How can this be done?!?!?!

http://gprime.net/video.php/freebeerrefill

No, it's obviously not real.

I used to want to me a magician when I was younger.. I wish I tried harder...

(Yes I know it's a trick.. its still cool)

All I can think of is a camera trick. Notice the can goes out of frame for a split second, then comes back in full.

He's done some pretty cool stuff, magic or not.

Wait, the replay shows the can without it going out of frame at all....I'M SO CONFUSED!

I noted the same thing, SAJN. I still think that there's some sort of cheese to it. It's hardly likelly that it was a slight of the hand trick. Everyone there was in on it.

He seems to hold on to the base of the can as if it's got something underneith. But that's probably just me looking for something.

JediKirby

If you look closely he visibly doesn't let the guy actually take the can from his hand until he supposedly spills out some of the foam.

Oh, and it does go slightly out of frame for a split second at the 30 to 31 second mark

But in the replay, the 'suspensful black border' is removed, and it doesn't go out of view at all.

JediKirby

The only time when the view of the can is blocked is by Blane's body himself when he is pouring the foam out.

http://gprime.net/video.php/showingsomeheart

Pwnd.

Damn

David Blaine is a good magician. His presentation is spot on and he does a lot of powerful effects. However, the large majority of his 'impromptu street magic' is not impromtu at all, it is completely setup with an acting audience.

The can is not switched after Blaine picks it up. The 'empty' can was there before Blaine showed up. However, the can is not quite normal. It is specially made gimmicked can available from heaps of magic shops for under $10. Here's just one.

Either the couple were in on it from the start and just acted surprised, or Blane / someone in the crew planted the empty can without the couple knowing about it. Either way, I guarantee you 100 percent that was not just any old beer can.

As for the second vid, that is a professionaly made prosthesis, again available from any magic shop with a decent range of shock magic.

(WARNING: SITE IS A LITTLE GRAPHIC IF YOU'RE SQUEEMISH)
One site that carries it here here. My personal favourite there is the eye popper. Imagine freaking old people out with that

Given that he acts and sounds rather annoying, the greatest trick Blaine ever pulled was to convince Josie Maran to shack up with him for so long.

He needs to teach me that. Stuff the beer can and levitation.

Someone who's seen his special on The Learning Channel, please tell me how the quarter trick where he bites a piece off and puts it back together are down. It's too fast to be possible.

Damn, I want him to come to the parties I attend, he'd be the life of the party if he can regenerate beer.

I agree with the first part

Although my favourite actual trick he's done is the Invisible Deck. Have one myself now. The spec names any card in a deck (totally free choice), then the magician opens a deck of cards and the only card face down in the entire deck is the named card. It's a brilliant trick, freak out my friends and family members with it all the time.

Most levitations of simple objects are done with either invisible elastic string, or magnets. Magnetic systems arent that reliable and cost heaps, though. You can do some amazing mentalism effects with just a few invisible elastic loops you can buy for $2 in any magic shop. Fun stuff

David Blaine levitating himself off the ground during his street magic television show was done using a forklift, harness, good camera angles, and spectators who were in on it.

You can do the re-filling beer yourself if you want, just buy the trick. From what I hear it's practically self-working.



Really cool trick that.

The quarter is gimmicked. Again, available at any good magic shop for under $10.

I havent seen David Blaine perform it, but the way most tricks like that (I know a great one where you bend a 'borrowed' 20 cent peice in the spectator's hand) start out with the gimmicked bite-out quarter palmed (held out of sight) in the magician's hand. The magician asks the spectator for a handfull of change, then as he goes through the coins he deposits the palmed gimmicked quarter into the mix. He mixes them round a while, then selects the gimmicked quarter he dropped into the spec's hand seemingly at random. The coin can then be signed to ensure it's the same coin for the rest of the trick, as the 'switch' has been made.

If the coin is restored and given back to the spec, there will always be a switch to a normal quarter involved. You wouldnt believe how quickly a professional magician can do something like a coin switch. You will never spot it, unless you know exactly which switch they're using and what to look for, and of course there are heaps of switching techniques ranging from simple missdirection to gimmicks worth hundreds of dollars.

Any other tricks people want ruined? Just ask

Sounds like you're really getting into this Spork, so level with us. Have you taken to hustling the tourists yet with a bit of 3-card monty?

How does that invisible deck one work? Is that just more sleight of hand?

You can do that one with out a forklift set up, it's just not as impressive. You stand up the toes of one of your feet, making sure your angled in such a way that the people watching you can't see your other foot.

I saw a documentary about fake psychic tumor operations. They use what I think is the same technique blane used in that heart trick.

