Belated Blatant Blaine

David Blaine makes me sick. I saw David Blaine's Vertigo on Sunday. The intention was to stand on a ten story tower in New York no wider than his shoulders for 36 hours, but he stopped at 34 hours. Interspliced with this was footage of him doing magic and wacky activities, such as riding a small bike in the busy streets of Manhattan (citing one passerby to say "that's the craziest thing I've ever seen!", well you should get out more) and sub-Jackass stunts of harassing people.

I liked David Blaine. I like his street magician stuff. On the spot sleight of hand tricks are the best to watch, and they require real technique and showmanship. Big elaborate tricks are shit. When David Copperfield flies over the stage, I don't think "Wow!", I think "That's a con". Maybe Blaine's run out of tricks so he's got to do all these other stunts (previously he was buried alive and put into a block of ice, but not at the same time). People are known by the company they keep, so being associated with those charlatans Uri Geller and Michael Jackson has not helped his credibility. Some of the people watching him on the tower likened him to the new Houdini. More like Sigfried and Roy.


Errata

I said Jimi Hendrix's birthday was on the 2/12, when of course, it's on the 1/12. Sorry about that.