by The Cranky Media Guy!

Fri., Dec 1

Don't Miss The Letter On The Bottom Of The Page

As you'll see if you read all the way to the bottom, yesterday I went on a little rant about David Blaine in general and his "frozen in time" stunt specifically. I got an interesting email about it and you'll find it and my response to it at the bottom of the page.

Zero-tolerance For Dying People

Monday the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether or not people who provide marijuana to terminally ill people to ease their suffering should be exempt from federal anti-drug laws.

Am I the only one who thinks this is just plain stupid? I really, really, really don't like drugs (including alcohol), but what is the concern about giving what amounts to a pain-reliever to a dying person? Are we afraid that they'll get other dying people hooked on wacky weed? Sorry, but that's "zero-tolerance" gone irrational. Common sense suggests that compassion for the suffering should outweigh the desire to lock up substance abusers.

Ve Vill Run Chrysler

I don't know how I missed this, but until recently I didn't know that Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler in '98. Anyway, the Germans spent $32 billion to merge with the American company. Well, that's the way they pitched it at the time--as a merger of equals.

Because of that, Kirk Kerkorian, a billionaire who owned 13.75% of Chrysler stock, voted in favor of the "merger". Recently, though, DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp admitted that Daimler-Benz always intended to control Chrysler and operate it as a division. Hmm, can you say "deliberate misrepresentation"?

Since the merger/takeover, the stock has tanked. As you might expect, Kerkorian ain't happy. He's suing, alleging fraud, et cetera, et cetera.

It isn't often that I side with a billionaire, but it really looks like he (and the rest of the Chrysler stockholders) got screwed on this one. Note to Schrempp (and other cocky corporate assholes): if you want a successful career as a con man, Rule Number One is "never confess what you've done, especially if the marks can hear you."

Thurs., Nov. 30

Blaine Talk

As I'm typing this, I'm watching David Blaine being (very slowly) chipped out of a big block of ice in Times Square on ABC TV. I confess to having mixed feelings about the current darling of the magic scene. On the one hand, he's a very good self-promoter, which I admire. On the other hand, he has a tendency to oversell his tricks a wee bit, coming pretty close to implying that they're closer to miracles than illusions.

That's a no-no in magic circles. Magicians think it's all well and good to fool people, but you're supposed to be very clear that what you're doing is purely illusion, not supernatural. Magicians get really pissed off when someone pulls that kind of crap. That may account for why some pretty big names in the magic business have broken their usual vow not to reveal how tricks are done and given away the secrets behind Blaine's "frozen in time" stunt.

Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller did an interview the other day in which he explained that the company that makes P & T's props also built the apparatus Blaine used to be "frozen". Penn made the point that Blaine would be near ice, not in ice and he said that a hose would be pumping warm air into the cavity Blaine stood in. Penn likened it to being inside a warm telephone booth surrounded by ice and said that if he was given a chair and a copy of Moby Dick, he could stay in such an environment forever. He said that the hardest part of the trick is to look good with your shirt off. David Copperfield has also made some disparaging comments about Blaine.

You could ascribe some of the nastiness towards Blaine to jealousy, but I don't think that explains all of it. Two or three years ago, I saw Blaine's first two specials on TV and something struck me. With one exception (his levitation trick), everything he did was the kind of thing I've seen all my life in well-stocked magic shops. Many of them were self-working tricks, involving little real skill on the part of the performer. This was confirmed for me by the proprietor of a store in Delaware who told me he could sell me any trick Blaine had done on his ABC show on the spot. The next day I was in a magic store in Times Square (two blocks from where Blaine was "frozen" this week) who also offered to sell me any of Blaine's tricks.

That guy claimed to have thrown Blaine out of his store two weeks prior to my visit because he thought he was an "arrogant asshole". Attitude aside, the main complaint about David Blaine seems to be that he isn't advancing the art of illusion, doing store-bought tricks instead. By the way, I broke down and bought a $25 video that explains the levitation illusion. I now am able to perform the same trick that was the highlight of one of Blaine's shows. I can tell you that there's absolutely nothing "supernatural" about how it's done.

I've noticed something else about Blaine that troubles me. He likes to work out on the street to impromptu audiences. That's kind of his gimmick and it's all well and good. He seems to prefer to work to people who strike me as uneducated and perhaps given to believing in the supernatural, though. On one of his specials, he traveled to a remote village in South America and did some tricks that implied the ability to bring dead plants back to life. The natives ran away in fear. To any ethical performer of magic, that's really over the line.

To me, proof that Blaine is willing to allow people to believe that he's something more than a mere performer came when I read the credits to his second special. (Yes, I'm one of those annoying people. You'd be surprised at what you can learn by reading credits.) I had noticed while watching the show that there was a short voice-over, consisting of no more than about five lines of dialogue. Much to my surprise, the credits told me that the announcer was Uri Geller. Geller is an Israeli "psychic" who had a run of popularity in the 70's by claiming he could bend spoons with his mind (your guess is as good as mine as to why anyone would want to do that). The reality is that Geller is a (not very good) sleight of hand artist, and his "mysterious powers" have been exposed by James Randi. Using tricks to claim supernatural powers is considered highly unethical in the magic community (and rightly so).

I find it hard to believe that it would be worth Blaine's money to bring Geller in to read a couple of lines of copy, especially when there are dozens of professional voice-over announcers available. My guess is that Geller was actually hired to be a "consultant" on how to appear to be a miracle worker, rather than a common magician. In my opinion, having him read the short copy was a way to justify including his fee in the show's budget. I don't know whether magicians also read credits and therefore are aware of Geller's participation in the show, but if they are, that would also explain their enmity toward Blaine. If there's a Magician's Shit List, Geller's name is right at the top.

I sure hope that the visitors to this web site are a little more sophisticated than to believe that a guy who knows how to use carbon dioxide to make a fly appear to be dead (so he can then "revive" it) is anything other than a clever illusionist. It's possible, though, that you have a friend or relative who's given to believing in blatant bullshit. If so, do them a favor and point them toward this little rant, will you please? It's a decent place to start on the road to rationality, I think.

The Mail

Dear CMG:

There is a gentleman who goes by the name of Dr. Silkini who travels the country selling promotional packages that will freeze one of your station's DJ's in ice. Did it in Houston in '97 for 5 grand. You're right, you never touch the ice and they can get you out in about 90 seconds if panic sets in.

Craig E.

Dear Craig:

Yup, I know about Dr. Silkini. In fact, Chris, the guy I'm working with these days was "frozen alive" by him several years ago back in Pennsylvania. He told the story on the air yesterday morning. Just as you said, you never actually touch the ice. As Penn said, you're near ice, not in ice. To be fair, Chris did his stunt lying down and Blaine had to stand (definitely more tiring), but the basic principle is the same. Blaine was not in any danger of freezing to death.

For our Friday show, we called a magic store in Manhattan. The guy there said that he knew Blaine and confirmed what I said above about people in magic circles not being very fond of Blaine. According to him, the general consensus is that there are people in the business far more talented than David Blaine and that Blaine gets more attention than his skills should warrant.

CMG