Tag: David Blaine

Zack King and David Blaine and Social Media

Inside Magic Image of David BlaineThere’s a great article about two great magicians in today’s edition of Broadway World & TV.  David Blaine and Zack King have huge internet followings and for good reason — they are good at magic and very, very savvy.

From the post at BW&TV (we don’t know if that’s their actual acronym but if it isn’t, it should be:

Today, digital superstar and viral illusionist Zach King released a Youtube collaboration with world famous magician David Blaine. In the video, which was uploaded to Zach’s Youtube channel with over 8MM+ subscribers, Zach and David are shown on a video call showing each other some magic tricks. David advises Zach to up the ‘fear factor’ of his tricks by showing some of his infamous tricks – coughing a tarantula out of his mouth and igniting a fire on the palm of his hand. This collaboration comes on the heels of David announcing he will attempt to float over the Hudson River using only helium balloons.

You can check out his promotional video for the stunt aqui.

Can we say this?

We have fear every time David Blaine takes on one of his stunts.  Getting shot in the mouth by a 22 caliber round was scary, being locked in ice, holding one’s breath under water for 18 minutes (but felt like an hour), standing on a narrow pole for more than 24 hours and then jumping into boxes from said pole.  Coughing up spiders and frogs from one’s belly — or the opposite — going without nourishment for 40 days in full public view all scare us.

We know his plans are well considered and he is far from reckless but, golly, he sure does a lot of scary stuff.

We were okay when he would rub ash on his arm to reveal a playing card previously selected by clearly inebriated spring-breakers, or throwing a deck of cards against a window and having the selected, signed card appear on the other side of the glass.

We might be okay with him performing a Finger Chopper effect if it is the kind we grew to love during our years of performing as “The Mini Magician” for our schoolmates in reform school during the 1940s.  Even that could involve risk if you stuck your finger in the wrong hole or didn’t set it right.

Basically, what we are saying is that we are cowards.  We eschew things that could hurt us.  We don’t even like being as tall as we are.  We avoid walking down aisles in darkened movie theaters (back when such things were done) for fear we would fall into the lap of some theater patron with an embarrassing thud — as opposed to the non-embarrassing thud, we suppose.

But there is something in Mr. Blaine that causes him to push the envelope until it contorts into something that looks less like an envelope and more like a coffin.

We cringe at gymnastics of any kind being practiced by anyone — even circus performers.  Escape artists cause us to cringe without recourse.  We can’t get images out of our mind or worry about the people involved and the people watching — all could be effected by a trick gone wrong.

So, once again, Mr. Blaine will try the impossible — to Ascend over the New York skyline by holding onto a group of balloons.  The thing is the does not need to do it.  We would like and respect him regardless — and even irregardless.

Mr. Blaine we worry for you.  Please be careful.

Check out Mr. Blaine’s website and tremble here.

David Blaine Practices for “Ascension”

Balloon Use Over SkiesMagician, illusionist and risk-taker extraordinaire, David Blaine was spotted in Porterville, California this morning.  He was hanging on to a group of balloons — technically called a “lift” of balloons.

We are happy to report that according to other reporters who appeared to be happy to report as well, Mr. Blaine landed safely after his soaring above the California landscape.

He plans to hold onto a lift of balloons to fly over the skies of New York City.

We think he is either fearless and/or the stunt has been well planned in advance.  We asked no one in particular whether we would ever do such a stunt.  We answered in the negative with a shudder.

Some dedicated InsideMagic readers no doubt recall our failed attempt to float over Mystic Hollow, Michigan, by holding on to birds through a special harness set-up.  We barely took off — official records kept by the arresting officers said we lifted one and a half inch from the ground but this may have been accomplished by our “hopping.”

Unlike our attempt, it is doubtful Mr. Blaine will be covered by the waste product of “excited and/or frightened birds,” to use words from the arrest record.

We wish Mr. Blaine the best of luck and we will watch with envy and fear.

