David Blaine was just performing in Las Vegas when a trick went dangerously wrong. It was not one of those ‘tricks meant to look like they go wrong ’. No, this trick went so wrong that he was forced to wipe away the blood and decide on stage if he should continue with the show or cancel abruptly and seek medical attention.
This is not the first time a trick like this has gone wrong and caused bodily harm. In fact, it’s not the first time this exact trick has gone wrong and hurt a magician. Several magicians, including close friends of mine and big-name magicians like Derren Brown, have misperformed this trick and ended up in the hospital.
It’s one of those tricks that’s become infamous among magicians. One of my earliest memories of the effect was listening to Penn of Penn & Teller talk about how stupid it was that magicians would risk injury doing such a routine.
The problem is that the routine is incredibly engaging, and more and more products spew onto the market, claiming to provide a safe method. The most popular one, performed by many magicians I respect, caused one friend of mine great harm. Even though the product claimed to be incredibly safe, he had not set it up correctly and accidentally impaled his hand during a show.
Smash & Stab
I’m talking, of course, about a routine known to magicians as the ‘smash and stab’.
The smash and stab is a modern classic of magic, reminiscent of the cups and balls routines we know magicians for but with the interactive danger of Russian Roulette.
A performer will usually place a spike below one of several cups, mix them up and then, based on the audience’s choices, they will then smash their hand down onto the cups. If all goes well, the final remaining cup will be the one with the spike…and I won’t have to write an article about them screwing up the trick.
Keith Barry performed my favourite rendition of the smash and stab routine on his TV show in the early 2000s. In Barry’s performance, he strips it all back to its core and presents an incredibly minimalistic version. He knows what’s essential about the trick: the props, his actions, and the spectator´s choices and reaction. So — that’s all he focuses on. He performs the trick in a blank white studio, with a glass table, opposite a celebrity (with whom we can quickly relate), and without distractions.
