Welcome back to another penguin magic top ten you are in for a very special treat today. I've got nick lacappo with me
What's up? Hey, buddy. I uh, I noticed you're wearing uh a split spade shirt a what uh,
Uh, if that is any ind if what nick is wearing is any indication to you. We are counting down the top 10
David, blaine tricks today. Hell yeah, couldn't I mean
I think this is different for us. We got coffee here because uh, normally we talk for 45 minutes
Well, we realized we just talked too long from these things. So we better we're in for the long haul here
It's an endurance stunt like david. Yeah. Yeah, this is yeah. This is going to be the longest most comprehensive top 10. David blaine
Nobody will ever top it but david blaine, right?
This is I love this because I know david was super influential on me early on and I know he was really influential
Yeah, no, he's the reason i'm sitting in this chair basically, uh, if I only knew david copperfield magic up to this point
Which might be another video?
But it wasn't until I saw blaine doing tricks on the street where I was like, whoa
Whoa, is this that changed it? I didn't know what a theater was, right
I just I knew what you know everyday life looked like but I so
That instantly relatable and I was like, is this something I can do? Because if it is I need to know how
What's going on when we count down like the top 10 david blaine tricks like you can't
We can't just do the big stunts because when you look at these specials, there's so much
like
Good magic. Well, he's evolved a lot. Yeah, right
Although the the the specials have just gone through an evolution and it's really three things where he's performing
He really made his mark performing for real people. Yeah, that was like what put him on the map
Uh, and then also like a weird mix of celebrities because there's even like even leonardo dicaprio hosts the first special, right?
Yeah, which is super super weird. I went back and watched the first special recently and I was like
Oh, I forgot leonardo dicaprio like titanic leo like that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
It was definitely yeah, like you should you're you're at the bottom of the atlantic ocean right now. What are you doing?
But even in the first specials you had some celebrities mixed in which we'll talk about, you know, like the dallas cowboys
yeah, you know but um
Then he ended up performing for celebrities mixing in these stunts
these big you know spectacles but then also down it back to more like
One-on-one stunts and well, we'll talk all about the the thing as we go. It's kind of also the first time that you see
Reactions being showcased. Yeah, I mean that's
Because in the world's greatest like all credit to gary ollette for the world's greatest magic specials. Those were amazing
But you were really focused on the magic in those right and in a lot of the other like big name specials
You're focused on the magic
Whereas here the camera
The camera operators are getting those reactions and we're getting that visceral experience of magic for kind of the first time on tv
No, I remember when I was going back through here. I was like
Okay. I know some of those tricks at the beginning specials are great
But I I couldn't remember the tricks, but I could remember the people, right?
Yeah, the guy in the red jumpsuit the bingo bango the quarter kid, right like all that stuff is still there
You don't necessarily remember the trick, but you remember the people because that's what they were really filming back then
Well, that's what made it so great. Well, let's get to it. Let's uh, let's start with number 10. What is your number 10
So number two like i'm putting these in in an order
But it was very difficult because it's again there's tricks and there's stunts and there's all sorts of stuff. Really. I feel like uh,
This list is probably like it's all like one but it's like one point
Yeah, 1.9 one point. I tried to do both right so like number 10 is just one trick
Okay, so I figured we'd start where kind of he started and that's the the levitation
oh, yeah from the first special the legend is that he levitated for tv executives and they were like
Here's a dump truck full of money. Please make it special. He floated, right he floated. I mean when I first saw
I I think somebody told me about the special because back then it was just you know
You could just watch anything when you wanted to what what what timeline was that heresy, right?
So I got lucky had to watch it on tv at some point. I guess somebody said it's on tomorrow. You have to watch it
and
You know
i'm still pretty sure he's
Completely real and has sold his soul to the devil. He's def. He definitely actually levitated and that was
That was what sealed it for me where i'm like, well clearly this person is not from this planet
Yeah, this is something completely special what we're watching here
is
an advanced human the levitation is a really interesting display on television because he's you know
He's doing a levitation that we all kind of know, um, but he's doing it so well, I don't know
He's a but he's he's doing it so well and he's doing it following these other tricks that are real just like show stoppers
Yeah
The moment you get to that like as a as a person watching this and and this he's not like hey what's going on?
he's just like well, he's got that very like meditative like
Yeah
When people are asking them how he does it?
Yeah, you know
It's just like he has this really calming thing where he had to like think and when he'd fall back down
It was like kind of like took something out of him
well
It's like in that first special
I vividly remember him doing the thing where you like eat the thread and then pull it out of your stomach. Yeah
That was very early on I think it might have been in the second order
It doesn't matter
I can imagine that like because again
That kind of magic is not showcased in modern media at the time. So
the camera crew walks up to you and says hey check this out then he like
You know eats some thread and pulls out of his stomach and then he goes now i'm going to float for you
even if even if it's a uh fill in the blank levitation
Which is not the best levitation you're still going to be affected because if you do it well and he clearly does it
Well, that's it. You're it's it's all lead it only works because of who he was or is right. Yeah
I think his personality's changed possibly a little bit. I don't know if he could get away with the levitation as much anymore, right?
