All I’ll say is, that trick is out of this world.
Mr. Harry Houdini calling from “the other side” disagrees with you. :smack:
Hmm.
Okay.
It’s got David Blaine in it. Just TRY to enjoy it NOW! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Personally, I have no opinion on whether the skewer through the arm was real or faked, but I also think it doesn’t really matter. The whole point of a magic trick is that you see something that you know isn’t really possible, leaving you wondering just how the illusion could be produced. But it really is possible to stick a skewer through a person’s flesh, and Blaine is crazy enough to actually do it. Given that he could have done it in the obvious way, there’s no wonder left to it even if he actually didn’t.
Um, the Tony Curtis movie was not a documentary.
The whole show is on YouTube here: - YouTube.
Regarding the Harrison Ford card trick, I have a few questions: Why does Harrison very deliberately hold the back half of the orange as David is cutting it? David’s got two hands, he’s holding onto the the orange from the front as he starts to cut it, the back half isn’t going to go anywhere, so what the heck does Harrison think he’s accomplishing? Second, once David has cut far enough to reveal the rolled up card, why doesn’t he let Harrison do the rest? Harrison’s hand is already right there, so why does David pull the orange apart to fully reveal the card?
I think the most straightforward answer to both is that Harrison is in on the trick. To those who say that that couldn’t be the case because David couldn’t afford to pay Harrison his going rate, I ask: Why do you assume that the only way Harrison Ford would agree to help David Blaine with a magic trick is for money? Maybe they’re friends. Maybe Harrison, as big a celebrity as he is, is no different than a lot of people and just thought it would be fun to help a magician.
Harrison Ford section at 27:42.
What I see: David has Harrison select a piece of fruit. He then asks if they can cut it open, and motions to the knife and cutting board. Note that David rotates the orange in Harrison’s hand but does not remove it. Harrison then sets the orange down on the cutting board, on its end. Typically an orange had a knobbly bit on one end and many people will set it down on that knobbly bit to keep it from rolling around. David then has Harrison say his card out loud. Notice how Harrison almost doesn’t want to say it aloud. Also note his perplexed look throughout this entire clip. At no point does he look like the confident guy from his acting roles. Instead he looks completely flustered and bewildered this entire segment.
Now David instructs Harrison to turn the orange sideways. This is because the card is inserted up the core, so he wants the knife to enter perpendicular to the card for the reveal. Harrison lays it over but still has it oriented with the core parallel to the direction of the knife. Because Harrison has his fingertips on the orange ends but is crooked from David, David reaches over to rotate the orange for the proper orientation. And Harrison lets go. Then David tells Harrison to hold it, so Harrison reaches back over to hold the other side of the orange as instructed.
At this point David is commenting on “see inside how there is a card” and he picks up the orange to separate the halves. As he pulls it apart, the card is present. He then has Harrison pull the card out and reveal that it is the 9 of hearts, his previously stated card.
So why does David do the reveal? I suppose it’s possible that is part of how he makes the card substitution. However, in the flow of that scene Harrison has stepped back and is letting David do much of the action, so it flows from that position in the act where David is holding the orange with his left hand. Basically he completed the reveal in one rather smooth action rather than handing over the orange.
Now let’s return to a comment I made specifically above, about how Harrison picked up the orange and David shifted it in his hands. I think this was done specifically to help prevent Harrison from spotting anything wrong. I think Harrison unintentionally held up the orange with the stub of the core toward himself, and David wanted to keep him from looking with any consideration at that end of the orange. So he shifted it slightly so Harrison was looking at the side of the orange.
I disagree. Is it possible? Sure, but I find it unlikely. We have already been shown in this thread a technique to pre-prepare a card in an orange and then get the mark to pick that card. We see in this clip the actions of David in adjusting the orange when Harrison picks it up so the end is not where he’s staring at the orange. Look at the orange when he does the separation. You will note there is not a typical orange core of a white stem, and there is a clean hole from where the card was inside the top half of the orange.
I think the simple answer is that Blaine pre-staged a card in an orange, pre-staged the orange in the existing fruit bowl (any number of ways, possibly an accomplice from the film crew). We are not privy to any of the conversation leading up to this clip, we don’t know why Blaine is at Ford’s house, or what was said prior to the initiation, all we start with is Blaine asking Ford to pick a card. Notice how Ford responds when Blaine asks if he has any way to know which card was picked. Ford wants to say “no” but is uncertain because he knows Blaine’s a magician, so he kinda hedges with a kind of a headshake but then keeps silent, with a “what are you about to do” look on his face.
I think that Blaine manipulated the conversation and did some type of force to get Ford to pick the 9 of hearts, which was already prestaged. I think Ford is not in on it, really amazed and bewildered by it. I think the clip was edited to eliminate any material that would reveal how Blaine led into the trick to get Ford to pick the card.
