talkmagic.co.uk

when blaine first came on telly, I always wanted to watch his shows and was intrigued by him. That was before I had an interest in the actual magic, I was more interested in the showmanship and how it was presented. As time went on however I quickly got bored of the mystery he was trying to shroud himself in and the character he was presenting . I still appreciate his early work and the magic but didn't buy into the character side. I don't know if this is just because I'm older or not, but thats just my opinion on it. I'd still watch his show because as someone pointed out elsewhere, there's not much in the way of magic on tv anymore!

Mandrake wrote:

Mickeyboy wrote:Before he came along magic (especially on TV) was not so much languishing in the doldrums as in its death throes. For Joe Public, magic stopped with David Nixon and Paul Daniels, and was seen as the preserve of balding men in their late middle age (not unlike m'good self) wearing threadbare evening dress and producing knotted silks and doves.

I think you'll find that magicians like Doug Henning killed off that old top hat and tails image back in the 1970s well before David Blaine came along, he wore jeans and tee shirts, had long hippy hair and a moustache and instead of presenting an effect he was in there as part of it. Sadly Doug gave up his career far too early and magic went back into the Tuxedo and doves era again - good but not as fresh as Doug's presentations. David Blaine had to do it all over again and, as annoying as his silly stunts are, he's actually quite a good magician. His big contribution is that he got everyone interested in, talking about, and for many actually learning/performing magic.

I take on board what you're saying there, but I was talking about the time that Blaine emerged. Also, don't forget - we're fans. At the time of the first Blaine special, I doubt that if you'd shown Joe Public a picture of Doug Henning pulling a rabbit from a hat with his name at the bottom, or a flowing-haired Ricky Jay throwing Ricky Jay branded cards at a banana he'd have been able to identify them.

Just saying, like...

we were lucky to have blaine, he made magic modern (despite using classic principles and methods) hip and according to some of my female friends, rather easy on the eye too...

i freely admit i was very interested when he first appeared in the UK - he managed to have that air of mystery all good magicians and mentalists should have...

When i first saw David Blaine i knew little to nothing of magic, so i thought he was the devil. I truly thought he had a power.

Now when i watch the same special, i know how its all done, but it still looks like real magic to me because Blaine acts like he believes it's real magic. That's what really sells it.

Hats off to him i say.

Mickeyboy wrote:I doubt that if you'd shown Joe Public a picture of Doug Henning pulling a rabbit from a hat with his name at the bottom, or a flowing-haired Ricky Jay throwing Ricky Jay branded cards at a banana he'd have been able to identify them...

I'd certainly agree with that, and that's why David Blaine deserves recognition because he had to break the mould all over again. If only he'd stick to magic though.....

So what do you think the state of modern magic would be like today without the Blaine or Brown effect? Just pretend that no one else came along and did what they did.

My feeling is the number of online stores and the number of effects would be reduced. Also, forums like this, may not be so many in number. The industry today owes the 2 B's a lot.

I too share the sentiments of some of the posts above and when David Blaine first came on the UK television screens around 18 years ago I knew diddly squat about magic other thana Svengali deck an dynamic coins.

I'd go into work and it was all that my colleagues of the time were talking about. He was a BIG media draw and his first shows topped the TV ratings.

It doesn't seem to be cool anymore to like David, possibly because of his stunts but you can bet that millions will still tune in on Friday night. I mentionned to a colleague who is around 10 years younger than me and the first thing he said was that he'd sky + the show.

Lay peple are still intruiged and I think that we should all recognise just what David did for magic in the early to mid 90's.

Take a straw pole and ask your friends and family to name a magician and I'd bet that a very high percentage would answer David Blaine.

I remember a line from the Troy film where Achilles said something along the lines of history remembers great peoples name, not necessarily their actions.

And i remember the words of Beverly Rubik........not that i was there to hear them but anyway..........

You can recognise a pioneer by the arrows in his back.

Thats why Blaine gets a bit of stick now.

Although admittedly his stunts are getting lamerer and lamererer.

and pointlesser and pointlesser...

was death dive that bad i'd never even heard of that stunt till i read this thread lol

He's just trying something different, I would prefer if he did more magic on his specials tho.

Dive of Death wasn't bad, it was just delayed due to the network and Presidents Speech, and during that time the wind picked up and screwed it up.

The street magic in the Dive of death was brill

I like the fact that Blaine made the "Classics" hip again.

What really makes me laugh, is when i working there seemed to be a sudden rise in street magic, and street magicians.

A few years later and there has been a rise in bearded, mentalists.

Just wondering whats next?

Proofreaders?

might advertise myself as a lottery consultant and see how that catches on

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