The guy is a magician. It's his job.

Sue

Um, are Penn and Teller good candidates for natural selection?

Ok, I knew it was staged, but, not that the guy considers himself a professional magician or illusionist. It looks like some hack that's doing a trick, trying to make it bloody for more viewers. I just know that some of the young skulls full of mush that watch this stuff on YouTube don't realize it's a scam, and try to replicate some of the crazy stunts they see. I'd just rather see the dope on the youtube suffer, rather than some kids with poor judgement. I see plenty of that anyway with what kids do with fire and sharps on camping trips. We just try to keep them from anything major... now if anyone asks for a turntable and 4 large cups, I'll know what to do

Knowing that we all mean well...

If someone does ask for those items, should you really get in Mr. Darwin's way???

A lot of famous people started out doing stupid things in front of friends or video cameras. True, it would be better if he pointed out up front that it was an illusion, but its not quite grounds for chlorinating his genes.

As for your kids on camping trips, many of the lessons I was taught about safe use of knives and fire (either in the woods, the kitchen or the lab) were strongly re-enforced by scorching or slicing parts of my anatomy.

Experience is the best teacher because we tend to remember her lessons.

On the other hand, just because he's a magician doesn't mean I wouldn't laugh my head off if a trick went bad and he did end up with a knife in the hand. I mean, thats just hilarious.