David Blaine Live Tour

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Richard Hatch
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David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Hatch » March 28th, 2017, 1:13 pm

On Monday, David Blaine announced a 40 city North American tour that starts in San Diego, California on May 30th and ends in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 23rd, with two stops in Canada (Hamilton and Kitchener) as well. Here's a link to the city list and some additional information:
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/03/david_blaine_syracuse.html
Tickets go on sale this Friday. Although the above site and Blaine's own site (http://www.davidblaine.com/live2017) list the venue closest to me (Kamas, Utah), the Live Nation ticketing site (http://www.livenation.com/artists/167281/david-blaine) does not (yet!) include it, nor is it listed on the venue's event site. Similarly, the Albuquerque date is not listed there (yet). It appears that only 34 of the 40 dates are currently on the Live Nation ticketing site.

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erdnasephile
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby erdnasephile » March 28th, 2017, 5:29 pm

I know better than to underestimate Blaine, but I am curious how he will do in this setting since it's so different than his usual performance venues.

Curious how the locations for the tour were scheduled--he ends up skipping some pretty large metro areas around my neck of the woods to play in really small cities instead.

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Joe Naud
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Joe Naud » March 28th, 2017, 11:31 pm

I was curious about the venues as well. I'm not far from Santa Barbara but strange he's not doing LA proper. Riverside? Who goes there? Must be getting a bigger piece of the gate I would suspect.

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Richard Hatch
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Hatch » March 29th, 2017, 12:10 am

I wonder if he is four-walling the venues? Kamas, Utah has a population of less than 2,000 (1,274 in the 2000 census) and is 42 miles from Salt Lake City. It is in Summit County, which had a total population of 36,324 in 2010. The venue is nice and a fairly new one and would draw from Park City, the county's biggest city, just 22 miles away.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Doug Thornton » March 29th, 2017, 1:11 am

David Blaine is appearing in Louisville the week of the IBM-SAM Combined Convention...

...no news about an appearance in Orlando for the Genii Convention...https://geniiconvention.com/

Is he doing the bullet catch as previewed on his recent TV special?
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CraigMitchell
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby CraigMitchell » March 29th, 2017, 7:27 am

Whilst I'm sure the tour will be successful - you can't but help feel that his management missed a beat here. This "live" tour is almost 10 years too late ...

It's also interesting to contrast the mega-arenas that Dynamo was playing vs the small theatres Blaine is doing.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Tom Moore » March 29th, 2017, 7:47 am

From a "money in the performers pocket" point of view large theatres are better than arena's - the increased costs associated with scaling a show for an arena (extra tv screens, bigger sound system, physically bigger stage and set, more staff, higher venue costs. higher marketing costs) often come close to wiping out the extra ticket revenue the space produces. Unless you can book an arena tour that will run for months it's a massive gamble with limited rewards as arena's are essentially 4-walled (and require the money up front) whilst most traditional theatres will operate on a revenue-split model. Sticking to large theatres means the entire show could be done with a crew of half a dozen and tour in 1 truck and stop/start as required.
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CraigMitchell
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby CraigMitchell » March 30th, 2017, 4:51 am

Thanks Tom ... any indication as to whether Dynamo's 'arena gamble' paid off ?

They obviously must have considered smaller venues ( which would have been better suited to Dynamo's performance ) .. but he was certainly packing them in to the massive O2 and the like ( which is unprecedented for a magician )

There's no doubt that a theatrical setting is a far better fit for magic.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby performer » March 30th, 2017, 6:45 am

erdnasephile wrote:I know better than to underestimate Blaine, but I am curious how he will do in this setting since it's so different than his usual performance venues.

Curious how the locations for the tour were scheduled--he ends up skipping some pretty large metro areas around my neck of the woods to play in really small cities instead.


I am quite sure he knows what he is doing. Small towns are much easier to promote shows in than big cities. And far more profitable. I have found there is big money in small towns. It is in fact a very good strategy to work the smaller places. Small is beautiful.

