David:
One thing that
I don’t think yo
u get
credit for in th
e community
is
th
of show that yo
e style
u’ve created. Th
ere’s
been this sort
of genre of m
agic shows,
and it’s either
like the filmin
g
of a whole
stage show lik
e Doug Henni
ng and
David Copper
field did befor
e. Bla
pioneered stre
et magic but yo ine
u had this
entourage of
people, and it
was really
like documen
tary style. It w
as a fly on
the wall style
of filming, whe
re people
thought they
were followin
g you, and
they really go
t to know you
and your
fiends and fam
ily. Where did
that come
from?
Criss:
I think first of al
l, David Blane
deserves
the credit for ta
king a camera
and turning
it to the specta
tor and he basi
cally did
that primarily
with close up
magic
had an amazin
g response from . He
biting a
coin because th
e viewer got to
see the
great reaction
from the audien
ce. I didn’t
want to do that
, I wanted to ta
ke the
illusions and br
ing them into
everyday
environments
and do it in a w
ay that we
hadn’t seen be
fore. Our style
of shooting
was just somet
hing that really
honestly
came natural,
and for me ever
ything’s a
progression in
an evolution. It
’s a living
organism that
’s constantly tr
ansforming
and I’m consta
ntly trying to m
ake it better, and I’m alw
ays asking mys
elf, how am
I going to do th
at?
Television is a
completely diffe
rent
medium than
live shows. Wha
t works live
does not work
on television.
A tremendous amount
of magicians th
at have tried
to have TV proj
ects, and fail m
iserably
because you ca
n’t have that se
nsibility. For me it’s al
ways about pu
shing a
presentation an
d looking at th
e society
that we live in
and forget abou
t magic.
I mean people
are overwhelm
ed with
information al
one with the te
chnologically on their ph
ones. They have
a shorter
1978 with Uncl e Telly Sava las
OFFI
MOST R CIALLY THE
WATCHE ELEVANT AND
THE WO D MAGICIAN IN
R
LARGES LD, WITH THE
SPECTA T AND MOST
C
LAS VEGULAR SHOW IN
$150 MIL AS - EARNING
LION A
YEAR.
VANISH MAGIC MAGAZINE
27