David Blaine (born David Blaine White; April 4, 1973) is an
American illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his
high-profile feats of endurance, and has made his name as a performer of street
and close-up magic. He has set and broken several world records. Theatre owner
James Nederlander as well as The New York Times have referred to Blaine as a
modern day Houdini.
Early life
Blaine was born in Brooklyn, New York and is of Puerto Rican
descent on his father's side, and Russian Jewish on his mother's. His mother,
Patrice Maureen White (1946–1995), 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 on the subway. This sparked an interest in
Blaine. 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, where he attended Passaic Valley Regional
High School. He has a half-brother named Michael James Bukalo. When he was 17
years old, Blaine moved to Manhattan, New York.
Personal life
Blaine and his fiancee Alizee Guinochet have one daughter
born on January 27, 2011. At the time that Guinochet went into labor, there was
a massive blizzard where they lived in New York. Due to the intense weather, no
cars or taxis were on the road, so Blaine had to hail a snowplow, which
transported the couple to the hospital.
Stunts and specials
Street Magic and Magic Man
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.” 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.”' Time magazine commented, "his
deceptively low-key, ultracool manner leaves spectators more amazed than if
he'd razzle-dazzled." The concept of focusing on spectator reactions (for
example, in his rendition of the Balducci levitation) 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." Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller, stated, "the biggest
break through 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."
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 Desert recorded 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."USA Today calls David “The
hottest name in magic right now”
Buried Alive
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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 Place on 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. 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."
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 square feet (7.0 m2) of gravel surrounding the six-foot-deep
coffin before a crane lifted the water tank. 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." BBC Newsstated, "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."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.”
Frozen in Time
.
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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." 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. 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." 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.
Vertigo
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David Blaine stands
on a 100 ft (30 m) pole
for Vertigo in the middle
of Bryant Parkin New York.
|
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.
Although he was not harnessed to the pillar, there were two retractable handles
on either side of him to grasp in the event of harsh weather. 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." 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." 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
On October 29, 2002, Random House published David Blaine's
Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic. Part autobiography, part history of
magic, and partarmchair treasure hunt, the book also includes instructions on
how to perform card tricks and illusions. Editing director, Bruce Tracy,
explains “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.”
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
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.
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David Blaine in the box for Above the Below in front of thousands at City Hall (London). |
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." The Times reported that
"1,614 articles in the British press have made reference to the
exploit." 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.”
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. The Evening Standard reported that one man was arrested for
attempting to spike the water supply to Blaine's box with monkey urine.
According to BBC News, a hamburger was flown up to the box by a
remote-controlled helicopter as a taunt.
On September 25, BBC News reported that Blaine announced via
webcam that he was feeling the taste of pear drops on his tongue. 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. 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 hypophosphatemia and fluid
retention, important elements of the refeeding syndrome.” The event was filmed
by director, and close friend of Blaine, Harmony Korine.
Drowned Alive
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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 the
Lincoln 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."
He concluded this event by attempting to hold his breath
underwater to break the then-current world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds held
byTom Sietas for static apnea—holding one's breath without the aid of breathing
100% oxygen beforehand, although Blaine's attempt would not have qualified as
static apnea under AIDA International rules. 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. 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. 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, and The Washington Poststated, “Blaine represented an opportunity
to see something unbelievable.”
Blaine did claim to succeed in setting a record for being
fully submerged in water for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, and has since broken the
record for holding one's breath using oxygen beforehand (as permitted by the
Guinness book of records).
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. 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.
Revolution
On November 19, 2006, Blaine announced his next stunt: he
would be shackled to a rotating gyroscope. His goal was to escape from his
shackles after the gyroscope had been spinning for 16 hours. The gyroscope was
constantly spinning at a rate of eight revolutions per minute while hanging
above an empty lot in Manhattan near Times Square.
The stunt began on November 21, 2006, with Blaine declaring,
"This one's exciting for me. This one's a fun one." 52 hours later,
without food or water, a dehydrated and weakened Blaine landed on a wooden
platform 30 feet (9.1 m) below after jumping from the hanging gyroscope.
As a result of his success, Blaine led 100 children selected
by The Salvation Army on a shopping spree at Target, after each child received
a $500 gift certificate from the retailer. Blaine said the stunt was
particularly important since The Salvation Army had provided him with clothing
while he was growing up. "This challenge is close to my heart,"
Blaine said.
Guinness World Records
After failing to surpass the then-current record of
unassisted static apnea in his previous attempt Drowned Alive, Blaine appeared
on the April 30, 2008 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, announcing that he
would attempt to break the Guinness World Record for oxygen assisted static
apnea set by Peter Colat of Switzerland on February 10, 2008.