Where he looks like he's sticking his hand in his chest, he's actually just bending his fingers, and he's practiced it enough so he does it in a motion that looks like it's penetrating. Combine that with a fake blood sac or two in his hand or shirt that he punctures and the fake heart, and there you go.

As for the "psychics", what they would do is people would come in with some health problem, anything. No matter what it was, the psychics would convince the patient it was due to a cancerous tumor in his chest, and would schedule "psychic surgury".

During the operation, the patient would be fully conscious, and family members would watch the operation from a side view, in a room a little bit ways away through some glass.

The patient would be laid down and forced to look at the ceiling and never allowed to actually see what was happening. The family, viewing from the side, has a limited view of the action... but enough to convince them it's legit.

The operator uses the same technique blane uses to look like he's pushing his hand inside himself, that I described above. To the patient, it FEELS like the person is reaching in. The operator holds a fake blood sac which he bursts, so when he "withdraws" his hand it's covered in "blood". And of course the spectators see all this.

Also in the operators hand are a couple small pieces of raw bacon. When he withdraws his hand, he hides the blood sac and drops the "blood" covered bacon (which they call the tumor) in a small bowl of water for the patient to take home as a souvineer.

He repeats this serveral times and then, when it's all over, he wipes up the fake blood, and the astonished patient can't find an incision or anything. He takes home his bacon/tumors and happily pays whatever fee the "psychics" request.

I saw this on the history channel or something. It was fun to watch how they did it.

Oh, and in HL2 there is supposedly an NPC in the Black Mesa East level who looks like Blane. You only see him for a couple seconds. If you noclip and follow him, he walks around a corner and then levitates off the ground. It was in an article on hlfallout.com. They had a couple screenshots too, I'll have to see if I can find him.

haha, and what happens when they get home and discover its really bacon?

Yeah, watch Man on the Moon with Jim Carey. The scene where he goes in to get his cancer treated by the asian doctor is pretty grim. He sees the doctor with a chicken lover in his hand, pretending to pull it out of his body. He starts laughing because of all the jokes he pulled on people, the last one was pulled on him. I'm not a tremendous fan of Carey's movies (especially some of the earlier ones), but this one, along with Eternal Sunshine, is really good.

Because most people go home and east their tumors..? :p



Yeah, but it woulda been kinda lame if Blaine did that :p

Another popular levitation effect is to cut a hole in the bottom of one shoe around the ball of the foot, then wearing black socks poke your toes and about 1/3rd of your foot out of the hole and lift yourself up. If you get your angles right from above it looks like you're floating off the ground.



Hey it's my hobby
Montes are a lot of fun, but I dont know any which are fully examinable at the end. But hey you've given me an idea... To the casino!

The invisible deck is a definitely one of my favourite tricks. Dunno if I wanna ruin it since it's one that I do! Let's just say it's far from a standard deck of cards. The spectator can never handle the actual deck. If someone ever performs the invisible deck for you, pick the 7 of clubs and then when they reveal it as the only face down card, ask him why the cards you can see are all even numbered...

Back to the beer one for a sec...with the exception of the foam spray, you never actually see any beer come out it at all- when he pours it out his body completely obscures any trace of beer- we just have to take the spectator's word for it.

Look at the way the can is handled as well once it's "full" again. It handles like it's empty.



Sometimes, they do the mini-levitation on the street in front of people then re-record using the forklift rig and edit it in as well.

Did he really sit up in that glass box for 44 days?

Yeah, wouldn't you be a crispy sonofa after that?

Spork, have you looked into Derren Brown's mentalism tricks? Mind-reading and such. Are all his volunteers in on it or is he for real?!

He has the most annoying, droning voice on the whole planet.

The can does pour real beer once it is restored. Check out the link I posted earlier. But like I said, the couple were probably in on it anyways.



Ahh, mentalism. There's a million different kinds of mentalism though, and I've never heard of that guy.

If he's one of those 'from beyond the grave' or knowing things about people's personal lives, then they are either 1) staged, or 2) setup. The setup often involves knowing who will be in the audience on the night of the performance, doing some private investigative work on one or two audience members, then picking them out 'at random' during the performance.

If he does more basic mentalism like 'I'm going to write a number down, think of any number between 1 and 100 and I bet they match', there are heaps of different gimmicks you can buy from any magic shop. The simplest prop to use for mentalism is a thumb writer - a tiny little pen which sits on the end of your thumb and is invisible if you hold your hand the right way. Then it's just a matter of pretending to write your prediction, asking the spec for their number, then pattering while you secretly write their number down using your thumb.

It's actually a really cool and versatile effect. Imagine going up to someone in a bar and saying 'would you let me buy you a drink if I can guess what day your birthday is'. And of course, you're never wrong