talkmagic.co.uk

Well, I suppose David's had an easy time here of late but I saw this item, posted on his forum on November 6th 2003:

He's planning to jump out of a helicopter high above a river on his birthday next year - 4 April.

Blaine told US TV only a few people have survived the "dive of death" and added that hitting water from such a height is like landing on pavement.

He won't be using a parachute, and said that unless he gets the landing exactly right, he could be badly hurt.

Did we miss this?

You didn't miss it, he just never did it. Why? I don't know. However, the fact of the matter is, jumping into water from a high distance is, in fact, like hitting pavement if it is done incorrectly. This would come down to the skill of the jumper, which is not a good thing from Blaine's point of view (too many uncontrolled variables).

Back to the subject, when I hear people comparing Houdini with Blaine, my blood boils. Simply put, there is no real comparison. Houdini was a master of controlling the media and he did this on his own. Blaine has a team of publicist. Possibly, you could compare Blaine's collective publicists to Houdini, but not Blaine himself. Add to this the fact that Houdini was loved by the general populace and Blaine's latest stunt, "Over the Under," left him the butt of many jokes in England and quite despised, and the comparisons really begin falling apart.

I would add some other stuff, but it has already been pointed out in this:

Valentino wrote:True Mark, Houdini is remembered by many for his escapes but this was only a small part of his career.

He was also a close-up magician, a stage magician, a debunker of mystics, and even a man of impossible endurance.

Furthermore, I've heard many magicians say that Houdini was not a very good magician. I must disagree on this point, because the populace always wanted to see Houdini perform. His desire to debunk spritualists was normally part of an overall show. And, by the time he finished his debunking, the audience wanted to see him do magic (they really cared very little for his exposure of false "profits"). Historians on Houdini will bear me out on this. Therefore, even though his skills with sleight of hand may be less than is expected today, the fact remains that he entertained his audience and his skill level means nothing in consideration of the fact that he entertained his audience.

So, let's not compare Houdini to Blaine. It is an unreasonable and non-existant comparison. Just in case you think that this post means I am a Blaine basher, I would refer you to my column on this subject at Visions, found here.

Mike.

Furthermore, I've heard many magicians say that Houdini was not a very good magician. I must disagree on this point

I think it was Dai Vernon (although I might be wrong) who said something along the lines of "if Houdini was as good a close up magician as he was escape artist he might just be any good". Seeing as Dai Vernon was there at the time and met Houdini he has every right to judge Houdini's prowess as a magician. However, I think many people have simply "sided" with the honourable Proffesor in saying Houdini was a poor magician. I truth if he entertained his audiences and they wanted to come and see him in my opinion he was a good magician. It's as simple as that.

Houdini was a master of controlling the media and he did this on his own. Blaine has a team of publicist. Possibly, you could compare Blaine's collective publicists to Houdini, but not Blaine himself.

True but Houdini had a lot less media to contend with. At the time it was pretty much just the newspapers that made any real difference whereas now we have so much more. I think the comparison between Blaine and Houdini comes when we look at there attitudes. Both men aspire to be the greatest showman of all time and both, it is fair to say, have a fairly large ego to get them there.

Houdini was terribly egotistical and overly critical of any form of competition. Of course, there are instances of him encouraging up coming performers but he aldo made outrageously boastful claims which smaked of arrogance and an over active ego.

Blaine's ego was obviously demonstrated in his poor judgment of staging "Above the Below" here in Britain. He expected every body to stop and actually take notice of him when in actual fact people merely mocked him. I think his ego was also apparent in the TV special where he went out to Haiti and expected to entertain the people there with his magic. The culture there is absolutely saturated with magic, but magic in a completly different state and context. In my opinion it seemed exploitative of the people because Blaine could pretty much gaurantee a strong reaction.

It doesn't make me angry when people compare Blaine to Houdini because there are parallels. But we must bare n mind the differences as well.

It doesn't make me angry when people compare Blaine to Houdini because there are parallels. But we must bare n mind the differences as well.

I think the point is that the only person who really comppares Blaine to Houdini is Blaine himself, which gets many peoples back up as it seems such an presumptious and egotistical thing to do.

Now, after saying that I don't think Blaine has actually compared himself as such, I think all he has said is that at the end of his career he would like to be compared with Houdini.