Mental Madness on Display August 24th

Garrett Thomas
Garrett Thomas

Magicians Garrett Thomas, Kozmo and Joe Maxwell will be performing at the Coolidge Theatre in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania on August 24th.   This is a must-see show and not just because it is being shown in a “theatre” and not a “theater” but because of the line-up.

You have everything you could want in a magic show.  Illusions, great comedy and close-up magic to mess with your mind.

In fact, the messing with your mind part is covered in the title of the show.  Magic Beyond Imagination is presenting “The Mental Madness Show.”

We’re pretty sure you can’t say something is a “Mental Madness” show if it is not truly mental madness.  We think that’s the law.  And the cast will bring you incredible magic in addition to messing with your mental madness quotient.  Ours is currently 7 but has been as high as 12.

As a special treat, magic enthusiasts can pay extra for VIP tickets for a 45-minute meet-and-greet with these magicians, including an up close and personal magic session with cards and coins that begins at 6 p.m. VIPs will be admitted early to the theatre and be given their choice of seating.

Kozmo told reporters, “we consider it a work in progress. We are doing material we’ve been doing for 15 years but not in this configuration. We use cameras and screens so people in the audience can see all of the details of our magic.”

As magicians and magic fans know, Mr. Thomas is more than a great performer, he is a fantastic magic inventor.  He has created effects for David Blaine – including the high-profile feats of endurance that make us squirm.

(We do squirm normally so this is additional squirming over and above our natural snake-like involuntary movements we do when watching television magic whilst sitting in our antique bean-bag chair.  The guy on Antique Roadshow said it was worth $1,200 but then he re-examined it and determined it was likely not made for George Washington the first president but someone named George Washington and then he started to re-examine us on how we got it.  It was as if he was implying we stole it.  We didn’t but at that point we didn’t feel like explaining ourselves if the amount was going to drop from $1,200 to “a buck two-eighty.”   Plus the Mark Wahlberg that is the star of the Antique Roadshow isn’t even the real Mark Wahlberg).

Kozmo is a great magician who has taken his craft from Bourbon Street (New Orleans) to China (not New Orleans).  He is a joy to watch because he seems to enjoy what he is doing and he does it well.

We have not met Joe Maxwell but if he is hooked up with Kozmo and Mr. Garrett, he has chops by association.  He will be the master of ceremonies for the Mental Madness Show and, according to the newspaper “is one of the world’s most sought after drummers, having toured the world with Grammy-nominated recording artist, Moby.”

If you are anywhere near Wellsboro on the 24th of August, you have to see this show.  Outside of the Magic Castle, you will never have an opportunity to watch the performers who have entertained Johnny Depp, David Copperfield, Olivia Wilde, Willie Nelson, Scarlett Johansson, Seth Rogan, Jay Leno, Trace Atkins and others.

Purchasing tickets in advance is strongly recommended.  For tickets and more information, visit www.deanecenter.com or call 570-724-6220.

Read the article about the show in the Wellsboro Gazette.

David Blaine Takes on UK

Inside Magic Image of David BlaineIn an interview on this morning’s Heart Radio from the UK, Magician David Blaine talks about secrets – and how well he keeps them.

Even though that is what a magician does best – keeping secrets – his pals remind him to “not tell anyone” before letting him in on some confidential information.

He is in the United Kingdom for a tour – the first time he has ever toured with a live show.  He was suspended in a Plexiglas (“Perspex” in metric, we think) box near the Tower Bridge back in 2003.  But he didn’t tour in the box.  It remained in one place and was not dragged around the nation for people to peer at him trying to avoid motion sickness.  For that we and he are grateful.

His new show is called “Real or Magic.”  The title is somewhat similar to our tour of the tri-county area, “Really, it’s Magic.”  We had to adopt that title because we were ill-prepared and hardly able to perform the new effects we had inherited just five days before we started the tour of two towns in three counties.  (One of the towns was on the border so it still counts as a “Tri-County Tour” according to the official rules.  See, “Tri-County” entry in the 2nd edition of Black’s Law Dictionary).

The write-up on the Heart Radio page dispels an image of David that is apparently going around in the UK world.

