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.
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. 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 in 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.
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.
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”.
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 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 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." 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.”
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.
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.
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. 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.
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 by by , 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." ''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.
On May 17, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an 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 by Tom 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 Post'' stated, “Blaine represented an opportunity to see something unbelievable.”
Blaine 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.
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 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.
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."
thumb|150px|Donald Trump with David Blaine announcing Blaine's next event in the atrium of the Trump Tower. 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.
On June 17, 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.
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.
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.
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.
List of famous Puerto Ricans
Jewish immigration to Puerto Rico
''Mysterious Stranger'', Blaine's autobiography published by Vilard Books and Channel 4 books. ISBN 0-7522-1989-8.
BBC News on the Above the Below stunt:
.
David Blaine's official website
David Blaine Gyroscope Image Gallery
Below The Above official website
David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 min TED talk
Category:1973 births
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![BUAA Feng Ru Statue Cup, named after China's first aircraft designer and aviator Feng Ru,[2] is an annual competition of student scientific innovation works in BUAA.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120617060236/http://cdn0.wn.com/pd/a0/fe/813fc4130fb92feeacc1ee40cd80_medium.jpg "BUAA Feng Ru Statue Cup, named after China's first aircraft designer and aviator Feng Ru,[2] is an annual competition of student scientific innovation works in BUAA.")
