We're all in agreement about magicians, right?

Although Harry Houdini was pretty bad ass.

seinfeld.gif

anyone willing to practice really hard to get good at stuff is alright by me!

Uri Geller to thread

Uri Geller to my fucking fist, more like.

I have no problem with slight-of-hand guys. It's fraudulent 'psychic' shitheels like Geller and that guy South Park gutted that deserve to be minced and fed to chickens.

that guy South Park gutted

who was this?

Jesus

xpost

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/john_edward_psychic.jpg

Also, classic or dud, "Magic Words"?
Hocus Pocus! Presto Chango! Izzy Wizzy, let's get busy!
And the aesthetics of magic: rabbits, top hats, and white gloves? High chintz.

Penn & Teller, or just Teller, in a book described how "magician" was the worst hobby you could pick to impress anyone, but especially girls.

Also thought it was v interesting in a "Hate" comic when Butch (who is supposedly overcoming his raging alcoholism) is performing card tricks to entertain Babs' children. Buddy says, "So a lot of the people I know who know card tricks do them to impress people at bars," successfully getting the goat of Butch.

So: they are the pasttime of lonely nerds and lonely drunks. Why the hating on? These people don't need the hating on.

i hate them all. party magicians, tv magicians, fake psychic magicians, debunker magicians, escape artists, mentalists, all of them smug power-trippin' fucks i wish would disappear down a hole and never return.

houdini more like who cares. get off my lawn!

GOB is one of the funniest characters in "Arrested Development."

Ricky Jay is cool. Penn and Teller are funny when they aren't being libertarians.

Can't think of any other magicians worth watching.

South Park ripped on David Blaine, too, right? Blaineology episode?

Penn & Teller kind of invented thier own category; comedians who do magic with an S&M twist.

Yeah they did Blaine a good'un.

Penn & Teller's books are muy entertaining. They have a whole chapter in one about Elvis Costello, but it is mostly hilarious & strange pranks (one of which involves faxing, lol nineties).

Someday I'm going to re-enact their re-enactment of the Kennedy assassination using watermelons.

and a little pink pillbox hat

I was a magician for a couple years, and I briefly considered it as a career. It was fun and challenging. It helped me go from introvert to extrovert. No more fear of public speaking, no more fear of interaction with crowds. It was good.

Ricky Jay is cool.

Ricky Jay is the best. If you get a chance to see his "52 Assistants" video see it. I love card tricks anyway but these are amazing.

Paul Daniels, is, of course, ridiculed, but he does excellent close up sleight of hand. And then there's Darren Brown, he's basically a magician, right?

Yeah milo z the watermelon thing is the best, esp. when they call "back and to the left" the new national dance craze. Tho I liked the one where you glue a tiny red pompom onto yr driver's license and put on a clown nose for ID checks.

A good thing abt musicians: even looking at photos of many of them = instant laffs.

http://blog.instantcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/davidcopperfield.jpg

http://blogs.tampabay.com/juice/images/2007/10/19/tbddavidcopperfield102207.jpg

He should never have changed his haircut.

Inverse facelift: WHY?

http://maximumbob.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/aleister-crowley.jpg

He maded the magic.

Ricky Jay, Jeff McBride, Penn & Teller are great stage dudes.

Close up I dig Rene Lavand (best one-handed magician there has ever been), Dai Vernon (da God), & Michael Ammar (even if he is kinda like yr creepy uncle, dude is incredible).

Wow - the website that John Edwards photo comes from is some piece of work...

David Blaine may be sincere, but He is serving the Devil. I was sickened when I read in the news that Mr. Blaine was trying to discredit the miracles of Jesus Christ recorded in the Bible by imitating them. The unsaved masses have eaten this up and can't get enough. David Blaine is being praised by every God-hater and Christ-rejecter in the world for trying to prove that Jesus was no more than a great magician...

Read more here is you dare!

If you dare, even...

I really dug Blaine at first too, then he got this Houdini complex and now he's just kinda sad.

Yeah, those early tv specials were great. Especially the taxi trick. But sitting in a box for a long time is pretty dull.

Ned, that site...you found a winner.

I am grateful for magicians insofar as without them Kate Bush would not have written "Houdini." Actually, Houdini was pretty much of a badass: magician/debunker but more charismatic and less snide than P&T (tho in some ways less thrilling). And he gave Buster Keaton his nickname (Buster) when Buster was just a baby!

Two of the best books about magic/magicians that I've ever read. Highly highly recommended.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5134X3MY20L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K1BVHESPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

Also, when Chabon wrote Kavalier & Clay dude had obv done some srs research. Catching all the little magic-referencing asides was a joy.

Carter Beats the Devil is a cracking read. He's not written another novel, has he?

Wow, capitalizing "He" meaning David Blaine is the ultramegasuperduperroffles.

anyone caught these 2 guys in LA or NY? Many press raves.

http://nothingtohidenyc.com/

First of all, is it ever really magic?

No.

assumed this revive would be about the david blaine thing i saw a commercial for last night, the commercial was just celebrities losing their shit.
interesting that nph directed this noting to hide show. he's a busy guy.

i am dvr'ing the david blaine impresses steven hawking + woody allen thing on abc next week.

has anyone been to the magic castle? does chaki still post, i bet he has

my theory for the icepick trick is that he has radically cybermodified his hand w/ expensive next-gen implant technology that allows him to do that

has anybody here seen the movie scoop? i love that movie while conceding it is flawed

Ricky Jay is the best. If you get a chance to see his "52 Assistants" video see it. I love card tricks anyway but these are amazing.

― Ned Trifle II, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:28 (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

In so many ways, this is one of the greatest things I've seen in my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtgUSUHnzLI

Literally incredible stuff. I clicked on it out of idle curiosity last night, thinking I'd only sample 5 mins or so, and ended up staying for the whole thing.

It's the erudition and humour that really elevates it

Basically, F For Fake but better

Indeed, as I don't much care for card trickery otherwise.

actually the more I think about it the bigger his debt to Welles appears, haha. but he carries it off sensationally

the bit with the wind-up animals feels like a quantum leap or something, like we're suddenly in a Pynchon novel

You're not wrong:

https://www.criterion.com/current/top-10-lists/58-ricky-jay-s-top-10

ahaha that is completely as one would expect, and excellently so

I'm a huge fan of his Jay's Journal of Anomalies book about the histories of various sideshow & stage magic acts, would have been a great writer even if he'd never touched a deck of cards

and speaking of his writing, i might get this

http://sigliopress.com/book/matthias-buchinger/

wow, that's an amazing show. the stories, humor, and stage presence are spectacular. he could probably teach any subject.

I interviewed Ricky Jay once, definitely one of the cooler people I've ever sat down and chatted with. And my wallet and watch were still there at the end.

I saw that show live when it was revived, and I own at least one of Jay's books on old-timey showbiz acts. He was fantastic, and there'll never be another one like him.