It's an interesting thing to think about. I wonder if he I would really be interested to see him doing the levitation now
Yeah, so but like everything that he would have shown somebody up to the point that he levitated. He's just
Laying the groundwork for like who the hell is this guy?
Yeah, you know I was like mysterious stranger magic man type of thing back back in the day
Yeah, so, you know if I levitated for somebody, you know, it's a trick david does it and it's it's a happening
It's a you know, it's a sign that hell is real. Yeah, right
So, uh, yeah, he had to put levitation number one or number ten. It could be number one. Yeah, it doesn't matter
It's it's an iconic piece of his history. Yeah, and at the time he wasn't doing I mean he did stunts prior to this
But at the time this was like the big stunt of the special right? It was the big moment
Yeah, because he was levitating on the street. He wasn't levitating on the fountain of water
Yeah, that was what got the headlines like what the how you know, yeah
It probably was being compared to theater shows like copperfield and stuff
Yeah, which like isn't fair to the people who are doing a levitation in a theater
But at the same time the levitation is happening in an environment with real people, you know
It's a it's a whole different kettle of fish. Yeah. Yeah, so I had I had to put that number 10. Totally understand
Let's move on to number nine. So number nine. This is where you get into nine point. One, two, three, four five because because
We'll talk about like the evolution of like kind of what his specials have gone through here
but early on and we touched it at the top is that he
Performed for just a lot of random real people on the street
And these people were so memorable and the tricks were so good
So there's just too many to talk about I have a couple favorites
Yeah among this like giant group of awesome tricks
But like there was the kid that had the quarter disappear off the back of his hand. Yeah
I mean the kid who's his jaw just like drops and he can't he can't he just says cool. Yeah, right
He just says cool. There's uh fruit loops in haydash buried. Uh, yeah, right like doing the uh, well,
We call it ambitious card. Uh, I at the time I just called it the froot loop trick
I think somebody else said it was the fruit. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Josh was like I didn't know it was the ambitious card before that. I knew it was a fruit loops trick
It's still the fruit loop trick to
Me, uh, we got a the guy with the sailor cap. I don't think we ever find out his name in the special but
My favorite thing about that is he?
Three things happened in that clip number one
He says don't think of the ace of spades the guy's like that's the card. I was thinking of very good very good. And then
Then he says I don't know. I think it was like nine of diamonds or something
And he opens the deck and the nine of diamonds is reversed and the guy is blown away
And david's like trying to show him a third phase here
I don't even know what what he was trying to show but the guy's like this is worth thousands of dollars
What are you doing here? He's just like almost telling him like I don't want to see another trick, right?
You're like, what are you doing here? Don't get out. Get out little does. He know he's not worth millions of dollars
but uh, yeah, so, you know
The one trick that really stands out for me and I can't remember if it's special one or two because those two bleed together
In my head, uh, because the magic was really similar in those first two
But it's the the one with the old hippie where he borrows the cigarette and he does cigarettes throughout the world
Yeah, and he's like, he's just like check this out
He pushes it through and the guy goes like wow, but this is what i'm talking about. He's doing like
Strong strong tricks like these are tricks that i'm sure
Everybody knew that was a magician at the time i'd never seen any of this stuff
I was like this dude is real. I had like a little bit of knowledge. And so I was like
Oh, he's using a quarter bite. Like that's super cool. But like the way david did a quarter bite like made it
Yeah, feel real
Yeah
i'm happy that I had that experience of never knowing any of these tricks because I I
It would have to change the way you perceive that original special. It's weird
If you go back on like the magic cafe, I don't know if that's a word we can say on this thing or not
but um
You can read about yeah what people were talking about at the time
I haven't dug deep on that, but it's really fascinating
it is fascinating especially because now he's like so revered but at the time like when he came in,
people were like really just mad they were like
This is not the way you do magic copperfield is the way you do magic
Whereas like copperfield got the same hate when he came in where he people were like
That's not the way you do man doug. Henning is the way you did. Yeah, that's what happened
Yeah, but yeah, the quarter bite and uh coffee da coins coffee to coins is another really iconic moment
It also because it's it's again, it's it's the kind of magic
You just don't see like no like no one did coffee
There was a whole run of uh, youtube videos of people doing, you know stuff for homeless people
I mean, how many times has that trick been done since then? Oh, right
I mean so many so so many times but there's two in particular that I always loved and they're kind of like oddball ones
uh, but one is the uh, I don't know if you remember it, but there was one where uh,
He had a guy think of his girlfriend
Yeah, he's like, okay, you you have i've already met your girlfriend and the guy's like no
She's I think she I think he said she lives in japan and he blame burns his shirt
Yes, and he's got a tattoo of his that guy's girlfriend's face. Yeah, I do remember that on his body
It's a weird trick and it's super weird. Yeah, super weird. But again those first specials were so much about the person's reaction
Yeah, it cuts to him afterwards. The dude is just like
Sitting on the bench or yeah on the wall afterwards just like losing his mind talking to the camera
I don't think he knows what he's saying, but he's just like how is this possible?
