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David Blaine (born David Blaine White on
April 4, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, (USA) is an American
illusionist and stunt performer. He made his name as a performer of
street and close-up magic. His father is Puerto Rican and his mother was
Jewish of Russian descent.
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Magic career
Overview
David Blaine began his career with street
magic, performing card tricks and illusions such as levitation or
bringing apparently dead flies back to life. He started doing magic at a
very young age, encouraged by his mother every step of the way. His
mother later died due to ovarian cancer. Later in life he used a small
camera crew to record his act live in front of everyday people. This act
provided the basis for his television specials, David Blaine: Street
Magic, David Blaine: Magic Man, and David Blaine: Mystifier.
He later turned his attention to feats of
endurance; these included being buried alive for seven days, spending 61
hours encased in ice, standing on a tiny, 22 inch (56 cm) wide platform
at the top of a 90 foot (27 m) high pole for 35 hours, living in a
transparent box for 44 days without food, and living underwater for 7
days.
Though not the first entertainer to perform
street magic or survive endurance stunts, Blaine's unique contribution
to magic is his charismatic use of video and television to reach the MTV
Generation in a decade where magicians were out of touch with younger
audiences.
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. He was only fed 44 tablespoons of water a day,
reportedly. He emerged on April 11 on schedule.
"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. It was really fun and
made me incredibly happy." 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 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 March 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 exactly 34 hours and 23 minute
without food, 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 after hitting 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. It was often asked if he did receive food and
water at night because the case he was in, was covered at night. The
stunt coordinators said this was so that he could sleep without
distractions.
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. During his
time in the sphere, he attracted large crowds and many visits by
celebrities including Chris Rock and Courtney Cox. 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 apparently held his breath for seven minutes
and eight seconds before showing signs of unconsciousness and 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 (177 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. During the stunt,
doctors witnessed skin breakdown at the hands and feet and liver
failure.
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 one of his stunts 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
David Blaine tells Larry King about his
next stunt saying, "there will be no safety involved. It will be from
point A to point B. Either you make it or you don't." King responds, "In
other words you could die?", to which Blaine replied, "I'm not going to
die because I'm going to prepare and train and be as serious as I can."
Personal life
He has a brother named Michael who
graduated from New York University on May 8, 2006. Blaine is legendary
for his gorgeous girlfriends. He has dated Josie Maran, Daryl Hannah,
Fiona Apple, Madonna, and was last reportedly dating German supermodel,
Manon Von Gerkan.
Trivia
In the South Park episode, Super Best
Friends, David Blaine seduces the residents of South Park to join his
cult of "Blaintologists," promising the ultimate stunt of "eating his
own head." Blaine has since vehemently denied eating his or anyone
else's head, and maintains his followers are fans and not cult-members.
During his appearance in Last Call with
Carson Daly, he "pulled" his heart out and fainted. The segment was
staged but NBC almost cancelled the illusion. It was told that the
audience was completely shocked and some members ran away crying or
screaming.
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