I do agree with the lack of entertainment here. I thought Blaine was a magician. Where is the magic in this stunt though. With Houdini, he at least had to escape from some handcuffs, shackles, straightjacket, that sort of thing. I’m not sure I see the mystical illusion of sitting in a box.
But I still think some people are going overboard and crossing the line from mere heckler to retaliations that could be far more dangerous. That’s going too far, IMO.
Point of order: people aren’t throwing food at him, they’re throwing it at his box.
We reserving the egg bombardment at individuals for our politicians. The yolk is always on them.
Is anyone seriously arguing that the box is going to get hurt?
pan
Oh - and shame on those who bring a rape analogy into this.
The doctrine of proportionality is the first rule of a Just War. Having your box pelted with eggs is in proportion to being a pompous ass. Even if you don’t agree with that statement, you have to see the arguability of it.
Who in the fuck is going to argue that being raped is in proportion to wearing alluring clothes?
pan
You’re all going to feel pretty guilty when we are all amazed at his dramatic exit…ah…from the box…which isn’t very secure looking…and probably has a feeding tube.
Well it certainly doesn’t speak well of the British people. Even his girlfriend said New Yorkers treated him better than this. You people are rude.
I see it as pop art, and an endurance stunt like Houdini used to do. He’s a little weird, but I don’t see him as “pompous.” How all this translates into, “Let’s throw things at him!” still eludes me.
Esprix
It’s OK – they’re throwing British food at him, which is practically inedible. As long as the curry shops don’t start providing ammunition, all is well.
Blaine’s website says very littel about the box. 2 tubes - one for food, one for urine is his only connection. How’s about air? What’s he going to do for air? I suspect that there are airholes in the box - and this is how he’s getting food.
What better way to get food than to have people throw it at you? I seriously suspect his people of starting the food fight.
Yes, yes, I know that he can certainly go 44 days without food and this isn’t necessary.
I think the British are very traditional… and traditionally people that were hung in cages over the river were supposed to be abused in order to make their sentence “worthwhile”. Only watching him lie around is hardly entertaining thou… throwing stuff and bothering him IS ENTERTAINING…
Blaine is american too…
Hm. I guess there’s a line somewhere between being entertaining and being stupid. I for one would be much more inclined to throw food at, say, Ben Mulroney (Canadian reference) or that woman whose name I can’t remember, with the huge overbite … Camilla something? … (for you Brits), for all their so-called “entertainment.”
Re: money being spent on charity - yes, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who made obscene amounts of money gave a portion of it to charity? Sure would. But often they don’t. Why should this guy be held up to that standard, when others (say, Posh and Becks) aren’t? Once the money leaves your pocket, you have no say in where it goes.
Who said that this was supposed to be entertaining? Did David Blain say it would be entertaining? Some things are not so easily defined. Lets face it, money aside, 99% of us would have given up by now if we were in the cube. We have come to expect a “car chase scene” ending to everything. The trick might be on us, we don’t want to let someone else show us something, we push and pull them to try and make what they are doing fit into expectations.
Dewey
You’re right. There really is no better use for mushy peas.
Well, if it’s not supposed to be entertaining, what is it supposed to be? It certainly isn’t useful …
I think this is the point that so many people in this conversation appear to be missing. He IS a magician; hence this is a trick.
After all, David Blaine was the one who was supposedly encased in a block of ice for some long period. It’s pretty clear that he was not actually in the ice for the whole period.
Blaine is a very good magician, and I believe he has found a way to improve the illusion of the ice block with this suspension. Somehow he has found a way to make us think he’s up there, when he isn’t there at all. Or he’s getting food and water surreptitiously.
I wouldn’t be the least surprised if his girlfriend’s washing his cube was preplanned to cover up some necessary action on Blaine’s part.
That’s what magicians do. They trick people.
Ed
Starvation is not art. There is something distasteful about a man intentionally starving himself for publicity and money when millions have gone and are going through the same against their will.
Would it still be art if he was sitting up one of two towers and setting light to it? That’s a stunt, isn’t it?
Blaine is getting all this grief because this stunt is seen as pointless publicity-mongering. The whole stunt was marketed unadvisedly, (“4 more days than Jesus”). Generally people in the UK see straight through this sort of hype and are distinctly unimpressed. The result is a magnet for those who wish to prick his conceit or those who are equally greedy for attention.
Seriously, you had to see the TV trailers Blaine did before going into the box, it was made out to be the human spirit against an unfeeling universe. One man’s metaphysical endurance against mere flesh’s limitations.
No doubt there is an element of differences in national attitudes, but the perspex box has suceeded in looking like a self-indulgent conceit laced with just a whiff of messiah complex.
Would he have got the same response in London if he’d done the pole-standing or ice-cube stunt? I don’t think so. The essential difference was that these stunts had obvious, immediate dangers and were not presented as an almost religious experience.
I write as a fan of Blaine. He’s always trod a thin line between showmanship and the ridiculous. This time he has misjudged both the stunt and his audience.
Perhaps, but rude is still rude, IMHO.
Esprix
What ever David Blain is depends on your state of mind. In his previous street magic stuff it was essential that the people watching him believed that they were seeing was something that was impossible or at least unique. Take that belief away and he is just another guy as we saw with the ‘how’d he do it’ special that followed. While this stunt is a departure from traditional “magic” it still requires a belief. Hence the messiah complex. His mistake, or one of his mistakes is failing to explain what we are supposed to believe in to make something happen between audience and performer. We are both left hanging.
Undoubtedly. He’s still not getting one jot of sympathy or respect from me, however, regardless of how ashamed I am of the loutish behaviour of the worst of the crowd. A pointless, overhyped stunt that gained an entirely predictable, if inexcusably rude, reception, and never deserved the media attention it received in the first place.
His haircut’s not as bad as David Copperfield’s, though…
Like someone said earlier, he hasn’t done his homework.
London Bridge these days is more known for West Ham v Millwall molotov cocktails than for falling down or being sold to gullible Arizonians.
He should have tried Barnes Bridge.
Everyone would have ignored him.
It’s not anti-Americanism, it’s anti… people with their heads stuck too far up their own arse (ass).
We’re not too big on that sort of thing over here…
Marley23, It’s good to see that I’m not the only one reminded of The Hunger Artist.
Futile Gesture, starvation is an art when Franz Kafka is the one writing the stunt. Although his hunger artist isn’t performing a trick. He sits in an open cage at ground level. He encourages people to search the cage anytime.
It is a feat of endurance.
Part of what he has to endure is the reaction of his audience.
If he didn’t know going into this that he wasn’t going to have little groups standing around applauding him then he is extremely naive and badly advised by his staff.