My Best Sunday (Ever) with Magician David Blaine

Hey, do you want to see some magic? That's how David Blaine often introduces himself to unsuspecting strangers on the street when he wants to perform.

So, what happens when Mr. Magic, David Blaine...

Does his magic for Mr. Science, Steve Wozniak?

Magic trumped Science! Well, at least for yesterday afternoon.

I don't know if there is any collective group as skeptical of magic as scientists. Because of this, there may be nothing funnier than watching a bunch of computer engineers be baffled, shocked and amazed by an internationally renowned magician performing magic trick, after trick, after trick, for hours, inches away from them, leaving them unable to figure out the science behind the magic.

Even when Woz pulled a fast one and threw in an extra shuffle to a deck of cards as he held them under the table, and didn't tell David until after the trick was over, David still pulled off the trick. LOL

Woz's friends had to remind him they were using his cards, not Davids when he suspected there was something funny about the cards.

Their expressions were truly priceless :D

If you've never seen David's brand of "Street Magic" before, watch this short video.

So we were at the Farmers' Market yesterday when hubby received a phone call inviting us to share a very special afternoon with our friends, the Wozniaks, and their guest David Blaine.

I have been a fan of David Blaine's ever since I saw his first TV special titled "Street Magic" back in 1997. While I'd never been a huge believer or detractor of magic before the show aired I was completely enchanted with David Blaine's brand of magic which is to make his audience, specifically their reactions, equally as integral a part of his performance as the magic itself. This makes his tricks not only more believable but a lot more fun to watch than the typical stage show performances that had become an industry standard for decades.

David's personality is the epitome of "low key" which only enhances the viewer's experience as the people he performs his magic on scream, laugh, run away and disbelieve what they just saw happen in front of their eyes.

As his opener, David had our friend Frank write his initials on a quarter then hold it in his hands. Then my hubby put his hands above and below Franks' hands and David put his above and below my hubby's hands. It was a hand sandwich. LOL. Then they all squeezed and when they opened their hands the quarter was bent. No joke.

You can kind of see Frank's initials on the quarter proving that David didn't switch it out for another that had been pre-bent.

Here's a different quarter trick from "Street Magic" on Youtube:

I can honestly say there have only been two times that people have left me feeling like I'd seen something magical. The first was when I saw Cirque du Soleil's "Saltimbanco." The acrobatics were astounding. As I sat in the audience, watching them do things I thought weren't humanly possible I felt the magic of their performances and was awed.

Checking out something cool of David's I may tell you about someday...

Years later the second was watching David's tv show "Street Magic." And never, way back in 1997, did I imagine that one day I'd be sitting in a living room (let alone the Woz's livingroom) watching him perform many of the tricks, and new ones in development, that I'd seen him perform on tv.

His TV Special "Magic Man" also has many memorable tricks. This was my favorite...

David inspires me because his imagination knows no bounds. There's a great list of his past performances on Wikipedia including descriptions of Buried Alive, Revolution and Dive of Death. On his website you can see lots of video clips including Vertigo, Frozen in Time, Above the Below and Drowned Alive.

Click to Enlarge on flickr

Yesterday the trick that seemed to confound the engineers the most was the one above. It was the final reveal in a trick that had many small finishes, such as locating a certain card. After, the cards were shuffled together facing up and down. We were given the impression they would all be facing the same direction when David fanned them across the table. Obviously a few weren't. He laughed a bit and said good thing nobody was filming this one with a video camera...

Then he said something like "Oh, hang on. Woz, remember that $100 bill you put aside earlier? Check out the serial number.... And of course, the serial number matched, in sequence (using the Queen as the zero).

The numbers left facing up scattered throughout the deck were...

 38959309

I swear I heard all of the engineer's brains come to a screeching halt as everyone in the room realized what had just happened.

Even if the scientists say magic doesn't exist, I think it does. David Blaine is able to do things nobody else can do in a way that defies both logic and physics. I'm no scientist but in my opinion that's magic... And I'm a believer!

A special thanks to Woz and Janet for inviting us over. This was a memorable day I'll never forget! And thanks to my Geeky Hubby for letting me use his pictures from yesterday. I didn't want to miss a moment so I didn't take any of my own.