yeah, and then the other one which you know
This one I actually considered putting like high on the list because it's just so ridiculous and I hope you saw it. It's
It's when he pulls a spectator's tooth out of their face. Do you remember this one? Yes
Like this one at the time caught a lot of flack I even remember at the time going. Okay, that's a little too much
Yeah, like it's hard to believe. Yeah, but going back and watching it. Yeah
It's insane. I need to go back. So I don't remember exactly what happened
I think he's in a casino or something and he he's like looking around at the different people and he's like
Oh, no, your teeth won't work. That one's too long or like this
And he's like just trust me just trust me. Just trust me reaches
In this girl's mouth and pulls out her tooth
Yeah, and she's got she's like using her tongue like to stick it through the opening now nice
She's got her tooth in her hand. She's kind of like freaking out
She said trust me trust me trust me throws the tooth in his own mouth. And then it's just like the quarter bite
yeah, he spits the
Tooth from his mouth
Into hers, and you see it like visually appear
In her teeth and they even have like a slow-mo
Capture of it at the end. It's totally insane. Yes, you have to go watch it
I I need to go back and watch this again because it's better than I remember it being
i'm, like so remembering it now and just being like yeah that was
That was just messed up
What did I just watch?
Yeah, I think my parents when we were watching it together at the time were like what the hell what the hell?
Well, I knew we could spend time all day all day
This is why it was impossible. I wanted to highlight so many fun ones right there
Yeah, it's just oh, yeah
There's so many because the early tricks a lot of more stuff that you could buy in a magic shop
These are all things that people owned and you know, you can get them on penguin magic and stuff. Yeah, it's great
So let's move on to number eight
Yeah number eight is similar
But we won't spend as much time on it is and that is the early stuff and later stuff that he's performed for celebrities
Oh, yeah, like the dallas cowboys
Yeah
That was a big one when he was doing like
Because I I will never forget him stealing the watch off the wrist of a dallas cowboy
Which is like I do a watch deal and my hands are pretty big and i've met blaine and his hands are
a little bit bigger than mine
But not huge but i've also met a dallas cowboy and their wrists are like this big around your neck
Yeah, like yeah
he might be the greatest watch dealer of all time as far as i'm concerned just
Because he can get the watch off of a cow
Yeah, he was featured a few times to watch steel on those early specials, but the celebrity stuff
I think as we see as we go down this list has become his best stuff in my opinion
oh, yeah, and it's and I think maybe because there was some sort of shift I think blaine would
Perform for regular people all the time. I know that he still does but it's got to be very difficult to film
stuff
For for like he did back in the day
his fame is like so much higher because there so remember I think it was the third special where he
Went abroad like they took him to like honduras and he's doing like paul harris magic with twigs and sticks
For people and they're just like no go away
Yeah, uh, he was getting those reactions for them. But I feel like a lot of what's going on though. Is that like?
Famous people can kind of hang out together and be real people and you get yes you get this
Sort of behind the veil. Yeah, because another one that sticks out for me is uh, I think it's jason sudeikis. And uh,
Oh
Olivia wilde or maybe it's necessary but it's olivia wilde and her husband are together and j and david was performing for them
And it's like you watch everything fall away. Yeah, they're just real people
Yeah
It's just interesting watching a celebrity react that you
You feel like you kind of know them a little bit right and they're just not going to act
I would imagine if blaine went anywhere and the reactions are just going to be so insane
Yeah, because people just want to react to a david blaine traitor
You know what? I mean? Like I want to react to a david blaine
We saw him at magi festival a few years ago when he just came he wasn't a special guest
He was just like showed up to a convention and right the reactions for him. Just walking down the hallway
Yeah, so it's interesting because he was performing for celebrities as like an unknown back in the day
So it's just fun that that kind of is a thread that has continued and now it's kind of just the primarily
The way that it gets done but uh, yes the dallas cowboys clip was awesome a big sports fan
Yeah, and so coach joe the two-card monty and they just, you know, losing their mind
Um, and then more more recent one that just kind of became like an iconic staple. I had to include it on the list even
Though it wasn't like for me one of the best tricks
But the moment where he's in harrison ford's house
Oh, yeah, and you know
He makes the card appear in the orange and I think it was a thought of card just appears and any orange that harrison
Chooses out of his fruit bowl and on his uh island in his kitchen
and uh, i'm sure this will get bleeped out, but he you know,
He looks at dave and says get the fuck out of my house. Yeah, right. It's
It's such a good
like
real harrison ford moment where you're like
Oh harrison
ford really is han solo and the president of the you don't even care if he's
Acting you wouldn't be able to tell if he was in the moment
But it's just like it's exactly what you wanted harrison ford to say to david blaine. Yeah in the moment, right?