Mr. Blaine, according to the article, has a “reputation for being somewhat of a ‘weirdo’, but in person he’s surprisingly friendly – and normal.”

Phewf!  In our book, being called a ‘weirdo’ is right up there with being called a ‘magician.’   At least that was our experience our whole life up until the typing of this article on our Underwood Portable TypeWriter; being watched by our covey of doves and two rabbits (both female – we think) over by the bed in our studio apartment near the train tracks for which we haven’t paid rent but for which we do little shows performing tricks a/k/a babysit for the building superintendent’s kids while he is out looking for a “better job than living in this dump by the tracks.”

Back to Mr. Blaine.

He loves being a father to his eight-year-old.  “Being a dad is the greatest feeling and the greatest joy and greatest feeling I’ve ever had in my lifetime and I can’t imagine anything ever equaling it.”

Continue reading “David Blaine Takes on UK”

Russian Magician, Magu Takes on India

Alex Magu the MagicianSharing a sentiment of many magicians, Alexander Magu, tells the Indian newspaper The Pioneer that if it weren’t for  magic, he would be working on Russian Railroads.

He saw a trick at the age of 17 and became hooked.  Now he is performing around the globe and will be in India for a series of shows.  It is his second tour in India.

“It isn’t a profession very highly preferred or chosen. It’s all about ideas, imagination and a story-telling capacity to hold the audience,” he told The Pioneer. The initial years were a struggle for Magu whose parents were reluctant about his career choice. Had it not been for magic, he would “have been working in the Russian Railways.”

He credits Derren Brown, David Blaine and “of course, David Copperfield” as inspiration.  He loves his work in our beloved art.  He gets to travel and “explore the human mind and its numerous possibilities. The beauty of the human mind is that no matter how fearless it might condition itself to be, it is as fearful, unbelievable yet believable. It’s amazing how certain things can amaze the mind.”

His show includes mind-reading, telekinesis, levitation and gravitational illusions and the article is clear that he is performing “illusions” and not “magic.” “An illusionist might leave your eyes wide open and make your jaw drop but a magician can make miracles happen. That’s magic.”

He will be performing in the beautifully appointed Upstage, Roseate House, Aerocity every night at 9 pm from today through November 25th.

Check out the full article in The Pioneer here.

Visit his expertly constructed website here.

List of the Richest Magicians in the World

Inside Magic Image of Ed Mishell DrawingWho is the richest magician in the world?

We won’t give away the secret but the compilation at The Silver List surprised us.  And we are not easily surprised.  We figured for sure we could correctly identify all persons on the list but we were wrong.  We beat ourselves up when we make a mistake so this was crushing for us.

You can check out the list here.

We thought for sure there would be some mention of Inside Magic editor-in-chief and magician person Tim Quinlan but nary a comment.  We don’t like to brag but between the ad revenue for Inside Magic and our professional appearances, we’re rolling in the dough – plus we’re making a lot of money.  But we spend it on dough to roll in and we like a high-quality dough, not some Pillsbury fake dough that doesn’t give the comfort one expects when one is rolling.  We were going to put up a YouTube video  of us rolling but a woman beat us and she does a much better rolling that we could ever hope to accomplish.

You can see just one of her many dough rolling episodes here. The video shows her rolling in baked dough but she does real, unbaked dough as well.  We cannot compete.

Similarly, we are unable to keep up with the magicians who make millions of dollars every year for performing their magic.  We admire them but don’t envy them.  Envy is or should be one of the deadly sins and does not leave the person feeling the sense of envy in a good place.  It is like when you have a fight with your Uber driver about whether we should worry about fluoride or chem trails and he/she dumps you in a bad neighborhood.  That’s a physical bad place to be but as a metaphor it works.  Envy leaves you wondering what happened to the last few hours and why you can’t remember why you even worried about the success of others.

Check out  the list and see if you agree with the rankings.  But do it with an open mind and heart.  Embrace the success of others and the willingness of others to work very hard at what we all do.

