Secrets of David Blaine
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Although am in total disagreement of exposing magic tricks, it has come to my attention that there are those who actually believe something supernatural is going on. Now, I am not one to argue the existence of supernatural events, but Mr. Blaine's show is definitely not one of them. He is an incredibly talented magician and performer, nothing supernatural about it.
In addition, these tricks are pretty basic and are often times the variation of tricks found in ordinary magic trick books. It is the execution that makes it special and dumbfounding.
This
trick is for Intermediate Magicians
Effect:
After asking a spectator to copy the action of you putting your hand on the
table, you are able to twist your arm a full 360 degrees while others look at
you in disbelief.
Preparation:
A long sleeve shirt. Everything else is impromptu.
Method
1:
The Secret Move. On the table, have your fingers pointing towards your body.
This may seem a bit uncomfortable, but the effect is well worth it, now, you
should have your fingers pointing to the left. Turn your palm up (still having
the fingers pointing left) but keep turning the hand over the same way until it
is face down again. With a long sleeve shirt, it looks as if your hand is just
turned sideways to the left (in reality, it's twisted 270 degrees to the right).
Method
2:
Hand on the table. Tell the other person to do exactly what you're doing and
start slowly twisting your arm COUNTERCLOCKWISE. When your fingers start to
point to the left, distract him from what you're doing, say something like
"you're doing it wrong; do exactly what I'm doing!" or "maybe you
should back up a bit to get a better view of my directions”. With that, point
to his hand or push him away a bit with your other hand, and do the secret move
while his eyes are concentrated on himself. When you have the secret move done,
it's a simple matter of him trying to do what you're doing again. Little does he
know you're simply UNTWISTING your arm instead of twisting it like he. By
putting a plastic cup or hard cellophane tucked under your armpit, you can make
a bone crunching noise by pressing gently as you twist your arm to add to the
effect.
David
Blaine again used this impressive trick where he pushed a cigarette through a
coin. This trick uses a very clever gimmicked coin where the middle temporarily
opens to let the cigarette through and later close so the hole is virtually
invisible to the spectator. This coin is available through good magic suppliers
This
trick is for intermediate magicians
Effect:
David Blaine did this trick on his second national TV special. A watch is
borrowed. The magician does not carry anything! After showing the watch to those
nearby who notice the current time, you place the watch face down in the
spectator's hand. His hand is closed over the watch. The magician does not touch
the watch again. The magician then asks the spectator to name a number and then
to concentrate on that number and the watch. He opens his hand, turns over the
watch and sees that the hands of the watch have moved that many minutes! This
trick does not require any gimmicks.
Props:
Someone is wearing an analogue watch - a watch with a long stem that's easy to
manipulate quickly, such as SEIKO watches.
Preparation:
You need to wear a watch of your own with the wrong time.
Method:
Ask your victim for his watch with an excuse like, "I think my time is
wrong can I see yours for a second?" Borrow the watch for a minute and
examine it, look at it, state what time it has, and say, "is this the right
time, I need to know." Now glance at the time on YOUR watch and draw
attention to it by setting its time. While they looking at you, set the time on
your watch. Your other hand is moving their stem so THEIR time moved forward 25
minutes. Now have them sandwich their watch between their hands, and ask them to
pick a number from 10 through 30. Most people will pick 25 if they pick 20, they
won't notice it's off by five minutes when you reveal that the hands of their
watch have moved forward in time. If they pick something below that number, tell
them to make it harder, and pick a higher number. It gets them every time. Just
remember to give a great patter when doing this trick.
Tips:
I recommend trying to do this on nervous or shy people so they don't know what
you're doing. The key to this trick is misdirection, but it's very easy to get
caught.
Effect:
The performer asks the spectator to pick a card without him seeing the face and
replace it in the pack. The pack is then shuffled and the performer is
apparently unsuccessful in locating the card. After a few attempts, the cards
are thrown against a window in a fit of rage, on looking at the window, the
chosen card is seen to be sticking to it, even more surprising is the fact that
the card is on the inside of the window.