So uh, and you know the other one that's kind of an abstract one
Uh, and maybe you saw it maybe didn't is he got on this kick for a little while where he was working on getting punched?
On this in the stomach. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was doing like the houdini stuff. Yeah. Yeah
He wanted to you want to do that and he set up a uh a thing with kimbo slice
Where he let kimbo slice punch him in the gut
That's how I know that david blaine has demonic powers
Is because he survived a direct punch to the gut from kimbo slice kimbo slice r.i.p
Right, like some of those old, uh, youtube videos of kimbo man
Those are pretty raw if you go back and watch those he was a scary, dude
Yeah, uh and when you watch that clip now
It kind of doesn't have the same feel to it because I just haven't seen kimbo, you know talking trash in a while
yeah, but man, I when I heard that he was
Gonna do that I was like what the celebrity interactions throughout the course of david blaine's career
Particularly the awkward interview between him and leonardo dicaprio where they've clearly never met until the set started
Speaking of never met I should mention. I don't know david blaine. I'm just a super fan
right
Like I don't even actually I don't even technically want to meet him
Like I I would love to meet him I would be oh, yeah
It'd be great. But I almost like don't want to I just want to like I want to have at least one
Yeah one, uh one legend in my brain
I've also not met him. I ordered a drink while standing next to him at a convention, but I don't think that could yeah
I've been in the same boat where he's been like in the room like holy crap
David blaine but i'm like yeah one day maybe i'll bump into some other way. Okay
So let's get more specific here on on like specific tricks moments with david blaine. So let's let's move on to number seven
all right number seven is one that I don't see talked about almost ever, uh, i'm surprised and
I actually I think I know which one you're talking about because this is one that no one ever talks about so
If i'm if i'm predicting, correct now, first of all, did you know david blaine's dead?
Oh as of this moment. Yeah, he's 100
Well, it is funny
if you search david blaine the first thing that comes up is how did david blaine die question mark
I mean if you click on it, it says david blaine was and we'll talk about that
But dave blaine is not dead when we're filming this by the way, uh, but no, but he there's a pretty good chance
He's a zombie. He did kill himself once on on live television. Yeah, it was on carson. It was on the carson daily show
Yeah, and I don't this clip you can find it on youtube. David blaine. So he's on the carson daily show and
carson's asking about body stunts and how does he prepare and all this stuff and dave's like well I can show you and then he
He does, uh, he stops his own pulse. So carson's like feeling his first pulse and david's like going into this like meditative state and
heart stops and
You know, you can tell when something hasn't been like pre-arranged. Yeah, cause daley's like what what the hell is going on?
Yeah, he must have just known that he was gonna go on and do a trick
so he's trying to like lead him into it, but
Then so after he stops his own pulse and carson's like freaked out he kind of gets into this meditative state
He's like, yeah, you can do crazy stuff. I don't remember exactly what he says. He opens his shirt
And then reaches inside of his chest. There's blood coming out and removes his own heart
It's the wildest clip you've ever seen. He's holding his heart in his hands. Yeah on on carson daly bleeding out. Yeah
Daley's out of the chair in the back of the room at this point. He doesn't know what to do
In fact, he looks like he's trying to like like isn't somebody gonna help him. It looks so good
Yeah, and then blaine just collapses on the floor
And you know and dies
uh, I guess it's kind of a bad trick to do if you're trying to
Tell people that you're like the real deal because you can't just well, I guess if anybody can resurrect themselves, it'd be david blake
Oh, yeah, uh, but yeah
He killed himself on the carson daley show
The best part of that clip is not that he puts it back in like he doesn't put his heart back in
No, he doesn't put it back
right
he just collapses and then plays leads out and just lays on the floor and then it just cuts and that was I mean
I think it was on mtv. I think yeah
Yeah, I remember if that show was on tv or some other channel
Yeah
it was definitely around that time when like carson was sort of transitioning out of being a vj and into being like
A serious late-night host that's just always stuck with me because I think I remember reading the headline where it's like david blaine
Rips his heart out of his chest. Yeah, it's like what and I remember staying up late like
Refreshing like whatever internet page existed at the time trying to find any information on it
It was yeah, it's always stuck with me. It looked really good. It was really a non-sequitur
It didn't make a lot of sense and also
it was one of those where
the
late night with carson daly at the time was not like a show that people tuned into you watched late night with carson daly because
You had nothing else to do you had seen the rest of television it was so it was an it was a strange choice
Yeah, and it was the only place he could have gotten away with that
So it was one of those like real cause if you've gone on leno, yeah
They would have never aired. No
Yeah, probably not especially like if he did if it was a surprise, right?