Before entering his eighteen-hundred gallon water tank,
Blaine spent 23 minutes inhaling pure oxygen; up to 30 minutes of "oxygen
hyperventilation" is allowed under guidelines. His heart rate remained
above one hundred beats per minute during much of the attempt, rising to one
hundred and twenty-four bpm in the fifteenth minute. This faster heart rate
increases oxygen consumption leading to painful carbon dioxide buildup. In the
final minute, his heart rate became erratic and Blaine became worried he might
blackout. In order to assist the medics in case he would lose consciousness, he
unhooked his feet from the sphere's bottom and floated closer to the surface; however,
he kept his head submerged for a half minute longer than the previous record.
Ultimately, Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes 4½ seconds, surpassing
Colat's previous mark of 16 minutes 32 seconds. This was Blaine's first
Guinness record and it stood for almost four and a half months, until surpassed
by Tom Sietas on September 19, 2008.
During the following interview, Blaine stated: "I
really thought I was not going to make it," claiming that he did so by
staying in a meditative state which was helped by the studio lights reflecting
off the sphere. According to Blaine, besides the pressure of performing on
television, the heart-rate monitor happened to be close enough to his ear so
that he heard its beeping, and he had to keep his feet locked in holds at the
bottom of the sphere — instead of just floating freely, as he did in the pool on
Grand Cayman months earlier. Back then he said he was so relaxed he
"wasn’t even there" during most of the breath-hold. But when he
emerged from the sphere today, he told Oprah, "I was pretty much here the
whole time."
Dive of Death
On September 18, 2008, Donald Trump and Blaine held a press
conference at the Trump Tower in New York City to announce his latest feat,
“The Upside Down Man.” Blaine was to hang upside down without a safety net for
60 hours above Central Park’s Wollman Rink, with a predicted end for 10:45 p.m.
on September 24. Reportedly, Blaine risked blindness and other maladies in the
stunt including having to repeatedly defecate in his own pants. Trump has
helped finance this and other Blaine events. Blaine hung over the Wollman Rink
and interacted with fans by lowering himself upside down. At the press
conference, Blaine stated he had already gone without food for over a week and
would continue to do so throughout the act. In order to drink fluid and restore
circulation, he would pull himself up, all the while contending with muscle
spasms and lack of sleep. Blaine began the stunt on Monday September 22, but
was widely criticized when, only hours into the endurance challenge, he was
seen by fans to be standing on a waiting crane platform, and not upside down,
as expected. He reportedly would come down once an hour to receive a medical
check, stretch and relieve himself.
When the "Dive of Death" took place, Blaine came
down from the platform on a cable, and lightly touched the stage. He was then
pulled back up into the air, and, in the words of the Daily News (New York),
"hung in the air like a sack of potatoes with a goofy grin on his face,
occasionally kicking his legs as though he were running."The plan had been
for Blaine to be pulled up into the air by helium balloons and disappear into
the atmosphere. Blaine attributed the problem to changes in weather conditions
that occurred after the stunt was delayed due to an address by President Bush.
May 2012 show
On the 17th June 2011, Blaine announced on a live video chat
that he would be doing a show in May 2012. During this video chat he also
demonstrated a few of his new tricks, showed a video of him swimming with
sharks and announced his new card deck called the white lions. He stated that
the show will be 100% street magic and full of completely new material.
Charity and private appearances
Charity
Every year, David Blaine has traveled all across the country
and the world to perform magic for children’s hospital wards, burn units and
juvenile wards, including Spofford, Bridges, Horizon, and Crossroads. Blaine
has spent time performing magic for Paul Newman and the children diagnosed with
serious illnesses at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.
Magic for Haiti
On Friday January 15, 2010 at 9 A.M. David Blaine started
performing "Magic For Haiti" in Times Square until Monday January 18,
2010 at 9 A.M, performing for the course of 72 hours and raising nearly one
hundred thousand dollars.
Private Appearances
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David Blaine performs for Bill Gates,
Henry Kissingerand Michael Bloomberg.
|
David Blaine has traveled internationally performing magic
privately for President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates and Mayor Michael
Bloomberg. He has also performed magic for the President of Russia Dmitry
Medvedev, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of
Ukraine Victor Yanukovych, and the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev. Additionally, David Blaine has performed for Lakshmi Mittal.
Blaine has performed for many other public and private
entities, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Woody Allen,
Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Muhammad Ali. Blaine has also
performed magic alongside Michael Jackson and has performed during the Super
Bowl Halftime Show.
-Taken from Wikipedia