Last night saw the debut of David Blaine: Real Or Magic, the ABC special that sought to settle the question of whether illusions are genuine or fake with those most qualified to tell the difference: Hollywood celebrities. There were many highlights—and you already saw one of them—but among those that have magically appeared on the Internet today, there are three definite standouts. The first: nearly five straight minutes of Ricky Gervais losing his shit while Blaine shoves a giant needle through his arm. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Gervais says in one of many characteristic outbursts, before the proud atheist turns briefly agnostic, thinking aloud through a line of self-doubting questioning about what he’s seen and whether this means David Blaine is the devil or just a “maniac.”
Declaring “this is what they ultimately want to see” (as Blaine believes all his audience wants is to see Blaine suffer, apparently), Blaine also pulled a similar stunt with an ice pick, pushing it deep inside his hand in front of Will Smith and family, as well as Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul—whose exclamation of “Why?!” may have been the most astute reaction of the night. Meanwhile, Blaine also pulled off his greatest feat: getting Kanye West to smile for several minutes straight. (Though he may have had an assist from Woody Harrelson, who hangs out with Kanye West for some reason. Now, is that real or magic?)
But in what we humbly submit as the Greatest Moment in the History of Magic, Blaine followed in the footsteps of death-defying daredevils like Houdini, by bravely attempting to do what no man should: amuse Harrison Ford. Progressing from his usual pained smile to a moment where he seems to be on the verge of a heart attack, Ford ends the segment in the way we presume all visits with Ford do, declaring, “Get the fuck out of my house.” That is most definitely magic.