David Blaine suspended upside down. He takes a break every hour to stand on a platform and often puts his head in a harness

Magician/Illusionist/Stupid-Stunt Man, David Blaine, is a fraud.  I’m pretending to be stunned.  Blaine is currently on the last day of his idea of a super-magic stunt, 60 hours hanging upside down in Central Park.  The thing is, as pointless and uninteresting as the stunt would be even if it were actual, he isn’t even doing it.  Blaine is spending 10 minutes of every hour standing upright on a crane platform.

Gawker reports,

“…ever since he started yesterday afternoon, we’ve been getting emails from bystanders saying that he wasn’t hanging upside down—instead, he was resting by standing on a platform, only to be hoisted up several minutes later.”

And they have photographic proof.

Hanging upside down is the the least interesting stunt I’ve ever heard of, but Blaine thinks it’s so profound he’s been doing interviews suspended by his feet since Monday and will have a big TV special Wednesday night on ABC, always making it appear that he has been that way the whole time.  Maybe that’s the illusion, because there’s nothing else about this stunt that says “magic”. 

Doctors told Blaine that hanging upside down for that long could possibly be fatal and likely could cause eye damage, leaving him blind.  But Blaine has gone as far as pointing out something in a reporter’s teeth as she was interviewing him to “prove” his eyes were fine.  Neither were decent enough actors to pull this off and the “something” was on the reporters side not facing the camera at any time.  Nice.  About as real as this whole stunt.

And of course his eyes are fine.  David Blaine isn’t even completely hanging upside down for the 50 minutes he’s in the air.  When not giving interviews or filming for his special, his head is actually being held up in a harness.  As news of the faux stunt started hitting the internet, Blaine’s reps sent Gawker an email statement.

“Rubenstein Associates represents David Blaine and I personally have handled publicity for every one of his challenges. There has been no claim that David was going to hang upside down for 60 hours without a break. In all of his discussions with the media, he said he would have to occasionally get his head above his heart and lower his legs to correct circulation. About once every hour, David comes upright for about five minutes for a medical and equipment check. He has something to drink and he relieves himself, something even David can’t do upside down.

His doctors told him quite simply that if he didn’t correct blood flow, he could die.

David began the challenge at 8:34 am Monday and concludes at about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday. That’s about 62 hours.

Stop by the Wollman Rink, especially Wednesday night, and enjoy the spectacle. It’s free.

And give the guy a break.”

Gawker.com

Give the guy a break?  He needs to give us a break from these cheesy stunts that just keep getting less and less interesting.  If the magic in this is supposed to be danger or endurance, I say again, there is no magic here.  And someone is paying this guy to do this.

Note by Celebitchy: I want to dislike this guy, but I came away with a lot of respect for him after he broke the world record for holding his breath underwater on Oprah. This is a dumb stunt sure, but he does have conviction and has pulled pretty amazing masochistic public acts in the past.

The two images below are courtesy of Gawker readers and were originally posted on Gawker, where they have even more photos of Blaine standing on that platform. Header image is of Blaine on 9/22/08. Credit: WENN.

I’m confused as to whether I want to respect or mock David Blaine. He does stunts that push his body to the point where he could easily die, and they’re usually uncomfortable to watch. The guy is talented, though, and when his street magic schtick started getting old he moved on to public feats of extreme masochism so daring that almost no one else in the world would be capable of pulling them off. He also managed to break the world record for holding his breath underwater – in a live performance on Oprah this April. He had just months of preparation and was successful despite his heart rate being much higher than it was during practice sessions.

Blaine’s latest stunt seems damn near impossible for anyone else, but positively easy for him -he’s planning to hang upside down for three days. The guy has to keep his name in the news and I’m not knocking this feat, but he didspend three days in a spinning top two years ago and this isn’t that much different:

Daredevil DAVID BLAINE is preparing for a dizzying new stunt – he will hang upside down above New York’s Central Park for three days and two nights.

The illusionist will be deprived of food as he is suspended six storeys up on a highwire for his Dive of Death, which will be filmed to air on U.S. TV on 24 September (08).

He will even be forced to sleep upside down.

And members of the public will be invited to interract with the 35 year old.

