Stage magicians are professional liars.
I do believe David Blaine did this as an actual stunt, but it is nuts. I am almost expecting to learn that he dies from something like this in the future.
I linked to the stunt above. It’s pretty clear that is what happened. It’s possible that they doctored the ultra high speed camera with CGI but it is unlikely. It’s not like he claimed to catch it in his teeth. He performed the stunt in a very plausible and unspectacular manner. Blaine is of course a magician but he also performs straight up stunts. I would prefer he stuck to the tricks. Many of his stunts might be dangerous but they are pretty boring to watch.
If Blaine says that he did it as an actual stunt, then I’m skeptical. If he says that he did it as an actual stunt but that the custom-designed mouth guard shattered despite being designed not to, then I’ll call him an outright liar. There’s no reason whatsoever for him to use equipment that hadn’t been tested. Stick the mouthguard in a manikin and shoot at it, and if it doesn’t perform as it’s supposed to, reinforce it and try again until it does.
I’m skeptical as well. I realize some people are stupid enough to try a stunt like that but how do you get so many participants involved in something that could turn into a homicide charge if something goes wrong? It’s going to take a lot more proof than YouTube to convince me.
As I said above, I don’t know enough about magic to speak knowledgeably on this topic, but my gut feel is that magicians will say or do anything in the service if their craft. I see no reason to take Blaine at face value.
And Blaine in particular has a long track record of faking tricks for the camera.
Amazingly enough, for a lot of the people that try to do it for real it’s only dangerous on the first attempt.
I may be gullible, but I believe him. I also think he’ll get killed doing something some day.
This was certainly true with his first specials, especially the flying illusion he did. He used fake shots and fake crowd reactions, etc.
I’m surprised he ever recovered from his earliest specials.
Years ago, I saw a backstage documentary in which Alice Cooper showed off some of the contraptions he used in his stage show (the great James Randi designed many of them for Alice). And he said nonchalantly that many of the gadgets ARE dangerous and COULD kill him if he didn’t do the tricks properly. That guillotine with which he used to behead himself on stage really COULD have decapitated him if he wasn’t careful.
After demonstrating how these machines worked, he laughed “The crazy thing is, I used to do all this stuff drunk.”
Yes he is a magician. But he isn’t Chris Angel. He also has a long track record of doing stunts that don’t involve trickery. Watch the clip I linked above.
If Blaine is the source of the video then there’s no reason to accept it as real.
That’s really the problem; these guys are so good that unless you are an expert in illusion and slight of hand there’s no way to be sure. If Penn and Teller say that he did it I’ll believe them.
The way I see it, if you ever once use camera tricks to do any trick, then I can never again trust any video you ever reveal of any trick.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I.e., the force of the bullet is the same force you feel when you shoot the bullet. If it wouldn’t break your wrist, it wouldn’t break anything else. A bullet is dangerous not so much because of the force, but because of the surface area that it is spread over.
If he isn’t doing it via some entertaining-and-difficult-to-figure-out-but-perfectly-safe method and is actually getting shot at, then by definition it isn’t a magic trick, but a dangerous (and arguably irresponsible) stunt.
Did you watch it? It is a very plausible method and he doesn’t attempt to make it flashy or magicy. Just like standing on a platform for many hours isn’t a trick but isn’t good for you.
Doesn’t make it real. It’s his job to make illusions and he’s never shown any reservations about using all the tricks in the book.
It’s also the distance over which the bullet accelerates. The bullet is accelerated over the length of the barrel. To stop it any more quickly requires greater force. A bullet may not break your wrist as it accelerates along the barrel when you fire it but if it hits your head you can’t afford to have deccelerate through your brain.
There’s zero chance Blaine performed the bullet stunt as advertised.