| David Blaine | |
|---|---|
| Blaine in September 2008 | |
| Born | David Blaine White April 4, 1973 Brooklyn, New York , U.S. |
| Occupation | Illusionist , endurance artist |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Website David Blaine | |
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 .
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Early life
Blaine was born David Blaine White 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 on 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 .
Career
Street Magic and Magic Man
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 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." He is also tied up with Filipino Magician Timothy Patrick Navarro, a.k.a. B, for close up magic. They share magic tricks and do street magic in U.S. and other countries.
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".
Buried Alive
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 75 square feet (7.0 m2 ) 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." Reiterating Marie Blood's remarks, 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."
Frozen in Time
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