Alex Carson
David Blaine has repeatedly wowed his audiences with his insanely ambitious endurance stunts and shocking illusionary magic tricks.
In 1999, he was buried alive in a small plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for a solid week.
He followed that up the next year by encapsulating himself in a chunk of ice in Times Square. A stunt that left him hospitalized for days after nearly going into shock halfway through his third day.
Despite that minor setback, he continued to amaze the world. He keeps us guessing through all sorts of death-defying tests of his will-power and physical endurance. He’s done everything from hanging upside down for days on end. He stayed submerged underwater for a week straight, and holding his breath for a breathtaking 17 minutes in 2008.
David fulfilled every child’s dream of taking to the skies in flight by means of helium balloons ala Pixar’s Up. He fly over 20,000 feet high above the Arizona desert in a stunt he called the ‘Ascension’.
David Is An Inspiration
To much of the world, David is an inspiration. Conversely, some may call him a freak. Others might think him to be a fraud – despite the fact that his accomplishments are very much so his own. Few know the man behind the persona that we all see on the television screen doing mind-boggling things. That’s because much of his life is shrouded in mystery.
Facts Verse Presents: A Look Into David Blaine’s Dark and Secret Life
Before we pull back the veil on the mysterious life of one of the world’s most famous illusionists, make sure you give us a like and subscribe to our channel. Tap the bell icon to turn on notifications so you can keep up on all of our latest facts-packed videos.
Davids Secret Chinatown Lair
Tucked away in one of New York’s most colorful neighborhoods. It is an inconspicuous building that gives a little clue as to what magical secrets are hidden in nondescript walls. Below the doorbell is an insignia that resembles an upside-down spade. The left and right cloves of the spade are comprised of the initials DB.
If you’re lucky enough to take a step inside, you’ll immediately descend a long flight of stairs surrounded by thousands of packs of playing cards as you pass by a beautiful motorcycle bestowed to David by King Abdullah of Jordan.
At the bottom of the staircase, you’ll find the secret magic lab of Mr. Blaine. He crafted all of his death-defying stunts and worked out the kinks in his most famous illusions.
The 3-floor, 4,400-square-foot lab houses the administrative offices for DB production. It has a small gym and 2 bedrooms for visiting guests.
Meaningful, Interesting, Believable
Those words make up David Blaine’s mantra and criteria for creating his stunts and illusions. They are also the words that adorn the door that opens up into his practice space.
His goal is to create tricks that push the limits of what seems impossible, and to accomplish this he often feels compelled to push his mind and body to its limits.
Whether he is escaping from NYPD regulation handcuffs, reading peoples minds from across the country as he did with a card trick in 2016 with the aid of Jennifer Lawrence via Facetime, or slamming an ice-pick through his hand while blindfolded with black duck tape and light-reflecting silver dollars over his eyes, David’s aim is always very clear – that is to wow his audience and push the boundaries of what his fellow magicians thought to be possible.
He Rarely Abandons A Trick
Doctors have repeatedly advised Blaine to be more careful. There’s something about holding your breath for minutes on end and drinking kerosene night after night at his live shows that makes medical professionals fearful for his health, but David has proved time and time again that he has little fear when facing mortality head-on.
The only times that Blaine abandons a trick are when he fears that his audience might attempt to recreate his stunts and put themselves in harm’s way. A few years back he put the kibosh on a stunt where he would have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge for that very reason.
He is far less concerned about his own health or well-being. That’s obvious by looking at the times he’s put himself in harm’s way. In January of 2017, at a live show in Vegas in front of 20,000 people, he nearly got shot through his head when attempting to catch a bullet in a metal cup in his mouth. The cup shifted abruptly and broke his mouth guard, resulting in a cut in the back of his throat.
Humble Beginnings
Blaine got his start in magic when he was 5 years old. His mother gave him a deck of cards and it was off to the races. By the time he turned 18, he was doing magic tricks on the streets and booking gigs in trendy restaurants like Cafe Tabac and Bowery Bar.
It was there, in those high-brow establishments that he gained exposure to A-list celebrities like George Clooney and Michael Jordan who were dazzled by his illusions. David’s reputation soared and soon enough Manhattan Socialites were hiring him at their ritzy parties.
