David Blaine: Dive of Death Products

Be sure to watch the two-hour ABC primetime special this evening, David Blaine: Dive of Death, Wednesday, September 24 from 9:00-11:00 p.m., EST, on the ABC Television Network.

Please check our dedicated website page “Dive of Death” for products featured in tonight's event that will be available for sale after 11:00 a.m. EST.

NOTE: Products will be added to the site live and may continue to be added for hours after the event. So, be sure to check back frequently

Kepplinger Holding Out

Two months ago we posted a photo of an early Kepplinger Holdout made by Will & Finck from the Doug Edwards Collection. This month Doug sent us a photo of the actual PJ Kepplinger apparatus as made and used by Kepplinger himself in 1888! He has researched this extensively and found an accurate description and depiction of it in the book 'Sharps and Flats' by John Nevil Maskelyne (1894). Although only four or five of these enigmatic machines were built by Kepplinger, this is the only one known to exist today. It is made of lightweight pen metal and still retains 100% of its original interior green felt lining. Doug says, "Of all the items in my magic collection, this is the most ingenious and most substantially made. The inner workings are a visual knockout."

For magic tricks using current Holdouts and their variants, order The Invisible Hand Set new 3-DVD set with device.

The Kepplinger Holdout pictured above is from 1888. Courtesy of the Doug Edwards Collection.

David Blaine: Dive of Death

David Blaine, known for his headline-making spectacles of endurance, will attempt to hang from a wire five stories in the air for three days and nights.

David Blaine, known for his headline-making spectacles of physical, emotional and mental endurance, will live on the line -- literally. Blaine, the 'Upside Down Man,' will attempt to hang from a thin wire five stories in the air -- with no safety net or airbag to break his fall -- in Central Park's Wollman Rink for three days and nights. Using electro-magnetic boots, Blaine will walk on and under the wire during more than 60 hours of the challenge. How will he exit from his perch overlooking New York City? Details of Blaine's heart-stopping plunge at the conclusion of the special are a closely-guarded secret. He will surprise us all -- live -- on a new, two-hour ABC primetime special, David Blaine: Dive of Death, Wednesday, September 24 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

Additionally, viewers will join Blaine on a unique cross-country trip, as he makes his way from the east coast to the Grand Canyon, performing his jaw-dropping illusions for people in his own distinctive style. Blaine, who has triumphantly revived amazing crowd-pleasing spectacles of magic, surprises people by appearing in the most unexpected places, bringing his amazing illusions to people who need it the most. The real people with whom Blaine shares the power of his magic include residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, coal miners in West Virginia's Mingo County and inner city gangs of East St. Louis.

For more than 60 spellbinding hours, Blaine will be on the wire without food. He will pull himself up to drink liquids and to restore circulation. He will need to fight off muscle spasms and lack of sleep, as well as maintain maximum concentration in order to be successful. He will have to hang on for his life, even sleeping by dangling upside down.

Blaine's latest endurance challenge will take place in full public view -- a free, family friendly event beginning the morning of September 22 -- with passersby able to see him hanging precariously from his high wire.

Blaine successfully held his breath under water for longer than any human being (after inhaling pure oxygen) -- 17 minutes and four-seconds -- live on April 30 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In May 2006, on ABC's live special, David Blaine: Drowned Alive, he attempted to break the 8-minute, 58-second record for a breath-hold under water (after inhaling air that was not oxygenated) after living for a record seven days and nights underwater -- longer than any human -- in an acrylic sphere in front of New York's Lincoln Center.

He also successfully completed a 44-day fast in an acrylic box suspended over the Thames River in London in the fall of 2003, surviving only on water. American viewers have been following his exploits for years on ABC Television. On David Blaine: Vertigo, in May of 2002, he balanced on a platform, 22 inches in diameter, atop a 90-foot pillar in Manhattan's Bryant Park for 35 hours.

