Bound And Gagged!

.:195/365: David Blaine:.

Warning: graphic video ahead!

Ladies and gentlemen, we cap this month off with the very man who brought magic into the mainstream in the new millennium, David Blaine.

As one of the most recognizable names in magic today, David Blaine definitely deserves a lot of credit for having resurrected magic in a way that nobody dreamed possible: he made magic cool. And by “cool,” I don’t just mean “cool to watch.” I mean that thanks to Blaine, performing magic has never seemed cooler than now.

With a very diverse bloodline, David Blaine’s unique looks lent itself well to the “mysterious stranger” persona he has met a lot of success with. What few people realize though was that starting out, David Blaine was actually your typical chatty magician. Lo and behold, witness what a good image consultant can do for you, eh?

Starting his career as a TV street magician in 1997, David Blaine has starred in multiple TV specials where he demonstrated his effective style at magic. Nobody would say that he shook the world up with his routines, but he made them seem gritty, edgy, and in doing so, real. By removing the gap of the stage between the audience and the magician, David Blaine has captured the imagination of the people by doing magic that is every bit in-your-face. Using a very deliberate pace, and a calm, gentle tone, Blaine managed to convey that he was the real deal to all the spectators he encounters by sheer strength of personality.

As Blaine went by, he began incorporating a lot of endurance feats in his magic specials, so as to give the audience something big to look forward to, and to gain even more publicity than one normally would in performing a TV magic special. With an excellent team behind him, and Blaine’s undeniable physical fitness, he has weathered a whole slew of different endurance feats that seem to prove without a doubt that Blaine is more than just a guy who does “tricks”, but someone with remarkable gifts that cannot just be explained as mere sleight of hand.

To be honest, Blaine isn’t a stranger to controversy either, whether with people who expose his magic, or even those who doubt the veracity of his physical feats, but through it all, David Blaine has inspired an entire generation of magicians, arguably more than any other magician before him ever has, if only for the sheer reach of his mileage at present. Would people say he is a better magician than the Copperfields, the Blackstones, and the Houdinis of our time? Probably not. But would they say he ranks way up there as one of the most influential magicians the mainstream has ever encountered? Without a doubt, he certainly fits that bill, and it could be argued that as far as influencing people to get into magic, he may very well hold claim to having garnered the most converts. Pretty much every single guy who has started doing street magic since 1997 would probably owe their roots to David Blaine’s influence, more than anyone else.

That Blaine performs mostly simple routines tends to underscore the fact that magic isn’t about how simple or complex a routine is but about the way one packages a performance. Blaine is a living testament to this, and nobody can deny that his presence tends to give a kind of ominous aura to any kind of magic he does, even if it’s as simple as a 2-card monte.

Personally, I wasn’t really influenced by Blaine into getting into magic, simply because I was into magic all the way back from the days that David Copperfield was still wowing audiences with his TV specials. Despite that, I have to tip my hat to Mr. Blaine because if it wasn’t for him, the demand for magicians would probably remain restricted to Vegas and children’s parties to this day. Mr. Blaine, thanks for making magic cool. We owe you for that, big time.

Project 365 magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:194/365: The Raven:.

One of the cleanest vanishes of money barring the government, the Raven vanish has got to be one of my favourite routines because it’s just poetry in motion, watching how clean the vanish can be. Once the coin’s gone, there are no angles to worry about, you’re practically examinable, and it’s just one of the simplest routines to ever pull off on the fly as long as you’re ready for it.

Coin vanishes are generally awesome, and normally takes a supreme amount of skill to execute very well (Just ask Mr. Rannie Raymundo!). The Raven allows you to bypass a lot of the technical barriers in favour of just flat-out making a coin vanish cleanly, quickly, and efficiently.

Definitely one of my favourite routines, and comes with so many possibilities for you to play with. I don’t think much else needs to be said than for any magician who wants a sleight-light coin vanish, this should be one of the first things you consider.

Project 365 magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:193/365: Sinful:.

Wayne Houchin made a name for himself with this routine, as this was one of his first ever performances. Many people feel that a coin through a clear bottle is a better routine in general, but personally, I like this one all the same, because it’s one of the best penetration effects I’ve ever seen.

