Poopology!
Sucker!
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Early life [edit]
Blaine was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is of Puerto Rican descent on his father's side, and Russian Jewish on his mother's. Blaine's mother, Patrice Maureen White (1946–1995),[2] was a school teacher living in New York, and his father William Perez was a Vietnam veteran. When he was four years old, he saw a magician performing magic in the subway. This sparked a lifelong interest for Blaine.[3] He was raised by his single mother and attended many schools in Brooklyn. When he was ten years old, his mother married John Bukalo and they moved to Little Falls, New Jersey,[4] where he attended Passaic Valley Regional High School.[5] He has a half-brother named Michael James Bukalo. When he was 17 years old, Blaine moved toManhattan, New York.[6]
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Stunts and specials [edit]
Street Magic and Magic Man [edit]
On May 19, 1997, Blaine's first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic aired on the ABC network. According to the New York Daily News, “Blaine can lay claim to his own brand of wizardry. The magic he offers in tonight’s show operates on an uncommonly personal level.”[7] When asked about his performance style, David explained, “I'd like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.”'[8] Time magazine commented, "his deceptively low-key, ultracool manner leaves spectators more amazed than if he'd razzle-dazzled."[9] The concept of focusing on spectator reactions changed the way that magic has been shown on TV. The New York Times wrote, “He's taken a craft that's been around for hundreds of years and done something unique and fresh with it."[8] Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller, stated, "the biggest breakthrough done in our lifetime was David Blaine's 'Street Magic,' where his idea was to do really simple tricks but to concentrate... to turn the camera around on the people watching instead of the people doing. So to make the audience watch the audience, which that first special 'Street Magic,' is the best TV magic special ever done and really, really does break new ground." Many people watched the show.[10]
In Magic Man, Blaine is shown traveling across the country, entertaining unsuspecting pedestrians in New York City, Atlantic City, Dallas, San Francisco, Compton, and the Mojave Desertrecorded by a small crew with handheld cameras. Jon Racherbaumer commented, "Make no mistake about it, the focus of this show, boys and girls, is not Blaine. It is really about theatrical proxemics; about the show-within-a-show and the spontaneous, visceral reactions of people being astonished."[11] USA Today called David “The hottest name in magic right now”.[12]
Buried Alive [edit]
David Blaine buried underneath a 3.5 ton tank of water in New York.
On April 5, 1999, Blaine was entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days across from Trump Placeon 68th St. and Riverside Drive. According to CNN, "Blaine's only communication to the outside world was by a hand buzzer, which could have alerted an around-the-clock emergency crew standing by." BBC News reported that the cramped plastic coffin offered six inches (152 mm) of headroom and two inches on each side. During the endurance stunt Blaine ate nothing and drank only two to three tablespoons of water a day.[13]An estimated 75,000 people visited the site, including Marie Blood, Harry Houdini's niece, who said, "My uncle did some amazing things, but he could not have done this."[14] On the final day of the stunt, April 12, hundreds of news teams were stationed at the site for the coffin-opening. A team of construction workers removed a portion of the 75 cubic feet (2.1 m3) of gravel surrounding the six-foot-deep coffin before a crane lifted the water tank.[15] Blaine emerged and told the crowd "I saw something very prophetic ... a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made all this worthwhile."[13] BBC News stated, "The 26-year-old magician has outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it."[16] During the preparation of the stunt, Jonathan Demme told Time Out New York, “He’s the most exciting thing in America ... And I’m not just talking entertainment.”[17]
Frozen in Time [edit]
David Blaine encased in a block of ice for Frozen in Time in Times Square, New York.
On November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called "Frozen in Time", which was covered on a TV special. Blaine stood encased in a massive block of ice located in Times Square, New York City. He was lightly dressed and seen to be shivering even before the blocks of ice were sealed around him. A tube supplied him with air and water while his urine was removed with another tube. He was encased in the box of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds before being removed with chain saws. The ice was transparent and resting on an elevated platform to show that he was actually inside the ice the entire time. CNN confirmed that "thousands of people braved the pouring rain Wednesday night to catch a glimpse of Blaine as workers cut away at the ice."[18] He was removed from the ice in an obviously dazed and disoriented state, wrapped in blankets and taken to the hospital immediately because doctors feared he might be going into shock.[19] The New York Times reported, "The magician who emerged from the increasingly unstable ice box seemed a shadow of the confident, robust, shirtless fellow who entered two days before."[20] Blaine said in the documentary follow-up to this feat that it took a month before he was able to walk again and that he had no plans to ever again attempt a stunt of this difficulty.[21]
David Blaine stands on a 100 ft (30 m) pole for Vertigo in the middle of Bryant Parkin New York.