Preparation:
You will need two identical packs of cards and a willing helper.
Method:
This trick should be performed in an area with a large window nearby and with
the spectator facing away from the window. The spectator is asked to choose a
card from a pack, memorize it and without showing you, replace the card in the
pack. The pack is then shuffled and a couple of attempts at "is this your
card " tried, followed by a look of disbelief when the spectator tells you
that it is not their card (this is all part of the act as you don’t even need
to know the card).
After
a few attempts you fake an angry outburst and making sure the cards are squared
up, throw the pack broadside at the window, where they will hit the window and
fall to the ground except the chosen card, which is sticking to the window. Your
helper was already positioned behind the window and spectator and had an
identical pack of cards. He was able to see the chosen card and took the
duplicate from his pack. A small piece of looped sticky tape or magicians wax
was attached to the duplicate card and it was stuck to the inside of the window.
The helper should then have walked away from the window. This trick creates a
real surprise but it is important to pick up the fallen cards quickly and to
pocket the original chosen card.
This
trick was performed in David Blaine’s second special where he made the
spectator sign a card, the card was put back in the pack and was made to appear
from between two aces.
Effect:
Give the spectator, the two red aces and tell them to hold them. Fan out the
deck and tell the spectator to touch a card. Square the deck up leaving their
card stuck out to be signed and shown. This is because you secretly put the card
into "palm position" when you square up the deck so you can easily
palm the card when you want to. It must stick out of the lower corner of the
pack meeting your inner thumb. Let them sign the card and then hand them the
deck, secretly palming their card. After they are convinced that the card is
well lost in the deck, ask for the two aces and sandwich the face down palmed
card between the aces, showing only the aces face up.
Tell
them to hold the deck openly and start to shake the aces over the pack, tell
them to watch their card rise from the deck into the two aces, shake a little
more loosely and the card will appear to their amazement
This
trick is of medium skill
Effect:
The magician invites a spectator to stand near a car, he then asks the person to
check that the car tax disc is inside the windscreen. The spectator agrees, the
magician then places his hands over the disc and pulls it out through the solid
glass.
Preparation:
This trick needs along piece of fishing line, two identical tax discs, a car and
a spectator.
Method:
Attach a piece of fishing line to the tax disc inside the car and run it out to
the trunk and out to the back of the car. Have your assistant ducking down
behind the back of the car holding the line, where the spectator cannot see him.
Palming the duplicate disc, the spectator is asked to check that the disc is
inside the car. With the disc in your right hand, cover the tax disc with your
hands. This is your cue to the assistant. He pulls the line and keeps pulling
until the disc is ripped of the windscreen and pulled right inside the trunk at
the back and out of view of the spectators. Meanwhile, you pretend to struggle
to pull the disc from inside the car, hand it to the spectator and casually walk
off. It is good to really look like your putting a lot of effort into getting
the tax disc through the windscreen.
Effect:
A spectator chooses a card from a deck of cards. The deck is shuffled by the
magician and then given to the spectator to shuffle. The magician draws out a
card from the deck, not the chosen card and holds it in his fingertips. He gives
the card a short sharp flick from behind and instantly the card changes into the
spectators!
Preparation:
Two decks are required. Choose a card that you want the spectator to choose and
glue it back to back of any other card in the deck. Out of the top left hand
corner (for right-handed people) before gluing leave a small needle or long pin
sticking 2cm diagonally out of the card. This should be glued halfway firmly
inside the sandwich of cards. You should now have a card with two faces and the
little pin protruding about 2cm from one corner:
The
Trick:
Force them to choose the necessary card by your favorite force method. Shuffle
and loose the card in the pack. When they are shuffling the deck withdraw the
prepared card from your pocket with you left hand being careful not to let them
see it. As they pass the cards back to you, receive them with both hands, left
hand facing you so they don't see the cards and bring your hands together on the
deck. Left hand with prepared card on the top of the deck and right hand facing
inwards under the deck (almost like a praying position with a deck of cards
in-between you hands!). Keeping your hands moving and in one continuous motion
draw off the card that is in your left hand. To the audience it looks like they
shuffle the pack and you draw off a card when it is returned to you. If the
whole action is done with hands slightly faced towards your body, many of the
motions are hidden by the back of your hands, so they might not even know that
the card came off the top. Hold the card by the very tip with the pin between
your thumb and forefinger of the left hand. The face they can see is not their
card, their card's face is facing you. Ask them if that is their card.
