I saw an interview with db on the news and he blamed it on George Bush. He said his stunt got delayed 12 minutes and then the wind picked up and he couldn't do it. He explained that he was going to release baloons and fly away.

The ending was sooo hyped up but the special was still awesome!!! From the bullet catch to some street magic to getting punched by Kimbo Slice!!!

Aww, I didn't know he made a whole special out of it. I haven't seen a David Blaine special for a while.

David Blaine is legend. Lets be respectful





...[Palmeri Magic]...

The Dive of Death was the best Magic Special that I've ever seen from him so far, 2 hours of street magic just doesn't get any better than what David did on the 24th. And as for the Dive of Death stunt that was at the end, it was a problem with the wind which caused the stunt to not go as planned. And I'd rather have him safe, than attempt a stunt, not have it work, yet go through it, and then end up getting hurt because certain people just refuse to "cut him slack".

He apologized numerous times about the delays and eventual failed attempt, but he also promised that his next special will have even more Magic in in than what he put into the Dive of Death. Which I think is really, really going to be amazing since all of his magic effects were top notch, stellar illusions.

Yeah, some of them can be bought at your local magic shop or here on Penguin, but some people make it sound like it's a bad thing. His first special inspired me to get back into Magic, and I know that someone else will be inspired and will pick up the few illusions David performed, and thus expanding Magic to everyone.

I also heard that Criss Angel is going to attempt to mimic the same amount of Magic in his next special, whither it will be another attempt at his close-up magic or just whatever else the heck he does, just more of it.


So this is just my 2 cents on David Blaine and his Dive of Death special, and he's still #1 in my book.

I could not disagree more. David did some great tricks but his style of presentation doesn't hold up anymore. He is too rapid fire and his film crew films like a bunch of amateurs. That gonzo style was a hit back in 1999 but it doesn't work anymore. He needs to slow down and coordinate with his film crew.

And the stunt was just god awful. Why would you invest all that time into something that could be ruined by some wind? Bad idea and bad planning. And even if it did work as planned... how exactly is that a "Dive of Death"?

This has come up before about the 'amateur-ish' filming. I honestly feel like this is meant to be! Think back to what David Blaine famous. It was that gritty, 'on-the-street', 'no fancy lighting' style of magic that he wanted to seem as real as possible. Also, with lesser quality video and with the camera jumping around all the time, its much harder to 'spot' anything, if you catch my drift.



Also, as the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So they decided to keep with the same formula and film sort of "you-tube-ish"....holy crap, I sure am quoting and -ish-ing a lot, I sound like a dummy.


Anyways, I hope you get my point, I think they are looking for that gritty street magic style that has worked in the past.


Having said all of that, I do believe that this formula needs to be upgraded to today's standards. With all the technology out there in filming and high definition televisions, people crave that pristine quality and film production value, look at the T11 videos for example, they are excellent production values!

Well good thing it's a free country where we can disagree with each other, so that's totally fine with me that you have your own opinion on his special, and I have my own.

n.

He makes millions doing these "stupid" stunts. And he also gets $150,000 an hour doing walk-arround because of these "stupid" stunts. So I wouldn't exactly call them "stupid".

That is just a bold lie. His last stunt was the "Dive of Death". That failed. His last stunt excluding the dive of death was the bullet catch. That did not fail. Preceeding those was his breath hold on Oprah. That did not fail either. Before that was "Revolution". That didn't fail either. I assume you meant the "Drowned Alive" breath hold as his first failed stunt of the two. He did fail that breath hold but he did live in the sphere for a week. Next time please know what you are talking about before you slander some one.

Wait a second...What was Revolution? I must have missed that. Never heard of it. Enlighten me, please?

You may not like his presentation, but it seems that his spectators disagree. I agree with the spectators. Have you ever seen some one hand out the bills after a bill switch? When you show up, perform a miracle, and disappear like that(walk away), people are breathless. The obvious evidence of his presentation being amazing is that he is probobly in the top 5 most wealthy magicians in the world. The reason his film crew films like that is to make you feel like you are there. Do you think they just grab some guy at a bus stop and say, "film this"?

Also, I think it is still pretty popular. He brought in more viewers for any ABC program since April. He also got second in his time slot, so it seems pretty popular.

So you don't buy the explanation but you think it was a dumb idea? So do you believe it or not?

As has been said, they probobly lied about what was really supposed to happen. For all we know he might have wanted to jump 45 feet to the ground with no padding. That could be fatal.

For Revolution, David was shackled to a gyroscope that was spinning at 8 revolutions a minute for a while. (I'm not sure how long, I think it was like sunrise to sunset) After spinning for a while he escaped from some chains and took a bunch of kids into target to buy like $50,000 worth of clothes and stuff.

Man, I wished this was a straight forward magic special like Street Magic or Magic Man. Blaine's stunts, all of them, are stupid and have nothing whatsoever to do with magic. Houdini's death-defying escapes were completely safe, seeing that he's famous for stating that he wouldn't do an act if it was any more dangerous than sitting in his own living room.

Blaine? He just does stupid things for no other reason than people want to see it mess up somehow. Humans are macabre like that.

I still love the style Blaine does his tricks, though. Entertaining, and I love seeing something new that I could try and figure out (or purchase if it's a gimmick).

This statement is absolutely false.

Blaine's Dive of Death proved to be a dud with only 7.1 million viewers, according to ratings. It lost more than half of its Dancing With the Stars lead-in audience (15.8 million). And Blaine could not compete with CBS' Criminal Minds which won the 9-10 p.m. hour with 17 million.

Here's a breakdown of the ratings for that night...

1 CRIMINAL MINDS...............CBS 17,007,000
2 DANCING W/STARS............ABC 15,867,000
3 CSI: NY.............................CBS 14,591,000
4 AMERICA’S GOT TALENT......NBC 10,303,000
5 BONES ..............................FOX 9,726,000
6 KNIGHT RIDER....................NBC 7,349,000
7 D. BLAINE: DIVE OF DEATH..ABC 7,130,000
8 GARY UNMARRIED...............CBS 6,824,000
9 OLD CHRISTINE..................CBS 6,521,000
10 LIPSTICK JUNGLE..............NBC 6,250,000