ufoclub said:

As for the Balducci levitation, "The illusionist is simply standing on the tip-toe of the foot farthest from the audience. That foot is concealed from view of the audience by the foot nearest to the audience and by the illusionist's clothing."

(Source: Balducci levitation)

The above article does briefly discuss Blaine's use of the trick (and how it's modified for television). I'll explain in a little more detail.

Put simply, what television viewers were shown was something different than what Blaine's street audiences saw.

Blaine would do the Balducci levitation, and the cameras would capture people's reactions. In addition, they shot some footage of Blaine "levitating" to a height considerably higher than what can be done with the Balducci trick. This was faked via mechanical means--they were lifting him up with something like a body harness attached to a crane. Of course, the equipment was kept out of the shot. IIRC, they focused in on his feet.

Then, when putting together the television show, they spliced together the footage like this: 1) Show Blaine encountering people on the street. 2) Insert footage of the mechanical levitation, which was shot at a different time. 3) Cut back to street audience reacting to the Balducci levitation that they saw. This created the false impression that the whole thing happened continuously, which it did not.

CoJones said:

Well, all magic is "fake" to some degree. I don't know whether any editing tricks were used, as was the case with David Blaine, but you can order a DVD that shows you how to do the "Mindfreak" levitation yourself.

that's cheating! boo

matt said:

CalhounSq said:

well...well...damn!