Like if he if they didn't tell letterman he was doing letterman be pissed
You know
So yeah, I can see whereas like carson daly like it was probably pre-recorded
Now that you think of it, I don't know. I don't I really don't remember but um
It was it's it's a it was an amazing stunt
That was just like it again like cements him in your mind as like one of the one time
Yeah, he was still the real deal to me. I mean I had started to learn a little bit of magic once that happened
So like the veil was getting pulled back, but you know, he was still this really like supernatural freaky
I mean, of course he went on tv and pulled his heart out of his chest. Oh, yeah, right who's gonna do that?
He's done
So many other weird things since but uh, let's uh, let's move on to uh, let's I think we're in number six number six
Let's get to number six so number six. I I decided to put the stunts here like the big um,
publicity stuff the endurance feats
the stunts are really hard to categorize for me and go like which one was the best because like because they were all
Like really great. Yeah for very different reasons
Yeah, there's a lot of different ones, you know stuff that he did for publicity early on there's stuff that he's done for charity
He's done a lot for charity over the years
Uh, I chose a few just the ones that stuck out for me
Uh personally number one would be uh, or the the buried alive stunt
Yeah
you know, I
I didn't really experience the buried alive stunt the way a lot of other people did because I read about it in his book
Yeah
and there's like a really great photo in in his book mysterious stranger where like
I think it's a kid is like looking in because he's underneath so he's buried six feet under
Yeah, there's a there's a column of water over it and then he's just in like a coffin with like a clear thing
Yeah, and he's just like smiling and waving at a kid like it's just it was just cool
It was there for seven days right seven days
But he had like food and water. I think he just had water. He might have been taking stuff like intravenously or something
I'm not i'm not quite sure
uh
this is early on when he was just getting started in like
Testing the boundaries of his body not doing not doing a ton of the endurance stuff yet
Yeah, and it's always interesting to talk to people about what they think of the endurance stunts
I think we realize that they're more like you kind of had you know
He's following the houdini model almost of like getting getting a big you have to like make a headline
Somehow houdini is so far in the past that we didn't really
Connect the endurance trials that like houdini tended to do with magic
Right the way people would have done that. I guess maybe copperfield was the only one that did anything close but his stuff was like
Big and showy and there was there's more trick than yeah, like tornado of fire was definitely like an endurance stunt
But it was also so big and showy that it was it had to be a magic trick
Keep an eye out for the david copperfield top ten bucks. Yeah, we'll definitely talk about it. Yeah for sure
Yeah, but buried alive was good because after barrett alive then it was frozen in time
Oh
Which is the one that sticks out of mine president time was probably the big that was
Had to have been the one that landed on people's radars first
Even though buried alive was before it definitely it was like heavily promoted
Yeah, but also like because he buried alive. He was on the outskirts of new york city
I think I think he was like not downtown frozen in time. He was in I believe he was in the macy's store
He was in times square
Yeah
I think he was like in the
Somewhere down there because you could go past it. I know I didn't get to go past it
but it was I remember seeing it on television and thinking like
And the the special ended like in a very dramatic way
Because they cut him out of the ice and then like took him to the paramedics
Yeah, he watched on live television as he was taken to the paramedics. Yeah, he was in there for 72 hours
Yeah, and I remember that i'll never forget. That's the time. I learned what a catheter was
So
but
Yeah, no that special
that that that stunt
That was definitely the one that landed on, you know people thought about first with him
it's and it's definitely the one that like i've always liked gone back and thought about the most because
It was it was the first time that I sort of realized like
Oh, he's really doing this. Yeah, like like this is
This is not a magic trick and it was that and it was that dramatic ending where they're pulling him out and taking
the paramedics where I went he's he's not faking right and I think that was the important part that you
He didn't sort of just like emerge and was like, yes look at me. I'm the king of the ice
He was like, please no one do this again. Yeah, that's a good point like and the special in the hospital. Yeah, right. Yeah
Yes. Yeah, because then you don't like it's almost like a cautionary tale where you don't have to be like kids
Don't try don't get a giant block of ice and sit inside it for 72 hours. Yeah, it was it it was a
Gut reaction watching. Yes. Yeah
And and how gut-wrenching it was was I don't remember any of the magic in that special
That's true. So that's what happened though is his specials turned a little bit more into like
Lots of tricks. Yeah, and then like weaving in these stunts and then the tricks got smaller and smaller
Into just like only a couple tricks in each episode
Where you do it over and over again was frozen in time when he started working with daniel. Garcia
And some of those other big names i'm not sure probably
Not I would get I don't know though
I don't know when danny started getting on there because I I feel like
Bill kalush was involved in some of the early ones like I remember seeing his name and hearing about him
And and I know I know danny came in a little bit later when some of the tricks like the short training
