February 26, 2007
My brother Tim - he of the Scuba Poo videos of late - has long fancied himself as a magician, which to me, right up there along with street mime, is about as entertaining as dropping my trousers and gingerly lowering my blood-smeared balls into a tank full of ravenous piranhas who've only just lost their baby teeth.
As we used to share a room together when we were kids, I was always his guinea pig when he was practising his "art", which is why I have, over the years, developed a pathological hatred for all things magic (while Paul Daniels then went on in turn to put me off rubbish town centre market stall-bought chicken drumsticks, funnily enough).
But now that he has finally discovered the bits of the internet where you don't get pop ups offering Standing Up Transexual Pee Heaven, he's decided to persecute me once again via the irritating wonder that is YouTube.
Go here to see him do his "Paper Floats" "trick".
(If you insist on listening to him, too, just be aware that I'm in no way responsible for him and that a definitive answer on the question of his true parentage has never properly been found.)
Oh, and if you do go, leave a comment on his site, too. Telling him how rubbish it is.
PS. If anyone knows how David Copperfield flies, make sure you don't tell Tim. It (genuinely) keeps him awake at nights trying to work it out. The soft shite.
paulboyd
He needs a taller cameraman.
And yes, I do know how David Copperfrield flies. I've written music for too many magic shows and signed too many confidentiality agreements over the years not to know such a thing. (One of my colleagues is a leading magic circle member and effects designer and one of my oldest friends is a leading magican and illusion specialist in London.
Like you, I see no attraction in watching magic shows. Especially once you know how it's all done. (Incidentally, there's another video on YouTube that explains how the Paper Floats trick is done).
I prefer your kind of magic - bottle full, abracadabra, bottle empty. Just like that.
X