I know the subject of Blaine has been absolutely beaten to death and back. For that I apologize in advance. I would like to offer some insight into his success and the feelings other magicians have for Mr. Blaine.

The reason magician's do not like David Blaine is they feel many many more magicians are more deserving of his success. Magicians like Michael Ammar, Bill Malone, Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, THESE should be the household names, not David Blaine.

First of all, David is a businessman. A very good one as well. He developed a plan to successfully market his magic to ABC executives and did so. So in other words Blaine marketed his product rather than focusing on making his product better than anyone else's.

To give you an example of this I have been asked the question before: can you make a hamburger better than mcdonalds? Yes of course, anyone can. But, can you create a more efficient business plan than the McDonalds corporation? No, I don't think so. But I don't go around screaming "no fair I can make better hamburgers than mcdonalds" which essentially is what the magic community is saying about David.

So here are a bunch of magicians claiming David does not deserve his success. On the other hand David created a great business plan, marketed it to ABC so I believe he DOES deserve his success, as is often the case, strategy is more important than product.

It's no accident McDonalds is the most successful and profitable food franchise in the world. So essentially I'm saying David Blaine is the McDonalds of magicians, and I definitely don't mean that in a bad way. David did not "get lucky" and fall into his success. And magician's have a problem with that. We should be congratulating David instead of tearing him down.

Greetings and Salutations,

I agree with you completely. David Blaine is a marketing genius. He planned his work and worked his plan to great success. He paid his dues along the way, and I thank him for introducing a whole new audience to magic.

Now that that's out of the way, and speaking strictly for myself, the problem I have is the blainiacs who cannot distinguish between inspiration and emulation. There is already one David Blaine, and the problem, in my humble opinion, is the imitators who accost the public with poorly performed bitten coins, two-card montes, levitations of various stripes and other bits of guerilla magic.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired by Blaine, we were all inspired by someone, the problem is copying, or more accurately, poorly copying the original.

That's my $.02 (USD) worth.

Joe in KC

Make magic happen, live a great adventure!

How many people did Blaine bring to magic? Enough Said!

If Michael Ammar was on Tv instaed of Blaine There would still be all the imitators do biten coin and levitations.

First of all, I have to agree with magiulysses comments about novice copycats who try to perform in a way completely out of their range. I'm not some veteran pro magician who can put others down though, I'm 17 and still in practice with even the fundementals of magic, but then again I'm honest with myself and don't go off doing the street stuff with just a mix of cards, props, and a hefty dose of temporary blaine inspiration.
I don't see blaine as some business guy, though. I'm more proud of him for not being as abnoxious and eccentric as most of these other big stage/close up casino acts. I was soo relieved when I saw his first street special. I thought "finally I can watch a guy working with people who doesn't even want to be grand or spectacular". when I look back at the other tv specials showing off all these vegas acts I get sick to my stomach!! looking at these corny pretty boy hollywood types with their frickin haircuts and exagerated facial expressions, it almost makes me feel bad that their advertising themselves as the stereotypes for magic, shiny shirts and all.
so good on you david blaine. he might not be as technically accomplished as some others out there, but at least hes not a ham actor/magician. I feel blaine does it as an honest expression, and to me that's much more important.

your views please.........

I have been doing magic for ten years and I am not a stranger to the Balduchi Levitition, bitten and restored coins etc., etc, I'm sorry and please disagree w/ me if you think I'm wrong about this but David Blain should not be on TV, sure for his "stunts" but not for his magic, he does TWO tricks that impress the hell out of me, one, I know how to do and have been practicing for a year and still can't get and two, the torn deck of cards, I like the trick (stunt?) whatever, and would really love to know how to do it...I am 15 years old and already an acomplished stage magician and "self made freak"(fire eater, human blockhead, pain proof boy etc.)and very well known in my area, sure David is a marketing genius...but that's about it.
Also:
"all these vegas acts I get sick to my stomach!! looking at these corny pretty boy hollywood types with their frickin haircuts and exagerated facial expressions, it almost makes me feel bad that their advertising themselves as the stereotypes for magic, shiny shirts and all."
I agree partly, the shiny shirts all of that other stuff I really could do without, but look at Blain he uses really over dramatic faces that looks as if he is having a seziur(sorry I'm a horrid speller )
PLUS he is doing over the counter tricks that any layperson could get and fully understand without any difficulty, the performers in vegas have spent millions on their stage shows and are spectacular and amazing!!!!11I also might add David Blain IS AN ACTOR he admits so in his first book(which was kind of a waste)
BTW street magic is nothing new if you live in New York city or any other big city there is a magician on every other street corner trying to make a living and they are a hell of a lot better the Mr. Blain
Thank you that was my soap box,
Brett

Just curious.......Which one is this???

