# Hey, one of you smartasses spoil David Blaine: Real or Magic for me... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314 "2013-11-20T03:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/162 "2014-01-03T01:16:59Z")
I just want to say that ignoring all the above hijacking, David Blaine’s recent special really was very good. I’d say he has improved quite a bit, or at least improved his TV special making. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/163 "2014-01-03T01:51:02Z")
Wow, Marley, you made jibal disappear! How did you do that? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/164 "2014-01-03T03:11:31Z")
jibal was obviously a plant–a confederate of Marley or it was camera tricks ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/165 "2014-01-03T03:32:41Z")
Y’know, it’s the small tricks that are a lot more impressive… I like this a lot more than when **Marley** is making big things disappear. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/166 "2014-01-03T03:40:15Z")
> [@jibal](#): > > Quite beyond these people, apparently, is the notion that Blaine uses _all_ of these techniques. Even though our friend here is gone, well, no kidding. My fundamental point is that there’s many possible different ways David Blaine could have done the trick. It need not have involved video editing–that’s just one possible avenue, based on him having done it before. A skilled magician could probably do the orange card trick in a variety of different ways. I listed one known way for the card reveal. It may have already been placed in the orange (as the way I was taught the trick), but I have no reason not to believe the reveal could have also been done with a clever palm. My main point was that Harrison Ford was most likely not in on the trick (I would bet the house he wasn’t, in fact), as some posters were suggesting, and I gave one possible method of doing it, given the sudden edit. However, I am not married to that explanation. There’s various ways it could have been done, it looks like it was done well, and there’s no need to involve a conspiracy between Ford and Blaine when it seems like the various elements of the trick should be within a good magician’s repertoire. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/167 "2014-01-03T21:02:36Z")
> [@jibal](#): > > Penn is an all around asshole … a sociopathic libertarian. Cato Institute – an organization by, of, and for sociopaths – actually appointed him as a “Fellow” despite his only academic credentials being a stint at clown college. 1. The Cato Institute is a private organization and can appoint anyone they want for any reason they want. Academic credentials are irrelevant. 2. The Cato Institute is not an academic institution, so academic credentials are not relevant. It’s not like they’re appointing him a History Professor or Lead Physicist. 3. You seem to feel that academic credentials are the only measure of intelligence or knowledge. Penn may not have a college degree (and I don’t know if he does or doesn’t), but he is intelligent and well-read, and he is very knowledgable about his chosen field of study and work - magic. His media visibility also makes him a good spokesperson and publicist for libertarianism, so that makes him a good candidate for the Cato Institute’s attention. But yes, he is a libertarian and something of an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/168 "2014-01-03T23:13:29Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Woman in crowd could also be a confederate. A southerner? How would her being from Mississippi help? ---
**Author:** ![quickquest88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/b77776/32.png) [@quickquest88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quickquest88)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/169 "2014-01-09T04:25:01Z")
I’ve read this entire thread and who joined just to do this: [http://www.karmaloop.com/guru/david-blaine-wows-kanye-west-will-smith-bryan-cranston-sticking-ice-pick-hand/](http://www.karmaloop.com/guru/david-blaine-wows-kanye-west-will-smith-bryan-cranston-sticking-ice-pick-hand/) He says that he gauged his hands and arm over 13 years to make a very small hole (like a piercing) that he can use to guide the much larger ice pick through his hand. So he actually did push that ice pick right through his hand. Occam’s Razor at its best. ---
