Irresponsible Blaine

[nwmadden]

Blaine really makes me mad. The sooner he get's out of the UK the better. The guy is a fake. I don't mind a magician when he accknowledges that he's performing *illusions*, but the way this guy talks, it's as if he truely believes he's the real deal.

Take the publicity for his latest stunt. He jumped out of a pod on the London Eye (London's 125M high ferris wheel) and stood there for a while totally unannounced. Fortunately, the camera's zoomed in on him spotted a thick safety rope disapearing up one of his trouser legs making the whole thing safe. Though I bet, if it hadn't been spotted he's be claiming he was standing their unaided.

I don't care if the skeptical common sense world I live in is more boring than the fancy fake one which Blaine describes, where normal people can *float* of the pavement or survive on *nothing*, the man is irresponsable.

This may sound *absolutely* harsh, but I think what it needs is for one of his gullible followers to fall off something 125M up or to get a severe case of malnutrician trying to survive on nothing for 44 days, to bring him and the media focus back to reality.

Oh, and Hello Forum, I just joined. :-)

Neil

[Cain]

Yesterday I watched a clip of Blaine on Carson Daley's execrable late night show.

Carson's "not sure" if Blaine's magic is real or just illusion, but he chooses to believe that it's real. He follows this risible confession with a question about the "skeptics," and Blaine sighs "there will always be skeptics." Specifically, I think this last comment was made in regard to his silly stunts (jumping off a 90 ft. column, staying inside a frozen block of ice).

He definitely takes himself way too seriously.

[Bob Klase]

At least some people realize that Blaine's marketing skills are much more impressive than his stunts.

http://www.online.ie/entertainment/v...rticle=3027607

[T'ai Chi]

Quote:

Originally posted by nwmadden
Blaine really makes me mad. The sooner he get's out of the UK the better. The guy is a fake. I don't mind a magician when he accknowledges that he's performing *illusions*, but the way this guy talks, it's as if he truely believes he's the real deal.

Blaine is a magician, an entertainer, a marketer of himself, etc.

Relax.

Quote:

This may sound *absolutely* harsh, but I think what it needs is for one of his gullible followers to fall off something 125M up or to get a severe case of malnutrician trying to survive on nothing for 44 days, to bring him and the media focus back to reality.

In response, I'd have to say: "Oh brother."

[nwmadden]

Quote:

Originally posted by T'ai Chi


Blaine is a magician, an entertainer, a marketer of himself, etc.

Relax.



In response, I'd have to say: "Oh brother." [/b]

Whilst you may argue that leaping out of tall public attractions is entertaining and a good example to set for *your* children, since when did watching a man trapped in a perspex box, huddled up in his sleeping bag, urinating in a tube as his muscles and organs waste from lack of nutricians fall into the entertainment category?

*Oh brother*, my point still stands, I think the guy is irresponsible.

Neil

[T'ai Chi]

Quote:

Originally posted by nwmadden


Whilst you may argue that leaping out of tall public attractions is entertaining and a good example to set for *your* children, since when did watching a man trapped in a perspex box, huddled up in his sleeping bag, urinating in a tube as his muscles and organs waste from lack of nutricians fall into the entertainment category?

*Oh brother*, my point still stands, I think the guy is irresponsible.

Neil

I'm sure he is much safer than is thought by the general public (you and I).

If it wasn't safe, he wouldn't be doing it. Think of all the fail-safes that Randi had in place before being dangled over Niagra Falls.

[nwmadden]

I guess I'm over reacting. This did make me laugh though, quote from Sunday Times today about the latest stunt:

"Less than half an hour after the challenge began some people pelted eggs at the box, several scored direct hits prompting cheers and laughter from the crowd. Blaine, turned away distainfully as yolk dripped down the side of his new home.

Later a man was seen on tower bridge with a four iron. He whacked more than a dozen golf balls at Blaine from 60 yards away, but missed everytime"

I'm beginning to feel sorry for the guy, I wonder how and why this transition from expert sleight of hand street magician to dangling buffoon happened.

[Zep]

This latest DB stunt is just so, SO boring. The sum effect is that DB is out of our lives for 44 days, which is the only positive to come out of it.

Then again, what would happen if everyone completely forgot he existed after about 30 days. Then they just left the box dangling there for months and months... Now THAT would be more interesting when they brought it back in!

[homunculus]

I'm beginning to feel sorry for the guy, I wonder how and why this transition from expert sleight of hand street magician to dangling buffoon happened.

Me too. When he drops the "spooky" persona he seems almost normal...

I don't see how he can go on taking himself this seriously without becoming the butt of jokes. When asked at a recent press conference what he would wish to be remembered for if he died during this stunt, he replied, with no trace of irony, his humourless gaze never wavering: "As the greatest showman ever".

Puh-lease...

Still, all power to the guy. He's injected a new lease of life into magic, regardless of what other magicians might think of him.

Paul.