"No" they will reply. You say "Oh, in that case concentrate very
hard on your card." After you say this give the bottom right hand edge of
the card a short and sharp flick and let it flip over on the pin in you fingers.
To the audience their card will appear just by flicking it! They will think you
really are Blaine in disguise.
Hints:
Don't let anyone stand behind you for this trick or they will see the
double-faced card. You will have to figure out yourself how to get rid of the
double-faced card without them seeing it. Practice in front of a mirror to
refine the flicking action, so that the card makes the complete 180-degree flip.
It won't look good if it didn't quite make it.
Effect:
A name is written on a piece of paper on a notepad by the spectator, the paper
is torn off unseen by the magician, crumpled up and placed in an ashtray. It is
then set alight. The ashes are then rubbed on the magicians arm and the name of
the person written on the paper mysteriously appears.
Preparation:
You will need a small notepad, pen, ashtray, lighter and a small piece of soap
or wax. The spectator is asked to write the name of a person or favorite
anything of theirs on a notepad. Then to tear of the sheet of notepaper, crumple
it up and place it in the ashtray, where the magician then sets the paper
alight. The magician takes the notepad of the spectator and should be able to
see the imprint of the name written on the paper above in the next sheet of the
notepad. Looking at the pad should not be made obvious and some misdirection
carried out while he carefully takes the small piece of wax or soap and writes
the name on the imprint on his arm or hand
(this will not be visible to anyone). The magician can then take some ash
from the ashtray and rub it over the wax where it will stick and create an
impression of the spectator’s word to their amazement. This is a great trick
but depends on the magician creating an atmosphere with an entertaining routine
and patter about black magic to enhance the effect and create misdirection to
allow him time to pull off the trick.
This
trick is of medium skill level
Effect:
You are walking down the street and casually pick any spectator. You ask them to
come with you to a nearby car and pick a dead fly off the windscreen. You hold
it in your hand do a few passes with the other hand and appear to be really
concentrating, while the fly slowly comes back to life, to the surprise of the
spectator.
Preparation:
Freeze the fly. You need to catch a fly and freeze it, which puts it in a
temporary coma. This can be done by swatting the fly hard enough to immobilize
it, and then place it in a small container in the freezer. The fly then needs to
be quickly taken to a suitable windscreen IN THE SHADE and placed there. It is
important that the car is in the shade to prevent the fly from defrosting too
quickly.
The
Trick:
Go and find a spectator and take them back to the car, which should appear to be
randomly picked. The heat of your hand will revive the fly, which should soon
start to move. A lot of this trick is in the actions of you reviving the fly. It
may be necessary to practice how long it takes for the fly to revive itself.
Freezing the fly with dry ice or even one of these aerosol canned air products
for cleaning computers is a better way of freezing the fly as it is quicker and
causes less damage to the fly.
This
trick requires a lot of practice and is for advanced magicians
Effect:
This is the trick that was performed on the David Blaine special and requires a
complete mastery of the double lift. The magician shows the spectator the queen
of diamonds on top of the deck. He then tells the spectator to hold the queen
face down between his fingers. The performer then shows the next top card, the
other red queen. After several fast sneaky switches of the cards, the spectator
is told to guess which card is where? When he turns over his hand, he realizes
he is holding no aces at all.
Preparation:
This trick is done with a regular set of cards. Before performing the trick, put
the black ace on the bottom, preferably the ace of clubs, it is less
conspicuous. On the top of the deck, place the queen of diamonds, then the ace
of spades, then the queen of hearts.