In November 2000, Blaine's Frozen in Time challenge drew massive crowds in Times Square, as he successfully survived inside a block of ice for over 61 hours. In April 1999, he was Buried Alive for seven days and seven nights, stunning thousands of New Yorkers who filed by his see-through crypt. The country was initially introduced to Blaine's amazing brand of incredible effects on his first ABC special, David Blaine: Street Magic, which aired in May 1997.

Guy Hollingworth at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Guy Hollingworth is an English conjuror known for his skillful card magic and elegant performing style. He created a sensation in the magic community with his trick The Reformation, in which a signed playing card is torn into four pieces and then visibly restored one piece at a time. He is well known for his acclaimed book, Drawing Room Deceptions. Some of his card magic is also featured in his videos The London Collection and Routines. He was also featured on NBC's "World's Greatest Magic III" TV special.

Hollingworth is currently performing "Expert at the Card Table" at the Assembly's 2008 season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. The show contains deception, betrayal and cheating at cards. Renowned conjurer Guy Hollingworth performs dazzling exhibitions of card chicanery and incomparable legerdemain whilst unraveling the mystery of its enigmatic author.

Here is a review:

"This show is a curious but clever story within a story. Contained in a tight set, the audience is cast back to yesteryear, in this case, to 1902. Guy Hollingworth is both narrator and card manipulator, telling the story of a poor boy named Milton Andrews who became liberated by developing a talent to manipulate cards. Bound to a school friend who was everything Milton wasn't - handsome, slim, athletic and wealthy - the friend helped Andrews develop extraordinary card tricks and wrote a book describing their achievements, Expert at the Card Table. Unfortunately, Andrews drifted into cheating at poker, heavy drinking and eventually murder.

Hollingworth, dressed to the nines in tails and shoes that shine like diamonds, tells the story in a gentle patter, as if chatting from an armchair. His performance is almost magnetic, especially when demonstrating some incredible card manipulations. The overall effect of story, stage and performance weaves a charming spell through some ghastly acts by Andrews during his short career as a card hustler. It's an ingenious way to present card sharking and easily achieves its objectives.

Anticipating a series of card tricks, the conventional approach to this subject, the show was a pleasant and riveting experience having wonderful card dealing a part of a story involving people and places. The Wildman Room was packed, perhaps by the twofer ticket offer, and the audience loved this show even though it felt like a sauna. Be sure to get a seat in the centre to fully appreciate all the tricks..

A thoroughly original and clever show of card sharking, providing an invaluable lesson why you should never sit down to play poker with strangers who shuffle the cards before dealing a hand."

- Fringe Review by Kerry

Guy Hollingworth

Todd Robbins: "The Modern Con Man"

New York City magician and Tannen's Magic customer Todd Robbins has written a new book "The Modern Con Man" : How to Get Something For Nothing.

For years, con men have gotten fat scamming unsuspecting marks for food, shelter, money and from time to time, even clothes, while the rest of us suffer our honest lives in the quiet desperation. Isn't it about time we got in on all the fun?

In The Modern Con Man, entertainer extraordinaire Todd Robbins, with a little help from his Modern Conman Collective, explains the valuable tricks of his venerable trade-from simple bar bets (the Hoboken Bottle Cap bet) to can't-lose card tricks (the Poseidon). Whether it's winning fifty bucks, scoring seats closer to the fifty-yard line, or finagling a free meal, this one-of-a-kind collection of cons, bar bets, card games, and general chicanery ensures aspiring scam artists everywhere will always come out on top.

Filled with humorous facts and tables, a glossary of con terms, illustrations, the history of the con, and easy-to-follow swindles, The Modern Con Man is a hilarious and endlessly entertaining collection of safe, fun, and mostly legal cons for the natural-born prankster in all of us.

Pages 227 - Hardcover with dust jacket.

You can order the book by clicking here: "The Modern Con Man" : How to Get Something For Nothing.

