what is talking about is Emile Heskey, england football ‘striker’. they keep playing him, and he seriously does nothing for us. known to everyone i know that watches football as ‘the plank’.
the box refers to the goal mouth area, and his distinct ability to not only not score, but fall over in it whenever a ball comes within 2 feet.
glad i could clear that up for our american dope friends.
i’m still surprised nobodys tried referencing 1920s you know what against my biscuit cannon…
Well, apparently the Guinness Book of Records is just as unimpressed with Blaine’s stunt (which isn’t “magic” by any means) as many people in the thread are.
So, why is Blaine getting all the attention again? It’s not magic, and it’s been done before: longer and better. Move along, folks, nothing to see here…
To quote Stephen King, “Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth.”
Scylla, did you mean that Blaine actually wants people to believe he’s cheating, as a form of misdirection? That seems weird to me.
Overly simplified example: a magician uses misdirection to attract the audience’s attention to, say, his left hand. Then, with his right hand, he grabs a bouquet of flowers from the inside of his collar. Your attention is then directed back to his right hand, displaying the flowers. “Whoa! Where’d those come from!?” That’s the payoff.
With Blaine, even if he succeeds, there’s no payoff. People can just keep assuming he cheated. I don’t see the entertainment value in that. I can see the potential for revenue, because he is still reaching an audience.
And on a tangent, how do professional magicians feel about Penn and Teller? Are they pissed about all the tricks they’ve exposed, or are they tolerant, as long as only basic tricks they give away?
I’m not a magician, but it seems like Penn and Teller could actually be a positive thing, forcing magicians to hone their skills and be more innovative.
Watching David Blaine with these latest gimmicks, is the equivalent to feeding a monkey and watching him shit. Mama must be proud. I wonder, can he change his own diapers too? Well, we all know what Randi thinks of Geller. I think Blaine is walking on thin ice with Randi if Blaine is saying “that as far as he knows, Uri is authentic.” Concerning the ‘ice tomb’, it’s probably best described as a fuckin’ igloo, and we’ve all seen how well Eskimo’s live in those, so big fuckin‘ whoppee! Somebody give Blaine a banana. His latest gimmick, has about as much appeal to me as watching ice melt, or as Guinastaisa described it, **I can’t think of anything I’d want to watch less than some attention whore sitting in a box shitting himself. ** I think it is humanely possible to such a thing if done legitimately, but who really cares? If Fox was correct in how he did the igloo bit, in which they went into detail, then Blaine, did what comes naturally to magicians and illusionists: they cheated. They often have numerous easier routes to take.
JZ
You wouldn’t think something like this would raise anyone’s ire at all. It seems like it should be “huh, this is neat” to “eh, who cares” rather than “let’s assault him with baked goods”. I guess the dope really does have all kinds in it.
Hmmm…I think I see a way Mr. Blaine can get some publicity AND feed the starving at the same time.
In the meantime, what I want to know is: is it legal to load a biscuit cannon with Jaffa cakes?
Well I tried.
I know one way of doing this trick (dunno if it’s the method Blaine used). I’ll tell you because I don’t think it’s any big secret and it’s not really even a “trick”.
Ask somebody to pick a two digit number between 1 and 50. Both digits must be different and both must be odd numbers.
Say all this quite fast and harry them to pick a number, don’t let them think about it for too long. Say “OK you’ve got your number, now I want you to mentally project that number to me”.
Everyone always picks 37 or 35, usually 37.
Even if you don’t tell them to pick odd numbers, there’s a good chance they’ll still go for 37. Don’t know why. It’s one of those tricks that doesn’t always work (you’re playing percentages) but it looks great when it does work.
IANAM but far as I’m aware, Penn and Teller don’t give away any real secrets, they just make it look like they do. A trick may have a dozen different ways of doing it - the solution they “reveal” will probably be the least likely one to be actually used by magicians.
So they do tell you a way of doing the trick but not the way that pro magicians use.
Likewise, I would be wary of the masked magician too. I think he has annoyed magicians by giving away a bit too much on occasion but a lot of his methods seem a bit suspect to me.
I think he could be like Penn and Teller, he doesn’t necessarily reveal the full story.
Don’t they notice that you’re confirming their number against a paper with someone else’s initials on it?
The initials are on the hat, not the paper.