The
Trick:
With the deck set up as above, first show the spectator the (actual) top card.
Tell them to hold it between their fingers, face down. Then tell them to look at
the card they have, so they are sure that there was no fancy moves in play.
Using this as misdirection, prepare to double lift the next two cards once they
have looked at their card. Perform the double lift and show them the queen of
hearts with the ace concealed. Put the cards back on top of the deck. Remove the
ace without showing them the face of the ace. Then pretend to switch the cards,
once or twice. After this say "Okay, I’m going to teach you how to do
this.” This time, perform the "switch" very slowly, actually
switching the cards. Make sure that they do not look at the ace in their hands.
Then, very quickly, making sure that they do not notice what you are doing, take
the queen of diamonds you are holding and put it on top of the deck. Then steal
the card off the bottom of the deck (ace of clubs) and give it to them. Then ask
them to tell you where the card is. After you hear their guess, have them turn
over their hand and be amazed!
This
trick requires a lot of practice and is for advanced magicians
Effect:
The magician has a card selected and signed. The spectator then shuffles the
card into the pack. It is the magician’s job to locate it. Unfortunately, the
magician cannot seem to get it right, but after a few attempts, the magician
seems to actually regurgitate a tightly folded card. It is the spectator’s
card, with their signature.
Preparation:
You need a pen and a deck of cards
The
Trick:
Have the spectator select a card from the deck and show it to the audience.
After the card is signed, control it to the top of the deck by means of a Hindu
shuffle control or a revolving pass. The deck is now held in the standard
dealing position in the left hand (with the chosen card at the top). Get a
finger break under the top card and palm it with your right hand immediately.
Flourish the rest of the deck with a one hand cut, or one hand shuffle with your
left hand and offer it to a spectator to simply mix up the cards. Make sure the
spectator starts to shuffle because some stubborn people start to shuffle
through the deck looking for their card. Then turn your back, making this move
seem natural to show at there is no possible way that you could know where the
card is. At this time you are folding the palmed card into eighths (the smaller
the better). This is easy as your back is turned you can use both hands to do
this and then slip the tiny package in your mouth between your cheek and gum.
Turn around to face the audience as the card is folded so tightly in your mouth,
you can talk normally. Take the cards and act as if you messed up. Turn over a
couple of cards to reveal what was supposed to be their selection. Do whatever
you want, just make yourself look bad. As soon as people start to laugh at you,
act as if you’re hurt, as if something inside of you wants to get out. Make
the audience curious, and have the suspense build up. As soon as they reach
their peak, work the card out of your lips and slowly spit the card out onto the
palm of your hand. Unfold it, and watch the audience scream at the chosen signed
card. It looks as if you somehow swallowed the card beforehand and regurgitated
it back up again.
David
Blaine performed this extremely effective trick where a coin was bitten and one
piece was removed. The coin was restored when the missing piece was seemingly
spat out at it. This trick used a very cleverly engineered coin, which is
available from a lot of good magic suppliers.
Effect:
The spectator is asked to sign a card and the card is placed back in the deck.
The cards are shuffled and the magician throws the cards at a bottle behind the
spectators. The signed card appears in the bottle.
The
Trick:
David Blaine showed the spectators a different trick before this one involving
the same spectator signing a card of the same number and suit that is forced
when showing the card in the bottle trick following after the card trick. He
then keeps the card and does another trick not involving cards and slips the
card to one of the cameramen or lights crew. The guy then puts the card in the
bottle while David distracts the audience with the trick. Then he goes on to
perform the card in the bottle trick and the card is forced, signed, and the
trick is done. He then throws the cards at the bottle and the card that was
recently signed is held on to. He then tells everyone to look at the bottle and
the card is slipped in his pocket.
David
Blaine was seen in his TV special to visibly vanish a coin that was on a
spectator’s out-stretched hand, without touching the spectators palm and by
waving his hands above the spectator’s palm. This looks very impressive and is
performed by using a gimmick called " The Raven" which is available
from good magic suppliers and is a worthwhile purchase for those of you
interested in street magic.