talkmagic.co.uk

I've recently bought David Blaine's soda can trick but I am struggling with part of the preparation. (Original edited by Mod!) Does anyone have any ideas on what I could use or maybe what David Blaine himself uses???

Thanks in advance.

Have PM'd you!

Its not David blaines can . he just used it.
anders morten came up with the idea.

Thanks Dale, that's roughly what I PM'd to crewe yesterday. Anders Moden is the 'author' of the idea and he acknowledges that others have developed similar effects using different methods. However, David Blaine bought the exclusive TV rights and, as with emagitricks.co.uk, the effect is now known as Healed and Sealed as performed by David Blaine.

Having said that, I reckon any one of here could do a much better presentation than D.Blaine ever could!

(I'm not biased, I'm just always right!)

Yes, Blaine's got the exclusive TV rights, and some 'lesser' educated narratives have suggested that it's Blaine's own creation.

There's much debate about this one... but in essence - it's like most of the effects which Blaine's performed - they were basically off the shelf effects which he bought out from the Underground and took public (Balducci, Healed & Sealed, Dragon/Gipsy Thread, Raven).

It's sad, but most people won't remember reading about these before Blaine even came on the scene. But, being fair to the man, he brought them to the mainstream. But even that's a good/bad thing, in as much as the Balducci levitation has been bastardised with camera trickery - as have a few others, I suspect.

But, we can't change that now...

This brings to mind one question i would love to ask Blaine, and 1 day,Will.

its this. " does it sometimes annoy you when the creator of a magical effect gets no credit, but you do?".

After all, the end of a blaine special does indeed list magical advisors, and helpers, all be it, at the break neck speed the americans seem to love.

it strikes me that,if David did come up with an original effect, nobody would know.

So DB buys his tricks "off the shelf"?

1) How many tricks you perform can you claim true original authorship of? For me the total is zero.
2) Do you credit the true inventors of each and every illusion you can do? I hope not - it would be ridiculous and contrary to the spirit of good magic as it reveals the conceit.

Read any good account of the history of Magic PERFORMANCE and you will see that many very very famous performers were primarily buyers rather than inventors (and that applies to Houdini for sure).

There is a big difference between creating tricks & performing them. It has always been this way.....DB's success is down to his modern style of delivery. Derren Brown is regarded as having mystical powers simply by performing commonly understood mentalism (albiet very well!) in a new and engaging way.

Amateurs slating Blaine etc on a magic chat site are a bit like football fans on the terraces shouting "instructions" to world class players.....

Every time you stand in a bar and perform a trick you can thank Blaine for helping reignite interest in impromtu magic - his pre-prep work in readying your audience for believing in off the cuff moments of mystery is helping you every time!

Bk x

Bisonkid wrote:Amateurs slating Blaine etc on a magic chat site are a bit like football fans on the terraces shouting "instructions" to world class players.....

Although I think you'll find, if you read this thread, no 'instructions' have been suggested to David Blaine. No-one has said he should do it this way or that.

It's simply been said that there's bound to be a few people that could present the effect better.

Bisonkid wrote:2) Do you credit the true inventors of each and every illusion you can do? I hope not - it would be ridiculous and contrary to the spirit of good magic as it reveals the conceit.

You'll find that credit is nearly ALWAYS given where it's due to effect-creators, especially from us mages on talkmagic. Quite often the question comes up 'who invented...?' It's not wise to credit creators while performing, and no-one is disputing that. After all, as far as the spectators should see, magic happens - it's not invented. But, it is possible to credit creators without exception when discussing or selling magic.

I feel better now. Thank you for listening.

I hate to get off the subject of David Blane, as I have much to offer as far as opinions go.

One thing I do want to reference, being an American, I hate those fast credits at the end of the show.

Anyway, back to the topic of the thread, the healed can effect. I never saw Blaine do it, but I have seen it done live--and impromptu as far as me and everyone else was concerned--at my buddy's wedding reception. He's a magician, won't mention his name, but there were many working, talented magicians at the reception, as well as many, many willing laymen. It was a perfect magic situation!

The guy who did the trick said he needed an empty soda can, coincidentally, there was indeed a smashed soda can right by my feet--the sneaky little devil.

He then did the trick and fried the you know what out of everyone watching, including me, as I had never seen it before.