Todd Robbins is the world's foremost purveyor of reality at it's most amazing -- He is the classiest act to ever grace the stage of the American Sideshow. If Todd looks familiar to you, it's probably because you have seen him on one of the over 100 TV appearances he has done! These include multiple appearances on the late night talkfests of David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien; and the NBC special Extreme Variety.

Chances are that if you have been amazed and amused by a guy on TV eating glass, hammering a nail into his nose, spitting out a huge ball of fire, walking over broken bottles in his bare feet, swallowing swords, sticking his hand into an animal trap, doing the unthinkable with a small balloon, using only the power of his lungs to blow up a hot water bottle until it explodes... it was Todd Robbins doing it!

Up Your Sleeve

In 1888, P. J. Kepplinger, a San Francisco gambler, revolutionized the mechanical holdout. Laboring in secret, Kepplinger, an inventive genius, combined the best features of several mechanical holdouts and added some innovations of his own. The result represented a high-water mark in card-cheating technology.

The core of Kepplinger’s device was a metal slide attached to a rod, which retracted into a pair of steel jaws. Kepplinger concealed this assembly in a double shirtsleeve. When the player activated the device, the steel jaws opened and the slide extended, gripped the cards, and withdrew them between the layers of the double sleeve. The jaws snapped shut, concealing the apparatus from view. The process could be reversed to return the cards into the hand.

Kepplinger’s method of triggering the device was his greatest innovation. A cable ran through a series of tubes and pulleys to terminate at the shoulder. A length of flexible tubing beneath the player’s clothing guided the cable from there to a seam at his knees. Thus, by separating his knees, the player extended the holdout, and by pressing his knees together, he retracted it.

Brilliant in design, the device worked flawlessly. The sharp examined his hand, subtly crimping the corners of the cards he wished to hold out. Spreading his knees, he caused the slide to emerge, grip the cards, and extract them into the double shirtsleeve. Later he reversed the process, returning the holdouts to his palm. Unlike earlier machines, Kepplinger’s creation operated imperceptibly and invisibly. His opponents could peer up his sleeve and discover nothing.

Had he been judicious in the use of his invention, Kepplinger could have bilked suckers forever. But something got the better of him. Perhaps he was greedy. Perhaps he put too much stock in the brilliance of his own invention. Or maybe he was just a gambler. In any event, he pushed his luck.

He used his holdout in San Francisco’s “hard” games, poker games frequented by professional gamblers schooled in the ways of cheating. And he didn’t just use it for the occasional big score; he won almost every game. His opponents knew this couldn’t be attributed to fortune.

They developed a plan. At a prearranged signal they seized Kepplinger, held him down, and conducted a methodical search—and discovered his device. They gave him a simple choice: Build a holdout for each of them or face the consequences of having cheated them. His life at risk, he agreed.

Within a decade Kepplinger’s secret got out. The Kepplinger holdout became the common property of sharps everywhere. By the 1890s gambling supply companies were selling Kepplinger or “San Francisco” holdouts for $100 apiece—a very steep sum, but a small price to pay for genius.

For a modern version of the magician’s holdout, take a look at the “Black Widow”.

The Kepplinger Holdout pictured above was made by Will & Finck of San Francisco, California, circa 1890. From the Doug Edwards Collection.

David Blaine Appears in Nashville

David Blaine, performer of street and close-up magic and the American world record holding magician and endurance artist magically appeared at the 2008 Nashville Predator Goal Girls auditions the other day.

He amazed the girls with a card effect where he transformed a signed card into a book of matches. The girls were mesmerized and stunned by Blaine's impromptu street magic and are hoping he can also help the team for next season.

Last year, the NHL ice hockey team, Nashville Predators were not expected to have a successful year. However, they did make the Stanley Cup Playoffs and met the Detroit Red Wings (the eventually the Stanley Cup winners) in the first round and were defeated four games to two. It was their fourth straight first round knockout.