I suppose one thing he could have done differently was have Ford pick up the knife and do the cut. He would have had to direct the cutting to get it at the proper angle, but it would have removed his handling during the reveal. Thus there is room to think he did the trick then. But I don’t.
I think it’s much more fun for Blaine to amaze and confuse celebrities for the audience than it is to pay celebrities. I think there are plenty of magician’s techniques to pull off the trick without resorting to using a confederate.
He’s an actor. And quite a good one, according to the experts on such matters. I kind of think that he could convincingly look flustered and bewildered on purpose. Harrison Ford is, from what I can tell, an intelligent person. I frankly just don’t buy that he would actually be as much of a flustered, fawning schoolgirl as he portrays in that segment.
When David has Harrison take the orange, he (David) says, “Grab a piece of fruit.” At no point does he say “orange”, or “that one”. He points generally at the bowl, but certainly not at the orange specifically; and even so, look at Harrison, he’s looking down the whole time, unlikely that he’d even be aware of the pointing. Watch the clip. There are two fruit bowls. Harrison doesn’t take from the bowl that’s closest to him. He doesn’t take the apple that’s right in front. He doesn’t hesitate or waver. He reaches deliberately past one bowl, past a perfectly good apple and goes straight for the orange.
I agree that I think the orange was pre-prepared, but I do not believe that, if Harrison did not know ahead of time which fruit to pick, that David would be so vague about it and risk the whole trick being spoiled by Harrison taking the wrong one.
There’s that word “pay” again. I don’t for a second believe that David Blaine in any way paid Harrison Ford to collude on that trick. I think that there was some kind of party or show at Harrison’s house and he just agreed to help out David for the fun of it. I think that David’s focus is on amazing the TV audience. There is certainly plenty of evidence that he’s doctored things in the past to make the TV presentation more amazing than it was in person. Getting a celebrity to help is just more of the same.
I saw a magician at a county fair this summer do the card in an orange trick, but he used a $20 bill. Early in the show, he handed an orange to a woman to hold for the duration of the show and had a man sign a $20 bill. Later in the show pulled that same bill out of the orange that the woman had been holding all along. The magician himself did the handling and cutting of the orange for the reveal. He had to be palming the bill and insert it into the orange after cutting it open. There’s no other way. He was quite good because it was a close up, street magic style trick where the crowd was gathered around him.
Blaine had to have done the same thing. If he’s at least as good at palming as the county fair magician I saw, he could have easily done it and fooled Han and anyone else in the room.
Woman in crowd could also be a confederate.
No, he didn’t have to. One of the secrets of magic is that there are always multiple ways to do what looks like the same trick. That way, even if you figure out how it’s done one time, you won’t believe it, because that won’t account for another time that you saw it done a different way. Like in this case: You “know” that the card wasn’t in the orange the whole time, because you saw a different trick once where the thing in the orange was signed… Even though it wasn’t actually signed in this trick. They could have been done using completely different methods.
Oh, and on the subject of which fruit Ford grabbed, keep in mind, there was nothing stopping Blaine from preparing a card in every piece of fruit. If he could smuggle one in, he could smuggle them all in. It’s not like the price of a dozen packs of cards would bankrupt him (especially given that he could still use the other cards in some other trick).
Yeah, it seems to me that there is a ton of different ways this trick could have been done, so there’s no need to think Harrison Ford was paid off or in on the trick or anything like that. I’m sure you can find a good number of street magicians who would be able to duplicate the effect for you.
I’m well aware that he is an actor and a good one. I have seen many of his works. However, I have also seen him as a guest on the Tonight Show. When he’s not in character, he can be less than the smooth charming character we see on the big screen. I have seen him nearly that flustered upon one occassion. He’s apparently actually a pretty shy and reserved guy.
And why couldn’t he be a “flustered, fawning schoolgirl”? Maybe he was a bit drunk? Maybe he hasn’t studied magic tricks and was truly impressed. Having that kind of thing done personally for you, in front of you, can really be impressive, especially if you don’t know the things to look for. I’ve seen magic that I didn’t know how it was done.
It’s arguable that the other bowl is closer. Sure, he’s looking down at the cards rather than specifically at Blaine’s gesture. When he looks up, Blaine gestures a second time, not really very specifically. Watch Ford’s gaze. He looks off camera to camera left, then looks at the far bowl, there’s nothing prominent there, then he drifts to the near bowl. That one has a pile of apples with one apple up front, an orange sitting back a bit, and some other oranges back behind the apples. He might have felt he was skipping the obvious by skipping the closest apple that is sitting right there and instead grabbed the orange behind it. But the thing is, the orange is psychologically more appealing because it is not the most prominent, and because it is an orange on a pile of apples. It is subtlely attention drawing while not looking like it is the obvious choice.
Maybe he prepped the apple and the orange. Or maybe he understands the psychological underpinnings of how people choose in those kinds of situations, and so he knew how to prep the scene to look like a free choice but really guide the choice to the one he wished. What I can tell you is my first time watching I was thinking “He’s going to pick that orange”.
