Comments (5)

um. no. Houdini disproved psychics and such. The stunts were done for the publicity. The difference between Blaine and Houdini, is that Blaine seems to have played by the rules, self imposed as they were. Houdini is known to have hiddden lockpicks on his person (having worked as a locksmith for years, he had intimate knowledge of most brands, and quickly familiarized himself with any new types he encountered). He is known to have keys passed to him after he was searched. He is known to have bribed officers to let him out of the cells he was locked into. Houdini was willing to use any method to "succeed" in his stunts. I expected the same of David Blaine. He is becoming more like a stuntman than a magician. What's next for him? He plans on jumping Snake Canyon on a Skycycle.

Not really.

I'm not including Houdini's escapes with stunts. I would call Houdini's being buried alive and such a stunt. He didn't effect an escape at the end of these, but merely proved that one could survive the conditions by non-supernatural means.

I consider most of Houdini's escapes to be very elaborate sleight of hand, as most of the time he did have picks and such hidden on his person or in his cabinets (even when nude and searched, ummm, medically). Not to mention the numerous confederate audience members he kept at each show.

How many other close up flying magicians are getting their own tv shows?

This Guy

Blaine does tricks that most magicians learn and leave behind.
His genius is that he still recognizes their potential to impress lay-people. His first special had magicians all over the country digging in the closet to find that old gimmicked coin and screaming "I USED TO DO THAT!"

the survivors of the Indianapolis only had to go 4 days in the water, but they also had sharks chewing on them. I think they win in the stunt competition.

Again, Houdini didn't perform these stunts to disprove the supernatural. He did them for publicity. He was performing stunts from the beginning of the new century. Actually, I believe he started perfoming his stunts at the end of the 1800's. It wasn't until the 1920's or so that he began debunking the fraudulent spiritualists. Those who claimed to speak with the dead.
Houdini was great at getting out of things. cages. cuffs. boxes. But who remembers the enterologists? The people who would get themselves into impossible places. People like Seamus Burke. Or the related art of contortionism? The pinacle of which would have to be the unnameD performer who announced on January 11, 1749 that he would squeeze himself into an ordinary quart jar which was placed on center stage at a London theater. When the night of the performance arrived, the theater was filled to it's limit despite the high ticket prices. The performer never showed up. About a half hour after the scheduled start of the show the management tried to calm the crowd down. From the ochestra pit someone was heard to cry out: "For double the price, the conjuror will get into a pint bottle."
The crowd tore the theater apart.