I immediately took him hostage and would not let him go until he taught it to me. I'm not sure if it's the same thing that Blane did or not, but man, what a trick. That's magic.

I live for tricks like that. Tricks that make people gasp, some girls screamed! Those are the ones worth learning, worth putting the preparation in to the setup.

I have no idea what technique you learned, but if you IM me, I'd be happy to tell you the technique I learned. There is quite a bit of setup involved, but it's all well worth it.

Bisonkid wrote:So DB buys his tricks "off the shelf"?

1) How many tricks you perform can you claim true original authorship of? For me the total is zero.
2) Do you credit the true inventors of each and every illusion you can do? I hope not - it would be ridiculous and contrary to the spirit of good magic as it reveals the conceit.

Amateurs slating Blaine etc on a magic chat site are a bit like football fans on the terraces shouting "instructions" to world class players.....

Every time you stand in a bar and perform a trick you can thank Blaine for helping reignite interest in impromtu magic - his pre-prep work in readying your audience for believing in off the cuff moments of mystery is helping you every time!

1: Yes, most of the effects I like to now perform are actually my own creations, with the obvious interjection of facilitating learned moves and sleights. Perhaps the fact that your repertoire includes only 'off the shelf' stuff is indicative of the fact that you are not a creative magician, and moreso simply a performer. (See note below about 'one man and his drum machine')

2: Yes, if I create an an effect, and sometimes even perform an effect, I will attribute the effect to it's author, e.g., when I perform a Laser Deal based effect, I will actually TELL my audience that "This is a baffling illusion performed by a Swedish Magician called Lennart Green". It not only gives the audience some insight into other lesser known non-mainstream magicians, but it also gives them a sense of my honesty and modesty.

People on chat forums don't slate Blaine. He's quite simply the magical equivalent of the guy who performs down your local pub on a Friday with a Drum Machine and a Sequencer Keyboard: Yeah, he's a performer, he may even sing well, but he can't replace the feeling you get from a full live band. It's the difference between passive performance and hands-on artistry. A creative magician will shine. However, sadly, most magicians do not write their own material, and the inventors/creative forces behind them are little known, maybe even totally anonymous.

The 'slating' Blaine on the most part is because most of us knew his tricks and illusions' methodology and execution even before he came on the scene. Ergo, a lot of the 'Blaine Bashing' comes from the green eyed monster, because why the heck didn't WE think of doing what he did... our bank balances would certainly have thanked us for it.

Blaine did not re-igninte anything, he merely captured a new, modern audience: Magic throughout the ages has been very much modal and faddish.

I certainly wouldn't say working pros have much to thank him for. Bar workers and restaurant workers now, I think, have a much more DIFFICULT time in using age old effects to baffle people, because the Blain-ism 'cult' has de-sensitised us all to magic—especially now that a lot of the 'secrets revealed' shows are airing.

I have several times seen an artist performing walkaround magic such as the revered and staple-diet of most walkaround cardies—the Ambitious Card routine—and heard the background chatter as "Oh, that's easy, it's just the one David Blaine does..." and such like.

Blaine has caused an eruption, yes. But as I have said before, the eruption has it's pros and its cons. On the good side, it has got magic a huge new audience. On the down side, it has de-sensitised and more often than not diluted the working professional magician's repertoire.

As stated: The Healed and Sealed effect, plus the Balducci Levitation, plus the Ambitious Card, plus most of the other "Blaine" effects are all actually tricks which have been in the repertoires of magicians for many years pre-Blaine.
He should not, and IS not credited with these effects as being his own.

And as I have said before, the camera trickery he uses to enhance his effects totally and utterly spit on the graves of his peers and mentors—as many of the effects he uses are very much purist, impromptu effects which were NEVER MEANT for television audiences.

By bringing such effects to the TV screen, he has given them the NEED to look glossier than they really are. Fakirism, street magic and close-up illusion should be left to real-world performance, in my opinion. There is no greater thrill than BEING THERE. The TV can, and does, in my opinion, facilitate the dilution and over-hyping of many great magic effects.

THAT is what we have to thank Blaine for.

Very interesting post, seige. How strange that people assume that because David Blaine does something, it must be easy, yet other people get asked if they can do that one David Blaine does.

I like your comments about impromptu magic. I hadn't really thought about that side of things and what you say makes sense.

