What is Digg?121 Comments
- modian, on 10/12/2007, -5/+87The trick I'd like to see revealed is how he managed to bone Claudia Schiffer. Repeatedly.
- Ebeniz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+41it's called a camera trick... On his TV show, he does it for real once.. films the audience's reactions. Then he does it with ropes. The real way to do it is using the balducci levitation....
Now... look at Criss Angel levitating... He raises about 3 or 4 feet off the ground...
Watch this first:
http://media.putfile.com/CA-Levitation
how he did it
http://media.putfile.com/Criss-Angel-Levitation-Revealed-20 - aerialonyx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43A lot of people appreciate magic not only because they want to be amazed by the impossible, but because they're also interested in the ingenuity, planning and preparation that goes into it. I know that I'm impressed by the amount of thinking some magicians have put into their acts.
- brhad56, on 10/12/2007, -4/+34Flying is simple. All you have to do is throw yourself at the ground and miss.
- kherrick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24The animations wouldn't load for me either, but you can get them directly off the site even though the main page is down... I sort of understood it from the video, but the animations helped a lot!
First hoop thing:
http://www.copperfield.ru//flash/flash1.swf
Second hoop thing:
http://www.copperfield.ru//flash/flash3.swf - zouden, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16David is totally gonna get blackballed by the Alliance for this...
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15So you mean...he can't fly...NOOOOOOOO
*devestated* - 8ight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balducci_levitation
he stands on hi tippy toes
plus it made digg not nearly a year ago
http://www.digg.com/links/How_to_Perform_the_Balducci_Levitation - homelessgiant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"We demand to be taken seriously." haha I love that show.
- ThisGeek, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16Yeah you're right arielonyx, i suppose it's very similar to seeing how a conman can con people and make them think they havent even been conned and the like. It can be fascinating in it's own right.
However, I doubt most people are reading this article in order to marvel at the ingenuity and attention to detail, they want to know how the man flies. - section31, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Best illusion ever. I wish someone mirrored this site before it went down. Google cache is missing some animations :( I don't see it explaining how they removed the ropes though. Did they have a fake audience, and wasn't motion control cameras very expensive and cutting edge at the time.
- eatmorgnome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Blaine cheated on the TV show. They did shots of him lifting his feet 6 inches or a foot or so off the ground (whatever it was), then spliced it in with crowd reaction of him doing the actualy trick at the normal 2 inches off the ground.
- olegk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That one was obvious. One trick I always wanted to know about is how David Blaine was flying in the middle of a street. He basically walks on a street, with people walking around, and then he raizes a couple of feet above the ground.
- Izzie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7it is somewhat available through the internet wayback machine on archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.copperfield.ru - DrEbola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I mean, to whom was this "secret" really unknown? Not only does he obviously use ropes, but if you think for a moment, he's got to use two of them to do the flipping thing. Hanging off one like a noose isn't going to do the trick.
- big65rich, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8You can actually see the string as a light reflects off it almost half way through the video when he makes his decent lol
- manvsmonster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Here is a site with Copperfield doing the flying thing: http://thatvideosite.com/view/1197.html
- djsnipa1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I've seen Copperfield live, it was a while back, but it was amazing. I know it's all illusions and tricks, but it was probably one of the coolest things I've seen. One of his tricks was taking these large handkerchiefs and they started flying around the audience...above our heads! I don't know how that was done but it was pretty cool. Also, he walked into a giant saw and "boom" not even a second later...he was in the middle of the crowd with his assistant. I speculate it was a "double" of him and his assistant on stage, but still...I can't figure it out.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9So he used ropes. Like no kidding.
- jobeus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://64.132.7.41/pcgi-bin/patents/us/pdfcache/5354238.pdf Here's the patent on the trick's apparatus.
There's a lot of other cooler harder tricks he does, in my opinion. I saw him a month ago in Toronto and he still amazed me. - Jacobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4When I first caught the trick I knew he was using ropes because you can see his center of gravity plainly. If he could "fly" he could stop and turn on a dime and not have to essentially swing around the stage. But it's interesting to see just how the ropes are used and what tricks are used to get him through the rings and the box. You know it's all fake, but it's fascinating just the same.
Now if someone can explain how Penn and Teller made a submarine vanish underwater while being surrounded by people (assuming they weren't all assistants)...that I would pay to know. - dkurfurst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I saw Copperfield in Vegas in November and both My Wife and I got called on to stage (for separate illusions). He was totally amazing. I am an armature magician and I have no clue on how he did most of his tricks / illusions. I was up on stage and he made a car appear 2 feet in front of me - totally blew my mind. my wife was involve with the impregnation skit - he had her think of a playing card and write it down on a pad and don't let him see it. He then had a big screen with the sonogram of his kid pick her card - you saw the silhouette of a baby and then the baby produces the 8 of Hearts, her card - it was cool.
- LegendOfLink, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I thought only Peter Pan could fly? He's pretty "high".
http://www.pixyland.org/peterpan - harishsr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The Alliance of Magicians is gonna be pissed...
