David Blaine

David Blaine (born David Blaine White on April 4, 1973), is an American illusionist and stunt performer born in Brooklyn, New York City. He made his name as a performer of close-up magic, usually working on the streets. Amongst magicians this is commonly known as street magic. His father is Puerto Rican and his mother was an American Jew of Russian descent.

Blaine's act includes levitation, illusion and bringing apparently dead flies back to life. This format, recorded by a small camera crew, provided the basis for his breakthrough television special, "David Blaine: Street Magic". He stayed with the format for David Blaine: Magic Man and David Blaine: Mystifier.

He later turned his attention to feats of endurance, including being buried alive for seven days and spending 61 hours encased in ice. In 2002, Blaine stood on a tiny platform at the top of a 100 foot high pole in Bryant Park for 35 hours (see Vertigo below). In 2003, Blaine lived in a transparent Perspex (Plexiglas) box for 44 days, without food (see Blaine's London stunt below).

The show-business press often describe Blaine as a modern day Harry Houdini and indeed Blaine himself has cited Houdini as one of his inspirations.

As a media figure he's been exceptionally well plotted by himself and his advisers. While he name-checks Houdini as an influence he appears reluctant to credit his precursors in the arena of live art and magic.

New York based fine artist and magician Jeff Sheridan is revered as the father of modern street magic, authored a 1977 book titled Street Magic, was the performer who inspired and actually taught the pre-teen Blaine after the latter saw him perform in Central Park, was even approached by Blaine to work with him; now toiling away on the magic lecture circuit and appearances at variety shows in Germany. Italian body artist Franko B has been a major presence in the world of live art since the late 1990s and is a past master at coming up with quite challenging and controversial public actions involving putting his life at risk – for example bleeding copiously during a performance. Some-time friend of Blaine’s Uri Geller was himself a huge public figure as a ‘mystical’ entertainer and personality from the 1970s through into the early 1990s. Finally, in India there are any number of dare devils/escape artists who think nothing of taking on public stunts which carry a real risk of death or serious injury — this in front of massive crowds.

Blaine however has no competitors yet in terms of his marketability and financial success and his stature is such that he will likely continue being credited for being a pioneer in mixing magic with live or performance art.

Premature Burial

Beginning on April 5, 1999, Blaine spent seven days buried inside a glass coffin at the bottom of an open pit in front of an office building in New York City where passersby could view him 24 hours a day.

"There were Jewish Hasids standing next to Muslim cabdrivers who were next to Black kids. Businessmen in designer suits stood beside heavily pierced street kids. Every conceiveable social type was represented," recalls Blaine in his book Mysterious Stranger. "I saw something truly incredible. I saw every race, every age-group, and every religion gathered together smiling, and that made everything worth it. I saw magic!"

Frozen in Time

On Monday, November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called 'Frozen in Time'. Blaine spent time in a closet of ice located in Times Square, New York. A tube provided him with air and water while another tube provided the removal of his his urine. He was encased in ice for 61 hours, 40 minutes, and 15 seconds before being removed. The block of ice was on a stand, with space between the ground, and the ice was transparent, to prove to skeptics that he was inside the ice the whole time. He was taken to the hospital immediately after being removed because doctors feared he was going into shock. He said that he could not walk normally a month after the stunt. A TV special aired to cover the stunt.

Vertigo

On Monday 22 May 2002, Blaine began a stunt he named 'Vertigo'. A crane lifted Blaine onto a 90 foot (27 m) high pillar in Bryant Park, New York City. He remained on the pillar, which was 22 inches (56 cm) wide, for nearly 35 hours without food or water or anything to lean on. Blaine appeared to be without safety harnesses and had no safety nets underneath him for almost the duration of the stunt. He ended the feat by jumping down onto a landing platform made of a 12 foot (3.7 m) high pile of cardboard boxes. He suffered a minor concussion on the way down because he hit his head on the boxes. But he fully recovered from the injury.

Mysterious Stranger

On October 29, 2002, Random House published Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic by David Blaine. Part autobiography, part history of magic, and part armchair treasure hunt, the book also includes instructions on how to perform card tricks and illusions.

The treasure hunt, Blaine's $100,000 Challenge, was devised by game designer Cliff Johnson, creator of The Fool's Errand, and was solved by Sherri Skanes on March 20, 2004, 16 months after the book's publication.

Above the Below

On September 5, 2003, Blaine began his 44-day endurance stunt sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 30 feet (9 m) in the air over Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The case, measuring 7ft by 7ft by 3ft (2.1 x 2.1 x 0.9 m), had a webcam installed so that viewers could observe his progress. During this period the magician reportedly received no food but only water, a feat of endurance inspired by "A Hunger Artist" by Kafka.

As with his New York City stunts, the vast majority of London visitors were generally supportive, seeking little more than a wave from the magician. However, the stunt became the subject of much press and media attention, due to a raucous minority who were mischievous or outright hostile to Blaine's presence.

Newspapers reported that eggs, lemons, sausages, water bottles, beer cans, paint-filled balloons and golf balls had all been thrown at the box; a hamburger was flown round the box by radio-controlled model helicopter; one man was arrested for climbing the scaffolding supporting Blaine's box and attempting to cut the power and water supply to the box; and the magician was treated to numerous displays of bare bottoms and breasts.

"You've picked the wrong town to be hung in, Mr Blaine," wrote The Sunday Times. "What is clear from the start is that Londoners are not taking Blaine quite as seriously as he takes himself. ...Really, it makes you proud to be British."

A gaunt Blaine emerged on schedule on October 19, murmuring "I love you all!" and was quickly hospitalized. A subsequent letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, co-written by Blaine, described his nutritional recovery, revealing similar symptoms often exhibited by the malnourished who are being reintroduced to liquid and solid foods. The letter reported that Blaine had lost 54 pounds (24.5 kg) during his fast.

Drowned Alive

On May 1, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an 8 foot (2.4 m) diameter, water-filled sphere (isotonic saline, 0.9% salt) in front of the Lincoln Center in New York for a planned seven days and seven nights, using tubes for air and nutrition. He concluded this event by attempting to hold his breath underwater to break the world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. In a change to the original stunt plans, while attempting to break this record, Blaine also tried to free himself from handcuffs and chains put on him upon coming out after the week in the sphere. Blaine held his breath for seven minutes and eight seconds before being pulled up by the support divers, thus failing in his attempt. It has been said that David would have been less than 38 seconds from death if he'd not been rescued by divers, due to high carbon dioxide levels in his body.

Blaine did nonetheless succeed in setting a record (as yet unrecognized by any record-keeping institution) for being fully submerged in water for more than seven days straight (170+ hours).

It is expected that Blaine will suffer medical problems as a result of his stunt. Blaine has undergone multiple short hospital visits after the stunt ended and has entered an agreement with doctors from Yale University to monitor him in order to study the human physiological reaction to prolonged submersion.

In an interview on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius satellite radio, Blaine spoke of the week-long fasting he did before the "drowning alive" stunt, to prevent the need for solid waste issues. For urine, he wore an external, condom-style catheter.

Cancelled stunts

After Above the Below, Blaine told media that his next stunt would be a "Dive of Death" from a helicopter hundreds of feet above a river. The jump was scheduled for his 31st birthday on April 4, 2004, but on April 1, three days before the jump was to take place, his publicist announced that the stunt had been cancelled.

Upcoming stunt

Blaine has announced that he will be living alone with animals in a jungle; however, the date, location, or duration of the stunt has not been announced yet. He tells the New York Post, "I'm planning to live harmoniously among wild beasts. And I'd like to do it alone in the jungle."