In 1996 he scored his first major contract when NBC offered him a million-deal for his TV show David Blaine: Street Magic. He impressed the executives by bringing a video of his street performances into the audition. He then did some live card tricks to grease the wheels a bit more, but the selling point was when he did his famous levitation trick right there in front of their own eyes. At that point, one of the executives exclaimed ‘It’s done, It’s a done deal!”
That was the moment that David’s life truly transformed and he was given the keys to pursuing his passion on a far greater level than he had imagined was possible. No longer would he be sleeping on his friend’s couches. He had made it. He was playing in the big leagues now.
High-Profile Television Specials
Over the next few years, he would land several more high-profile television specials and his public square endurance stunts would begin to take on a life of their own. No longer was Blaine just another illusionist serving up smokes and mirrors. No, rather, he had advanced to something far greater than that. He had become a scientific marvel – or perhaps a biologic freak – either way, he had graduated far past your run-of-the-mill pick-a-card-any-card kind of trickster.
These days, despite still being a fixture on TV, he makes a majority of his income doing private events for corporations and wealthy individuals. You’ve probably even seen videos of him performing in front of high profile spectators like Harrison Ford, David Chappelle, and Larry Paige in recent years.
Is He Possessed?
In 2001, he went on the UK’s GMTV and gave an interview to Eamon Holmes.
Blaine was acting very peculiar with a cold dead stare and dark glassy eyes.
He didn’t even reply to some of the interviewer’s questions who struggled to finish what he had started.
At one point we see an eye written on the palm of Blaine’s left hand. When Eamon asked him what it was for, he replied with the ominous words “protection from death”.
Maybe David had a lot on his mind or perhaps he was under the influence of some kind of mind-altering drug as some viewers have suggested.
Some have gone a step further and have even postulated that David might have been possessed by some kind of evil spirit.
In 2019, however, David returned to the show and gave Eamon another interview where he explained that he had put the whole persona on as a ruse to stir up controversy for the shows backstage production team who he felt like weren’t paying attention. His explanation seemed like a bit of a stretch and some viewers didn’t buy it.
Not Everyone Loves His Tricks
In 2003, he was suspended 30 feet in the air in a small plexiglass box near London’s Tower Bridge. He ate no food but only consumed water for the stunt. Apparently his presence wasn’t received warmly.
Londoners taunted him and threw things at the box. They tried to keep him awake with foghorns and drums. One man flew a hamburger attached to a remote-controlled helicopter to the box just to taunt him.
The worst of it was when a man tried to cut the cable that delivered his daily water. He was arrested for his actions but Blaine still managed to make it 44 days before throwing in the towel.
That wasn’t the last time his stunts attracted the ire of angry viewers. In 2016, Blaine introduced a trick where he appears to regurgitate live frogs on cue. Many assumed that the trick was just an illusion, but it turns out that the task is accomplished by actually swallowing live animals and keeping them above the stomachs acid by keeping the muscles taut in the esophagus.
Animal rights activists have cried foul while Blaine has maintained that the animals were perfectly safe and that he had been training alongside physicians for years to turn his stomach into an aquarium of sorts.
But even still, if you stop to think about the conditions -and dimensions- of being forced into a gastrointestinal tract regardless of one’s level of training, it has to be an awful experience for all creatures involved.
Famous Friends
Even though he started off on the streets doing simple sleight-of-hand tricks, he has become one of the world’s most renowned magicians. His net worth of over $40 million and his laundry list of famous friends and acquaintances highlight the extent of how far he has come in life.
Some of his friends include Drake, David Beckham, and Johnny Depp. Can you imagine those two off-kilter oddballs hanging out with each other? Those parties have to be lit. Well, especially when David starts doing his fire breathing tricks.
That’s about all the David Blaine info that we have for this video. He certainly has accomplished a lot in his career and life. Although, he’d probably say that his biggest accomplishment in life is fathering ins daughter Dessa.
What do you think about David Blaine’s stunts and tricks? Do you think he’s as impressive as he wants you to think he is or are you less than impressed?
Let us know what you think in the comments section. But before you start typing up your response, make sure you give us a like and subscribe to our channel. Tap the bell icon to turn on notifications so you never have to miss another one of our videos.