We do find some pleasure (guilty, no doubt) that Inside Magic arch-nemesis Tony Spain is not listed.  He claims millions  per year from his itinerant magic travels around the world, but apparently he didn’t make the list.

David Blaine Confusion

David Blaine
David Blaine – Not Adam Rodriguez!

There are stories that we just must cover.  They are so compelling, so moving that we would do our reader (or on a good week, readers) real harm if we failed to report.

This is not one of those stories.  This is the type of story that we cover because we are either paid to include it in our global news syndicate or urged to cover by some of the younger staff members working for minimum wage and discounted access to the vending machines in our headquarter double-wide structure located in the high desert of California.

So this article is for young Natasha; our newest unpaid intern (an “untern”).  Tasha received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia and has previously written for major publications found on magazine racks throughout the English-speaking world.  She was nominated for the prestigious Mena Non-Fiction Writing Award in 2015 and is currently completing her master’s thesis on the syntactical structure of modern languages.

She works here at Inside Magic for the invaluable exposure to real journalism.  We think she lives near the Inside Magic double-wide and claims to not be bothered by the exhausting hours, poor air circulation, incessant emotional berating and inappropriate overtures by our senior staff.  She is either a very dedicated cub reporter looking to learn or setting us up for some sort of employment lawsuit.

But this was her story suggestion.

TV Guide Reports: David Blaine Looks Like Criminal Minds’ Star, Adam Rodriguez.

Adam Rodriguez
Adam Rodriguez – Not David Blaine!

The latest edition of The TV Guide reports that Criminal Minds featured performer Adam Rodriguez “has been mistaken for [magician David Blaine] more than once, like the time when he was at a Yankee game and someone asked Rodriguez to take a photo — and then threw in a lame joke for good measure.

“The guy I’m taking the picture with is going, ‘Hey, don’t disappear on me or anything,’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, I won’t,'” Rodriguez tells TVGuide.com. “And then he said something else alluding to magic and I go, ‘Who do you think I am?’ And he goes, ‘You’re the magician guy! David Blaine!’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ And his friends are going, ‘No! He’s on that show CSI: Miami!'”

You can read about other instances of confusion between the magician and Mr. Rodriguez at The TV Guide’s website here.

Magician David Blaine Comes to Madonna’s Aid

Inside Magic Image of David BlaineDavid Blaine: Magician, Stunt Performer, Bullet Catcher and now family counselor for the stars.  News reports tell us that Magician David Blaine has been called to help Madonna’s relationship with her son.

Young Rocco Ritchie has been hanging with his pop, filmmaker Guy Ritchie in London, England.  Young Master Ritchie has been living with dad since his two very famous parents buried the hatchet and settled the custody battle that took off in earnest when the son refused to return to live with his mom after winter break in the U.K.

Madonna shared an image of her brood including her son and Magician David Blaine in beautiful Gstaad, Switzerland.

She captioned the image “Swiss Family Robinson !!”

The gossip pages say “Blaine, who is close with Rocco and Madonna, has been helping mother and son repair their relationship.”

Perhaps Mr. Blaine will bring a sense of maturity to the proceedings.  We learned last year, Madonna previously voiced feelings via image by posting a picture of herself wearing a black hooded jacket. A crown and the word “B**tch” were drawn on top of the snap in red ink and Madonna added the caption: “Because sometimes soccer Moms need to be a…” In a second photo, the word “B**tch” had been swapped for “Queen” and she added: “And be treated like a…”

We have seen Mr. Blaine pull off some pretty amazing and intricate effects but this sounds like a miracle attempt.
Source: Madonna and Rocco reunite on vacation with David Blaine / Sunday World

Magician David Blaine’s Newest Special Scares Us

Image of David Blaine Shooting HimselfMagician David Blaine’s latest special was indeed special.

