Another Spike bozo...

[Ian Kendall]

http://www.break.com/index/mindreader_f ... trick.html

I shouldn't laugh - last year I lost concentration for a second and nearly spiked myself...

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCHHHHHHHHHHH.... man, that hurts....

Now, I admit I dont know the exact method for this trick but could someone please tell me how it's possible to really hurt yourself like that? Isnt there a fullproof version out there that accomplishes the same thing?

Seb

[Guest]

Not so bad when you know that Fogel lost focus at least twice in his career performing Russian Roulette and was actually shot each time.

[Guest]

Yikes! Early on he tells the audience: "Kids don't try this at home... do it at school!" Later, after the accident, after saying he should probably go to the hospital followed by an expletive, he smiles at the audience and says, "Don't try this!"

[Guest]

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are too ingenious.

[Guest]

Switches in the human brain make it difficult to focus constantly on "don't hit that cup," "don't hit that cup." A tiny lapse instantly converts to "hit THAT cup." With so much going on in any performance, I'm surprised that more people aren't injured.

For me, the single best performance of this was Keith Barry using Orlando Bloom. Barry crushed Bloom's hand down on the cup. Stars are almost always pampered and spoiled. The look on Bloom's face conveyed the thought, "I can't believe you just did that to me." It was the best thing on the show.

[Brad Henderson]

I beleive it was Elijah Wood. But let's not forget the clip where the British magician performs the effect with the spectator's hand and impales HERS on the spike.

[Guest]

Thanks Brad, it was.

[Guest]

>>Switches in the human brain make it difficult to focus constantly on "don't hit that cup," "don't hit that cup." A tiny lapse instantly converts to "hit THAT cup."

I'm not sure what switch got flipped when I read that post, Mr. Alexander, but I laughed my ass off. :whack:

I have a difficult time watching these videos and it bothers me that they end up on sites called Funny Video and are represented as comedy. I don't understand why, when people really hurt themselves, it's considered comedy entertainment. Maybe I'm a namby-pamby or something but I can't even watch America's Funniest Home Videos. I just don't understand why humans in pain is funny.

Strangely, I love slapstick.

Do you guys dig what I'm saying here? I think it's weird that this stuff ends up on youtube and the people think it's great!
:eek:

[Guest]

The "Don't" is at least one extra step in thinking and seems to require active consideration of the "do" part first. So very easy to get sucked into a "don't" when proffered.

Don't take the time to explore the idea expressed above. It won't give you any good reasons not to rephrase things you want folks not to do.

[Guest]

Elliot, I agree with you that these things are painful to watch. Unfortunately, I suspect a large part of the audience enjoys seeing a smart-ass magician/mentalist get his comeuppance. In this particular one, the hostest furthest from the action finds the very premise too painful to watch, averting her eyes and plugging her ears.

[Guest]

Quote:
Now, I admit I dont know the exact method for this trick but could someone please tell me how it's possible to really hurt yourself like that? Isnt there a fullproof version out there that accomplishes the same thing?

Scott Alexander has a version on his Midnight Show DVD called Shattered which is safe and very entertaining. The handling is a little different, as he uses the top of a broken beer bottle stuck into a piece of wood and covered with a brown paper bag. There are four bags and the spectators make all the decisions as to which bags should be crushed. There's palpable tension and it plays very well. Again, there's no risk of injury.

I don't know anything about these versions using a nail under a paper cup, but IMHO you'd have to be one hell of a moron to risk injury to your hand.

[Guest]

C'mon guys....he was trying to read the minds of TWO BLONDES!!! No image received so he wings it, and loses. <grin>

Adrian

[Guest]

That was just about perfect. You can see it coming when Mr. Mindreader starts out talking to the wrong camera.

And lest it pass without comment--is all the news in Germany anchored by sets of twins?

[Guest]

Ay carumba!
I have to admit I hate watching clips like that too. Perhaps I have had enough injuries of various kinds over the years that I have come to empathize with human suffering... :rolleyes: ?