He says, “There are always some crazy things. I get flashed quite often. Luckily, mostly from girls.”
Blaine’s previous stunts include spending 44 days in a glass box above London and more than two days encased in an ice block.

He recently made history by holding his breath for more than 17 minutes – and is this year preparing to attempt to break the world record for sleep deprivation.

[From Contact Music via We Smirch]

The story about Blaine trying to break the world record for staying awake might not be true – he was said to be planning that last year before the news came out that he decided to go for the world breath-holding record instead. He switched seemingly on a whim, but he definitely took his training seriously.

If you’re David Blaine you don’t get a lot of rest before you have to plan your next stunt. The news cycle is fast and this guy has to do one to two big feats a year or the public forgets about him. He’s still one of the world’s foremost magicians, but that’s been done to death and with douches like Criss Angel in the same field he’s probably loathe to go back there. That’s like a successful movie actor going back to work on a soap opera. Is he ever going to be able to retire though? The guy is 35 and he’s only going to be able to push his body for so long.

Here’s David Blaine getting a manicure at fashion week on 9/6/07. Credit: MLM/Fame

David Blaine astonishingly broke the world record for breath holding today on Oprah. Suspended in the same sphere he used at Lincoln center two years ago for his week long stint underwater, he held out for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, a full 1/2 minute longer than the last record set less than three months ago by Swiss free diver Peter Colat.

Part of Blaine’s preparation for the stunt involved sleeping in a low-oxygen tent for a month. The tent replicates a high altitude environment and helps build red blood cells and increase oxygen transport throughout the body. He also went to the Caymen Islands and practiced free diving, which is where you swim deeply into the water without a mask. He helped his body to endure for so long without air by breathing pure oxygen for up to a half hour before he went underwater, which is allowed under Guinness rules.

The AP Reports that he told Oprah it was “A lifelong dream” after he emerged from the tank. He added: “I can’t believe I did that.”

Blaine became known for his on-the-spot magic tricks in his David Blaine: Street Magic show which aired 10 years ago on ABC. He has since moved on to public endurance feats including being suspended in a spinning sphere for two days in 2007, living in a water globe in Lincoln Center for a week in 2006, going without food in a Lucite box over the Thames River in London for 44 days in 2003, getting enclosed in a block of ice for three days in 2000, and buried in a coffin for a week in 1999. With this latest stunt he’s shown that he’s not just a masochist exhibitionist and that he really has the chops to break a very difficult world record.

I didn’t believe Blaine would be able to do this as he seemed to make it his mission just a few months ago, but he pulled through. As Ali G would say: “Respect.”

Here’s a quick video without sound. I’ll update the post with a better one that includes his remarks to Oprah as soon as it’s available. There are also two video blogs on YouTube which explain his preparation.

Update: Here’s the video of Blaine completing the challenge. His heart beat was raised throughout, and his doctor was worried that he wouldn’t be able to finish because he was using up more oxygen by not being able to lower his heart rate. Toward the end his heart rate slowed and started beating irregularly:

David Blaine is shown at the Tribeca Film Festival’s Redbelt premiere on 4/25/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

David Blaine told NY Post columnist Cindy Adams last December that his next public feat of endurance would be to try and attempt to break the world record for staying awake without going insane. His last stunt, in May, 2006, was spending a week inside a water globe displayed at Lincoln Center as crowds lined up to get a chance to press their hands against the glass. He tried to top off his human sea monkey experiment by holding his breath for the longest time for someone who had already been underwater for a while or something, which would have been 8 minutes, 58 seconds. He lasted for 7 minutes and 8 seconds before he started having convulsions and had to be pulled out. Doctors said he suffered liver damage from all that time underwater and that it’s a wonder he didn’t have more serious long term neurological problems.

Somehow Blaine decided to revisit that stunt instead of trying to stay awake, and this time in order to break the record after walking on land he has to hold his breath for an incredible 16 minutes and 32 seconds. He’s going to attempt it live on Oprah today, and has supposedly prepared for months. He’ll breathe pure oxygen for 23 minutes before entering into a “human aquarium” on stage.