Probably like late 2000's we're talking about some of the creative team on with david blaine. Um, yeah, i'm not i'm i'm not quite sure
on that
So frozen in time was yeah
You could probably argue that might be his best stunt
Um, yeah, I would think because after that was vertigo, which was an interesting stunt
But it wasn't. Yeah, I didn't I didn't have that like is one of my favorite and I think
It's because it ended weird and there was some
it wasn't as like
I think the premise was cool and I love the poster
Yeah, just like standing up there
But it was kind of just like the way it ended was a little bit strange the cardboard boxes and all that stuff
Uh, but the one that I did list here was above the below. Yeah, so that's the special
that's the one blaine special that I haven't seen but when he was doing that, I remember, uh,
I remember seeing the news stories and like the british public like flying drones with mcdonald's underneath it like past him and like
There was there was this weird sort of thing where he was like trying to do something and then like there was a serious divide
Over what was going on? Yes
Yeah, that's kind of the difference between vertigo and above the blow like vertigo when you read it sounded very difficult
But it just seemed not that bad. If david would hear me like you're you're an idiot, right?
It was super hard, which it probably was
Oh, yeah
But I think being able to write
To it was tough. I could barely sit in this chair for the 45 minutes these things take I can't imagine standing
Yeah on a pillar
Yeah
right being able to relate to it was tough but being able to relate to sitting in a box over the river there for
44 days without eating. Yeah
That's crazy. Yeah, and that's crazy. Uh, and I feel like that's something he sort of like he addresses in his ted talk
He's like, yeah, I really didn't use intravenous stuff like he's just water
Yeah, just just water no food. And I and I I believe him I I don't because I feel like he was really establi
He'd really established prior to this that there these were true endurance stunts. Yeah, there's no reason to not believe him. No, especially
All of this stuff like nowadays too. Maybe it's not so much true anymore
But like in that in that pocket of david blaine, he was always like subjecting himself to science afterwards
Yeah, that's definitely something that like houdini would have done, you know, like it sounds like of course. He subjected himself this time, but like
Yeah, that kind of proves the point too. Yeah, you know when you get like the boston journal of medicine like
Looking at his feet and stuff after he came out of the water, which we'll talk about in just a second. Yeah, um
Yeah, it always made like they totally used him as a guinea pig
After he didn't eat for that long. Yeah being in that box
Like he he established like different studies and precedents and stuff like that. That obviously are
Not repeatable because we're not going to hang anyone else in a perspex box over over
but uh, it's it was a it was a wild special because
It didn't just last so long it divided people and there were like, that's the first time I remember real internet fights
Yeah, like there were definitely internet fights from the early ones
But this one was like people were fighting in forums that were not magical. Yeah
It was it was straight, you know
One of my favorite stories from that david must have told this somewhere. I must have heard it that way, but he said
Uh, he was sitting in the box and he sees a plane flying by does this bring a bell forward. Yeah
Yeah, and it's got uh, you know
When you go to the beach and the planes are always dragging that that you know, the big sign that says something, you know
Like, uh, you know spring break 20, whatever. Yeah, uh that said, uh, there are easier ways to lose weight
Weightwatchers.com or something like that?
That is smart. Yeah, because that was the other thing was that there were a number of companies and people that co-opted
What he was doing for their own publicity and that would then make headlines. Oh, man. Yeah, so
Those are the three stunts. I wanted to highlight for a number, uh for number six. Yeah number five though
I think in the reason why i've separated this one particular stunt is because he's then now taken this one stunt and then
And just progressed it throughout the rest of his career
These other ones stand on their own but this one
continued on I keep touching on but we but we keep pulling it back because you because
You keep pulling me back on it because you're like no
I wanted
Yeah, so that number five would be the drowned alive stun. That was I watched that when I was in college
I remember like we
Me and some of my friends took over one of the common rooms and we were like no we're watching the david blaine special
Yeah, and before we even get to the stunt, that is the one that I have a solid memory of one of the tricks
it's when david goes to a jail and he's doing tricks for prisoners and then as they're walking out they're like, hey man, like
Thanks and everything I think he's hey, I wanna he's classic like hey, let me try something
Yeah, right and he walks over to a bar. Yeah, that's very clearly straight and he goes
And then he puts it big kink bends it. Yeah, and he just goes yeah and like leaves and you're just super memorable trick
yeah, right like how
I mean I can't imagine again. It just goes back to it's david blaine. Yeah, right, like if if anybody else like I bet
Actually, I think you can relate this to david copperfield. I think in his escape from alcatraz
He may have bent the bars. I'm, not sure. Yeah, right, but it's just a clear definition
Just imagine david copperfield bending bars in a prison cell whether he's done it or not. Yeah, right. You're like, okay trick
Copperfield. Yeah, david blaine
Did he just bend those bars?
