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I'd like to say Shoot Ogawa. That man's hands are so fast it's ridiculous. With his thimbles, coins, wands, etc. I just sit there with my mouth open in shock every time I look him up on YouTube. And Ninja Rings? Genius. Love him

monker59 wrote:

Lawrence wrote:and after reading a bit about him i've now developed a little facination with the spiritualism (contacting the dead really) side of magic, or the show there of. i too would love to believe somewhere it wasn't all b*ll*cks!

Wait: I thought Houdini never did believe it was possible to contact the dead. I thought he basically went on crusades exposing so-called "psychics". But maybe I'm wrong, I haven't brushed up on Houdini in awhile.

from what i've been reading he was on a crusade to find someone who was actually genuine so he could talk to his mother again.
he also set up various codes with people so incase they died first then they could try and contact him from "the beyoooond" and hed know it was genuine if they contacted him with the correct code or phrase.

they hold a seance for houdini every year on halloween dont they..isnt it dixie dooley who conducts it? or does it change?

he said if he could get a message back, he would...well...he needs to pull his little finger out doesnt he...its been a while...him and doris stokes in fact...

abraxus wrote:they hold a seance for houdini every year on halloween dont they...

which was coincidentally, the day he died. he was taken out by some kind of spiritualistic mafia mob type gang, either that or he died in the water torture cell, depends who you talk to

yeah, poisoning was the other theory...or the good old fashioned meat-fingered punch to the bread-basket with added pancreitis...

and didnt his brother have something to do with the x-ray as well?

probably, his brother was his doctor after all.
he got poisoned a couple of times, and shot; he had a bullet in his hand for a lot of his life, or so the x-rays tell me.

ah there you go...his brother was one of the first x-ray practioners, and used to practise on him day after day...thats why he was sterile...

i read it was his wife who had the problem.
saying that, it's not like they ever even adopted anyway

ah.... houdini..... i need to go buy some handcuffs now

I'm from asian so I will say cyril (japan), deddy corbuzier(indonesia), demian (indonesia). bow (indonesia), dai vernon, Houdini, ect

Dia vernon is by far the best. To those of you who said david Blaine-

He is an ok magicain but the only reason people know him is for his dumb stunts and he is not to great at D/L's. But thats just my opinion.

TheOldForum wrote: I agree. I think David Blaine is the best because he uses no props unlike David Copperfield and other stage magicians. David Blaine will always be my favorite and all my credit goes to him. He is my role model. He is very amazing with his tricks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, only got this far!!

If you think David Blaine is the best magician of all time, or even this year, god forbid, the best this Week!!! Then you need your head examined.

He's landed on his feet, but I know hundreds of magicians WAY better than Blaine! They wouldn't have to resort to camera tricks, and half tricks on TV!

Blaines a showman, as Houdini was, but Houdini had way more than Blaine in the talent department. However, I don't think Houdini is the best magician ever.

I would say that for each type of magic there is a clear winner:-

Close-Up - Dai Vernon/Peter Kane - Both great innovators.

Stage:- Copperfield, Pendragons (Purely for their Metamorphosis Trunk!)

Kids:- Tricky one this, I would say Terry Herbert, or Mark Leveridge for his honest and clean approach.

Mentalism:- Derren, Derren, Derren. (Mainly for his performance, and persona)

Comedy:- Penn and Teller

I could think of more.....

Phil

Kev Reay,
To watch that man do tricks in your own front room, he was a kind guy, always had time for me and the kids, I still have one of his fanning cards. I spent time with him here and Hartlepool. We both moved to London at the same time.
He was a good music producer, knew about HiFi and had a bent for chemistry at school. He would have been 50 this year
I'm not a magician, but he was a good mate.
Cheers Kev

I've watched quite a few videos of magicians doing tricks today, Shoot Ogawa is by far the best close up work I've seen.

Even though you can't actually see what's happening with most magicians, it's obvious that they are up to something by their swift hand movements. I've watched his videos over and over, but can't spot anything dodgy. He's so smooth with his hands, and never seems to be rushing to cover up what he's doing.

Well, I haven't seen all magicians in history and therefore I can't comment on which of them are the greatest. I know for certain that Blaine isn't, because he's not the best I've personally seen.

Those obvious points aside, even though I've not seen every magician in history, over my many years as a practitioner I've studied a great deal of magic history. Based on that study, my vote is for Robert Houdin.

Houdini.

Not because he was the best, but because people believed him to be the best. Magic is about making people believe; Houdini made people believe.

And let's not act as if Houdini's escapes are in a field seperate to magic. They are a division OF magic, just like mentalism or Dai Vernon's card tricks. Because Dai Vernon could not do massive levitation illusions, does anyone fault him? No.

Houdini was the most famous magician of his time, or any time. He got that way by putting on one hell of a show and knowing how to top his competitors. No one living before or since has suffered as much pain and agony over tricks, which would regularly leave him broken, battered, and bruised. Whether or not he could palm a card (he really couldn't) or create a wowing vanishing elephant (audiences thought the effect rather blah, though news of it spread like wildfire) does not diminish the fact that he drew massive crowds and created a legend still known today.

(Information drawn from The Illustrated History of Magic, Hiding the Elephant, and The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero.)