After reading this thread I tried the pick a no. trick as described above on 10 people.
8 of them said 37.
1 said 19.
1 said 35.
From this I’d go with the “that’s what most people would say / only showing the people that said it option”.
I’m never above name-dropping!
Wow. Much more consistent results than I got. Yeah, I think the “what most people would say” theory definitely is behind it, but it still seems like you’d still screw up a fair bit. It wouldn’t take me long to figure out what’s going on if someone missed even two out of every ten. Of course, they didn’t show the wire harness, either…
Hey I’ve seen David Blaine, and his charm lies in his approach and presentation. Only Penn and Teller does better presentaions. The trick that got to me was when he turned the homeless man’s cup of coffee into a cup of quarters. That was the best magic trick I have ever seen. Yes, it was probably very clever editing, but not even Fox was so cold as to reveal the secret to that trick.
Levitation: as various correct posts have stated, this is a combination of the Balducci levitation and some inserted footage of a separate illusion, using a support on the blind side of the camera, staged for the camera’s benefit.
Think a number: magicians use very specific wording which, if delivered correctly, will get a very high percentage of people to think of 37. Also, they have more experience of approaching people in a very confident and assertive manner, and getting them to co-operate. To appear to guess three numbers at once, Blaine announces three numbers, one of them being ‘37’, such as ‘41, 37 and 59’ and asks the three construction workers if he has named their number. They all say yes. But nobody checks who was thinking of which number. Chances are they were all thinking of 37. Each assumes the other numbers pertained to the other workers. This principle is known by magicians as The Smyth Myth.
Card in shoe. As several posters have stated, there are two methods. The first involves access to the shoe, and without access to the production crew no-one can be certain what went down. Do cops ever change into uniforms at one place, such as down at the precinct? Could you get a buddy of the target cop to be in on the trick, and get him to plant the duplicate card in the target cop’s shoe? Who knows. The second method is that the card was never in the shoe. If the cop removed his shoe on the street and on camera, Blaine would have gotten hold of the shoe and used sleight of hand or a thumbtip to ‘load’ the chosen card or a duplicate into the shoe. since the cop refused to do this, and went into the shop, it was a case of plan (b) - the ‘witness’ goes in and slips the cop the duplicate card. He explains it would look really cool on camera if he would just say he found the card in the shoe, and please don’t make the nice magic guy look bad. After all it’s just for fun, and it’s good PR for the cops who come across as nice and human and friendly. Cop plays along, miracle on tape, ratings soar.