 Speaking about the democratic nature of the vaudeville performance circuit , Vaudeville 's writer and executive producer said in reference to Ali that the film " embraced everything from <unk> to a guy who threw up . " By contrast , in episode 30 of the Sundance Channel television program <unk> , magician David Blaine speaks enthusiastically of Ali . During the episode , Blaine shows artist Chuck Close Ali 's kerosene and water finale footage from Politiquerias and comments that Ali is his " favorite magician ... it 's real but nobody 's been able to do it since ... his name was Hadji Ali ... he 's my favorite of all time . " 