I absolutely agree about using camera tricks. It's odd that no one ever mentions the camera trick I have seen used by another American performer (not Copperfield). Maybe, it's my eyes, but I'd swear one of his most famous routines uses camera fakery. Maybe only Blaine gets it because he's really famous.

So, I guess this post has left the realm of the soda can and entered the realm of David Blaine's contribution to our art.

I cannot disagree with anyone who says that David does tricks that have been workign magician's bread and butter for years.

I cannot disagree with anyone who says that David's performing character is bland.

I would say, however, that his performing style, his character, his "voice"--that so many of us serious practitioners spend years developing--is unique, and works...for HIM..

I will also say that David Blaine has gotten people talking about magic again. I couldn't care less if I went in to work tomorrow and ran in to a group of people talking about how David Blaine had a signed card repeatedly jump to the top of the deck, over and over again, and then it ended up in his pocket.

So what if any magician worth his salt can do that trick! David is doing it on national television, and he is getting people talking and thinking about magic.

We, as a group, are categorized too closely with clowns and glorified babysitters, in my opinion. While there is a tremendous market for clowns who do magic, and children-focused magicians, the majority of us perform for adults, just like David Blaine does.

Thurston, Houdini, both Blackstones, Copperfield, Lance Burton and now Blaine are performers that the rest of us need to keep our art form alive as just that, an art form.

We practice. We study. We learn from mentors.

Properly done, whether it's a coin trick, a card trick, sawing a lady in half, or a camera-aided Balducci Levitation, we take our audiences on a vacation from reality.

I saw the Mona Lisa once. It was an amazing experience. I have had similar emotional experiences watching the few greats in our field perform live, and on television.

Say what you will about David Blaine. Just keep in mind that if he didn't exist, where would magic be today? Sure, we would all still be doign our gigs, or entertaining friends at parties, but David has done us all a favor. He has made magic more mainstream than perhaps it ever has been. That's good for us.

So what he does some tricks that are right off the shelf? Big deal! if you do the same trick, you get the notoriety of being able to do the same trick Blaine does.

the other side of the folding coin (hehe), is that Blaine pushes the rest of us to take a step forward in our routines. If Blaine did Daryl's ambitious card routine on national television, thousands of us world wide would be left with a decision--continue to do the trick that he performed on TV, or learn or invent somethign new.

David Blaine, eccentric as his character may be (and it's just a character), has done wonders for our art. He has taken us just a little bit more away from little Johnny's birthday party, and more towards adult audiences willing to watch us, and respecting what we do.

We are artists. IN the last century, we have somehow made a transition from artist to pseudo-clown. Blaine is helping us get back to where, in my opinion, we belong.

Now, back to the healed soda can, that's one heck of a trick. I don' tcare if people saw David do it on TV. To see it live is to see a miracle.

My two cents.

B![/u]

Some good posts which I agree with and particularly about making magic more mainstream.

Given that the laymen will not know that DB's magic is widely known and is used by other magicians, and is also readily available, I wonder if when they see you perform something that they have seen DB perform on TV if they think less of DB afterwards because you can do it, or think more of you because you can do something they've seen DB do?

Magic is just a bit of baffling monkey busness, it can be great it can be naff as a bottle of Black Tower to wash down your prawn cocktail at the local Harvester.
All this gibberish about originality and giving relevant credit and whether DB is a genius or a chimp is nonsense.

Perform magic for non-magicians - that is the idea.
They aren't even slightly interested if the trick was first invented by some unheard of gimp back in 1892...they just want to be shocked.
Magicians are (on the whole) utterly tedious train-spotters. THAT is why Blaine & Brown are good - 'cause they are marginally less geeky than most.

As for the post that claimed that ALL of his tricks were his own creation.....having your own roughing fluid and trimming a few cards doesn't make you an inventor.
There is a BIG difference between inventing the wheel and choosing the colour of your new car.

Bk x

dat8962 wrote:Some good posts which I agree with and particularly about making magic more mainstream.

Given that the laymen will not know that DB's magic is widely known and is used by other magicians, and is also readily available, I wonder if when they see you perform something that they have seen DB perform on TV if they think less of DB afterwards because you can do it, or think more of you because you can do something they've seen DB do?

I get asked to 'Do a David Blaine trick all the time'. Even doing a trick as simple as 'Bitten 10p' impresses the people.