As well, I know some of the type of mooks alluded-to above, who would think that clip was absolutely HILARIOUS. Just imagining their mean-spirited braying irritates me.

Watching pomposity-deflated is one thing, but I agree: I likewise don't see the comedy after a certain point. "Hee hee the magician screwed up!", but doesn't "Hey wait! --He's really hurt!" have to follow soon after...?
Are there still old guys that convulse with belly-laughs remembering the night Chung Ling Soo got shot?

[Aside: Thankfully, we have not yet been subjected to clip-after-clip of magicians getting hit in the groin... :eek: ]

I believe it was the man himself, A. Einstein that said, "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits".

P.S. You heard it here FIRST: That Einstein was a sharp cookie. ;)

P.P.S. Mr. Alexander, David, I have been thinking about A.E.'s fragmented brain, as you described it on an earlier thread, and I have come up with a scary thought: How much-better would any ONE of his randomly-selected brain-chunks perform say, hooked-up to a couple 9-volt batteries, than would...my...whole...one...? :confused:

[Ian Kendall]

When I first watched the clip I could feel my pulse start to race; I was getting an adrenaline rush just waiting for something to happen.

When I started doing a similar effect many people asked me about the guy who spiked the spectator (and this was before the TV shows which made it public). Nowadays it's part of my presentation...

I've been punched in the groin twice during shows. Unfortunately I don't have them on video.

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

castawaydave wrote:
P.P.S. Mr. Alexander, David, I have been thinking about A.E.'s fragmented brain, as you described it on an earlier thread, and I have come up with a scary thought: How much-better would any ONE of his randomly-selected brain-chunks perform say, hooked-up to a couple 9-volt batteries, than would...my...whole...one...?
___________________________________________

Odd you should mention that, Dave. I have a small piece of A.E.'s brain right here, hooked up as you so cleverly intuited, to a 9v battery and a small speaker. He doesn't do much but play chess and I can beat him five times out of ten.
Al says hello and nice doggy and that's about it.

[Guest]

Ian Kendall wrote:
I've been punched in the groin twice during shows.
_______________________________________

Jeez, Ian. You look like a guy who can take care of himself. Remind me not to go to a show with you when I visit Edinburgh. You must play to some tough crowds.

[Guest]

Ian Kendall wrote:
I've been punched in the groin twice during shows.


Fool me once, shame on you.

[Ian Kendall]

Fool me twice, time to buy some protective underwear...

Happily, I've not been punched on stage for many years.

The first time was at my first regular restaurant gig - there was a particularly badly behaved young boy, perhaps ten to twelve years old, who was running riot in the room, annoying the wait staff no end. At one point I was doing some routine or another for his father when he ran the length of the room and landed a powerful uppercut right between my big toes. I remember flinching, then finishing the routine...

The second time was a university show somewhere in England. I was halfway through the Razor Blades, with one sharp blade in my mouth and moving into the audience for people to put the next blades in themsleves. The first person I picked was a rugby player, which was a mistake (English rugby players, especially university ones, are not noted for their, um...actually they are not noted for much, to be honest). I handed him the blade carefully, and instructed him to place it on the one already on my tongue. Instead he decided it would be funny to punch me in the nads. Oh, how I laughed.

I suppose it's no big surprise that I do the hidden spike routine...

Oh, David, if you like rough gigs come on over and I'll fix you up at Whisky Joes - it's a bar in Clydebank, which is a suburb of Glasgow. That's a whole other story :)

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

Also Aldo Colombini has a foolproof version.If you have the opportunity,try and find someone from a French speaking country(as I believe the program it is diffused to them all)that can show you the recording of the spike effect performed superbly by B.Bilis on Le plus Grand Cabaret..He made it apparentely even more risky.And the hand lended for the crushing,belonged to a French actor that played the part of Napoleon in the last film made on him(at least at the time).
Alessandro.