Sammy Cortino is after his own world record. Not exactly a Guinness record, but close.

Next week, Cortino will attempt to make 300 playing cards disappear and reappear in 90 seconds, using both hands simultaneously and blindfolded. The intended stunt is detailed in this report from the Hickory Daily Record.

He plans to video the feat and post it on YouTube and other sites, hoping that Guinness will take notice. He’ll also live feed the video on his Facebook page. His judge: Hickory, N.C. Mayor Rudy Wright.

Aaron Fisher is amazing with a deck of cards, but we’ll accuse him of, as it’s said in the journalism business, “burying the lede.”

Over the weekend, we got an e-mail from the creator of Search and Destroy reporting that his past podcasts are available on iTunes. Then, as a p.s., the very last sentence said he’ll be publishing a new season of podcasts starting this week.

Keep an ear out for the audio goodness — they should show up in t iTunes if you subscribe. Or keep watching his Web site. Fisher’s podcasts rank up there with the most educational, informative resources out there.

Penn Jillette, half of the great Penn & Teller, made this tweet in response to the upside-down Blaine photo:

Hmmm. When we did this decades ago on SNL it was funny, when David Blaine does it – it’s physically challenging -

We’re assuming it went something like this:

Fresh on the tails of yesterday’s Esquire pic, Dodd Vickers of Magic Newswire spotted this video of David Blaine teaching a magic trick to staff at Esquire magazine. Blaine has taught a few tricks before, but this is the best explanation of a trick he performs that we’ve seen.

The vid is pretty cool, and presents an interesting trick, but if you watch all the way through the end (there’s some outtakes attached) and look at the related videos, you can find a few more performances for the staff. Good stuff.

Photographer Michael Lavine (who has an incredible portfolio) has posted some interesting commentary about a recent pic of David Blaine for Esquire magazine.

The street magic legend was photographed upside-down in order to snag this incredible shot (click after the jump to see the full image). Lavine wrote in his blog that at first Blaine didn’t think the idea would work, but after seeing the setup and preparation, said the shot could be done in five tries. Writes Lavine:

Let’s just say that David has a “strong personality” and I had to use every trick in the photographic Jujitsu playbook to make it through the day. It’s incredibly physically demanding to hang upside down and I do have to give it to David for delivering a command performance.

It did take five tries, although the money shot happened on the third. Afterward, Blaine blew their minds with a few card tricks. Blaine earned his reputation for hanging upside-down during 2008′s Dive of Death.
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