A great American illusionist, who was born on April 4, 1973, is recognized with the name David Blaine. He has become a worldwide recognized personality whose major reason for fame is high-profile acts of survival. Blaine is also known as a top-rank name in close-up and street magic performers.
Blaine has several world records against his name and is famous in breaking world records.Blaine has been named by The New York Times as well as by James Nederlander (well-popular theater owner) as modern day "Houdini". "David Blaine: Street Magic" is recognized as his first television special which was aired on May 19, 1997 on ABC Network.
Blaine once said that his greatest wish is to bring the same magic to the modern world which was used to be around 100 years ago.
Buried Alive Stunt:
Blaine became a publicly renowned figure across the world on April 5, 1999 when he stayed underground for seven days. He got himself entombed below a water-filled tank of 3 ton, in an underground plastic box. He did not use anything but a hand buzzer to get communicated to the outside world.
The buzzer was to use in emergency to alert emergency crew which was standing by Blaine around the clock. There was headroom of 6 inches and each side had 2 inches only in the plastic coffin for Blaine. He literally ate nothing during this endurance stunt and drank water from 2 to 3
tablespoon only (on daily basis). The stunt site was visited by around 75,000 people.
Marie Blood (known as niece of Houdini)said that though some outstanding and amazing stunts are done in the name of her uncle but he (Houdini)never attempted this stunt. Blood appreciated Blaine for completing this successful stunt in honor of Houdini.
Then, on the final day, a portion of gravel surrounding (75 square overall) was removed a professional team of construction workers. A crane, then, lifted the six-foot-deep coffin from the water tank. BBC News honored Blaine with the words that the heroic personality Harry Houdini has been outdone by Blaine through this act.
Frozen in Time Stunt:
"Frozen in Time" is another famous stunt of Blaine which was attempted on November 27, 2000. The stunt was also covered through a TV special broadcast. Blaine encased him in Times Square, New York City in a huge block of ice. Though he was seen shivering shortly before he was sealed
with ice blocks he did it . Blaine was fully covered with huge ice blocks and was provided two tubes; one for passing urine and the other for supplying water and fresh air.
Blaine stood for more than 63 hours in the huge ice blocks to complete this stunt. The ice, which was used for this stunt, was totally transparent to make sure that outside world could see him inside very easily. When Blaine was removed from the ice blocks he was disoriented and dazed,but he was successful.
"It took me nearly one month to recover my strength after this stunt and it was really tough one", Blaine said.
Above the Below Stunt:
This 44-day survival stunt was attempted by David Blaine on September 5, 2003, inside a transparent Plexiglas case. This case was hanged 9 meters above the ground next to Potters Fields Park. Blaine took 4.5 liters water on daily basis and did not eat anything during this stunt. He was removed from Plexiglas case on October 9 with another successful attempt under his belt.