Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Trickless Magician

That's what Chris Rock calls David Blaine.

I remember the first time I saw David. I was flipping through the channels and came across a show that was being filmed on a street, in Manhattan, that I recognized. I stopped to see what crazy shit was going on in the East Village. Turns out it was a magic show. I LOVE magic! There was this soft spoken young man doing tricks for a bunch of guys out on the street. Just doing magic. Card tricks primarily. I loved how he was so quiet and unassuming then the next thing you know he's levitating! HOLY SHIT! I'm sure it wasn't the first guy flying down St. Marks place but for sure the first one caught on film.

He had a few other shows that were equally intriguing. In your face tricks. He was he everyman. He travelled the world to show that magic doesn't speak a language..it's fascinating no matter what language you speak. He was so cool and mysterious. I wanted to see more.
Then I see that he's going to be buried alive under 4000 pounds of water, six feet down for a week. What kind of trick is THAT? I saw him do this, via the local news, in NYC. This isn't magic. This is endurance. Or it may be a trick if they switched him out. I don't know. I know I wanted the magic that made him famous not this trickery.

There were other stunts to follow. And I do mean stunts. They were all endurance stunts. Standing on a shelf many feet above the ground, holding his breath, being captive in a giant block of ice. There may be a few others but I stopped keeping track. But this last stunt took the cake.

He was to hang upside down for three days and two nights. Then he was going to do "The Dive of Death" and leap to the ground from six stories up in the air. So he's hanging like a bat and there are reports that people see him taking breaks. TAKING BREAKS? What kind of endurance test is this? Then he does the, drumroll please, DIVE OF DEATH!!!





Wtf is that??? Was that a mistake? Was he supposed to swoop all the way down then fly away astouning onlookers? Was it a fuck up or is it what David Blaine has become? All talk and no action. Some think that it was planned that way, that he had no intention of making the dive but he wanted everyone to think he was going to then he was going to appear to fly away.

He got our attention doing great magic. Now he's become a trickster. He pulled the oldest trick in the book on us..the old bait and switch. He lured us in with his talent as a magician and then switched up to become a snake oil salesman.
I won't be watching anything more that you do David. Sorry but you've become an asshat.
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