, fine-wire harnesses that aren't easily seen on camera with low lighting, and a jacket to cover the harness, notice how he only floats feet off the ground when someone loans him a coat?

Trust me on this, my uncle is a street magician, so I have an inside, plus the DVD set of Discovery Channel specials Blaine did.  One of the extras was a behind the scenes thing.

Bloodsong

I agree that david blane has a strong mental/physical focus but many people would be prepared to train themselves up before siting in a box for a month or however long it was for a few million$$$.
He is a conjurer, when he was on a talkshow/live all he could do was stick a needle through part of hand.
If you like this sort of stuff and want to learn to play it on your mates look out for a guy called Derren Brown/Mind Control series now he is a clever chappy!!!.
Pure Effect
4ur2b3

i have done illusions such as having someone picking a card and then we go throught the deck and their card isnt there but inside of their wallet.....very easy and very effective........also another way of fake levitation is taking one foot out of a show....also very effective.

I agree about the fact it is easier to do these kind of tricks when you are not live because people could be "in" on the trick.  However he has done I believe 3 movies now with numerous people in them.  Not one of them has come forward or "snitched" about being in on the trick.  I have read about the levitation thing and know how you can do it by only lifting one foot.  But  What about all of the other tricks he does that no one can explain?  
You type david blane in on google and get how (or how people think) he did that trick.  

I am just curious where he learned how to do all these tricks and so effectively.

Like what trick, specifically?  Like I said, I have access to a street magician at all times, all I need to do is place a call.  If he knows the trick, I can get the inside on it.

Bloodsong

Well I would like to know he bit a quarter in half on then spit it out.  Also how to tell what card someone picked, like he will say pick a card now think about the card.  And he looks at the person then says what card they picked.

First one, the biting a quarter in half, trick quarter that is palmed until he gets the "mark" to give him a real quarter.  He exchanges the quarters to where he is presenting the fake as the real.  Bite off the half that is top side up, then, spit it back on, and magnetics do the rest.  Most hobby shops that sell basic magic tricks sell this one.

The second is even easier.  Marked cards, or he has an assistant standing behind the "mark" and subtle facial clues that tell the magician the card held are used.

Bloodsong

in david Blains book he explains alot

what is the book called?

How do you explain the part where he revives the dead bird found in the park ?

Never saw or heard of that one.  Would have to see it.  Since it is really hard to train a bird to "play dead" and stay on the ground, I would have to assume camera tricks.

Bloodsong

You should really check out Criss Angel's stuff. He's amazing, the stuff he does is like exaggerated so that it doesn't look fake. Like his levitation's are like 5 feet high. And he also levitates other people, random people on the street. Once he was leaning backwards almost parallel to the ground, on one foot, and he made someone pass a stick all the way around him.

The bird trick is something to do with lightly drugging a bird so it is knocked out for a few minutes, I guess warmth from the hands helps revive it.

He revives a fly too, which involve swatting a fly just hard enough to stun it, then puts it somwhere - picks it up looking dead. Blows on it to help bring it back to it's senses and lets it fly off.

Apothecaries, of course ! I must be on drugs not to have thought of that.
Thnx Mister.

Any thoughts on whether that Angel-Freak is really predicting national lottery numbers on radio & winning roulette at casino ?
Camera tricks are one thing but surely gaming officials aren't game ?!

none of u guys heard of trick decks??

What's happened to David Blaine anyway, he hasn't been on the go for ages, not in the UK at least.

Here is an old thread on him:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14876&highlight=blaine

Enjoy,

Jeni

wow, David blaine just pulled out this chick's teeth. Both canines, how did he do that, idk, but omg, that's strange. He then replaced them by blowing them out of his hand, and they reappeared in here mouth. I know how he pulled them out i think, by stimulating a nerve above the tooth maybe, but get them back in, explain that.

I think he put some kind of prosthetic device (like they use in movie makeup) over her teeth, which melted away in her mouth. Either that, or she spit it out and they didn't show it.

I'll believe that guy only when he eats his own head right in front of me.

I have an ebook explaining a lot of his tricks. A lot them are done with rigged audiences acting surprised, etc. They're still effective, though, because people are naive enough to believe everything they see on TV, to think that what they see on TV is reality instead of just TV.

A lot is also psychology. Well, all of it is, to different degrees. For example, some card tricks involve perception. When he flips through cards and then produces the card you picked out as he flipped, he's picking a card that stuck out to your vision, and he knew it would.

In fact, I was watching that particular trick with my dad. I saw one card stick out in particular, so I intentionally picked a different card at random from my head. He guessed the card I had avoided, and thus didn't guess my card. My dad didn't pick up on the trick and picked the card he was intended to, though. I imagine a lot of people were thus manipulated. It would be a huge coincidence for so much of a television audience to have picked the same card if it was truly random, eh?

If anyone wants the ebook, it's a pdf and I can send it to you over AIM. My screen name is bsbray11.

OK, then explain the trick he does when he predicts the lottery numbers on the fearless DVD, he goes up to this random man on the street and says that he will win the lottery the man buys a ticket and wins a load of money, how on earth would he know what time to buy that card from the shop, and how would he know that the scratch card would win?

If this is the one I'm thinking about, a lot of things don't make sense. Firstly, you never see the guy hand the card in and get the cash. Secondly, he won $1700-ish didn't he? Supposedly shops can only pay out up to $500, anything over that you need to go to a centre to collect. Yet this guy supposedly cashed in the card for the full amount at the shop.

Finally, such cards are easy to produce (i.e. produce a fake one and pay the guy out of your own pocket for the sake of the trick). You could easily give a guy a fake card, he genuinely believe he won, then let him in on the trick, give him the cash and film him happy with it. He's not really going to complain.

I'm reading a good book suggested by catmeow which is really opening my eyes on a lot of tricks I couldn't figure out.

Quote from: MisterJingoIf this is the one I'm thinking about, a lot of things don't make sense. Firstly, you never see the guy hand the card in and get the cash. Secondly, he won $1700-ish didn't he? Supposedly shops can only pay out up to $500, anything over that you need to go to a centre to collect. Yet this guy supposedly cashed in the card for the full amount at the shop.

I'm pretty sure it showed him cashing the card at a centre, not the shop.

Quote from: jimu

Quote from: MisterJingoIf this is the one I'm thinking about, a lot of things don't make sense. Firstly, you never see the guy hand the card in and get the cash. Secondly, he won $1700-ish didn't he? Supposedly shops can only pay out up to $500, anything over that you need to go to a centre to collect. Yet this guy supposedly cashed in the card for the full amount at the shop.

I'm pretty sure it showed him cashing the card at a centre, not the shop.

hmm i'll have to check it out, its been a while since I saw this :smile:.