Fox did a Street Magician’s expose on David Blaine and his tricks. Some are pretty clever, but most are depressing when you find out how they’re done.
FYI the levitating trick that David Blaine does looks incredibly impressive on TV. That’s because he uses camera tricks. He get’s audience reaction shots to a cheap gimmick that is simple to figure out - I did the first time I saw what he was doing. Then he later shoots an extra shot of “levitating” about a foot off the ground using a crane. Intersperse the shots with the crowd reactions, audience at home is astounded.
Several of his mind-reading tricks work similarly. He has the person write down the secret name or whatever, then finds an excuse, and “tears up” the paper and has them rewrite it. But he palms the original and checks it, thus knowing the real name. For the TV special, he edits out the first part. Even more impressive that way. The secret to his shows is you only see the successes.
Some of the “mental” tricks like picking numbers are forces - they use subtle controls and psychological tricks to get you to pick a certain numbers without realizing how likely the number you pick is.
One I didn’t see and can’t figure out is how he gets the card into the shoe of the cop.
Actually, the illusions are often great till you find out how they’re done, then you feel so used at how simple and cheesy the solution is. Like the Statue of Liberty gig.
I think the bigger question here is NOT how did he make the SoL disappear, it’s how he made Claudia Schiffer’s taste in men disappear. THAT was a good trick.
BTW, the coolest Copperfield illusion (IMHO) is “The Death Saw.” (It just looks so cool!) It uses about 5 different principles. It’s prolly the most expensive illusion (ever made) in his collection. You can have one built for you for around $400,000 and up.
BTW, I know how 99% of the tricks and illusions are done. Heh, I thought since Cecil devulged how the SoL dissappeared, I’d reveal the flying stunt. But I’m not gonna say how everything’s done.
The cop was probably in on it and I don’t think he even had the card in the shoe. They never showed it! He went inside to remove the shoe and then came out with the card.
“Look everybody! It was in my shoe!”
Yeah right!
Since the answer to “how did he make the Statue of Liberty disappear” doesn’t seem to be widely known (and since it’s so lame), let me explain.
As you recall, Copperfield had erected two giant pillars out in New York harbor to frame the SoL, and had also rigged up a lot of lights to illuminate the statue. What you didn’t know was that there was a third pillar, off to one side. He “disappeared” the SoL over a commercial break, and, when they came back, the lights on the real SoL had been turned off and the camera was turned to look between pillar #2 (to one side of the SoL) and pillar #3 (off in the harbor. Lo and behold, there was no statue there!
A crude diagram to further elucidate (the exclamation points stand in for pillars):
! statue ! empty !
! of ! space, !
! liberty ! dark !
! and ! water !
! island ! !
! ! !
(and that “crude diagram” just took me over half an hour to put together – who says you don’t learn things on this board?)
Damn you, Silo! Yes, I’d like to know, but I understand.
bafaa said:
I can accept that as the answer, given some of the other ploys, but I really would like to think there’s a way to do it without a plant. But he did go into the store just out of eyesight, although with a “witness”.
