How the HELL did they do this

[INRM]

On Carson Daly tonight (just a few minutes ago)

There was this mentalist guy who made a cigarette hover in mid-air, he even had Jaime King draw a picture which was a bad shot at a cross, and Carson who was back to back also made a cross... Ironically The mentalist started the drawing FIRST!!! Then Carson did.

He did a whole bunch of other tricks...

How the hell???

-INRM

[Yahzi]

Psychic powers.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Very thin wire attached to the cigarette?

~~ Paul

[tamiO]

magnets in the cigarette?

[Pahansiri]

It may have been one of those really light cigarette, you know like winston lites or something like that...LOL:D

[imagineNoReligion]

I saw the cigarette trick performed in a magic store in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I actually bought the trick to find out how it was done. It consisted of strands of extremely thin transparent sticky "thread".

You'd think you'd be able to see the thread, but it fooled me and judging the reaction of the crowd gathered around, it fooled them too.

I can't find the instruction book, but I seem to remember that the color of your clothing was important too.

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

Originally posted by INRM
On Carson Daly tonight (just a few minutes ago)

There was this mentalist guy who made a cigarette hover in mid-air, he even had Jaime King draw a picture which was a bad shot at a cross, and Carson who was back to back also made a cross... Ironically The mentalist started the drawing FIRST!!! Then Carson did.

He did a whole bunch of other tricks...

How the hell???

-INRM

Is he on the Benson and Hedges payroll? Perhaps with so many people quitting smoking they are looking for other markets.

Have you ever seen this trick done with other objects?

WHat I would like to know is how David Blair appears to "float" a few inches of the ground.

He does it with his arms out, and his back to the audience.

I suspect, as we can never see his toes due to the camera's perspective that he is standing on something with high tensile strenght that was hidden in his pant legs and drops down. Regardless he has remarkable balance because the object could not have too much size to it.

I wonder if Randi or other conjurers could give us some insight.

[plindboe]

Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe
WHat I would like to know is how David Blair appears to "float" a few inches of the ground.

He does it with his arms out, and his back to the audience.

I'm not sure who this David Blair guy is, but I once saw some street magician on the TV doing such a levitation trick in front of people, who all freaked out when they saw it. This trick puzzled me like nothing before, as I just couldn't figure out how it was done. :confused: I concluded it must have been done by very thin wires.

Not long ago, I saw another magician on the TV, who first showed us tricks and later explained them. He did that levitation trick, and phew!, finally I got the explanation. First he needed to place himself at a certain angle to the people watching; they should be behind him, but a little to the right. Then he lifted himself with his left foot while keeping the right foot straight. Try to do this in front of a mirror, it really looks like you're levitating. The people's reaction was combined with footage of him levitating much higher, but this footage was shot at another time and location, and was done with wires. So when they clip really fast between showing people's very dramatic reaction and the magician levitating really high, you easily get fooled.

I'm not sure if this was the trick you saw, but when you mention he was floating while having his back to the audience, it sounds like it was. ;)

Peter :)

[imagineNoReligion]

I've actually successfully done the levitation trick, and when it works it usually amazes people. The problem is you have to be at the correct angle and distance away from your audience. I failed more times than I was successful, but did pull it off a few times.

Try it out.


Balducci Levitation :

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/7308/balducci.html

Quote:

"For the television special, Blaine performed the Balducci levitation in front of several different groups of people, and the camera was there to catch their reaction. The method he used for this is the Balducci method, described below. While videotaping these various performances, the producers keyed in on the audience members with the most visual reaction. After the Balducci levitation, the producers of the show had these same people stand by for another taping of the illusion - this time the camera would shoot from behind the audience members to get a
clear view of Blaine in action. The audience members were told that this second performance was to show them how magicians could use wires to levitate. And this is exactly what happened. A small harness and rig (just out of camera view) was set up and Blaine performed a standard wire-suspension"

"What Blaine did was a camera trick - known as a post-production edit. The audience at home watched the second (wire suspension) levitation performance, with the audience reaction of the real levitation edited in. It was said, in the television special, that no strings or wires were used to perform Blaine's levitation. This is true, no wires or strings are required. Unfortunately, we never got to see Blaine's real levitation - we saw a wire-suspension."

[imagineNoReligion]

I have seen the cigarette levitation trick using the transparent thread technique, performed with other objects like credit cards, for example. It can only be accomplished with light objects, as the bond to the object is through a wax like substance.

[NoZed Avenger]

A request from a hobbyist magician:

Please eliminate public disclosure of anything -- whether actually the true effect, or not -- that might tend to disclose too much information and potentially hurt a working magician. I realise that everyone has different opinions on this, but I would ask that any type of "working" information be sent via pm, rather than posted publically.

I have not read all the messages on the thread and am not looking to get into anyone's face or arg\ue on the topic -- just a request.


NA

[INRM]

How did he do the drawing thing... how did he know what was going to be drawn BEFORE Carson Daly drew it?

That's what baffels me. I know the rest has gotta be special effects.

I don't believe it's psychic one bit, because he said it could not be used for any practical application; just entertainment.

-INRM

[Skeptical Greg]

What is a " bad shot at a cross " ?

[CSSMariner]

Originally posted by INRM
On Carson Daly tonight (just a few minutes ago)

There was this mentalist guy who made a cigarette hover in mid-air, he even had Jaime King draw a picture which was a bad shot at a cross, and Carson who was back to back also made a cross... Ironically The mentalist started the drawing FIRST!!! Then Carson did.

He did a whole bunch of other tricks...

How the hell???

-INRM

May I recommend that you tune in on the internet on Monday nights to the JREF's own Andrew Mayne Harter at www.themagicradioshow.com and you can ask the man himself. He may or may not tell you precisely how a particular trick is done, but he is a very accomplished and talented magician. He does the Dave Blaney bit very well. Andrew was a touring magician on the cruise ships when he was a teenager, and worked in Japan for a few months as a stage magician, all before he reached his majority. Andy is a very talented protégé of Randi's.

You may also want to visit www.weirdthings.com right after that.

[St_Hereticus]

I remember watching David Copperfield flying aroud the stage. He even "flew" into a clear glass (or plastic?) box, whereupon the lid was attached, and he floated around inside the box. I was totally baffled. I even heard people swear up and down that he must've sold his soul to the devil! That's kinda like the "God o' the Gaps" hypothesis, huh? I don't really even want to know how he did it, 'cause I like the mystery of it.

[c4ts]

Originally posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos
Very thin wire attached to the cigarette?

~~ Paul

My little brother bought one of those wire gimmicky thingies in Vegas. It really looks like the stuff you attach it to is floating! The secret is that the wire isn't very reflective.

[aggle_rithm]

I saw the floating cigarette trick on a documentary about Russian psychics. You know how these documentaries on psychic powers are often breathless promoters of silly beliefs? Well, in this one, the interviewer reached out and passed his hand between the cigarette and the "psychic's" hand, instantly destroying the illusion on camera.

Awsome!!:cool: