David Blaine was born on April 4,1973 and is an American illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer.
34 Facts About David Blaine
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David Blaine is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance and has set and broken several world records.
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When David Blaine was four years old, he saw a magician performing magic on the subway.
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David Blaine was raised by his mother and attended a Montessori school in Brooklyn.
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Per one account, his mother developed cancer when David Blaine was 15 and died when he was 20.
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In Magic Man, David Blaine is shown traveling across the country, entertaining unsuspecting pedestrians in Atlantic City, Compton, Dallas, the Mojave Desert, New York City, and San Francisco, recorded by a small crew with handheld cameras.
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On November 27,2000, David Blaine performed a stunt called Frozen in Time, where he attempted and failed to stand in a large block of ice located in Times Square, New York City for 72 hours.
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David Blaine was lightly dressed and appeared to be shivering even before the blocks of ice were placed around him.
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David Blaine was encased in the box of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds before being removed with chainsaws.
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David Blaine was removed from the ice and taken to a hospital due to fears he might be going into shock.
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David Blaine was not harnessed to the pillar, although there were two retractable handles on either side of him to grasp in the event of harsh weather.
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David Blaine later said in his 2009 TED Talk that he had had severe hallucinations in the final hours of this stunt, causing the buildings and structures around him to look like animal heads.
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On September 5,2003, David Blaine began an endurance stunt in which he was sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas box.
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The stunt lasted 44 days, during which David Blaine drank 1.2 US gallons of water per day and did not eat.
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On May 1,2006, David Blaine began his Drowned Alive stunt, which lasted seven days and involved a submersion in an 8 feet diameter, water-filled sphere containing isotonic saline in front of the Lincoln Center in New York City.
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On November 21,2006, David Blaine began his Revolution stunt, where he was shackled to a rotating gyroscope without food or water, intending to escape within 16 hours.
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David Blaine appeared on the April 30,2008 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for oxygen-assisted static apnea, following his failure to break the then-current record of unassisted static apnea in his previous attempt Drowned Alive.
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On September 18,2008, David Blaine announced his The Upside Down Man performance with Donald Trump.
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David Blaine planned to hang upside down without a safety net for 60 hours.
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David Blaine pulled himself up to drink fluid and restore normal circulation.
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Reportedly, David Blaine risked blindness and other maladies in the stunt.
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David Blaine was criticized when, only hours into the endurance challenge, he was seen standing on a waiting crane platform, not upside down as expected.
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On October 5,2012, David Blaine began performing a 72-hour endurance stunt called Electrified: One Million Volts Always On atop a 22-foot high pillar on Pier 54 in New York City, which was streamed live on YouTube.
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David Blaine wore 34 pounds of gear, including a chainmail Faraday suit, designed to prevent electrical current from traveling through the body.
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David Blaine was able to walk away with assistance and was transported to a hospital for a medical check.
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David Blaine donated two of the Tesla coils to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey to be exhibited on permanent display.
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The special, directed by Matthew Akers, featured David Blaine performing magic for celebrities and public figures.
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The bullet catch trick was performed live on stage in front of 20,000 people in an August 2015 Las Vegas performance in which David Blaine fired the gun himself.
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David Blaine managed to get to an altitude of 24,900 feet above sea level, before letting go of his balloons and parachuting down towards a flat ravine close to the initially planned landing zone.
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In November 2006, David Blaine performed a stunt in New York's Times Square in support of The Salvation Army.
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David Blaine said this stunt was particularly important to him since The Salvation Army had provided him with clothing while he was growing up.
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On January 15,2010, David Blaine returned to Times Square to perform "Magic for Haiti", a performance lasting 72 hours which raised nearly US$100,000 for Haiti earthquake relief.
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David Blaine donated two $1 million Tesla coils to Liberty Science Center after performing a massive electricity stunt.
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David Blaine and his former partner, Alizee Guinochet, have a daughter born on January 27,2011.