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The realm of magic and entertainment has a new celebrity. Once dominated by the likes of David Copperfield, we have seen the influx of many practitioners of ’street’ magic and arguably, the most successful of them all is David Blaine. It would not be unfair to say that David Blaine revolutionized the entire magic scene.

David Blaine is an American illusionist and stunt-performer who plies his trade practicing magic on the streets of American cities. He is the producer and host of two television serials ‘David Blaine: Street Magic‘ and ‘David Blaine: Magic Man‘, as well numerous special events of himself performing large-scale and high-difficulty stunts.

In the serials, a camera crew follows him on his walks through the city streets as he goes up to members of the public to perform his street magic. A recurring theme that occurs with each episode is that he first starts of with ’sleight of hand’ tricks, before progressing to more spectacular tricks. Usually he makes use of simple tricks, for example making coins disappear then reappearing on a person’s body, to fully get hold of the audience’s attention. When their curiosity is piqued, he then goes on to more daring and more flamboyant displays of his ‘magical’ prowess. My personal favourite is when he levitates in the middle of a street, without any props or assistance, to the bewilderment and shock of the people nearby.

He also attempted several high-profile, highly challenging stunts on national television. His most recent stunt was performed in November 2006, named Revolution. He was chained to a rotating gyroscope which was suspended above a parking lot in Times Square. He was trapped in there for two days before he started attempting to escape from his shackles. It was a breath-taking sight, especially for the audience present at the scene, as he defied very possible death to perform the stunt. He emerged from the contraption unscathed, much to the relief of onlookers.

With the emergence of David Blaine on the scene of magic entertainment, the entire face of magic has altered. Magic used to be a very pompous display, a la David Copperfield, be it running through the Great Wall or making elephants disappear. Expensive props, attractive and scantily-clad female assistances, extravagant light displays and so on. However, the term ’street magic’ shot to insane popularity, and this new wave of magic performance was fronted by David Blaine.

Street magic became so much more compelling to watch, compared to conventional magic. Street magic is engaged on the ‘audience’s turf’, it was impromptu. There is no stage or props or a helping hand to fool the audience. Levitation on a street is just that much more believable than when it is done on a set stage. Making an assistant disappear behind a cloak does not seem that credible when someone else can make your own watch disappear with a wave of his hand.

It is this brand of engaging entertainment that made David Blaine a successful magician. This is so different compared to the magic acts that I grew up with, with all the pomp and glamour. David Blaine’s street magic is a welcome change, to the otherwise dour magic industry, and I would like to thank David Blaine for injecting a spark of life into an industry that was fast becoming monotonous.

Click here to buy some of David Blaine’s DVDs
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