In fact I think I might even go to see his show when he hits Hamilton. Very smart of him to go there rather than the big metropolis of Toronto which is only 45 minutes away.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Hatch » March 30th, 2017, 12:33 pm

The Live Nation ticketing site has added the Kamas, Utah event to their listings, though I still count only 35 of the 40 events there. VIP tickets are now available. Here's the skinny on the ones for Kamas:

"David Blaine - Magic Deconstructed Tour 2017 - MEET & GREET VIP PACKAGE PRESALE
DeJoria Center | Friday, June 9, 2017
ON SALE:
Thursday, March 30 10:00am-10:00pm

TICKET PRICES:
$300.00 - Will Call Pick Up Only

Includes:
-One reserved floor ticket in rows 2-5
-Meet & Greet and Photo Op with David Blaine
-Preshow refreshments, including beer & wine
-One deck of playing card, signed by David Blaine
-One specially designed David Blaine poster
-One exclusive David Blaine ball cap
-One David Blaine tote bag, exclusive to VIP's
-One commemorative VIP laminate
-One commemorative VIP ticket
-VIP check-in with early entry into the venue
-Crowd Free merchandise shopping
-On-site VIP staff

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Doors open at 7:00pm
Showtime at 8:00pm
Ticket Limit: 4"

Front row VIP seats are the same as above, but $350

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Ryan Matney
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Ryan Matney » March 30th, 2017, 1:29 pm

Blaine should have toured like this 15 years ago and if I'm not mistaken he was announced and rumored repeatedly to be touring at about that time.
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby performer » March 30th, 2017, 2:48 pm

He probably didn't have a stage show at that time and figured it would do him more harm than good to put on an unpolished performance at the height of his fame.

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Ryan Matney
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Ryan Matney » March 30th, 2017, 3:01 pm

His fame was built upon an unpolished performance. :D
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby performer » March 30th, 2017, 3:37 pm

True. But a planned unpolished performance in close up magic is a far cry from an unplanned unpolished stage performance. And I always liked his close up unpolished performances. I have always thought his lack of presentation is superb presentation in itself.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 30th, 2017, 3:38 pm

Richard Hatch wrote:The Live Nation ticketing site has added the Kamas, Utah event to their listings, though I still count only 35 of the 40 events there. VIP tickets are now available. Here's the skinny on the ones for Kamas:

"David Blaine - Magic Deconstructed Tour 2017 - MEET & GREET VIP PACKAGE PRESALE
DeJoria Center | Friday, June 9, 2017
ON SALE:
Thursday, March 30 10:00am-10:00pm

TICKET PRICES:
$300.00 - Will Call Pick Up Only

Includes:
-One reserved floor ticket in rows 2-5
-Meet & Greet and Photo Op with David Blaine
-Preshow refreshments, including beer & wine
-One deck of playing card, signed by David Blaine
-One specially designed David Blaine poster
-One exclusive David Blaine ball cap
-One David Blaine tote bag, exclusive to VIP's
-One commemorative VIP laminate
-One commemorative VIP ticket
-VIP check-in with early entry into the venue
-Crowd Free merchandise shopping
-On-site VIP staff

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Doors open at 7:00pm
Showtime at 8:00pm
Ticket Limit: 4"

Front row VIP seats are the same as above, but $350


What's the regular people price?
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Tom Moore
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Tom Moore » March 30th, 2017, 4:03 pm

Thanks Tom ... any indication as to whether Dynamo's 'arena gamble' paid off ?


I believe it was reasonably successful and profitable yes. They were able to book a "proper" arena tour with multiple performances in one venue and plenty of consecutive dates so that they achieved the best savings. Ticket wise the show wasn't a sell out but it did solid numbers in every venue I saw.

I think you could safely expect to see another tour along similar lines in 2018
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Richard Kaufman
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 30th, 2017, 4:25 pm

And, if memory serves, Dynamo's show was well received, was it not?
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Richard Hatch » March 30th, 2017, 4:47 pm

Regular (i.e., non-VIP) ticket prices vary with the venue. At the Kamas, Utah venue they range from $29.50 to $69.50.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Tom Moore » March 30th, 2017, 6:11 pm

And, if memory serves, Dynamo's show was well received, was it not?


Broadly speaking yes - it was essentially just his most iconic TV effects presented on stage so his fans loved it. The only real criticism that came out of it was that it was "act as known" rather than anything new, different or arena scaled - he was doing close-up tricks rather than suddenly switching to appearing Helicopters.
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby performer » March 30th, 2017, 8:25 pm

I actually think that close up tricks are even stronger than appearing helicopters.

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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby MesPhantasma » April 1st, 2017, 5:02 pm

My favorite magician :D

That's a lot of cities.

I'm super excited that he's doing this and I've gotta get tickets, but I'm afraid if I wait 2 weeks they're just gonna be sold out since he's gotten so big.

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Brad Jeffers
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Re: David Blaine Live Tour

Postby Brad Jeffers » April 1st, 2017, 10:23 pm

MesPhantasma wrote: I'm afraid if I wait 2 weeks they're just gonna be sold out since he's gotten so big.

Not to worry MesPhantasma.
He did get big at one point, but not so much anymore...

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