**Author:** ![Rambo2329](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Rambo2329](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rambo2329)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/170 "2014-01-18T17:46:00Z")
I’m no magician, but after watching the Harrison ford trick, it was bothering me how he got him to pick the 9 of hearts or diamonds. A simple search shows you how he pre-planted the card into the orange( use a sharp knife to remove the stalk at top of orange, then use a pen or screw-driver to create a nice gap through the center of the orange, then roll up the card, it should then go in nicely, then simply glue the stalk back neatly on top of the orange, very easy). So, i just had to figure out how he managed to get H to pick the card. I had a theory, and i tried it out on the missus, it worked, and several times since and it works about 7-8 times out of ten, and looks the nuts when it works. Reveal: I put a 9 of diamonds in an orange. Then i said to missus, ’ hey babe, your diamond ring looks great, you women love your diamonds, oh babe, don’t forget i’ve got poker night on Saturday, there’s 9 of us, can you believe it, 9, it’s a record. Hey babe, pick a card, any card, she said 9 of diamonds. Try repeating the 9 and the word diamonds as many times as you can without it being obvious your talking complete garbage. It worked perfectly, i changed it with my father-in-law to King of spades, by after he fixed something for me, i kept calling him the King, over and over, whilst mentioning i’ll give him a spade and he could help me in the garden too, it worked perfectly again, you guessed it, he said King of spades, and now they pester me like crazy to reveal. This was my own theory, but if you think about it like i did, it is the only logical explanation, and it works. Must be how our sub-conscious works. I hope this helped some of you, and good luck giving it a go. ’ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/171 "2014-01-18T18:53:14Z")
> [@quickquest88](#): > > I’ve read this entire thread and who joined just to do this: > > [http://www.karmaloop.com/guru/david-blaine-wows-kanye-west-will-smith-bryan-cranston-sticking-ice-pick-hand/](http://www.karmaloop.com/guru/david-blaine-wows-kanye-west-will-smith-bryan-cranston-sticking-ice-pick-hand/) > > He says that he gauged his hands and arm over 13 years to make a very small hole (like a piercing) that he can use to guide the much larger ice pick through his hand. > > So he actually did push that ice pick right through his hand. Occam’s Razor at its best. Here is a quote from him: > [@](#): > > “Oh, that took me about 13 years. There was a lot of trial and error. It started with acupuncture needles.” Blaine told TV Guide regarding the illusion. “Well, actually, it started with a lot of MRIs and X-rays, mapping out everything in the hand. There are a lot of tendons and nerves in there.” Yep, pretty much what we saw is what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/172 "2014-01-18T20:43:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Rambo2329** : > > This was my own theory, but if you think about it like i did, it is the only logical explanation, and it works. Must be how our sub-conscious works. No, it’s _one_ logical explanation, and maybe it is actually how Blaine did the trick. But with magic tricks, there are _always_ multiple logical explanations. He might have done the trick that way, or he might have done it any of a dozen other ways. ---
**Author:** ![Rambo2329](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Rambo2329](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rambo2329)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/173 "2014-01-19T00:02:12Z")
True, i did mean to say in my opinion, realised it did come across like I’m the Oracle, my bad. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/174 "2014-01-19T01:48:02Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I think it more likely he handed him a deck missing several cards - not enough so you’d notice, but a bunch. I still don’t know how he could confidently proclaim the card wasn’t in the deck - but maybe he was prepared to deal with Ford finding it - either just not showing that segment (instead showing one where it did work), or taking the trick in another direction. > [@Rambo2329](#): > > True, i did mean to say in my opinion, realised it did come across like I’m the Oracle, my bad. Great, now I see Barbara Gordon, in a wheelchair, doing magic tricks with the Commissioner. “You’re the king, dad, the king. I heart Gotham, dad.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/176 "2014-01-20T06:58:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, it’s _one_ logical explanation, and maybe it is actually how Blaine did the trick. But with magic tricks, there are _always_ multiple logical explanations. He might have done the trick that way, or he might have done it any of a dozen other ways. Exactly. That’s one possible way. It may have been some kind of psychological force (although I have my doubts), it may have involved preplanting the forced card (as one explanation I gave), but it may not involve either of these. Maybe there’s a much better and more reliable way that none of us have even thought of in this thread. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. ---