I saw a very physically fit and well prepared diver fail at breaking the breath-holding record on live television on the German show “Wetten, Das?” two years ago when the record was set even lower, and I doubt Blaine can do this.

The underwater breath-holding record is an incredibly competitive one
A German diver, Tom Seitas, broke the record in August of 2007 live on the Regis & Kelly show, holding his breath for 15 minutes and 2 seconds.

Seitas has since been bested by a Swiss guy who did it for an incredible 16 minutes and 32 seconds less than three months ago.

According to medical experts, former record holder Seitas has the genetic advantage of having lungs that are 20% larger than the average person. He also credits his success to maintaining complete stillness to preserve oxygen.

It just doesn’t seem like Blaine can do this, especially considering the fact that he claimed to be going for a completely different record just a few months ago. He says he’s ready, though, and that having an audience will help motivate him to break the record.

We’ll have to see how he does today. He’s got to do something to keep himself in the news.

[Details from AP Report. Photos from Blaine's stunt in May, 2006]

David Blaine is trying to remain relevant in the field of public endurance feats that he stupidly popularized. When you starve, drown, get buried alive, frozen, and spun around for days, it’s hard to top yourself, but Blaine is going to try. The worlds most celebrated modern masochist is going to attempt to break the world record of staying awake for more then eleven days, and he plans to do it standing up:

“I’m dropping 30 pounds,” he told me. “I do two hours every day on the treadmill. I’m on a raw diet that includes brown rice. No red meat. No animal products besides cooked fish.

“It’s been tried before. In 1959, Peter Tripp stayed awake eight days, but it resulted in permanent brain damage. In 1964, 17-year-old Randy Gardner did it for a high school science project. He lasted 11½ days but recovered fully. No damage. A guy in London tried but fell short. Another did 19 hours [sic] but slept two hours each night, so that doesn’t count. Also he was seated in a rocking chair. If I do this thing, which you claim I’m doing, I’ll do it on my feet. Standing up.

“After 36 hours of sleep deprivation it’s like being drunk, 72 hours and paranoia sets in, Day Four the mind goes into hallucinations and you’re dreaming while awake. The problem is there’s no way to know how to offset brain damage or to train for this because there isn’t sufficient research. I believe the first guy’s mistake was not being in great physical condition. Also he used stimulants to keep awake, which I assume did him in.

[From Cindy Adams' column in the NY Post]

On November 1st, Blaine blogged that he would begin his next challenge in May, 2008 and that he was training for it and eating mostly raw food.

This is the guy who thought he could break the world record for holding his breath after he spent a week underwater. He seems to routinely overestimate his ability. How much can you prepare for not sleeping for a week and a half? Does it make a difference if you’re thin and fit? Doesn’t that seem like the kind of thing you’d need to be both physically prepared and genetically predisposed to accomplish?

The longest I’ve ever stayed awake was for three days in college, and it was probably more like two and a half days. It’s hard to remember as it wasn’t an entirely natural experience. It’s uncomfortable and makes you crazy not to sleep. David Blaine is just a little crazy to even attempt it. He somehow has escaped unscathed from all the trials he’s put his body through, but you can’t help but think that his brain has been affected or he wouldn’t think it’s a good idea to keep pulling stunts that push his body to the limit. Maybe if the news cycle wasn’t so fast Blaine could take a break for a year.

David Blaine is shown on 11/12/07 at “A Salute to Our Troops,” thanks to PRPhotos.

David Blaine somehow offends and bores me at the same time. I find his stunts offensive because I have a chronic health problem and he puts his health at grave risk to get attention. At the same time, his stunts are formulaic and predictable. He brings his body to the limit and either that’s the stunt or he ads a twist by including some cap off that further challenges those limits. It’s not like the stuff he does is easy and he deserves credit for being willing to go through with it. It’s just dissapointing to me how much he hurts himself when he could be doing more entertaining magic.

His last trick of living in a human fishbowl in New York City’s Lincoln center was said to have given him liver damage and to have resulted in rashes and a loss of sensation throughout his body. When he failed to hold his breath for long enough to break the world record it wasn’t surprising and came off as rather pitiful.

Now he’s set to live in a spinning top in the air for two days that will leave him vulnerable to cold, rain and snow, and to top it off by trying to escape.

