very simple

My route to work (either walking or taking the bus), takes me past Lincoln Center every day.

For the past week, I’ve had the “joy” of getting to see David Blaine in his stupid plastic bubble (albeit briefly, as I certainly didn’t stop to stare). Other than the fact that the guy appeared on my regular route, I had no interest in his latest stunt, and didn’t even know that it was ending last night until I took the bus home and noticed that the crowd and the cameras were in much greater abundance than they had been earlier in the week. Still, I wasn’t planning on watching the finale. But then I finished watching something else I had tivo’d, and my TV automatically switched over to the last 20 minutes of his TV special, right as he was about to do the whole “hold his breath for 9 minutes” thing. So, of course I had to watch.

I don’t know what was funnier – the fact that he failed, or the fact that for all of his claims of being a magician or an illusionist, he’s clearly neither. Ooh, he’s going to have to free himself from chains of death…

…with a key!

Sitting in an oversized bathtub for a week (or a plastic box over the Thames), breathing through an oxygen tube, and doing nothing else of consequence may be something, but it’s certainly not magic.

An Illusion implies that your eyes are seeing something that’s not really (or can’t be) happening. Something that appears to defy natural law (like levitation, sawing someone in half, or making a bengal tiger “disappear”). If Blaine had made it appear that he wasn’t breathing oxygen through a tube for the week, that would have been an illusion. If he had made it appear that he was in the tank when he really wasn’t, that would have been an illusion. Heck, If we had all been distracted and Blaine had suddenly come walking out of the Metropolitan Opera while we all thought he was still in the tank, that might have been pretty cool.

My favorite quote, from the NY Times review:

In dreamy montages last night, Mr. Blaine explained that these exercises are all part of his “journey,” that they “make people think.” Magic, he said, “brings people together who might not come together.” Well, so does the airport.

Again, not magic. And I’m pretty sure that they “make people think” he’s an idiot. I can’t be the only one.

When I was younger, I got to see Penn and Teller in one of their off-broadway shows. I even got called up on stage for one of their tricks. I had to seal Teller inside a box, while Penn was talking to the audience. I was up close with the box. There were absolutely no trap doors that I could see. A few minutes later, Teller came walking out from the wings. Then we noticed that someone was banging on the inside on the box. When we let them out, it was Penn, who had somehow gotten inside the box. I’m sure it was cool from the audience perspective, but nothing can compare to being so close to a true illusion that you’re actually part of the act and still not seeing the strings. And lest you think there was something shoddy about the box-sealing, there were power drills involved. I’m sure it was just a very well-concealed hidden passageway, but that’s what an illusion is.

Blaine is just an attention whore. And that would be fine if he didn’t try to claim that what he did was something that requires more talent.

Tags: bitching, new york city