Who are your favorite magicians? I know stee has a thing for David Blaine, and who doesn't, but who are you continually impressed with? I'll always have a spot in my heart for Penn and Teller.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Answers

I used to have a thing for David Copperfield - thought he was the sexiest man alive when I was, like, 9 or 10. Those dark eyes, those strong, agile hands, those eyebrows quirking over that devilish grin....

Yes, now I think he's a big cheesebucket, but I think I'd still get a kick out of seeing him live. My friend Bekki in high school went to one of his shows and he picked her out of the audience for one of his tricks. We were so mean - we pretended it was so lame, but we were all secretly very envious.

Penn and Teller are great for what they do - so original to give away the trick to it! Is it me or are the old, cheesy "big" magicians of the "make the statue of liberty disappear" type gone out of style?

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

I've always had a thing for harry anderson.

I remember the first time i ever saw him perform a magic trick. He was on "Circus of the Stars" several years back. I often times wonder whatever happened to that show. Do they still show Circus of the Stars specials on TV??? When i was a kid i used to watch it every year. I was always so excited to see my favorite star of the moment flying through the air on a trapeze or walk a tightrope. I used to freak out that whoever i was watching would fall and die or something along those lines, but they always managed to pull through! yay!

But yes, I'm a big Harry Anderson Fan...

I'm sort of strange like that....

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

David Blaine freaks me out... did you see the trick where he flips through a deck of cards to the camera, and tells you (the viewer at home) to pick one card... then he pulls the card out of the deck that you picked??? well, there were 5 of us in the room at the time, and all 5 of us picked the same card without saying anything to each other.. when he picked our card, we all freaked out... freaky... i noticed i've used the word freaked or a variation there of a few times in this message... freaky eh?? remember that movie? 'freak- friday'?? funny.. oh, penn and teller are great too... they hosted saturday night live once and it was hillarious... their 'anti-gravity' magic trick made me laugh.. out loud even...

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

David Copperfield is still the sexiest geek alive.

Right now, my magician-crush lies directly on Lance Burton. He's a non-creepy-looking David Copperfield with a Southern accent. I'd be his Claudia Schiffer any day.

David Blaine is just plain weird. He'll do a trick, and then just STARE at his audience until they react. And then, after they react, he'll STARE a bit more. No showmanship, just stalker-like qualities. His tricks are very good, though.

I am of the opinion that magicians and figure skaters are the only people in the world who get to wear something decent to work.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 1999

David Blaine is amazing - he gives me goosebumps with some of his tricks. I actually find him sexy in his dark, weird, staring way. The thing about him is that he's NOT showy, so his tricks should be that much harder to pull off. He has no props, no choreography, no assistant other than the cameraman and whoever he stops on the street. How does he do all the incredible shit that he does?

My husband and I have this theory that he is actually the Devil in disguise, and he is starting to slowly take over the world, one street at a time. If you think about it, wouldn't the Devil show himself in a false form at first? And wouldn't his ego be so big that he would have to do something to achieve fame and notoriety? Why not start small, with a few card tricks and levitation? That stuff's probably as easy as blinking to Satan. He will gradually move up to bigger and better tricks, achieve insane fame, gain everyone's trust with his cute smile as he freaks us all out of our minds, and then WHAMMO! World domination.

Just a theory. I still love him though, even if he is The Devil. I wish he had a new special on every week, I would watch them all.

Did anyone see the time he had a girl in a bar pick a card, and in a heartbeat the card ended up INSIDE a half-full beer bottle that was sitting on the bar behind her? And it had her NAME WRITTEN ON IT!! Or what about swallowing the thread from some guy's shirt and then pulling it out through a hole in his stomach? Yikes! He's so cool!

-- Anonymous, November 15, 1999