BrucUK: My 8 year old daughter Meredith wants to know...Of all the tricks that you have done on Mystery Hunters - which was your favourite? Are the tricks that you do original/developed for the show(s), and if so, how long do you need to practice? Have you ever had any that have gone horribly wrong, and needed the wonder of television editing to fix?
David Acer: The best visual effect we've done on the show so far is the opening of the "Power of Suction" Mystery Lab where I'm climbing up the side of the Discovery Headquarters building with bathroom-plunger suction cups on my hands and knees. It still makes me laugh when the scene opens with a shot of the wall up in the clouds (a gross exaggeration of how tall the building is) and we hear (FFFPOP!... FFFPOP!... FFFPOP!) as I slowly climb into frame.
But you're probably referring to the best magic trick... That's a good question. I'd say the "Haunted Dinner Tricks" Mystery Lab, where we teach kids a couple of ways to make it look like there are ghosts inhabiting their dining room. The Headless Dinner Guest is a great trick - it's easy to do, it uses a real person (not a dummy or mannequin), and it looks soooooo good when the headless guest is sitting at the table cutting up a piece of steak, for example, then trying to feed it into his non-existent mouth.
One trick I performed but did not teach (over 52 episodes, we have only taught a half-a-dozen tricks or so) that generated a great deal of interest among magicians was Patrick Reymond's "Lightning Strike," in which you focus your concentration on a match held at your fingertips and suddenly, it bursts into flames. That trick was at the very end of the episode on alligators in the New York sewer system and dragons.
Regarding something going horribly wrong, that pretty much happens in every taping. But it's less a question of fixing that sort of thing in editing than it is just sticking with it during the shoot until you get the right take.
Very few of the tricks I've done on the show were developed specifically for Mystery Hunters. Some of the tricks (things like the self-folding bill, "Lightning Strike," etc.) just fit with the subject matter of their respective episodes. Others were inserted because I liked them visually and I knew that they fit my character. For example, at the opening of the "Fog In A Bottle" Mystery Lab, I'm in my lab pouring a beaker of water from a water bottle when my laptop beeps. I let go of the beaker and reach over to hit the enter key, while the beaker remains floating in mid-air. Araya appears on screen and we chat a little as I continue to fill this floating beaker without thinking twice about it. The trick isn't integral to the episode, but it allowed me to add a fun visual element to a run of dialogue that would otherwise have been fairly dry.
One nice thing, however, is that I don't have to cram magic tricks into every episode. Our rule of thumb when we developed the character of Doubting Dave was that he's a scientist, a skeptic and a magician, but he doesn't always have to be all three. In fact, I have a Post-It Note on my computer that says:
SCIENTIST
SKEPTIC
MAGICIAN
We'll take any two per episode!
BrucUK: Meredith says "Thanks for Replying!"- she has seen most of the episodes that you refer to - she thinks that walking up a building using plungers must be quite difficult.
Thanks - and please keep on producing such a great programme for kids.
David Acer: I forgot to mention that the floating beaker effect (more typically done with a glass) is Nicholas Einhorn's "Airborne."
Thanks Bruce and Meredith!
Robby5000: David Blaine to me is great (ok I sound like a guy who's seen magic once)!
I’m not a fan of all his big tricks like living in a box in the middle of London but I think he truly has worked hard at his magic and it really in impressive stuff. I’m taking this for example hear, but if you are a lay person and he stops you and suddenly pushes his hand through the window of a jewelry shop and pulls out a watch you would be impressed would you not?
My view anyway. I’m a big street magic fan, in fact does anyone know anywhere where I could get some more info on it?
David Acer: I agree that the effect you describe above is the best kind of magic David does on his specials, but I also feel that T.H.E.M. really raised the bar for these kinds of tricks. Blaine might have a little catching up to do...
Regarding the info on Street Magic you're requesting, there are no books or DVDs in particular that cater to the material I think you associate with the term (the tricks performed by David Blaine/Chris Angel/T.H.E.M.). You'll have to do what they did and scan the literature for effects you can adapt.
