What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Ayecarumba

The message is timely considering the recent bruhaha regarding the white woman heading up the Spokane, WA office of the NAACP resigning over passing herself as African-American.

Wentworth Miller's father is black and his mother white, he starred in a movie called "The Human Stain" as a black man who passes for white.


Historical evidence of white people passing for minorities are rare, but Grey Owl (1936) was a British man who passed for Apache.


One of the books I read in school was 1961 "Black Like Me", but I am pretty sure if you wear makeup for research purposes it's not called "passing".

I seem to recall that Griffin used some type of chemical process to change his skin color, but I may be mistaken.

There was another white guy, William Robinson, who at the turn of the 20th century, passed himself as Chinese mystic / vaudville magician Chung Ling Soo.


photo from conjurehealing.files.wordpress.com

He was pretty successful too, until he was killed on stage attempting to perform the infamous bullet catch trick.

Quote: Ayecarumba

He was pretty successful too, until he was killed on stage attempting to perform the infamous bullet catch trick.

some others, not quite routine

Quote:

Coulen (1500s)
Beaten to death with his trick pistol
Raoul Curran (1880)
Killed by a member of the audience who jumped up out of his seat and shot him without warning
deLine Jr (1890)
"The Black Wizard of the West" (1922)
Died when his wife purposely fired live bullets at him
Ralf Bialla (1972)
Fell off a cliff because of constant dizziness caused by injuries from bullet catching act

http://www.magictricks.com/most-dangerous-trick.html

Quote: Ayecarumba

He was pretty successful too, until he was killed on stage attempting to perform the infamous bullet catch trick.

The crucial part of that trick is to make sure the gun is loaded with blanks.

Quote: Nareed

The crucial part of that trick is to make sure the gun is loaded with blanks.

Back in those days, it was done with a muzzleloader, requiring the assistant to either palm the bullet, or use a special ramrod to extract the bullet from the barrel prior to firing.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Back in those days, it was done with a muzzleloader, requiring the assistant to either palm the bullet, or use a special ramrod to extract the bullet from the barrel prior to firing.

That could get tricky...

Breech-loaders go back to the 1850s at least. You'd think someone with their life riding on a trick, would have gone for that.

Quote: Nareed

That could get tricky...

Breech-loaders go back to the 1850s at least. You'd think someone with their life riding on a trick, would have gone for that.

Any trick that relies on exchanging an actual dangerous item for a safe one could be a pretty risky event in the long run. As the gamblers say.

Quote: rxwine

Any trick that relies on exchanging an actual dangerous item for a safe one could be a pretty risky event in the long run. As the gamblers say.

Also difficult after salary disputes with your associate.

Quote: rxwine

Any trick that relies on exchanging an actual dangerous item for a safe one could be a pretty risky event in the long run.

Penn did a bit with a nail-gun when I saw their show in Vegas (he probably still does it). He explained there are "blanks" among the nail strip, meaning parts without any nail. So he can nail pieces of wood, then pretend to nil his hand, or shoot a nail on his temple, and come out unscathed. the claim is he knows which are blanks and which are real.

I cringed through the whole bit.

Quote: Pacomartin

Wentworth Miller's father is black and his mother white, he starred in a movie called "The Human Stain" as a black man who passes for white.

This looks a lot like Face, that's who I
thought it was at first.