On Tuesday, Blaine will be locked spread eagle into the gyroscope, which will then be hoisted 15 metres (50 feet) into the air and spun at up to eight revolutions a minute until Thursday, when he will try to escape…

Blaine said one of his biggest concerns in the challenge, besides not eating or drinking, would be dizziness.

“Just to make it more difficult on myself, I added a motor (to the gyroscope), so even when I’m sleeping there’ll be continuous movement. … I think I’m going to have to stay awake the whole time,” he said.

“This one’s exciting for me. This one’s a fun one,” he said.

The gyroscope will also leave Blaine exposed to the elements, with the performer saying that he only hoped it wouldn’t rain or snow while he dangles above a vacant lot near Manhattan’s Times Square.

The event is being sponsored by Target in conjunction with The Salvation Army, which will give 100 needy children a shopping spree when the stunt is finished regardless of whether Blaine is successful or not.

Blaine announced in mid May after his failed underwater stunt that he was going to live in the Tanzanian jungle with just a film crew to document his idiocy. Focus groups must have rejected that idea since we never heard another word about it.

David Blaine does not want to die known as the man who failed to break the world record for holding one’s breath after living in a snow globe in Lincoln Center for a week. He wants to be known as the man mauled by lions on reality television:

He probably feels like he failed or whatever, and “let the people down” as his physician said, but the guy got a lot of attention and he really gave it his all. It’s only been a week since he got out of the bubble. He’s probably afraid of slipping into obscurity.

His last gig was bringing magic to libraries as the spokesperson for the 2006 New York City summer reading program, so his fears are well founded.

He sound have kids and then he will realize how immortality is attained – through genetics.

David Blaine surprised no one by not being able to break the world’s record for holding one’s breath underwater after spending a week beating the crap out of his body by living in a water globe in Lincoln Center for people to gawk at.

He started spurting bubbles nearly two minutes short of the record, and divers came to his pitiful rescue:

Blaine has suffered liver damage, loss of sensation in his body, and rashes all over as a result of his deal with the devil. The long term effects of gambling with his health for publicity have yet to be determined.

I saw the highlights of the stunt on German TV, and it really made me uncomfortable. Just thinking about it while Blaine was underwater made me uncomfortable.

Blaine couldn’t have expected to break the world record for holding one’s breath, but he had to show how far he was willing to go. It was too far indeed.

I don’t wish David Blaine any ill will, and I really hope he gets out of the bubble alive and without permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation. He’s a total fool, though, to bring his body to its breaking point and then expect to top it off by holding his breath longer than people who are in top form and have trained for years – while he’s breaking out of a bunch of chains!

Blaine’s skin is predictably peeling off from his week-long underwater stunt, and now he’s experiencing excruciating pain throughout his body. Doctors says his muscles are breaking down and that he “might never be the same again” and could develop a seizure disorder:

The bottom line is that David Blaine is making a ton of cash in a deal with the devil that could leave him with permanent health problems.

There are plenty of real people who live with chronic pain and disability. David Blaine thinks it’s ok to gamble with his health for fame and fortune. He’s about to find out that it’s not worth it.

Update: the status of Blaine’s breath-holding stunt for his two hour ABC special tonight, to air at 8:00 pm, is uncertain:

Pictures from Flickr: [via] [via] [via] [via] [via] [via]

David Blaine held the kick off press conference today at Lincoln Center for his week of living in a snow globe. As if it’s not entertaining enough for us to watch Blaine be a human goldfish for a week, he’ll attempt to escape from a bunch of chains and then try to break the world record for holding his breath:

I really doubt he’ll break the world record for holding your breath underwater. That’s got to be next to impossible fr someone who’s already worn down like that. It would have been good enough if he just lived in the water sphere for a week – he doesn’t have to throw the stupid chain stunt and breath holding into the mix.

So when Blaine dies, whenever it is, his obituary will include the fact that he lived in a coffin for a week, in a see-through box without food for 44 days, and in a water globe for seven days. I would prefer that mine says that I’m survived by my children. Really, the guy is an attention hound and is going to seriously hurt himself.