David Blaine
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David Blaine (born David Blaine White on April 4, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, USA) is an American magician and stunt performer. He made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. He was the first to introduce this brand of magic to the public. His father was Spanish-Puerto Rican and his mother, Patrice White, was Jewish of Russian descent.
Magic career
Blaine has been performing magic for many years, since early childhood. His mother always believed in him and never put him down.
Overview
Blaine began his career with street magic, performing card tricks and illusions such as levitation or bringing dead flies back to life. His mother 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.
Blaine is recognized as one of the world's most famous magicians and has created the very popular genre of magic which is focused on the genuine reactions of the spectator.
He later turned his attention to feats of endurance; these included being buried alive for seven days, spending 62 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.
Blaine's unique contribution to magic is his charismatic ability to bring people together and his 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 a New York City building provided to him by Donald Trump. Passersby could watch him 24 hours a day. He was reportedly fed only 44 tablespoons of water each day. He emerged on April 12 on schedule.
"There were Christian 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!" He soon retreated to Neverland where he later commented, "I was wrong, that's where the magic happens."
Frozen in Time
On Monday, November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called "Frozen in Time," which was covered on a TV special. Blaine stood in a closet of ice located in Times Square, New York. The ice was sculpted to fit his body, with little room to move. A tube provided him with air and water while his urine was removed with another tube. 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 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 for a month after 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 claimed to have been scheduled to start training for this particular stunt on September 11th, 2001, by flying on American Airlines from Kennedy airport at noon to Los Angeles. As Blaine lived in New York City, he delayed his training. He remained on the pillar, which was 22 inches (56 cm) wide, for exactly 34 hours and 23 minutes 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. [1]
Mysterious Stranger
On October 29 2002, Random House published David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic. 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 solved by Sherri Skanes on March 20 2004, 16 months after the book's publication.
Above the Below
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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.
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.
A gaunt Blaine emerged on schedule on October 19, murmuring "I love you all!" and was quickly hospitalized. Blaine claimed to have lost 54 pounds (24.5 kg) during his fast.
Drowned Alive
On May 1, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an 2.4 metres (8 feet) 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. Blaine also tried to free himself from handcuffs and chains put on him upon coming out after the week in the sphere.[2] He seemed to have trouble escaping from the last of the handcuffs. Blaine apparently held his breath for 7 minutes and 8 seconds before showing signs of unconsciousness and being pulled up by the support divers, thus failing in his attempt.
Blaine did nonetheless claim to 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.
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"