We watched his show last week, me and my son.
It was great!
I loved where he bit a piece off someones quarter, then spit it back right on the other piece. oooohhhh
My son said he levitated. I wasn’t looking, had my glasses off so i didn’t see it.
How’d he do that???
It’s called Balducci Levitation and is pretty simple to do at home.
—WARNING SPOILERS—
Be warned, you will be disappointed!
David Blaine and the Balducci Levitation
A quick Google search on David Blaine and/or the Balducci Levitation will produce lots of links.
It has also been discussed on the SDMBs from time to time. Here is one example: How Does David Blaine Levitate
Here’s a previous discussion of David Blaine, which might shed some light:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=26332
What makes Blaine so good is a combination of excellent deadpan presentation and a few editing tricks (especially involving the levitation). He’s very entertaining to watch, and I’m pretty sure that his other stunts (being buried alive, being encased in ice, etc) are legitimate and not illusions…
IAAAM (amateur magician), and I think David Blaine is decidely unspectacular. I can do most of things he does, and those that I can’t, I can’t because I don’t have a camera crew and video editing skills to make it look good. Spitting the coin back together is one of the tricks he does that looks cool on video, but to my mind (knowing how it’s done) is a really stupid application of the prop he’s using.
Basically, he has no more or less skill than most of the amateur or professional magicians I’ve known/seen. However, I hate that he makes even the most mundane illusions (coin spitting, ech!) seem new and mysterious. He also pulls idiotic stunts like sealing himself in a block of ice. Za? What does that prove? If he had escaped, I would have been impressed, but he merely survived until he had to be pulled out, the same as if any of us was in the same situation.
Wow. Looking back over this rant, I see I’m in GQ. Sorry for the hijack, but at least I didn’t use any profanity.
As for levitation, Balducci’s levitation is impressive as a bar stunt, but if you really want to wow them, use Andruzzi ascending. It’s much more convincing.