Vertigo [edit]
On May 22, 2002, a crane lifted Blaine onto a 100-foot (30 m) high and 22-inch (0.56 m) wide pillar in Bryant Park, New York City. He was not harnessed to the pillar, so there were two retractable handles on either side of him to grasp in the event of harsh weather.[22] The Evening Standard's James Langton wrote, "He was battered by high winds and unusually cold May weather during his first night and would have been killed or seriously injured if he had fallen."[23] He remained on the pillar for exactly 35 hours. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik wrote, “David Blaine, standing up there, is actually as good a magical metaphor for the moment as Houdini, fighting his way out of the straitjacket of immigrant identity toward prosperity, was for his."[24] With his legs weak from standing atop the pillar for so long, he ended the feat by jumping down onto a landing platform made out of a 12-foot (3.7 m) high pile of cardboard boxes and suffered a mild concussion.
Mysterious Stranger [edit] | This biographical article relies on references to primary sources. Please add references to secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2008) |
On October 29, 2002, Random House published David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic.[25] Part autobiography, part history of magic, and part armchair treasure hunt, the book also includes instructions on how to perform card tricks and illusions. Editing director, Bruce Tracy, explains that “David Blaine is the most exciting and creative magician since Houdini, and now, readers have the opportunity to enjoy Blaine's unique book about magic, and they can participate by testing their own ability to discover and interpret clues.”[26]
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.[27]
Above the Below [edit]
David Blaine in the box for Above the Below in front of thousands at City Hall (London).
On September 5, 2003, Blaine began his 44-day endurance stunt sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 9 metres (30 ft) in the air next to Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames, the area between City Hall and Tower Bridge in London. The case, measuring 3 feet (0.9 m) by 7 feet (2.1 m) by 7 feet (2.1 m), had a webcam installed so that viewers could observe his progress. During the 44-day period, Blaine went without any food or nutrients and survived on just 4.5 litres of water per day.
The endurance stunt became the subject of much media attention. The Guardian wrote, "Blaine has created one of the most eloquent and telling visual images of our time."[28] The Times reported that "1,614 articles in the British press have made reference to the exploit."[29]Then U.S. President George W. Bush referred to Blaine’s stunt in a speech at the Whitehall Palace in London, saying “The last noted American to visit London stayed in a glass box dangling over the Thames. A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me.”[30]
A number of spectators were mischievous or hostile towards the endurance artist. The Times reported that eggs, lemons, sausages, bacon, water bottles, beer cans, paint-filled balloons and golf balls had all been thrown at the box.[29] The Evening Standard reported that one man was arrested for attempting to spike the water supply to Blaine's box with monkey urine.[31] According to BBC News, a hamburger was flown up to the box by a remote-controlled helicopter as a taunt.[32]
On September 25, BBC News reported that Blaine announced via webcam that he was feeling the taste of pear drops on his tongue.[33]Dr. Adam Carey, who performed a medical examination of Blaine before he entered the box, said that the taste was produced by ketones produced by the body burning fatty acids, which are themselves produced from fat reserves.
Blaine emerged on schedule on October 19, murmuring "I love you all!" and was quickly hospitalized. The New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that documented his 44 day fast and stated that his re-feeding was perhaps the most dangerous part of the stunt.[34] The study reported, “He lost 24.5 kg (25 percent of his original body weight), and his body mass index dropped from 29.0 to 21.6. His appearance and body-mass index after his fast would not by themselves have alerted us to the risks of refeeding. Despite cautious management, he had hypophosphatemiaand fluid retention, important elements of the refeeding syndrome.”[35] The event was filmed by director, and close friend of Blaine, Harmony Korine.
Drowned Alive [edit]
David Blaine prepares to hold his breath on the final night of Drowned Alive at Lincoln Center, New York.
On May 17, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an 8 feet (2.4 m) diameter, water-filled sphere (isotonic saline, 0.9% salt) in front of theLincoln Center in New York City for a planned seven days and seven nights, using tubes for air and nutrition. During the stunt, doctors witnessed skin breakdown at the hands and feet, and liver failure. The New York Times' Kenneth Silverman wrote "his feat of endurance brought a diverse crowd of thousands of New Yorkers together, renewing for a while the city's waning spirit of democratic community."[36]
He concluded this event by attempting to hold his breath underwater to break the then-current world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds held by Tom Sietas for static apnea—holding one's breath without the aid of breathing 100% oxygen beforehand,[37] although Blaine's attempt would not have qualified as static apnea under AIDA International rules.[38] Due to his producers' request to make the show more exciting, Blaine attempted to free himself from handcuffs and chains put on him upon coming out after the week in the sphere.[39] He seemed to have trouble escaping from the last of the handcuffs. Around the 7 minute mark, he showed some signs of distress. He was pulled up and out of the water by his support divers after 7 minutes and 12 seconds underwater—one minute and fifty seconds short of his goal.[40]Although he did not take home the record for breath holding, he was called “an everyday hero for an everyday age,” by The Boston Globe,[41] and The Washington Post stated, “Blaine represented an opportunity to see something unbelievable.”[42]
Blaine has since broken the record for holding one's breath using oxygen beforehand (as permitted by the Guinness Book of Records).[43]
Blaine underwent 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.[43] 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 avoid having to be concerned with defecation. 