For his next trick, David Blaine will lock himself inside a glass box which will be suspended twenty feet up in the air by a crane. For 44 days.
That’s it. He’s not going to try to escape or do any card tricks or anything. He’s just going to sit inside a box in mid-air for 44 days.
When asked why, he said “I think of it as art. I’m a framed human being. I’m basically building a glass frame and putting myself there to display what I think is the ultimate work of art, which is human suffering.”
No you are a fucking Asshat who is still trying to ride on Leonardo’s coattails. It’d be quite nice if the whole contraption fell into the Thames with Blaine trapped inside.
A trick would be if he wasn’t actually in the glass box and appeard in the crowd when they came to remove him. This guy is into meditaion and the like so fasting for 44 days only takes proper preperation and precautions in order to succeed.
I am not saying it is easy but it is not a trick. He will be in there for 44 days.
Jeez, you people are harsh. I wanna see you kick it in a glass box for 44 days.
If Blaine wants to suffer for forty four days, why doesn’t he figure out a way to do so for some benefit? Suffering for the sake of others can be a noble sacrifice. Suffering just for the sake of suffering is stupidity.
Without food, water, or, um, evacuation?
No food. Water will be supplied. ‘Evacuation’ wasn’t mentioned in the article I read.
Okay, I’ll risk the flames here and ask, what’s with all the hostility towards David Blaine?
Granted, all I know about the guy is that he’s a magician and has done several shows for prime-time, but is that sufficient reason for the “god it’s just a cheap stunt I hate his guts” reaction we’re getting here? I mean, nobody goes around saying “David Copperfield’s a total wanker, why doesn’t he go cure cancer instead of performing magic tricks?”, do they?
And IMO, Blaine > Copperfield, if only because his tricks aren’t that obvious. But Penn & Teller >> Blaine.
IMO, the main reason people have expressed loathing for him is that he used camera tricks (filming things twice with different actions) to make it look like he was doing something that he clearly wasn’t. In the world of magic, that’s about as low as you can go.
He’s a competant close up magician, certainly not the best but he’s pretty good. He didn’t need those poorly conceived camera tricks to make him into something that he isn’t.
It was on Fox’ Magician Secrets Revealed (or whatever it was called)
Levitation = Forklift with stunt doubles. That’s why you only see their backs in certain angles.
Name burnt onto arm (or spraypainted on cab) = request to write name on paper done twice but only shown asking for it once. He pretends to rip up the first paper but instead he keeps it to get the name.
There are many many others.
Whether or not that is why people loathe him I can’t say.
He was on “Good Morning America” talking to Charlie Gibson about this. He said he will have several adult diapers in the box with, since he will have to urinate and there will be other “waste” to evacuate as his body begins to consume body fat and later muscle tissue. He also described the waste as being very similar to baby-poop, Gibson looked thrilled to be discussing David Blaine’s bowel movements on national TV. They also talked about how strong the smell would get in the box after a while. All while listening to Blaine’s droning, whining voice that sounds like he has a permanent head cold. It was a proud moment in the history of television.
One of those Fox magic shows (maybe the same one) also showed how to switch out a stunt double during that Blaine in a block of ice stunt as well.
Now’s our chance, while he’s locked in a box in London let’s leave him there and never let him out. They could but him on display with the Elephant Man’s bones.
So he thinks of stunts like this as art? Maybe performance art for the lethargic. I agree with Little Nemo, BogieBlanca, and others, he’s an asshat who does pointless things to his body and calls it a performance or art. At least those twits from “Jackass” don’t try to claim that what they do are anything other than stupid, painful stunts for attention.
C’mon, all. If you had a personal friend who stayed in a box for six-and-a-half weeks – even if you thought it was a dumb idea – you’d still tell people about it for the rest of your life with a tone that conveyed pride and respect for him or her. It’s easy to bash Blaine because he’s a celebrity in the news, doing something that’s a bit off-center, and taking himself more seriously than seems appropriate. I don’t know if I’d want to hang out with him, but I have plenty of respect for his illusionary craft and his persual of physical challenges. I’m no superfan, but I’m not afraid to admit that I think what he does is pretty cool.
I think part of the contempt for David Blaine is that he’s becoming “Kreskin-ish,” with the claim of actual supernatural powers. I was pretty impressed with him when I first saw him on TV, but later became a bit disappointed when I learned the levatation stunt he showed on TV was not the actual effect that he showed people’s reaction to. On TV, he was suspended several feet into the air, live, he was performing the Balducci Method and edited the reactions to this trick with the images mentioned above.
That said, I still found his street magic entertaining, especially the stuff in Hati, where he had people running away from him screaming. But I don’t care for his endurance stunts so much.
Penn and Teller are the best, magic with attitude and blood. Saw them live several years ago and would like to see them again.
I’m less impressed with him because one of the first tricks I saw him do involved driving a large nail into a board with a handkerchief. He folded the hankie in to a small but thick square and used it to cushion and protect his palm. He put on this big production when he actually drove the nail in including a painful sounding groan when he drove the nail in and acting like he was panting from the concentration necessary.
I learned the same “trick” from an army surplus field survival manual when I was 12 years old. I used to do it in the backyard with planks and tree trunks quite often, never required any concentration and never hurt my hand or had to let out a painful groan from it. Showmanship is one thing, but this was goofy.
The International Playboy nailed it for me, claiming you have supernatural powers just rubs me the wrong way. I admire the skill and practice needed for good sleight-of-hand and I enjoy "working the con"style of magic that Ricky Jay does and Harry Anderson used to do. Anderson’s “geek tricks” were a real favorite of mine. The “I’m hustling you, you know I’m hustling you, but I’m still going to hustle you” style is so much more fun to me than Blaine’s mystical mumbo-jumbo and faked stunts while claiming to put his body to extremes.
