Nothing that a magician does is without purpose ... and one not necessarily as perceived by an observer.
Last evening's broadcast of David Blaine's, Real or Magic? with segments showcasing the reactions of various celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Will and Jada Smith, Woody Allen, Woody Harrelson, Kanye West is a case in point.
Blaine "presented" a gift to President George Bush of Bush's own wristwatch after Blaine removed it from the former President's wrist. The camera angle used to show Blaine's up close and personal brand of sleight of hand actually caught the performer removing the watch while vigorously shaking Bush's wrists as part of an earlier trick's misdirection.
During other bits Blaine astounds his guests by pushing at different times ice picks through his hands and a long needle through his bicep as a horrified Ricky Gervais looks on alternately with disgust, and consternation.
Though the penetrations were real and not illusions as confirmed with xrays and a physician, they were still tricks of technique.
Ok, so how did Blaine pull it off without any blood being spilt ?
The technique is very old in its origins, going back to the nail and needle penetrations of Indian Fakirs. In fact, a more modern stage illusion that evolved from the same feat is the penetration by a needle of a latex balloon that refuses to pop !
In Blaine's adaptation the latex is analogous to his skin.
Blaine uses a carefully prepared ice pick and needle that have been polished very smooth. There are no sharp edges or imperfections in the metal to snag or cut or hang up on tissue, blood vessels, muscles or nerves. The metal tip pushes aside - albeit with much visible effort and twisting - the tissues rather than cutting through them and with no blood loss as a result.
Insulin diabetics can relate from their own personal experience with hypodermic needles. Hypodermic needles have a "cutting" edge that slices through tissue - the resulting bleeding is minor compared to the ease of insertion and consequently less pain is experienced - it's like most things in life, a trade off between consequence and benefit; risk and reward.
As insulin diabetics re-use their needles - yes, they're not supposed to, but many do - after about 6 or 7 times the metal erosion of the needle caused by passing through the skin and tissue dulls the cutting surface to the point where much more force compared to a "new" sharp needle is required to penetrate.
Recalling "nothing a magician does ...." Blaine can be seen wiping down an ice pick with an alcohol wipe, ostensibly to "disinfect" it before penetration but in reality he's using it to check for any burrs or imperfections in the polish that could catch on tissue in addition he's wiping down the metal needle with lubricant to ease the initial penetration of that needle - much in the same way cooking oil is applied to the meat or grille before it is cooked - fail to do that and muscle tissue pulls away from the steak and sticks to the hot grille.
That there is no cutting surface on Blaine's ice pick or needle is shown by the amount of force Blaine uses to push it through and by the "tenting" effect seen when the needle is trying to push on from the other side of his skin - no cutting surface and the metal tip acts like a tent pole until it can eventually push aside the tissue and finally emerge - had it had a cutting surface the needle would come through almost effortlessly but with resulting bleeding.
In preparation Blaine has previously found where he can avoid tendons, bones, blood vessels, nerves by trial and error - once found he only needs to repeat the passage with each subsequent performance by beginning with the correct entry point and angle - and from prior performances his skin is already "marked" or even discreetly tattooed to easily find his mark.
The foregoing is an explanation and NOT an instruction manual; Blaine's a highly trained professional and no doubt he has minimized all of the potential hazards to himself.
In regard to pain, Blaine demonstrates his extraordinary self control but nothing more than what other performers can and have achieved before him.
Still why would he subject himself to it ?
BECAUSE IT'S HIS JOB TO DECEIVE YOU !
Okay the point of all of this is that seemingly reasonable and intelligent people who have sufficient life experience to know what they are seeing is impossible without some form of deception assign belief to it anyway ... Real or Magic ? ... C'mon, most of those celebrities absolutely know that it's not magic but allow themselves the possibility anyway that somehow in the personage of David Blaine what they've just experienced and witnessed IS indeed magic - in the moment they imagine that Blaine can violate physical reality.
And they come away astounded by the deception.
Ironically, Barrack Obama has used all of the magician's tools of misdirection, patter, illusion, confederates and deceit to accomplish the same effect with a larger, gullible audience of American voters - they too, have suspended their disbelief.
And only now with The Obamacare Debacle have some of them come to realize upon reflection and scrutiny that Obama's patter and promises haven't matched up well with either his experience, leadership, or truthfulness.
And coincidentally many of those same celebrities who were disarmed by David Blaine, are perhaps not surprisingly also the ardent supporters of Barack Obama having been equally seduced by him !
I understand that Hillary Clinton is now being tutored with lessons on stage magic ....
