"It may be useful to remember that Christian faith is ultimately dependent upon what actually happened rather than upon the views of historians."
- I. Howard Marshall
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I've been so tied up lately I didn't have a chance to post my thoughts on David Copperfield's roadshow that my wife and I attended on Tuesday evening. In a word: awesome!
Probably the best illusion he did was "The Fan." In that illusion he walked into a moving fan, disappeared for a second or two, and then majestically reappeared on the floor in the middle of the audience. The trick was not unlike "The Transported Man" as showcased in The Prestige. Unbelievable.
He also did plenty of other cool things like making a car appear out of thin air, making an audience member's neck tie dance around and sing, and reading people's minds by guessing what numbers are in their heads. Oh, he also had a pretty cool duck that kept walking around the stage. At one point he magically transported the duck from a box to a bucket -- that was pretty cool.
He did "vanish" 13 members of the audience, but that illusion wasn't nearly as cool as some of his other illusions.
The show was definitely worth the time and money!
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Comments on "An Evening Of Grand Illusion":
6. Mr. Grumpy Guy
- 02/27/2009 9:58 am CST
I haven't the slightest clue what you guys are talking about...
7. Raindream
- 02/27/2009 11:01 am CST
I was hoping y'all would take up a serious discussion of that subject. Do you believe the devil would or would not do something like this, a type of Faustian deal with an illusionist to prosper him in exchange for the evangelistic nature of his work?
I saw David Blaine on TV with Peter Jennings for a New Year's Eve show, and the things he said and a couple of the tricks he did argued for his involvement in the occult. Jared, perhaps you've seen much worse than that, but what's real in this? How does the demonic world work? Are illusionists like these guys only entertainers, no matter what spiritual reasons they give for their tricks?
8. Bird
- 02/27/2009 11:35 am CST
Raindream,
I've heard and read countless interviews with David Blaine, Chris Angel, and Copperfield, to name a few. I've also been on countless illusion/magic websites, and my honest opinion is that 99.99 percent of all illusionists are just that, illusionists. Neither Blaine, Angel or Copperfield seriously claim to have supernatural powers. In fact, most magicians get agitated when they hear about someone who claims to actually use supernatural powers.
One example was that NBC reality show last year where they had up-and-coming magicians perform tricks in front of Chris Angel and Yuri Gellar (not sure if I spelled Gellar's name correctly). Gellar claims to have supernatural powers, and Chris Angel has publicly criticised Gellar for that, calling him a fraud. Incidentally, Gellar has been caught on live Israeli TV using a magnet to "supernaturally" move a compass (you can see it on YourTube). After one of the performers on that show claimed to have supernatural powers, Angel pulled out an envelope from his pocket. He said he wrote something inside the envelope earlier that day and that he'd give Gellar or the contestant $1 million if they could tell him what he wrote. They didn't take him up on the offer.
I'm not saying the forces of evil don't have the ability to use supernatural means to fool people, I just think it's so rare we're not likely to experience it on national TV. My hunch is that they don't usually parade that sort of stuff in front of people. To clarify, I know the demonic can do things like that, but I'm as certain that I can be that most (all?) mainstream magicians are magicians, not wizards.
I remember performing a few simple card tricks for a couple in our church. The gal -- who's quite godly -- got uncomfortable very quickly and told me she sensed "something strange." I showed her how I performed one of the tricks (something I don't usually do) and it set her mind at ease. When people are faced with a strong illusion, their brains usually tell them that the supernatural is the only way to perform the illusion -- that's not true.
Some of the tricks I've learned and performed include: making an object vanish, deciding what card someone picked out of a deck without touching the deck, making objects mysteriously levitate, "reading someone's mind" by figuring out what object they've put inside of a box, etc. I've also learned how to do things like levitate people, make people disappear, and things of that sort, but to actually pull one of those tricks off takes days of practice and preparation. I doubt I'll ever get that deeply into magic tricks.
As I sometimes tell people before performing tricks: There's no such thing as real magic, only real magicians. :-)
10. GinH
- 02/27/2009 1:32 pm CST
I didn't even know people thought that about illusionists. I've just always assumed there's a trick I don't know and been impressed that they can pull it off without my knowledge of how they did it.
What's the "in a league" reference? I mean, I've figured out from the comments what you mean by it but now I'm wondering specifically where it comes from.
11. Bird
- 02/27/2009 1:45 pm CST
GinH,
As I recall, at an Entmoot back in 2003, we had a disussion on whether or not David Blaine was in league with demons while he performed his magic tricks. I think the general consensus was that he was in league, but not in line ... whatever that means.
In the real world I don't think he's in league or in line, but in the pretend world of superficial humor, I'd have to say he's in league, but not in line.
By the way, Bill thinks I'm in league in the real world.
12. Raindream
- 02/27/2009 2:29 pm CST
That crazy Bill. He just says things sometimes. You know what? He's probably a terrorist--in league with space aliens.
Thanks for the reply, Bird. I think I'm too silly sometimes, but that doesn't help the effort to discern.
Did you see the trailer for the movie Push? There's a little behind the scenes video that goes with it with a few people talking about their belief in actual psychics--about what you might see on the History channel.
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Sounds to me like he's in league . . .