"Camera Tricks Are Not Magic" - Penn Jillette

[Mat La Vore]

"...There are people that will watch things on Criss's show that to me are crystal clear how they're being done..."

http://bigthink.com/ideas/20806

 

[KeoSilver]

Great read Mat, thanks for the link!

Mr. Jillette certainly has much to say and I tend to agree with what he has to say about the modern "Stunt" and endurance tests that Chris and Blaine has taken. Honestly, like the first Blaine special "Street Magic" was my favorite because as far as I remember there wasn't any promise of an endurance stunt at the end. Just Pure magic, levitation. I never really thought of tv magic as something to be subtly editted to make things seem like miracles. I am not talking about the holy crap genious "Avitar" as Penn put it editting, but the deletion of misses and failed effects.

Once again great read.

 

[joshrobarts]

while i agree with almost everything Penn said, i would make a separate point. Blaine's stunts to me have never been presented as magic, at least not the ones like holding his breath, or being living underwater, rather undertakings unto himself to push the boundaries of human abilities. This always seemed very reminiscent of Houdini to me and i think David was very much inspired by that, but i dont recall him presenting them "as magic" per say. With that said it would be nice to see them separated especially in the media, however that would undoubtedly lower the attention that one or both of them would get. With that said, the one thing i have always enjoyed about David's specials, the magic part at least was the very little editing used. With the exception of his levitations, i can only recall perhaps two effects that editing MAY have been necessary to convey the given result, and furthermore having seen those specials and seeing the blooper real where he does mess up or goof off i feel David is FAR less guilty than Criss in this regard, but i can still understand where Penn is coming from, Ultimately i will always prefer seeing magic live especially Close-up.

 

[AndrewJ]

while i agree with almost everything Penn said, i would make a separate point. Blaine's stunts to me have never been presented as magic, at least not the ones like holding his breath, or being living underwater, rather undertakings unto himself to push the boundaries of human abilities. This always seemed very reminiscent of Houdini to me and i think David was very much inspired by that, but i dont recall him presenting them "as magic" per say.

I agree in this regard about Blaine.

His endurance acts always seemed like just that - very difficult feats of endurance that stood on their own. I'm not sure that Penn even meant the stunts in this case. The one time I saw Blaine perform a levitation on tv, he was coughing as if it took some hardcore spiritual energy burning his lungs.

My bias, of course, is that Penn is easily my favorite of all three men involved. I've been a fan since his back page in PC Computing.

 

[mehar]

aww, the site is down till sunday. I'll be sure to check it out later though!