Robby5000: ok cheers, I'll look into that. I guess what I respect about Blaine is that he can hold an audience. He seems to have them under control and that’s something I would love to be able to do. I feel that when I perform really close up magic, around school to kids in the corridor! I’m so concentrated on getting the trick done and over that I just lose them if you understand me? When I perform a trick I feel I need to do it fast so they don't catch the gimmick or something like that. Its hard to explain.
David Acer: I know EXACTLY what you mean, and that's definitely a tough nut to crack. The one thing I've noticed about every entertainer I've seen who is naturally charismatic is a sense that they are comfortable in their own skin. Coming to terms with who you are, improving characteristics you deem to be flaws, whether physical or psychological, and just generally working towards becoming the person you want to be can have an enormous impact on your magic. These things make people want to watch YOU, not just your tricks.
Devplus: In your opinion, is it a good or bad characteristic of David’s, to use camera edits to enhance his image to a television audience?
David Acer: I realize that many people will disagree with me on this, and frankly, I can appreciate both sides of the argument, but from my perspective, if you're going to make a TV show, it's your responsibility to both the medium and the viewing audience to make the best possible piece of television you can. In David's case, once the tricks he chose to perform were in the can, there is absolutely no question that he had to use edits to enhance the impact of some of the effects.
HOWEVER, would it have been possible for David and his team to have chosen DIFFERENT effects that would NOT have required that kind of editing? Absolutely. Take, for example, the "think of any number" trick he performed in an earlier special. I don't think I'm making too big a leap here by assuming that he just tried the trick on as many passers-by as necessary until he finally got one who said the right number (and by the way, if that wasn't the method, it may as well have been). Now in editing, you have no choice if you've committed to doing that trick but to use the one take that worked. Unfortunately, it's also insultingly easy, and I expect more from people who are on a national stage.
Robby5000: Yeah I agree as well with David. Blaine has his own show and with the technology today they have the money and the time to make you think after every show "that was awesome". We have to remember regardless whether he has used camera effects or not he has to make a decent show and if you do come away saying "that was awesome" then it was all worth his while.
One of my all time favourite Blaine tricks is Dragon Thread. I saw him use it on one of his shows where he doesn't say anything, he just does it in front of a crowd of people, that’s why I love it. There’s no need to explain what your doing or what your going to do, it's so visual.
Chabang: Is David Blaine the most influential innovative magician in the last few decades or dime-store magician who got lucky?
David Acer: Both, although I’m not sure I would use the term “innovative.” None of the tricks he does are his (which is absolutely fine, but does not speak to inventiveness), and the stunts, while magnificently publicized, are very much derivative of the kind of work Houdini was famous for.
Moreover, while David Blaine might have been influential from the standpoint of magicians, he has done little if anything to change the overall image of magic among laypeople. And I’m not suggesting that he doesn’t have fans, just that the classic, archetypal image of “magician” in most people’s minds remains unchanged, even after seeing a David Blaine special. They just perceive him as an anomaly, not a shift in the norm.
But I’m not trying to deride either David or his TV specials. He (along with some very creative consultants) has helped cut a new path for magicians, and ultimately, our discussions about him and his work on forums such as these will have absolutely no impact on whatever legacy he leaves.
Happy Toad: Hi David, thanks for your time on MB.
Staying with David Blaine, why do you think he has captured the imagination of so many of the public. He is clearly doing nothing original in terms of the effects that he does, so what is it that he does have?
David Acer: I think Richard Kaufman put it best – when David Blaine performs, he’s a blank slate upon which the viewer can imprint any meaning he wants - depth, wisdom, insight, whatever. Because David doesn’t present himself as anything, he can come across as everything.
The question now is, has that run its course with audiences? And if so, will David be able to reinvent himself, like so many actors, musicians and entertainers are forced to do, or will he be forever associated with one time, one medium, one style.
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