Admittedly, as this month almost draws to a close, I realized I’ve done a lot of penetration effects in street magic month, but I’d rather still call this street magic month than “penetration month”, seeing how unfortunate the implications of such a title would probably be. Heh.

Anyways, Wayne’s performance of this routine is smooth as silk, as can be expected of the man. What really

Project 365 magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:I’m Amused:.

I had a brush with celebrity last Friday. Check this out. Heh.

So apparently, they aired one of my guest bits on the Front Act Show with Mike and Stanley, and you’ll see what happened around 1:45 on this clip…

Apparently, my skill with the ladies needs a lot of work. Heh.

It’s good to know that great things have been happening lately, though, as I’ve had an amazing show with Mike, Stan, and Uli last night in Grub, and of course, there are a lot more things that we can look forward to in the coming days as the machinery starts roaring back into full steam ahead. It’s going to be an awesome time, to say the least.

.:The POC On The Rise:.

My latest article was published on The POC recently, and it’s called “Beating Around The Odds.” I hope you like it, and you should check out what’s going on in the Sosyal channel as well, as my good friend Fabucelles continues writing about soap opera stars in the way only he can.

Project 365 brush with celebrity, comedy, friends, magic, politics, television, thepoc

.:Another Fine Night!:.

I met some awesome people at last night’s show in Taumbayan with Stan and Sir Ony. Look for us to be doing even more shows soon, though. Heh.

Tonight will be awesome too, as we take over Grub in Paranaque around 9:00PM. I’m sure it’s gonna be an awesome time.

.:Front Act!:.

Around 4:30PM, catch “Front Act” on Solar 9 with Mike and Stanley. It’s bound to be fun. Check it out!

News and Updates comedy, friends, magic, television, ventriloquism

.:192/365: Warp One:.

Paul Harris brings to us an update of the Vodoo Warp routine, and makes it perfect for the street magic setting. “Warp One” does away with the second, extraneous card, and produces a visual illusion that makes jaws drop and builds reputations in an instant.

Imagine taking a card, folding it in half lengthwise, then showing that the top half of the folded card is face-up while the back of the card is still clearly visible from the bottom half. It’s as if the card twisted itself in half, and your eyes appear to be fooling you oh-so-eagerly. There’s just something so amazing about the execution of this routine that one can’t help but be impressed when you see it, and best of all, the ending is perfect and clean: you give them the card, clearly twisted in half, as a nice little souvenir that they can take home and show off.

Yup, you can even have them sign the card! There is simply no need whatsoever for duplicates or any of the like, and Warp One just really makes a lasting impression on the spectators you perform them for.

.:191/365: Cyril’s Icy Trick:.

Here’s a street magic routine I doubt anyone can perform locally, for obvious reasons. Then again, we have very resourceful magicians here, and maybe they can do this in a walk-in freezer or something.

Cyril borrows a few items from a spectator, then lays it down on the ice for everyone to see. Then, with some water and a few gestures, he magically makes the items just go right into the ice, and you actually need to use an ice pick to dig the items out!

Cyril has been doing some really amazing stuff on the streets of Japan for a while already, so I must say that this performance is par for the course, although from a magician’s point of view, it certainly looks a lot harder than anything else he has pulled off in recent memory.

.:190/365: Tagged By Richard Sanders:.

Project 365 cards, magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:189/365: Endurance Feats:.

While not strictly street magic, this is undoubtedly something made popular by David Blaine, so we feel rather inclined to discuss these things.

To say that David Blaine is popular as a street magician is a given, but he is equally as popular for his endurance feats, which he has performed for the public to view over the course of his career. We’ve seen him live in a block of ice, stay balanced on a small platform for weeks, break the world record for holding one’s breath underwater, and a host of other feats of endurance that simply defy conventional wisdom about the limits of the human body.

Admittedly, both purists and skeptics alike have taken Blaine to task for including these feats in his magic act, as the former feels it detracts from his magic, while the latter assume that like magic tricks, there is a “cheat” of sorts to these feats, thereby making them non-feats by extension. The veracity of his achievements are put into question, and in turn his credibility as a performer becomes undermined when all of these things are put together.