Actually, that’s an interesting point. My guess is that it’d work something like this. The initials would appear next to the number, on the INSIDE of the paper. As an example, you’ve got five people, including one accomplice, who choose the following numbers:
AB: 5
CD: 11
EF: 6
GH: 24
IJ (Accomplice): 19
You predict people’s numbers and open the papers as follows:
“IJ, I predict you have chosen the number 19. Lemme find your paper” (rummage through, choose AB’s paper, look at it w/o showing anyone) – “Yep! And AB, I’m getting a five vibe from you…” (rummage through, pick out CD’s paper, look at it surreptitiously) “Good, good! CD, you seem more like an elevener to me…” (rummage through, pick out EF’s paper) “Three for three! And three and three is six, EF, did you choose six? Let’s find out:” (rummage for GH’s paper) “There it is, a six for EF! That leaves us with GH, who chose, lemme guess, a 24? Let’s open this last slip --” (take out IJ’s slip) “24! Am I good or am I good? Anyone who wants can take a look at the slips.”
When I’ve done the trick, I’ve done it only with one person, so there were no initials involved. That would make it a little more complicated.
Daniel
Oops, scylla plainly described the initials on the outside, not the inside. Teach me not to read carefully. Is this just palming, then?
Daniel
“Were” friendly, unless something has changed as of late. I just read Randi’s link concerning David Blaine, and Randi says David and I had a friendly relationship at one time… I fail to see Randi’s remark as being facetious, but dead serious when he says with regret that he‘s now gone “to the Dark Side.” Here’s the pertinent quote from the link:
Blaine endorsing such a charlatan is liable to have some serious consequences.
JZ
**
When he’s doing a trick, absolutely. The way to pull off magic tricks is mostly by getting people to focus on the wrong thing as they try to figure out how you’re doing the trick. As long as they’re focussed on the wrong thing, you can pull your chicanery unnoticed.
Palming a card is a prime example. If everybody’s looking at your left hand, they won’t see the card hidden in your right. So you want to make people suspect that left hand and focus on in while you’re palming with you’re right.
The fun of magic tricks is trying to figure out how the guy’s doing it.
Yeah, but he gets a lot of attention as people try to figure out how
Penn & Teller give away kids’ magic when they give away anything. They are both very skilled technically, and lots of times when you think they are giving away something they’re not really giving away anything. They’re just teasing.
Most people like them fine, as far as I know.
I
No. I just keep the initials hidden without obviously appearing to try to do so. It helps if the pieces of paper are small.
The way it works for me, is I pick up the paper with the initials of the person next to my wife (my wife is holding the “hat” so it’s not like she’s going to blab when I pick up the wrong piece,) and I say "Honey you’re going to order chicken. I unfold the paper, glance it and read the next person’s order.
“Yup, chicken,” I say, and I now know what the next entree is. I hold the papers in my hand, and just add to them as I “confirm” my predictions. When I’m done, I throw all the papers on the table showing all the evidence.
What you suggested earlier woudn’t screw me up.
I would just tell you that you were going to order “Steak.” Since you didn’t write your choice down, you can’t prove me wrong.
can you feel the magic?
the magic is coming
shazam
yes, jaffa cakes are acceptable ammo for the biscuit cannon
But…but…but…
…they’re cake! :eek:
There’s been a high-fluttin’ legal case about Jaffa’s because there are tax implications (cake vs. biscuit, apparently. Errr, ‘allegedly’ M’ilord). The chilling words ‘VAT’ were mentioned . . . . . visit a GQ forum near you for further details.
I too am having a Barry Manilow Moment. And It Just Won’t Pass:
Baby I love you, come, come,
Come into my arms,
Let me know the wonder of all of you,
Baby I want you, now, now,
Now and hold on fast,
Could this be Friday at last!
adaptability is the second rule of civilisation. and biscuit cannons.
just like opinions=liquidization
shazam
“hey, these people cant hear me up in my box. hey you, yeah, i slept with your mother. yeah, and your girlfiend.yeah heh heh.here comes the magic.heh heh raglblbblagagghaghghagghhbbghagshazam”
paulberserker: Please tell me avocados work in the biscuit cannon as well. Squishy, green avocado mush on a plexi-glass box just sounds so,. erm,. poetic.
we’d be better off shooting avacados out of the wedding cake trebuchet. there a bit on the heavy side for the cannon.
we could of course use the ratapult. avacados make great tracer bullets.
now that i could charge people to see. a beautiful 3 tiered wedding cake, exploding in slow motion over the perspex box, raining icing fragments over the gawping crowd below. and amongst the remains left plastered all over the box, is a 4 of hearts stuck there.
which is of course, the card someone had previously chosen from the deck.
now thats magic!
say yes paul
He’s reading The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka.
Okay, it’s a short story, but he’s only going to be in there for 44 days.