Thomas Churchwell's Blog. A place for stuff

I was on the phone with David Blaine and he invited me over to his village apartment which was hard to find cause while the address is on a ave the actual front door/vestible/waiting area is on the cross street.

I got there early and waited in the lobby and chatting with the doorman. Seems David and his girlfriend was out. 10 minutes past the time David and Josie came through the door with their bikes. We got into the elevator that had the old time gate and train pullman type handle that the doorman/elevator dude used to operate the elevator. We went to the top floor, the 8th floor. I had been in David apartment before but it had been a while but I knew it was at the end of the hall but before I got out David kept asking me to perform the “trick with the key” to the doorman. I told him I would perform it on the way down. I never did.

As I walked ahead down the hall Josie says “David talks about you a lot. He says you taught him everything he knows” and I relied “Yep, I had a spare 5 minutes but he is a lot better now.” I remembered how Leo DiCaprio asked me to teach him 5 more tricks when David told him I taught him everything he knows.

So we got into the apartment and David showed me some new things he had acquired since the last time. He showed me a brownish sepia type painting of Houdini that had the image of Houdini in the center with tiny images of some famed well known photographs around the edges. All the images were also painted. Really nice.

David’s kitchen was behind a glass wall that looked like tiny little glass squares. Taped to the wall he had what seemed to be bluish images of his face pressed against a scanner. I thought he was trying to imitate Wahol. He explained to me that he was going to freeze himself in ice and showed me another image of him lying either in ice or in the coffin in the center of Grand Central station.

David had two bathrooms. I used the one next to his kitchen.

David asked me to perform some magic to Josie who I didn’t know was a famed model. He and her sat on the couch and I performed on a weird coffee table while sitting in a chair across from them. I did the coins across that Harry Lorayne printed in his book Apocolypse. You can find it by looking by “Traveling coins by TC Churchwell” in Hary’s book.

I did a few more and David gave me a pack of cards and he left the room. I had Josie open the pack, shuffle the deck and pick a card. I had her replace the card and I put the whole deck on her palm where the deck started moving on it’s own and she screamed “David come in here, you have to see this…” and kept yelling “David, the deck is moving on it on” and David finally came out of the second bathroom that was between the living room and his bedroom but the trick was over. Josie told him “The deck moved on its on David and then my card popped out all in my hands” and David looked at me and I said “Yeah and I didn’t need a trick deck to do it” and David defensively said “I don’t use a trick deck.”

I left his apartment and went up one flight to the padio/roof and had a smoke. 7 minutes I guess. When I got back into Davids apartment Josie asked me “So how long have you been smoking?” and I replied “About 10 minutes but I just quit” and avid laughed and repeated what I said by saying “Josie, did you hear him say..”

We went to the store for lunch/snack. As David and I was leaving the check out a guy says “Hey there’s that famous magician and I said “Hi, how are you” and David laughed

We got back and we sat in the room with the entertainment center. David pointed up at a large poster on the ceiling oh Houdini in a straitjacket in a coffin next to a Sphinx with the words “Houdini. Buried Alive.” David said it is the original and one of only 5.  It was large though. Covered the ceiling.

David popped in some video’s of Andy Kaufman and started talking about doing something like that. A new personality that he could create that was opposite of him. At the time I was using the name “The Amazing Tarquin” so I said to him “Why not call him ‘Tarko the great’” and we laughed.

Before I got to Davids home I was with my girlfriend. She didn’t know who David was and wasn’t interested in visiting but wanted to go see her father but didn’t have any money so I gave her my metrocard. She had the money that day. She was suppose to come back while I was visiting and when she got back is when I was to leave Davids apartment. She called and told David that her visit with her father was longer than she though so I told him I was going to leave and I asked David for $1.50 for the subway and he handed me a $100.00 bill and said “Your girlfriend said you didn’t have money on you.” I took the 100 and said “Thanks David” and I left.

That’s how I met Josie Moran