David Blaine's talk at the Cambridge Union

Mar 21, 2011
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Hey guys,

David Blaine came to the UK today (apparently for the first time since his box stunt) to give a talk at the Cambridge Union society. I had the good fortune to be able to attend and see Blaine up close - I can honestly tell you, it was an amazing experience.

The talk itself was engaging and inspirational. He talked about love of logic puzzles, and how that translated into a love of magic. He spoke of his experiences in a burn victim hospital, of how performing magic for young children recovering from major accidents was more rewarding than meeting celebrities, and of how he got started in magic. Littered throughout his talk were some wonderful tricks, from his signature ACR to filling up the empty jug on the table with water... from his mouth. He spoke in his usual slow, clear voice and his enthusiasm for the craft was literally felt by everyone in the audience.

In the Q&A session, I asked if he had any advice for magicians of our age group (university students, aged 18-22 ish) on moving forward in magic. He replied with the point that the interesting thing about magic was that relatively speaking, there weren't many people who actually did it. Everyone dabbles in a bit of magic when they're young, but very few people carry that on, and fewer still pursue the art through a lifetime. He was one of those people who became obsessed with it, and ploughed on through everything that was thrown at him, and said that we should do the same. He said that there will be times when you fail, but that failure is a good thing. Every failure is a learning experience, and the more you fail, fail, fail, the more you learn and develop as a person.

He also recommended studying magic, and reading about what magicians did in the past. He said that the secret to developing a great routine, is to see something you like, and make it your own. Don't simply copy what someone else did, but try to add your own unique touch to it - that's what makes great magic.

Afterwards, he stayed in the chamber and did some close up stuff, most of which I sadly missed because I thought he would be going to the bar and was waiting there :( I did catch the final few things though, and his effects there, combined with the ones he did throughout the talk, were truly inspirational.

The main thing was that they were pretty basic effects, not overly sleight heavy and easy to follow. However, the way in which he presented all of these was amazing. His ACR got a fantastic reception, which is saying a lot as it was a small card trick that worked for a room of over 100 people. He did the effect where the spectator holds 10 cards, and 3 more cards magically join that pile - I'd seen this before (on youtube and other places) and always dismissed it as a boring trick, but the way he presented it was engaging and appealed hugely to the lay audience.

He did Garret Thomas' Stand-Up Monte as well, presented with the story of how hustlers in New York play this game, and that you should never play it because of xyz. I actually used to do the trick myself, but recently stopped because I didn't think it was that good - seeing him perform exactly the same thing and get stellar reactions made me realise something that everyone harps on about: that presentation is everything.

This is a very long post, and probably sounds like me fan-girling over him, but seriously, it was amazing. Something else he did was when an audience member asked an awkward question about whether his magic is simply tricks or if he claims supernatural powers. Blaine's response was "you know what, why don't you come up here and bring the mic with you". He then proceeded to fry everyone with a folded-card-under-watch trick - afterwards, he said "and that's my favourite way to avoid answering a question", which naturally, got a huge laugh.

So yeah, I think I'll end there. To conclude, David Blaine is awesome, and seeing him in the flesh just made everything even better. I learn so much about performance style, and have been inspired to work on my existing effects and find solid presentations for all of them. All in all, it was a great evening :)
 
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