Truth be told, this is a crying shame. If one needs to make a personal distinction between one part of Blaine’s act from the other, I feel that it inevitably exposes a weakness in melding both aspects together, despite the inherent talent and strength of the performer on both sides of the divide. If there were a way to really enhance both aspects of his performance without necessarily putting his credibility into question, then perhaps that would allow magic to have the kind of legitimacy it deserves as an art form, rather than to find itself mired again and again in the quagmire of people looking down upon it as merely a compilation of “tricks”.

Project 365 magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:187/365: Cup O’ Change:.

One of David Blaine’s most popular routines involves him approaching a street beggar holding a mug of coffee, shaking the mug, and then producing a whole bunch of coins from it, much to the surprise and delight of the mendicant.

If there’s one feel-good routine magicians tend to perform, it’s money productions. Admittedly, this doesn’t bode well in the realm of counterfeiting and the obvious question of why a magician who can produce money can’t make himself rich is also an inevitably uncomfortable byproduct of such routines, but when used sparingly, these performances certainly amuse and delight more than most other performances, despite the lack of gigantic props or gargantuan preparations.

There really are few routines one can perform that grabs a person’s attention more than conjuring money from thin air, eh?

.:188/365: Prohibition:.

Without a doubt, Charlie Justice’s version of the coin/cap in bottle routine is flat out the best one ever. Prohibition is visual and without a doubt powerful, and can be done with a borrowed bottle and half of the time, even a borrowed coin, assuming the coin can fit into the bottle (Like, say, a mineral water bottle.).

Prohibition utilizes a very popular but not necessarily commonplace magician’s item that has so many infinite uses that if naming it didn’t cause problems in terms of exposure, I’d heartily write a full article about just to extol its virtues and its importance for the arsenal of a magician, especially those of the mentalist persuasion.

The routine one-ups the other coin-through bottle routines I talked about yesterday simply because Prohibition is done at a fast pace and any setup required can be done practically on the spot, and cleanup is extremely simple, for that matter. You borrow a bottle, you demonstrated to them how to put a cap into the bottle, you show them the cap, you have them hold the top of the bottle so that there’s no way you can slip the cap back in the hole, and then you visually tap through the glass of the bottle and visually push the cap into the bottle from the bottom. The fact that the magic practically happened in the hands of your spectator would not be lost on them, and really impress them suitably.

If you still don’t have the item that makes all this possible, you really ought to get it. There’s very little reason for a street magician not to have it if they ever intend to have a wide range of routines that involves very simple yet deceptive touches here and there.

Project 365 backblogging, magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:186/365: Passing Through, Bullet, And Factory Sealed:.

All things considered, the coin through bottle script is one of the most interesting penetration effects in street magic, because certain versions of the effect allows you to hand the spectator the bottle with the coin, which results in massive bewilderment to be had by everyone.

Admittedly, these three routines are all very similar, but each of them have their own uses, and you would best be served by learning all three variations. Passing Through allows you a very visual penetration but doesn’t allow you to give the coin in the bottle away after, while the latter two can do so, but are rather angle sensitive to a small extent.

In either case, I feel that it’s quite an entertaining routine, and it’s definitely worth learning, especially since Passing Through, specifically, can be pseudo-impromptu. There is one particular way to make a coin through bottle routine practically impromptu, but I think I’d rather set that aside for tomorrow, as that one is definitely one of my favourite routines of all time, on a personal note.

Penetration routines definitely stay in vogue for quite a while. I suppose there’s a lot of interest in the script, and it’s hard to top something this in-your face, and a routine that can practically be examinable before and after the whole thing, which lends to even more credibility for the performer.

Project 365 magic, magikel, Project 365

.:185/365: Dove Beheading:.

I apologize for the graphic nature of the title, but that’s exactly what this routine is about.

Anyways, if you wanted to shock and get people’s attention, I guess this routine is your go-to. I won’t say much about it, and would prefer you watched the video.

.:184/365: Resurrection:.

David Blained gained some measure of infamy when he performed an apparent resurrection of an apparently dead fly.

To be honest, I feel very uneasy when the topic of resurrection is broached. I guess in the realm of magic, if someone is capable of resurrection, then why is he not doing this for people? It becomes a very scary prospect when other people begin to make demands of you as a miracle worker, and quite frankly, that’s why resurrection is strictly off my setlist. I don’t need the aggravation.

This is not to say that this particular effect was not performed well, but it certainly makes some unfortunate implications with regard to the performer…

Project 365 magic, magikel, project 365 2010