He later turned his attention to feats of endurance, including being buried alive for five days and spending 61 hours encased in ice. In 2002 Blaine stood on a tiny platform at the top of a 100 foot high pole in Bryant Park for 35 hours (see Vertigo below). In 2003 Blaine lived in a transparent perspex box for 44 days without food (see Blaine's London stunt below).
In early November 2003, Blaine announced his next stunt, to be performed on his birthday in 2004. Blaine will jump from a helicopter into a river, falling 110 feet without a parachute or similar aids.
The show-business press often describe Blaine
as a modern day
Blaine's public demeanour is one of rather vacant detachment and he gives interviews in a monotone drawl.
Premature Burial
On April 5,
1999, Blaine spent seven days buried inside a
glass coffin at the bottom of an open pit in
front of an office building in New York City
where passersby could view him, 24 hours a day.
"There were Jewish Hasids standing next to
Muslim cabdrivers who were next to Black kids.
Businessmen in designer suits stood beside
heavily pierced street kids. Every conceiveable
social type was represented," recalls Blaine. "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!".
Frozen in Time
On Monday, November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called 'Frozen in Time'. Blaine spent time in a closet of ice located in Times Square, New York. A tube provided him with air and water, and a tube was provided for removal of his urine. 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 to skeptics that 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 says he still could not walk normally a month after the stunt. A TV special aired covering the stunt.
Vertigo
On Monday 22 May 2002 Blaine began a stunt he named 'Vertigo'. Blaine was lifted by crane onto a 105 feet high pillar in Bryant Park, New York. He remained on the pillar, which was 22 inches wide, for nearly 35 hours without food or 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 feet high pile of cardboard boxes. At the end of stunt Blaine appeared to survive his jump without injury and attempted to talk to spectators. However he was promptly taken to hospital for medical checks. Further details.Blaine's London stunt: Above the Below
On September 5, 2003 in London, he commenced
a 44-day feat in which he remained sealed inside
a transparent case suspended 30 feet in the air
on the south bank of the River Thames close to
Tower Bridge. During this period he received no
food (there was however much speculation that he
received glucose supplements, though medical
tests offered by the stunt organizers disproved
this). Another tube carried away his urine. The
case, measuring 7ft by 7ft by 3ft, had a webcam
installed so that viewers could observe his
progress.
The week prior to the stunt saw an enormous
amount of publicity. Blaine stood on top of one
of the capsules of the London Eye whilst the
giant wheel carried out a full revolution.
Later, when asked at a press conference at the
Savoy Hotel, to perform a magic trick, Blaine
proceeded to cut off his ear with a Swiss Army
knife. Both stunts were quickly shown to be not
all they seemed. Blaine was attached to the Eye
by a harness running to his leg. The 'blood'
pouring from Blaine's ear area was fake.
London mayor Ken Livingstone criticized the
stunt, saying it was disrespectful to IRA
members who died in prison in the early 1980s
whilst on hunger strike. "Those people who
remember the situation of the 10 hunger strikers
who starved to death and have ever met their
relatives who visited them in the final days
will know it is an absolutely horrifying risk.
It has painful memories for a lot of people in
society," he said. These remarks were themselves
criticized as disrespectful to the families of
IRA bomb victims.
Before it even began, the Guinness Book of
Records announced that Blaine's stunt would not
be included in a future edition of its book. It
said it did not wish to encourage fasting
records and that in any case the IRA hunger
strikers Bobby Sands (who died after 66 days
without food) and Laurence McKeown (who went
into a coma after 70 days and was then
force-fed) had already lasted longer unfed than
Blaine intends.
The stunt has been the subject of much press and
media attention. However the focus has not so
much been Blaine's level of endurance, or on
whether the stunt was indeed what it appeared to
be, but the antics of the crowds of people who
have gone to Tower Bridge to observe him. Whilst
the vast majority of the visitors were generally
supportive, seeking little more than a wave from
the magician, a substantial minority were more
mischievous or outright hostile to Blaine's
presence. Newspapers reported that eggs, lemons,
sausages, bacon, water bottles, beer cans,
paint-filled balloons and golf balls had all
been thrown at the box. One man was arrested for
climbing the scaffolding supporting Blaine's box
and attempting to cut the power and water supply
to the box. An internet message board was set
up, dedicated to keeping Blaine awake for the
whole 44 days.
Blaine was treated to numerous displays of bare
bottoms and breasts. A hamburger was flown round
the box by radio-controlled model helicopter.
