# can he stand up there that long? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200 "2002-05-21T23:42:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/41 "2002-05-24T03:39:45Z")
[shrug] He’s fine. [http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/23/blaine.stunt.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/23/blaine.stunt.ap/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/42 "2002-05-24T05:27:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Miskatonic \* > \*\* > Theri explanation was bogus, and most magicians seems to agree that the “explanations” they come up with are often dead wrong. > > The block of ice bit required no trick. Just some endurance to stand and avoid dehydration. It was actually quite warm in there. Think igloo and you’ll get the idea. Blaine then uplayed the drama when he was released to give it that special feel. \*\* I’m not sure how you can say that this required no trick. IIRC Blaine tried to give the impression that he was enduring freezing cold. In fact, as you point out, it was not very cold at all. I would consider just this deception by itself to be a “trick”. In any case, I never believed that he actually stood there all that time. I couldn’t figure out what was really going on, but the method revealed on the TV show seems very plausible. Especially when you consider that Blaine (or whoever) had a ski mask on a lot of the time. Of course _magicians_ are going to say that the explanations are “dead wrong”, what would you expect them to say? But I’m not sure how someone can say that an explanation that makes sense and would work is “wrong”. There are probably a number of ways to pull off a given illusion. Just because a given magician doesn’t use a particular method (or at least claims not to) it doesn’t mean that that method is “wrong”. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/43 "2002-05-24T05:50:01Z")
Well, [somebody](http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/23/blaine.stunt.ap/index.html) did it. I really don’t understand why this guy pisses off so many people. He’s a magician, fer cryin out loud. That’s what they do. Illusions. And he’s pretty good at it. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/44 "2002-05-24T15:12:35Z")
He is a magician that uses camera tricks/editing sometimes, doing that, we are all magicians. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/45 "2002-05-24T17:52:56Z")
Cute! in that link, they have “death-defying” in quotations. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/46 "2002-05-24T21:09:16Z")
shesh. you guys are discussing the wrong aspect of the illusion. so, did the catheder connect to a tube that went all the way down the pole? or was he wear a closotemy bag? and if so, did it splat upon impact? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2002, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200/47 "2002-05-25T04:31:44Z")
Male external catheters connect to a plastic bag taped to the thigh. [http://www.medicationlink.com/medicat\_/drinage\_catheter\_/html\_DC/latex\_male\_cath\_1.htm](http://www.medicationlink.com/medicat_/drinage_catheter_/html_DC/latex_male_cath_1.htm) I don’t believe he has a colostomy, so he wouldn’t be able to use a colostomy bag. I’m assuming that either he took some Imodium, or just held it until he got home. 😃 BTW, he’s announced his next stunt. > **[David Blaine stands on pillar for 35 hours](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/24/oliverburkeman)** > > At 6.50am on Wednesday, David Blaine looked cold, bored and miserable. By lunchtime he was flexing his legs and grimacing. In the early afternoon, rumours swept the internet that he had fallen and died. But when darkness began to fall over midtown... > [@](#): > > British audiences should soon find themselves the target of Blaine’s made-for-television combination of stamina and sleight of hand. Prior to his ascent, Blaine told the Guardian that his next stunt would be a jump off Tower Bridge, London, in February 2003, in which he would hang from the structure as he tried to escape. > > “Soon as I get off this pillar, I’m going to start planning that,” he said. “I’m going to be chained up, and I’m going to be dangling.” I can hardly wait… [yawn] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-he-stand-up-there-that-long/110200.md?page=2)