Not a lot... but you'll like it.
Sep. 16th, 2003 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_t_220World opinion appears split over the behavioural antics of the London crowds of Blaine Baiters. I can't say as it especially pleases me that we seem to be coming across as a bunch of drunken bastards (Though at chucking out time in London, we ARE a bunch of drunken bastards) but I also have my doubts about the general sense of doing a stunt like this in the world's most fucking cynical city.
I think there's various things acting as a factor here, first off being the fact that Blaine always comes across as taking himself SO damn seriously. When doing a stunt like this, in such a public place especially, taking it all with trademark intensity is just inviting ridicule. People are tormenting him because the whole thing was surrounded with such pomp and fanfare as being sooo darned amazing and... well... let's face it, he's just sitting there like a zombie.
Not exactly the dramatic feat people were led to anticipate.
Secondly... It's not magic. There's nothing even remotely magical or mystical or surprising or even vaguely illusionary about it. Watching a magician not do magic is, in all honesty, making people feel cheated. This current stunt is not magic, it's endurance. Heck, it's probably closer to being performance art, and for performance art to be successful in this country it needs some bloody whimsy. (Like the monkey nut nudging guy. Whimsy appeals to us.) David Blaine has no whimsy, mostly because so far as anyone can tell he has no sense of humour. He also comes across as a bit of a pompous pratt, and there's nothing the British public loves more than seeing a pompous pratt get royally crushed under the overwhelmingly jaded and cynical London bootheel.
This is a place that loves an underdog (Well we have to, it definies our cricket team) and Blaine swanning in like he's the most amazing person ever rubbed a fair few peoples fur all up the wrong way. He kicked off the whole endeavour with a backlog of negative public opinion. As Paul Zennon said on Celebdaq the other week, "An entertainer, sitting in a box, not being particularly entertaining... It's not going to go down well."
Now of course, there's always the possibility that this will end up working in his favour after a while. Torment the guy enough and the opinion will indeed gradually shift to perceiving him as the underdog, wherein people might actually start being nicer. Only time will tell on that one though, I feel.
Depends if he goes nutty enough I guess.
And after all of that, Got sidetracked through the classical link from a link from a link route and found a place that sells gothic magic tricks.
I always wondered where you got those fake slashing razors from...
Oooh, and random props too...
I think there's various things acting as a factor here, first off being the fact that Blaine always comes across as taking himself SO damn seriously. When doing a stunt like this, in such a public place especially, taking it all with trademark intensity is just inviting ridicule. People are tormenting him because the whole thing was surrounded with such pomp and fanfare as being sooo darned amazing and... well... let's face it, he's just sitting there like a zombie.
Not exactly the dramatic feat people were led to anticipate.
Secondly... It's not magic. There's nothing even remotely magical or mystical or surprising or even vaguely illusionary about it. Watching a magician not do magic is, in all honesty, making people feel cheated. This current stunt is not magic, it's endurance. Heck, it's probably closer to being performance art, and for performance art to be successful in this country it needs some bloody whimsy. (Like the monkey nut nudging guy. Whimsy appeals to us.) David Blaine has no whimsy, mostly because so far as anyone can tell he has no sense of humour. He also comes across as a bit of a pompous pratt, and there's nothing the British public loves more than seeing a pompous pratt get royally crushed under the overwhelmingly jaded and cynical London bootheel.
This is a place that loves an underdog (Well we have to, it definies our cricket team) and Blaine swanning in like he's the most amazing person ever rubbed a fair few peoples fur all up the wrong way. He kicked off the whole endeavour with a backlog of negative public opinion. As Paul Zennon said on Celebdaq the other week, "An entertainer, sitting in a box, not being particularly entertaining... It's not going to go down well."
Now of course, there's always the possibility that this will end up working in his favour after a while. Torment the guy enough and the opinion will indeed gradually shift to perceiving him as the underdog, wherein people might actually start being nicer. Only time will tell on that one though, I feel.
Depends if he goes nutty enough I guess.
And after all of that, Got sidetracked through the classical link from a link from a link route and found a place that sells gothic magic tricks.
I always wondered where you got those fake slashing razors from...
Oooh, and random props too...