David Blaine did for magic what Yngwie Malmsteen did for guitar playing in the 1980's.

Young freak, I lived in nyc for 18years. there were very few street magicians. chappy brazil, julian stanley. there were some guys that worked washington sq park. anyhow it is the effect you have on people that david blaine really excells . his methods take a back seat to the effect any given routine has on his audience.the "next david blaine" will not be the guy who can mimic every blaine routine,but rather the one who can think about the essentials of the art,then add there own voice to it and communicate it.
don allan was amazing at this. check out his steven's tape or his book. he used things that are easy to purchase at most shops, but turned it into great close up. magic is a performing art and blaine has carved out a performance style that is him.i bet he can do a lot of technical stuff but has the good taste not to.when he does magic,he serves the entertainment,communicative aspects of magic. I think this is great. joey

I dislike David Blane for one simple fact> That he beat me to the punch. I wish I had thought to go to a magic store buy 200 dollars worth of easy to do magic and then market the hell out of it. He's not an artist, he's a business man. That's fine. don't give him all this credit for being a magician, he's not. He's some guy that found a niche then sold the f*** out of himself. By the way after all the levitations exposes that followed his premier, the balducci has become worthless. Oh by the way the other bad thing is that all you young kids should be inspired by the aformentions artists, not Blane. And to the gentleman ripping on those so called "pretty boy" magicians. Don't hate. Just because they get to be in close proximity to ultra hot girls and you are not doesn't mean one day that you cant. Don't hate the magic player, hate the magic game.

On Blaine copy-cats:
Spend some time reading Milbourne's History of Magic. Continually the same thread keeps coming up. Acts get stolen and modified and Magicians try to pass themselves off a someone else more famous.

This isn't anything new. Eventually the fad of copying his style of magic will fade and something new will appear on the scene.

As long as someone can perform for an audience there will be someone else waiting to cash in on it.

Deerbourne

Someone told me this -
"..I HATE DAVID BLAINE BECAUSE HE IS GAY!.."

IS THIS TRUE???

Blaine is not gay, he has a very hot girlfriend. Plus you should not hate someone just because they are gay.

Sorry,I was just asking. Plus I did not imply that statement, it was a friend of mine.

... from the Magic Radio Show...

"And David Blaine was dating Sheryl Crow at the time, and her producer talked him into doing a TV special -"

"... see, RIGHT THERE! Nevermind the special. HE WAS DATING SHERYL CROW! THAT'S WHY WE HATE HIM!!!"

Heh.

I agree with the good marketing observations that started the thread. And I would also say that the "humble" thing is also part of the act. I saw him on some interview in the UK and he was pretty obnoxious: if I'd been the interviewer I'd probably have stopped it early on and spent the rest of the morning mentioning his unfriendly behavour

He has brought magic into the spotlight for the right reasons (compared to the masked magic-murderer aka Valentino).

That's worth applauding in my books.
He isn't exactly famous for his magic in Australia, but for his recent stunts.

Yes, what these "kids" do not realize is, that David did his homework for many years before going to the streets. he mastered sleight of hand,(especially with cards) studied tons of great books on magic, and magic history, and put in countless hours of practice. Blaine did not go to an online magic shop, add an item to cart, receive it in 3 days, then take it the streets an hour later. it is very humorous to say the least that these kids think that they can be a Blaine type of performer overnight without much practice. then when they cant accomplish the results he did, he must be a fake etc...

yea he uses a few edits here and there, and I cant stand his stunts etc, however for the most part I like all the magic he does, and the character he portrays in his environment. it is well suited for where he lives. heck he even got me back into magic a few times. as wayno said, many teens go through magic as a stage of life, but only the true magi at heart will continue the cycle.

OK. My turn to share my thoughts.
Blaine in my opinion is a fair magician. Nothing really new in his act. But he is promoting magic for all of us. How much easier is it to bring up the topic of magic when there's buzz on the streets? We shouldn't be bad talking a magician just because he made it to prime time. We should all study magic and business and take notes along the way.
Are we all forgetting Houdini? Houdini was not a "great" magician. But as for his showmanship skills!
How many of us practice showmanship?
Anyhoo, Congrats David and good luck keeping it going. As to the rest of us... keep studying, marketing, and entertaining.

That's what Dale Earnhardt fans said about Jeff Gordon. lol They just can't stand a rival who wins.