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OK. I respect David Blaine a lot. Without him, magic would not be nearly as big as it is today. He was the one that popularized street magic, so all of us owe him a big thanks. However, just because we thank him doesn't mean we can't make fun of his horrible patter. Post your favorites of Blaine's patter here. I'll give you a few of mine.

1. It appears David has just finnished getting out of bed.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=76m-amfEFXs

2. A record number of "looks"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aiTnLF51HwI& ... ed&search=

Please post some of your favorites

It works for him, so i like his style

I have often thought that David Blaine's lack of presentation is superb presentation in itself. Think about it.

Yes. It gives his magic a surreal feel to it which can make even the basic effects he performes look and feel like real magic.

Paul Harris likes David Blaine because apparently they share a similar simplicity philosophy. Their vision of magic doesn't require clever linguistics or patter- just something that's visual and impossible.

I am afraid Paul Harris is not an entertainer. Creative genius yes. Entertainer no.
Mind you he likes my book and I still use his recommendation in my advertising.

The Mysterious Stranger....I love his presentation. It's one of a kind.
His shows are about reactions, and his character gets him those reactions.

That's what counts.

I don't know that his tricks are impossible, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure how he gets some of the reactions he gets. Now he could out-magic me any day, but given that I can do almost every trick he did on David Blaine's Street Magic, I don't understand why people are so absolutely shocked when he does stuff. I respect him as a magician, but a strengthening of his presentation would go a long ways towards his tricks being more impressive. All his tricks seem to be different combinations of basic card techniques (DL, TB, etc.).

JAlexBrown

JAlexBrown,

You seem to be contradicting yourself. Maybe the reason people are so shocked when they see his tricks is because of his presentation. You say strengthening his presentation would go a long way to improving his tricks but from the sound of it it doesn't seem like he needs to improve his tricks.

Also, an unsophisticated guesstimate of mine would be that 80-90% of all card magic is just different combinations of very basic techniques, like DLs, controls etc.

The magic he does is pretty impressive, and he understands the power of silence.

Cardza wrote:The magic he does is pretty impressive, and he understands the power of silence.

Yeah, that's something I'm really trying to add to my patter - knowing just when to shut the hell up.

As an entertainer I have this internal mechanism that tells me to keep talking, keep talking, continue to talk and entertain, blah, blah, blah. What Blaine does brilliantly is keep his gob shut.

Initially it worked for him, but after his street magic stuff (which was good) he had nowhere to go except poor man's Houdini type stunts.
He lacks the charisma for a stage show and he's too well know to do things on the street these days, so it's left him in a bit of a quandry career wise. (Though I'm sure he's been rewarded financially for his previous work).

His style was perfect in the context of a mysterious person approaching someone on the street, doing incredible things but where to now?

Sitting in a plastic box didn't create the same reaction his street magic did.

Not talking works well for his style. It makes him seem like he does not care about you reactions, which makes you want to give a bigger one.

donkeylord wrote:Not talking works well for his style. It makes him seem like he does not care about you reactions, which makes you want to give a bigger one.

I agree, and I also think it makes the spectators think it's real magic. It's like he is unamazed because it's just some weird phenomenon that he can somehow control. If you could really do magic would you constantly be saying "look the cards switched" or would you sit back and just let it happen?

I agree with donkylord, Blaines 'lack of caring' and lack of 'traditional' - look at me I can do magic, wanna see a magic trick patter means that the trick becomes all about the visualisations of the trick. This leaves the spectator with an intense visual magical memory, and (as Derren Brown states in his book) that is the main thing which makes the trick - how people remember it and how they then spread word of you as a magician.

I think his lack of patter means that the trick is 'he pulled out a deck, did this thing to it, then it was my card through the glass :-O'.
I personally think its great, maybe not for up close bar / wedding work, but for street magic or 1 to 1 performances, the its a winner in my books

Dan