Quote:
Originally posted by millerdog
I am impressed by him. Is there anything he does that impresses you and other magicians? |
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying he doesn't do some impressive things. It's just that a lot of the stuff that most impresses people is actually not all that amazing once you know the secret. Most magicians know most, if not all, of the secrets to the illusions he does. Note, however, that I am incredibly impressed with some of the 'stunt' work he's done, such as the block of ice thing. Quote:
| Does he just sell? or is he a good magician? |
There's no doubt that he's a good magician. There are magicians who can do more difficult effects than Blaine, but don't sell them as well. Even the easy "magic shop" effects he does are done better by him than by most. It probably has to do with the fact that magicians who know the secret are no longer entranced or impressed with the effect. It's like the end of
The Wizard of Oz; Dorothy and her friends are absolutely amazed and awed by the great head of Oz. Then Toto pulls back the curtain, and the secret is revealed. Dorothy and her friends are no longer awed or amazed. But the man behind the curtain
understood that the effect would be amazing and sold it well, until Toto ruined it all. Quote:
| The other question is: if his magic is "dime store," then why don't others exploit what Blaine has done? |
Not "dime store;" you can buy cheap magic tricks intended for kids to perform in a dime store. I'm referring to "magic shop" tricks; intended for magicians, but open to anyone with enough interest to actually spend money on a book or effect. Anyhow, back to your question: You have to understand a little bit about the psychology and ego of a typical magician. There are magicians who simply want to entertain and amaze the audience. To them, it makes no difference how easy or difficult the trick is to do; they know and understand how it looks to a spectator, and they do the trick. Even if it's a $10 magic shop trick. However, there is a large percentage of magicians who won't do a magic shop trick because they aren't impressed by them, and other magicians wouldn't be impressed. They're forgetting who their audience is. Or they're letting their egos get in the way; if they can't impress other magicians with a trick, they feel like the trick isn't worth doing. Blaine knows he can't impress another magician with most of his effects, and doesn't really care. Other magicians aren't his audience. Quote:
| You can't prove your point without giving something away... |
Not over the internet, I can't. But you can prove it to yourself by contacting a magic club in your hometown and finding out when and where its members will be performing in the near future. Look for an IBM (International Brotherhood of Magicians) ring. Many of the participants can do some pretty amazing effects -- even more amazing, in some ways, than the effects you've seen Blaine do on TV -- primarily because they'll be doing them right in front of you. Any lingering doubt you may hold about "camera tricks" in TV specials will be erased if you're seeing an effect live.
Blaine is a very successful performer who understands the audience well. He does his effects with great skill, and sells them well, no matter how easy or difficult they are to do. He doesn't get anywhere near the kind of respect from other magicians that someone like Lance Burton or David Copperfield gets,* primarily because even other magicians are amazed by some of the stuff Burton and Copperfield do. There are two reasons why we're amazed by their stuff. 1. We know how they do a given effect, and we realize how incredibly hard it is to do, and how much time they must have spent practicing to perfect it.** 2. We can't figure out how they do a given effect -- putting us in the same position as most people -- amazed audience.
* I don't mean to leave out other "magicians' magicians;" there are literally dozens I can think of off the top of my head that get more respect within the community than Blaine does. But Copperfield and Burton are well-known enough that most laypeople have heard of them, and that's why I used them in this example.
** Ironically, it's some of these kinds of effects that backfire on magicians most often. Sometimes they're incredibly difficult do actually do, but the effect (to an audience that doesn't know the secret) is no more impressive than another effect that's really easy to do. They impress other magicians but a typical audience doesn't appreciate the effect any more than they do a magic-shop packet trick.
