Bullet Catch

[su_heading size=”30″]It’s Real, Do not try this at Home[/su_heading]

Magicians are well-known for their death-defying acts. Some, like the Masked Magician, are known to use tricks and clever optical illusions. Some, like David Blane, takes it to another level.

While not strictly speaking a ‘magic trick’ by the look of it, this trick (stunt) is the kind of absurdly dangerous stunt you would expect to see of a magician: Catching a bullet in a steel cup. In one’s mouth. While pulling the trigger on themselves.

Obviously, don’t try this at home. Also, don’t try it anywhere else.
There has been 6 magicians that have tried this in the past.
Madame Delinsky – died 1820
Arnold Buck – died 1840
Professor Adam Epstein – died 1869
Chung Ling Soo – died 1918
Black Wizard aka H.T. Sartell – died 1922
Ralf Bialla – died 1975
Unfortunately, out in the wild internet, you have wannabes doing it on their own without any safety precautions like this one below.

Prepping for the trick reportedly involved being shot multiple times in the chest while wearing a thin bulletproof vest, and being shot at while behind a pane of bulletproof glass, to get conditioned to standing still while being shot at. It’s no trick for the faint of heart– and he still forgot to check the solidity of the mouthguard, which snapped in his mouth and cut the back of his throat. Ouch!

[su_heading size=”30″]Video Transcription[/su_heading]

Stopping a bullet trick

David Blane: The Deadliest feat in Magic is the bullet catch, and there are two ways you can go about doing it. You can do it for real, or you can fake it.

Ironically, twelve magicians that have faked it in the last century have died performing it. In 2009 I performed a real version of the bullet catch, where I convinced my best friend to fire the gun, and that’s the last time I’ll ever ask anyone to assume that risk. So from now on, I’m gonna be the one pulling the trigger. I’m also going to be using a bullet that’s nearly twice as big, and twice as fast. I’m gonna have a mirror in one hand, and with the other, I have to carefully pull a string attached to the trigger, which will send the bullet flying into the steel cup in my mouth, and there’s no margin for error.

If anything goes wrong, it will be a disaster right here, and right now.

–Two… one…

[BANG]

Fire.

[BANG]

Alright, we’re good.

[Assistant]: “Yes… hold on no no no. …Yes… yes… up slightly, up slightly. Stop, stop. Yes. yes. Yes. Yes.”

[BANG]

Interviewer: “So what happened when you fired the gun?”

David: Time… just started to move… really slow. When the bullet struck the cup, there was a high-pitched ringing in my ears, and I felt an impact in the back of my throat, and I was sure the bullet went right through my head, and I was dead. And then suddenly, I became aware of the pain, and it brought me back. And at that moment, I realized that the mouthguard had simply shattered again, and I was alive.

Aid: “You good? You good? Alright, you okay?”

David: “That [Bleep]ing broke. Ouh!”

Person with microphone: “David, let him look at you.”

David: “Uh-huh”

Aid: “This popped off. This whole thing came off.

First-aid: “You have a laceration.”

David: “Thank you everybody for being such an incredible audience, peace and goodnight!

Interviewer: “Your biggest fear is to die from old age, or something? [laughter]”

David: “Of course! I mean if I was going to die I’d like to die pretty like pshh, you know, like pretty quick.”

Interviewer: “On stage with a gun pointed at you?”

David: “No, that’s not how I’m gonna die.”

Interviewer: “Something like that?”

David: “No chance. That’s not how I’m dying.”

by Sam Morstan

Source: Clainsk Youtube, CTV