In my opinion David Blaine has done all that he could do close-up wise so he started doing publishity stunts.

All the best,
Dan Turcotte
http://www.YouDoMagic.com
August 16, 2004 - 10:14 PM EST

DanTurcotte wrote:... publishity stunts.

Funny, thats what I thought of his last stunt too!

regards,
Valentino

Yes, it's an odd reaction I have to DB's performances...

The street magic seemed so inarticulate and filled with "macho arrogance" to my eyes. True the characters he met could be scary at times so he probably had to compete. He shows great, great skill, but the results left me thinking "so what?" He seems the type of performer I would *not* like to meet or see perform live... No "Mystery" just "Smarm".

As I say, an odd reaction to a magic performance. Mine entirley I'm sure.

I couldn't understand at all the daft endurance style pranks. I mean if during the time in the box he had been photographed in Edinburgh, New York or somewhere "else", then I might have seen the point performance-wise. That would have been a good trick, stuck up that pole and watched all the time.

Hmmm...

I think that David Blaine is a joke compared to Houdini. I really can believe that he is being compared to him. In all actualality Houdini is far superior like not even in the same ball park as david Blaine. I feel that Houdini was much better by his ways of working with the crowd and the phsycolgy he used to make the audience really believe in what was happening is so far superior than David Blaine.

Hiya Brad.

Yes, I agree with your post. I was a bit baffled when Blaine was stuck up that pole, in a little box, in London for so long. He didn't escape or anything! That *might* be endurance, but it's not *magic* for me! Actually it was very, very, very, very boring!

And of course we are also more familiar with escapology and illusions these days...

Another thing that worries me a bit is the lack of originality in our hobby/profession. Copying someone else is a good way to learn of course (and there's nothing wrong with aspiration) but if a rock band plays nothing but cover songs, no matter how technically proficient they are, they will never be great stars, as such.

True we all have to learn the basics, but finding that "edge" over our competition is not easy. Originality wins it every time.

As a sort of 'truce' from Blaine bashing (and I'm probably one of the worst when it comes to his publicity stunts!) can I mention that he's on the box this weekend in the UK? No? Oh well, I'll mention it anyway. Courtesy of www.magicweek.co.uk, the details are:

21.11.04
David Blaine's Street Magic (Rpt) 10.50pm on Sunday 21st November (1 hour) on Sky One.
Award-winning entertainment with magician David Blaine, who tours the streets stunning (no comment!) unsuspecting (I said 'no comment'!) members of the American public with tricks using cards, coins and levitation.

This is probably one of the better TV shows he did (if you ignore the levitation segments) so let's cut the guy some slack and look for the good parts of his act. (That last part was mainly aimed at me, of course!)

ItsAllAnIllusion wrote:I was a bit baffled when Blaine was stuck up that pole, in a little box, in London for so long. He didn't escape or anything! That *might* be endurance, but it's not *magic* for me! Actually it was very, very, very, very boring!

Truth be told, as boring as it was, over a quarter of a million Brits showed up to see him in the box. They may have criticised, they may have complained, they may have put the man down, but show up they did. And, at the end of the day (or end of the 40 some days) Blaine was given a multi-million pound pay-off.

Boring? Yes. Rather dumb? Yes. Lucrative? Absolutely.

Mike.

The latest series on TV called 'Magic' (BBC 2) which just finished last Saturday taught me something that I never knew about and that was the stunts of escape artiste Alan Alan (Shown on 13/11/04 episode). He did some amazing stunts for his time which parallels what Blaine is doing today, yet how many people remember him. But everyone REMEMBERS Houdini.

To me that is the point. We all know about Blaine now, but 10, 20, 50 years later who knows. I very much doubt it.

regards,
Valentino

Well this thing is pretty much dead.

But I have to hand it to blaine. He may not be in the same genre of magic as Houdini and he does not have the audience skills that Houdini had. But he made a name for him self in the magicians world and most especially with the laymen. Nearly everyone has heard of david Blaine so that is an accomplishment. He has made a lot of money doing it too. SO

To each their own. i guess
-Lilhudiniboy

Look, look ,look , here, here, here,


Wonderful Patter David.


David Blaine is just a good club level magician that got lucky.


Houdini was a showman - There is no comparison.



Paula

Fight... Fight!!