"You've picked the wrong town to be hung in, Mr
Blaine," wrote The Sunday Times. "What is clear
from the start is that Londoners are not taking
Blaine quite as seriously as he takes himself.
... Really, it makes you proud to be British."
Amongst the continuing antics, shows of support
continued. However Sir John Stevens of the
London Metropolitan Police confirmed that
Blaine's production will be asked to bear the
extra costs of policing the area around the
stunt's location. Arrests due to the disruptive
behavior outlined above and traffic jams on the
Tower Bridge Road due to onlookers visiting
Blaine have required extra police resources.
On September 20 the London Evening Standard
reported that Blaine's management company was
"appalled" by various aspects of the crowd's
behavior, and was considering ending the stunt
early because of the bad publicity. The report,
whose sources were unattributed, was strangely
at odds with the reality that Blaine's stunt was
a great success in terms of publicity, and was
perhaps itself just the result of a desire to
print something about Blaine, whose name was
continuing to be a good newspaper-seller at the
time.
On September 25 Blaine reported to his 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 via glycerol.
Channel 4 and Sky Television paid around $1m to
Blaine's production company for the right to
televise parts of the stunt. In fact Sky
broadcast views of the event live, 24 hours per
day, on an "interactive" channel. This also
carried a "ticker" displaying e-mail and SMS
text messages from well-wishers. Channel 4
books' publication of Blaine's autobiography in
paperback coincided with the beginning of the
stunt.
Blaine emerged on schedule on October 19,
murmuring "I love you all". He was quickly
hospitalized. He was fed on liquid food until
his body was deemed ready for solids again.
Some people questioned whether Blaine had
starved himself, or had been receiving liquid
food from the tube supposedly only for water.
This was covered, for instance, on the tabloid
American television program, "Countdown with
Keith Olbermann" on cable channel MSNBC (October
20, 2003). The report claimed that Blaine's
people have said he lost 30 pounds, then 60
pounds, and then 40 pounds. The program did not
note that these figures were estimates given
when Blaine was in the box, where he could not
be weighed. The broadcast then displayed a
shirtless photo of Blaine on September 19 and a
shirtless photo of Blaine on October 19, the
last day of the stunt. Blaine's weight appeared
identical in both photos. In other photos Blaine
looks dramatically thinner and more gaunt
post-box than pre.
Drowned Alive
On May 1, 2006, Blaine was submerged in an 8-foot diameter, water-filled sphere in front of the Lincoln Center in New York for a planned 7 days and 7 nights, using tubes for air and nutrition. He will conclude this event by attempting to hold his breath underwater to break the world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. In a change to the original stunt plans, whilst attempting to break this record, Blaine will now also try to free himself from handcuffs and chains put on him upon coming out after the week in the sphere.
Mark Harris of the British Free Diving
Association spoke out, saying that Blaine will
have an unfair advantage. "[Since] he will be
breathing compressed air under water... he will
have a much higher concentration of oxygen
molecules... in competitive free diving, we are
positively banned from breathing pure oxygen
before the event."
Even if Blaine succeeds in holding his breath
for more than eight minutes and fifty-eight
seconds, it is unlikely that the feat will be
officially recognised as a new world record.
This is due to the fact that judges from the
International Association for the Development of
Apnea (IADA) would have to be present to verify
that Blaine breathed no pure oxygen for at least
two hours prior to beginning his attempt at the
world record. The world record for holding one's
breath after having breathed pure oxygen is
actually closer to fifteen minutes.
This report documents the various medical
problems Blaine might suffer as a result of his
latest stunt.
How did it go?
David Blaine was pulled from an aquarium by divers Monday nearly two minutes
short of his goal of setting a world record for holding his breath
underwater.
Blaine was trying to free himself from chains and handcuffs while bidding to
break the record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds for holding one's breath
underwater. The stunt, following a weeklong endurance challenge underwater,
was televised live by ABC.
With Blaine's face contorted in pain and bubbles rising to the surface,
divers went in to release him from the chains and pull him out. Blaine held
his breath for 7:08.
After being given oxygen, Blaine addressed the large crowd that had gathered
around the 8-foot snow globe-like tank on the plaza of Lincoln Center for
the Performing Arts.
"I am humbled so much by the support of everyone from New York City and from
all over the world," Blaine said. "This was a very difficult week, but you
all made it fly by with your strong support and your energy. Thank you so
much, everybody. ... I love you all."
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