Okay, I’m in agreement there. Ford had Blaine over for some social engagement, and this got filmed as part of them hanging out. Ford is not being paid as an actor to appear.
I just am not convinced Blaine said “Hey Harrison, I’m filming a magic special, and it would be cool if you helped me out. Want to be in on a magic trick, to know the secret? Can you keep a secret? Okay, you pick the 9 of hearts, and then when I tell you, select that orange. It will be cool.”
I think Blaine is a skilled magician. I think he knows multiple ways to pull off illusions that don’t require the participant to be in collusion. Is it possible Ford was in on it for the kicks of being part of the trick? Sure. I just don’t think it is as likely as Ford is honestly astonished by the trick, but that Blaine is using some subtle psychology and other tools to get the outcome he desires. Because if it doesn’t work, he doesn’t include it in his special, and if is does work, it’s golden.
I certainly agree about doctoring or otherwise using TV editing to make the illusions more impressive. Getting a celebrity to help would be in that vein. Just like having a pool full of confederates acting like they don’t notice the plexiglas stands that the magician is using to “walk on water”. But I’m not convinced it is required for the trick we see filmed.
Just like it’s possible he did the trick differently, used sleight of hand to plam the card into the orange, and somehow forced the rolled up card through the end of the orange as he pulled the halves apart. Um, no, I’m not buying that. The thing is, as Chronos says, there are lots of ways to do what appears to be the same trick so that the audience will secondguess themselves. I think he could pull off this trick without Ford being in on it.
Ok, he didn’t have to do it the same way as the county fair magician. But it sure beats the hell out of planting 52 pieces of fruit in someone’s house. And I’m willing to bet a lot that Blaine’s sleight of hand is at least as good as the county fair magician’s.
I can’t believe there are still people claiming the skewer “trick” is fake, especially since someone so kindly provided a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC link to a woman who does exactly that. Look back in the thread. The show is called “Humanly Impossible”, and if you think National Geographic is just covering for David Blaine, you’ve got issues.
The show explains everything, and even gives you a real-time ultrasound image of the skewer going through the woman’s arm. They explain why there isn’t blood, and how you can skewer your arm without showing pain. The simplest explanation is that, just like with the fire water trick, Blaine went searching for someone who could teach him how to do the arm skewer, and he taught himself how to ignore the pain and perform it. He is, after all, someone who has clearly gained some mastery over his bodily reactions.
I can’t be sure about the orange trick, but I believe he influenced Ford to choose that specific card. Look up Derren Brown to see some good examples of mentalism and NLP - you can, with a few sentences or a touch here or there, evoke images and ideas in people’s heads. It’s easy to later say, “I didn’t influence you at all, did I?” because most people don’t realize when they’re being influenced. Most people also like to think that they aren’t easily influenced, so mentalists take advantage of that as well.
For instance, I noticed that when he did the black cards, red cards split deck trick, he told the woman to deal the cards, and that she could do “three at a time” if she wanted to. He tapped on the counter top as well. I noticed that when she dealt the cards out, she was doing it (at first, at least) in the order that he tapped out. There were a lot of groups of three when she dealt the cards. He clearly influenced her.
What surprises me most around here is how so many people seem completely unable to tell when someone is genuinely surprised or when they’re acting. There are certain human expressions that cannot be faked because the muscles used to create those expressions cannot be controlled consciously. Surprise is one of them.
Google ‘microexpressions’ to learn more about that. There are even tests you can take to test your ability to recognize genuine emotions vs. fake ones. Educate yourself, and then go back and rewatch this. I saw one person who didn’t appear to be genuinely surprised - the young girl standing next to the indian man. The other people on the street and the actors and actresses, all had the markers of genuine surprise.
Do with that what you will. Maybe he performed real tricks, then used video editing to edit in genuine reactions to a different set of tricks. I could buy that.
Oh, and smug? Really? I don’t see smugness. I do, however, see social awkwardness. David Blaine lacks a great amount of social comfort and appears to be someone for whom social smoothness had to be intentionally learned. He’s an odd duck, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that social oddness is what people are picking up on, mixed with a healthy dose of emotional projection and - let’s face it - envy.
Only someone with a very low IQ or very poor powers of perception could think that any of those videos with rubber glue are what Blaine did.
Then your opinion is completely and utterly worthless.
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I know on past Blaine specials they have creative editing where the trick you see on TV is not the same as the one the live spectators are seeing.
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What you see in the video is what you see in the video … duh.
If you actually bother to watch the video you would realize how incredibly stupid your lack of doubt about that is.
What’s with all these idiots who didn’t actually watch the segment but are just so certain that it’s “the exact same” as a much easier and less convincing trick that they have seen?
Gervais being in on it wouldn’t begin to explain it. Anyway, he wasn’t.
Pot/kettle/black, you arrogant, smug asshole … you have no idea how he does his tricks.