yeah, because it there's I remember watching that and me and my friends had this like conversation afterwards were like
Well, we know he's got a creative team
We know he's capable of setting stuff up because we all remember when the taxi cab goes by with someone's name on it
And the guy freaks out. Did they set up a jail cell with this?
No, there's no way a prison would let them do that. Did they sneak into the prison and do this?
Like I don't I don't know. I don't know but drowned alive was a stunt where he got this giant globe this this
Glass, you know fish tank. Yeah circle
It looked really cool and they put it in a square don't remember. It was in new york city
I can't remember what square it was in. Uh, but
The idea was is he was gonna be underwater in that tank for a week. Yeah, and you could go hang out with him
Just like every other stuff
And it was sort of like a throwback to the buried alive, but now he's in waters, but he can still wave at you
Yeah, well just like vertigo too
You could have gone out see them stand on the post or frozen in time you go check them out
I remember and I forgot to mention I I almost went to go see him at frozen in time
I just it was only a 72 hour window. I was in massachusetts. I was like, how do we go?
How do we go we can't I don't know anyway, uh so drowned alive
He's in that that dome for seven days
And then at the end he was going to take off because he's under there with oxygen back. Yeah
Yeah, it's not it's very different from some of the other stunts
Yeah, he's he's actually he was just under water for seven days during the night, you know
All that time. He's underwater. And at this point he's already survived for 44 days without food
So yeah, no seven days is like. Oh, okay. I just didn't have a snack in there
Remember, I think the 44 days might have been after this. I can't remember it. Doesn't it doesn't matter
He'd been tuning his body for all sorts of different stuff at this point
But at the end of the stunt the last day he was going to take off the mask
And then attempt to break the world record for holding your breath underwater and then escape from chains and handcuffs. Yeah
He was also chained to the bottom
So he's chained to the bottom of this thing and they had a timer going and he was down there now
What's really interesting here is that?
He didn't do it. No, uh, it's it's one of those rare ones that ends in a failure. Yeah, and
you never know what to believe and
I mean
At the end of the day, I always believe what david says because like there's just no reason to lie about this type of stuff
Because can could he have broken the breath record? Of course, he would have done it if he couldn't, however
He also had never spent a week underwater prior to that so you don't know what's going to happen
Yeah, right and at this point I mean man
Look up some of the stuff about what happened to his feet and his hands and stuff after it is
Crazy really gross for being underwater. You know what it looks like when you've been in the shower for a little too long imagine
Okay, it doesn't matter
It's really rough, but then he but he spun that off into the ted talk which is awful
You can see all of that in the ted. Talk I believe
Fascinating because then he did stuff like liquid breathing which is where like you fill your lungs up with
Hyper-oxygenated water. Well, he got really so he was under there and he failed
Yeah, and it might have been because the handcuffs and he said he exerted a little bit too much energy like having to do something
But he didn't break the record
So it was like actually a really weird disappointment because he ended this the end of the special was live
Yeah on tv and he did not break the record in front of a crowd in new york city
It's pretty wild right especially do you think about that right now?
