i met him at a charity event this summer-- he was so outgoing, after meeting him, i'm a much bigger fan of his.

I've always thought him a bit of an eejit, truth be told. But I'm glad you like him more now.

I hate it when magicians secrets are revealed. Takes the fun out of it. I never read them.

I knew some would take that view. But given the fact that I know it's a trick leads me to want to know how it was executed.

Yeah, I have the same inclination, but resist it. An exception would be if I actually wanted to perform it myself. Otherwise I like the separation and the mystery.

If we were speaking of honest, respectable magicians, then i'd agree with GD. However, Blaine consistently denies that he performs tricks and instead maintains he really has mysterious powers, when simple sites like this make it obvious that he doesn't. I'm all for exposing the frauds.

K&, Can you really honestly call him a fraud, when no reasonable person could assume he was truthful. I am more willing to believe it's part of his act.

It's not just part of his act. Unlike other magicians, he claims to be a channeler of supernatural powers, not just a skilled conjurer. Uri Geller, the spoon-bending magician from the 70s, also still claims to have "psychic" powers despite being exposed on TV. Even though they both know better, they teamed up not too long ago to promote each other's "special powers." I think magic is cool, and I know some slights of hand myself, but let's leave the make-believe aspect of it to the kids.

(I'll admit his endurance stunts are impressive, if pointless. At least there's no pretending involved with those.)

I did not know this about him. I've only seen him on TV a couple of times. I just thought he was a magician. An inconsistently good one. However, I could fully understand how creating a myth might be his intention. If I heard someone claim these powers to be true, I would have a problem believing, especially when they are conducted in that fashion. I understand your point though, that is kind of disturbing.