We avoid venturing into controversial waters like Trump v. Clinton, Brexit, Paper v. Plastic, or roughing fluid versus spray.  So, it would make sense that we would avoid jumping into the metaphorical above-ground pool of debate surrounding the issues related to Mr. Blaine’s latest special.  There is nothing to be gained by our belly-flop into the tepid, three-foot deep waters of that construct.  And like the real, temporary, plastic and poorly constructed entertainment device that typifies most above-ground pools, the debate will likely lead to heartbreak, a soaked lawn, unsightly bruising and possible e-coli infection.

Nonetheless, we feel obligated to say something.

Inside Magic places the safety of magicians and their audiences above almost all – except for profit from questionable “dating” website advertisements that make up our monthly cash-flow.  We were concerned by Mr. Blaine’s demonstration of the Bullet Catch trick and his regurgitation of frogs.

We were concerned for his own safety, obviously.  Catching a 22 caliber bullet in your mouth is dangerous – even if you are surrounded by technical and medical experts.  But we were even more concerned by the thought of viewers who either couldn’t or didn’t read his disclaimer, attempting to perform the same effect sans preparation, safety teams or sobriety.

Depending on the count and who is counting, a dozen or more well-practiced magicians have died performing the illusion of the Bullet Catch.  We do not know if there is a way of counting how many magician or lay folks have died or been injured attempting to do the real thing.  If it is a number greater than or equal to one, it is too many for us.

We fully agree that Mr. Blaine cannot be held responsible for the actions of the unprepared audience member who tries to duplicate or better his stunt.  But still, why put the idea in the heads of the very small percentage of our global community who have access to a gun, a mouth guard and video camera?

It made for great television and we were on the edge of our seats – our cat has a hairball issue and we refuse to sit back fully in any chair in the mobile home unless there is sufficient light to see that the coast is clear.  Even though we were watching a recorded event being replayed through our TiVo, we were still anxious.

We thought the show was produced with aplomb and slick as all get-out.  Even though there was a great reliance on camera and editing, it still entertained us to the point that the mobile home now smells of burnt microwave popcorn because we could not leave our TV set – and we don’t even have a microwave or popcorn.

Mr. Blaine told Australian reporters that his performance was to counter “America’s dangerous obsession with guns.”  He said he hoped “the risky feat might ‘demotivate’ his countrymen to think twice about turning weapons on each other.”

He wanted to bring the reality of gun violence home.  “I’d like this to be something for people, when they watch it, they really experience how dangerous and how scary it actually is and maybe in some strange way it would demotivate people from firing guns on other people,” Mr. Blaine said, adding with a laugh, “hopefully, they won’t think I’m invincible and just shoot me when I’m not ready.”

As for bringing frogs up from his stomach, we suppose that is not as big a risk for copy-cat performers.  It was an interesting effect and not one yet available on the internet magic stores.  If folks try to duplicate or outdo Mr. Blaine by swallowing amphibians and puking them up into rich people’s champagne flutes, we probably don’t mind. PETA may have concerns for the frogs and the rich people might not want their fine goblets converted into aquariums but those are two constituencies that fail to read Inside Magic that regularly; so we don’t mind offending them.

We wish Mr. Blaine continued success but hope his viewers heed his warnings and intended message – a gun fired into your mouth can kill you.

UK Magician Damien O’Brien: “Old Skool David Blaine”

Damien OBrienThe Mirror newspaper asked UK Magician Damien O’Brien about his influences and he responded, without irony, “Give me old skool David Blaine any day of the week.”

Mr. O’Brien is one of the stars on BBC Three’s new magic-oriented show Killer Magic.

The six-part series begins tonight at sports a new theme each week.  The young magicians then try to make new effects and impress their colleagues and celebrities.

Mr. O’Brien described himself for The Mirror, “I’m a little bit flashy, a little bit cocky. I like to do visual magic. I like to put magic in people’s hands. I want people to be the stars of the trick. I don’t like to give them any suspicions that let people think that I’m cheating… which I am.”

He describes David Blaine as being one of his major influences.  “I grew up watching David Blaine. I loved his approach doing it close up with regular items. I like the idea of doing things close up and any time with anything.”

We probably will not be able to see the show until it is released on DVD or on the internet but look forward to checking it out.