- hydrozen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That angel thing doesn't really explain all the situations you see in the video... seems like he does some camera cheating once in a while too... like in the last sequence against the wall with people around.... i don't see where he can be putting his foot to lift up...
- geoffknight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I'd like to see them bust Chris Angel. That guy freaks me out.
- bnl771, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Yep. And when he first takes off as well. I remember watching this as a kid and seeing the strings.
- ModernTenshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Man, I remember watching this back when I was a kid, and being totally stoked seeing him fly. I knew it had something to do with ropes, but couldn't figure out how. Well, now I know.
- naisanza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3lmao.. you got owned
- everfalling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i wanna see how Cyril Takayama does his stuff. David blane is good but the videos you can find of this guys stuff online is just mind boggeling (check out the glass table trick)!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=148318938990221289 < more videos on the right hand side - ChemEng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3He does that by standing with his feet together. Using the toe that is opposite the crowd (notice how he always aligns himself perpendicular to the crowd), he lifts himself up a few inches for a few seconds. The shadow cast by his body and his body itself obscures whats really going on. He doesnt levitate feet about the ground no more than Mike Jordan could jump in the air for 10s of seconds. Your want to believe exaggerates what you see...
I had heard that it fails many times on the street because you cant control the environment optimally like a Copperfield. The TV just shows the 1 time in 100 when it works... - VTEX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3FYI - The Internet archive has this site cached.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.copperfield.ru - Ebeniz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hey dkurfurst... did you even read my post above? Watch the video and save yourself $100
- SteelGator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I love seeing magic revealed. There's a certain amount of joy in being "in the know," and knowing the trick doesn't ruin it for me. The skill of the magician (the performance) is even more amazing when you see how it's done.
Props for the Criss Angel links above. Excellent! - mtrip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4My problem with Copperfield is that he's just corny as hell, with the melodramatic theatrics, acting, crazy stares, 80's rock blaring, gelled mullet, usually feigning some romantic situation with the female stagehands like a live action 'Dirty Dancing' or something. It's awful. Just fly already.
- therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Now all they need is to explain his disappearing and teleportation tricks ;)
- allanpat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"like in the last sequence against the wall with people around.... i don't see where he can be putting his foot to lift up..."
---------------
His shoes were connected to ropes. if you watch the end of the video you can see him stepping out of the rope harnesses - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Perhaps they used cargo choppers. It would seem to make the most logical sense, after all (although I still have my doubts that a chopper could pull it up without the bubble curtain being sucked in towards the center; surface tension and fluid dynamics being what they are).
However, the 'chopper' and 'sub' they showed at the end of "Off the Deep End" were computer generated, and P&T are known for 'showing how they did it' when they're really showing you no such thing. - Rousterfar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Great story! It must have taken him years to the whole trick out.
- liquidedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This makes me sad. I preferred my own explanation of "having sold his soul to the devil."
- section31, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5oops never mind... here is the explanation of how the ropes were made invisible.
"Take a look at the illumination of the stage: there are high towers with projectors on both of it and, because of a slight fog, the light of them becomes visible, what hides the ropes that are also almost invisible. " - kodekitten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am completely confused as to why there are so many negative comments on here calling David Copperfield a fraud. Has David (or ANY self-respecting magician, for that matter) ever purported to actually be able to perform supernatural feats of magic? It's ENTERTAINMENT -- people willingly pay to be fooled!! Those of you who are bitter make it sound as if you were personally lied to -- like you paid your money like everyone else and are SHOCKED to find that it's not real. Only 8 year olds believe it-- everyone else is plenty amused with trying to mentally figure out how they did it.
If you're concerned about paying money to talentless shmucks, take a good listen to pop music nowadays. 90% of singers are digitally enhanced in order to fool you. - mcbarron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I always thought that the helicopter shot was a joke by Penn and Teller - were they actually serious?!
- codejedi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Good thing I searched for the quote before posting it myself. Come ON!
- Ryetronics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I saw Criss Angel on tv do this trick where he is in a group of people in Vegas and they lower a large trash can on top of him. Then after about thirty seconds, someone from the crowd lifts the trash can off the ground and he's no longer inside. Then the camera pans up to a roof next door and he's on top of the building. This was done without any editing cuts that I could see, plus the audience (which included hundreds of passerby's in Vegas) had a genuine shocked reaciton.
Now someone please bust that one! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2He isn't. He's using "threads" or "wire." Strictly speaking, he's telling the truth.
For certain values of 'truth,' of course. - drdewm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm more impressed by card tricks done inches from your face where the performer is sleevless and you get to watch closely. Some of those are just amazing.
- roadie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3As David's ex-Technical Director, all I can say is 'close but no cigar'.
Some of the facts in the article are correct, but he misses a few biggies.
The one thing David does *not* want you to know - the inventor of the flying rig took out a patent on the system, against David's wishes. This means that if you can find it, the drawings of the flying rig are available at uspto.gov!
That and the fact that he has put on too much weight over the last few years to be able to safely do this trick LMAO. - Hypersapien, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But...but..but.. he said he wasn't using ropes!
- j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I remember watching this as a kid. In the first few seconds as he comes off the ground you can see the strings pretty clearly.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 121 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is