attention morons who thought that chris angel was real

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I know this has been linked in LoL a couple times, but for people who don't stop by very often you have to watch this.

Blaine!

[Stellastarr]

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I know this has been linked in LoL a couple times, but for people who don't stop by very often you have to watch this.

Blaine!

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Never seen that. Funny stuff.

[Blarg]

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Personally i like the big stage stuff a lot better than close up, i mean close up is cool but you forget about it in a week. I remember growing up seeing people like david copperfield moving mountains and making 747 dissapear. You know it isn't real but holy [censored] how do they do that. I remember seeing D.C. walk through the great wall of china. You can figure out street magic by going on the internet but the big stuff is the things you will never know.

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Most of the big stuff is very well known by now and it can be done pretty mechanically by any spokesmodel. It's really just fill in the blank or paint by numbers "magic."

There is a comparatively small number of the big stagey tricks, but you can combine different prestidigitations pretty much limitlessly to come up with new surprises that have all the more impact by being done undeniably right in front of your face, under your intense scrutiny. I am almost never surprised by big stage magic, yet marvel at impeccable prestidigitation presented even indifferently.

Seeing even merely decently done prestidigitation is being exposed to a much greater level of talent, skill, and deception than you get with by far the majority of stage illusions. Those stage illusions that seem at all notable to me usually are just well-adapted versions of close-up magic.

[LuckOfTheDraw]

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yeah the prestige was hot. and what's up with that other one starting ed norton? it looked like the same exact movie

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You're referring to the Illusionist, which came out before The Prestige.

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Holy [censored]. I had completely morphed these two movies into one in my mind, even so much that I was confused after watching The Illusionist. I remembered having watched a clip of a movie - I thought it was The Illusionist but was actually The Prestige - and wondered why I the clip wasn't in the movie. I also was confused why I had the false impression that Christian Bale was going to be in the movie.

[Phresh]

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3) If you can figure out how he does his tricks, then you can hate him all you want and criticize him all you want. But just bc you can't figure it out, you automatically accuse him of using stooges and wires and camera tricks. How can he be ruining magic when he is taking it onto the streets? Magic on a stage with dark backgrounds and rotating stages is way less impressive and much more likely to use stooges than magic out in the street with 100 people watching and cars driving by.

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I was talking to the magician at the magic shop at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle about Criss Angel. He said there's no way to do his tricks without having your own show.

And I agree totally with Blarg. The tricks which are amazing to me are the up close and personal ones. Coin tricks are always the best, especially ones without preparation. Clever sleight of hand or misdirection are much better than sinking a yacht in the harbor.

[slim]

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3) If you can figure out how he does his tricks, then you can hate him all you want and criticize him all you want. But just bc you can't figure it out, you automatically accuse him of using stooges and wires and camera tricks. How can he be ruining magic when he is taking it onto the streets? Magic on a stage with dark backgrounds and rotating stages is way less impressive and much more likely to use stooges than magic out in the street with 100 people watching and cars driving by.

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I was talking to the magician at the magic shop at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle about Criss Angel. He said there's no way to do his tricks without having your own show.

And I agree totally with Blarg. The tricks which are amazing to me are the up close and personal ones. Coin tricks are always the best, especially ones without preparation. Clever sleight of hand or misdirection are much better than sinking a yacht in the harbor.

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But if you like close up magic with little preparation why do you hate CA? That is exactly what he does. He does some other stuff too like levitation and walking on water etc but most of what he does is no preapration street tricks with cards and coins. I can't stand Copperfield. I went to see him at MGM a few months ago ,......complete waste of money.

I especially like his mentalism tricks. If he doesn't use stooges, I have no idea how he does those tricks. I am pretty sure he doesn't use stooges either bc I've seen many tricks where he deals with celebrities (like Bill Curtis from Cold Case) and they would have no incentive to be stooges. Also, their reaction after the tricks are as real and natural as can be.Especially when he does tricks on the street and children are watching or participating, there's no way a child can act that well.

[Blarg]

Agreed that coin tricks are the best. Using props is one thing, but grab a quarter from a guy and start doing weird crap with it is a real in-your-face mind blower. Even if you step up to a half dollar or a silver dollar or a poker chip, they're such ordinary items that it drives home how good the magician must be to get away with using them instead of special props.

[slim]

there was one episode of CA where he drives Many Moore's Mercedes blindfolded. He was slow and got honked a few times but it was pretty fking amazing. He drives it for a few miles on busy LA streets even making left turns at busy intersections.

[DonkeyKongSr]

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there was one episode of CA where he drives Many Moore's Mercedes blindfolded. He was slow and got honked a few times but it was pretty fking amazing. He drives it for a few miles on busy LA streets even making left turns at busy intersections.

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This one time I drove through LA with sunglasses on. They probably blocked my vision more than a magician's blindfold.

[slim]

the other thing I like about CA is that he does lots of things that are not magic tricks.....more like escape artist. For example, he was in a straight jacket being pulled on the back of a boat bouncing up and down on in the water and escapes.....or he is locked in a cage and his hands and feet are shackled. All he has is a little thing like a hair pin which he uses to pick the locks of the handcuffs and cage door. They drop the cage to the bottom of the ocean (not sure how deep buch probably about 20 feet) and you see him underwater using the pick to escape. He is just holding his breath when he does all this and escapes and swims to the top. No tricks, just great skill.
Then there was this other one where he sits in a chair and he gets 2 sailors to tie him up as much as they can onto the chair. SO they use this rope and go around and around tying his feet and torso and chest and hands to the chair......everything is snug as possible. Then he starts wiggling and escaping and frees himself in a few minutes. That may not sound impressive but I'd like to see anyone else do it. Imagine everything is wrapped so tight that you can only wiggle your hands alittle.