**Author:** ![explores](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@explores](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/explores)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/177 "2015-05-16T17:51:04Z")
> [@bup](#): > > The deck was top half red, bottom half black. As she deals cards, the bottom part of each pile was all red, and the top part all black. Blaine’s keeping track of where card 26 is in his mind, so he knows how many reds ended up at the bottom of each pile. It’s clever reassembling of the two piles where it looks like he’s just pulling up one pile and then the other that makes the piles come out all red and all black. I know this is a old post but I was watching this and noticed something and I didn’t see it mentioned, so I thought I would comment. When he is showing how all of the reds and blacks are in two nice piles. He joins the two stacks together to do the fan. He puts the red on top of the blacks and then flips them over on the table. When he flips them the blacks should have been on the top and the red on the bottom but the red card are on the top. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/178 "2015-05-17T07:49:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > A good magician is never actually in any real danger of hurting themselves… > [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > You don’t think Houdini was a good magician? > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Big T, was Houdini a great magician or not? > [@chargerrich](#): > > Mr. Harry Houdini calling from “the other side” disagrees with you. :smack: > [@jibal](#): > > Uh, ever heard of Houdini? Have any idea how he died? Folks, just for the record, Houdini’s “escapes” were all conjuring tricks. They were illusions. He couldn’t really escape from a sealed milk churn with the locks outside. Some of the stunts were sold to the audience as being dangerous, but not so. That was just part of the illusion. He didn’t take risks, and didn’t put himself in genuine danger. His death was the result of a diseased appendix. He wasn’t hurt during a trick. The boxer who punched him maybe exacerbated an existing condition, but certainly didn’t cause it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/179 "2015-05-17T17:17:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > His death was the result of a diseased appendix. He wasn’t hurt during a trick. The boxer who punched him maybe exacerbated an existing condition, but certainly didn’t cause it. Boxer? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/180 "2015-05-17T17:34:47Z")
I always [heard he was a boxer](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0zbdUkJkm10C&lpg=PA77&ots=JfzgqXTVtr&dq=J.%20Gordon%20Whitehead%20boxer&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q=J.%20Gordon%20Whitehead%20boxer&f=false). Although a brief google shows various other cites disputing it. Do you have reliable information to the contrary? ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/181 "2015-05-17T22:08:02Z")
On the subject of Mr. Blaine’s needle-through-the-arm trick, when I saw it, I was really impressed that what the audience was supposed to _think_ was the trick was, in fact, not the trick at all. Here’s what I mean: I believe that what you see is an artificial limb. It doesn’t move. The fingers don’t move. The only movement is the needle and Dave’s other arm. If it were really his arm, he’d “prove” that fact by moving it around, opening/closing his hand or similar. But, he distracts you from the larger picture by focusing your attention onto the small picture of the needle moving around under the “skin”. So, amazingly, by the time you think the trick “begins”, it’s actually over. Once he’s got the limb in place and the needle in hand, the illusion is complete. If he had spent 13 years creating a “pierced” arm, he would’ve used the arm to shake someone’s hand or similar. I mean, to have invested 13 years and associated pain in a trick and then play it off as he did … not a worthwhile payoff. More likely, a BS explanation to keep people away from the actual mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314/182 "2015-05-17T23:36:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Exactly. That’s one possible way. It may have been some kind of psychological force (although I have my doubts), it may have involved preplanting the forced card (as one explanation I gave), but it may not involve either of these. Maybe there’s a much better and more reliable way that none of us have even thought of in this thread. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. The problem with psychological forces is that they aren’t all that reliable. They at most increase the likelihood that someone will pick what you want them to. If you use them, you have to have a backup plan–usually a lesser trick. I’ve noticed that a lot of these hard to figure out tricks aren’t done in full shows, but in “impromptu” outings. This can allow for much greater diversity, since no one has any clue what trick you are going to pull. They can’t see that it’s the same setup you used for a different trick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-one-of-you-smartasses-spoil-david-blaine-real-or-magic-for-me/674314.md?page=10)