Right. I couldn't imagine taking that big of a risk right in my professional career. You know, he's got a lot of
You know, very good will behind him at this point. But still I mean this is the biggest special he's ever done
I remember the marketing for it. It was just like huge it was they spent millions of dollars marketing that thing. Yeah, so
Again, all of this is real so his body is just destroyed. Yeah after it
I mean like he had to go through a lot of I don't think he walked for quite a while
Yeah, because his feet were just so the skin on his feet was like it was hanging off sloughed off. Yeah, it was bad. So
He did then set up something with oprah. Did you ever see this? I didn't see the over there
Yeah
Where he he went back and broke the underwater record on oprah's show
Which of course is probably better doing it than on your own show on bro, you know, whatever
Uh, yeah, I mean if you're going to break a record on your own show, that's fine
but if you're going to break a record on oprah you're going to have
So that was really cool to see like it was like a really interesting redemption arc of like breaking the thing
Uh, and at the time the record was like 17 minutes underwater. Yeah, I mean
it's just crazy to think about the the I can't recommend the ted talk ted talks amazing because yeah because he
He really does get into he got super fascinated with like the breath control. Yeah
Holding his breath and understand like I mentioned the liquid breathing and he goes through all of it
he did stuff with like hot water baths and cold water baths and he goes like pretty deep into the science and he's like
And he made like a documentary to sort of have a backing videos with it
and you you get the sense that not only does he understand like
You know competitive diving and like the the people who do like the super deep like yeah
Yeah free dive freediving
he got like really into free diving and training with free drivers to do this and it's like
This is it's beyond magic at this point
And yes
And I think that is another one of those things that makes made me re-evaluate
All of the other stunts and go this is a whole other side of his life
Yeah, because when you start thinking about like once you're sold finally on like, okay
That was real all of a sudden you're like well, yeah, of course he was in that block of ice
Maybe there was some things about I don't know but like maybe there's some things about it that may have helped him
Maybe not. I don't I don't know but
You know, it comes down to it. He still just did it. Yeah
now the the other we've been talking about this one for a while, but the other reason why
I separated this one is because he
Then took this and did it in his live show
Oh, yeah, that's right. It's the second half of his live show
Which i'm sure he'll probably know
I don't know if we're gonna get a chance. I guess we might have a chance to talk about the live show again on
On this list, which I went and saw yeah, it's where I got this shirt
I haven't seen it and i'm really disappointed that I never got to go see the live show the live show
Is i've got to imagine what it was like to to
You really feel like you're going to see
A real spectacle like a superhuman spectacle can only imagine what it would have been like to see
houdini do like a theater show or something like that, you know because what he's doing in this show,
It's a lot of like extreme body stuff. Yeah, he can't do it again
Yeah, there's just no way when you see what he did to himself night after night after night
Yeah, I I I don't know how the hell he could ever do that that show again
but the the tank was part of it and to sit in the same room with him and watch as he
Night, like nightly would like, you know
It's after the intermission comes back on curtain goes up and there's this giant tank and he gets in it and you just watch
you watch him underwater for
I mean, I I can't remember the time. I I want to say it was more than 17 minutes. Um
But they made it really interesting, but it's just crazy
To it's 17 minutes underwater
That doesn't make any sense. It's an insane amount of time and it's
knowing his
Ability to create drama in that sense
Like I can only imagine would have been like in that room and I can see in your eyes like how effective you were
Madness and total madness now. I know at the time. I don't know that he has the record right now, officially
yeah, I think somebody else broke it but it's also funny and talking with uh,
Some of my friends that hang out with david a lot they say. Oh, yeah, he can break that record
It's just he hasn't done it like in a formal setting. Yeah, right, so I don't know. Uh, it's arguably this could be the
Number one thing I bet if you ask david, I would guess maybe this might be one of the things he's probably most
Proud of and I would only guess that because of the consistency that he's shown his career
It definitely shows up over and over and over again as one of those things that is
totally separated from magic that he is very passionate about doing and just something nobody else can do I mean like
Number five was drowned alive. So we're we are officially in the top. Give me number. I've got tricks now, right?
okay specific tricks because this is what this was the top 10 david blaine tricks and it was hard to do but I
It just wanted to kind of encompass everything that yeah, you had so number four
Is uh from one of his more modern specials realer magic, which I thought was a great
Title for uh for and defined the tricks that he was doing in this special. Yeah
now this is the the needle through arm trick that he was doing it's so good because
He does it both real and well right in the special. He he does this in various ways. Yeah, right
He does like an ice pick through the hand
In fact, if you see his live show, he does the ice pick through the hand
Which also like you and I know a number of people who can do this?
For real sure and I and I have never done it for real because i'm a big giant coward. Uh, yeah
I'm, just not into it, right? Yeah, it's not for me
Yeah, but he's doing it for like kanye and uh, there's a variety of people that like brian cranston
I think they do it for trevor. Noah is a great clip
you can see the brian cranston one, uh is great because he's also with uh,
Yeah, yeah. Well, what's this? Uh, jesse. Jesse pinkman there. Yeah. Jessie finkman
I can't remember the uh, the actor's name off top my head, but they're both just like their eyes get so big
Yeah, the trevor noah one's great too because you ever just like can't handle it
So there's a lot of clips in that one special of like this particular effect
That's what all of his specials which we should say, uh, david is doing it for real
There are a number of people who do this for real
But we cannot that's the beauty of it. Right because the clip that i'm talking about is the one with ricky gervais
oh, yeah, okay, because
He is it's kind of it's not an uncut clip where they're just sitting together there, but if it really feels like it
Yeah, because in in it kind of harkens back to the old school clips of david blaine where they're just letting ricky react. Yeah, right
David has got this giant needle. It's like this long and he's got his arm up
And he's he's shoving it through his bicep. Yeah, but he's telling ricky that it's not real. Yeah
He's like I want you I want you to watch
You don't see him do this. I don't believe but I believe before he shows ricky this
He shows him the secret of the needle through arms like the old harry anderson one
Yeah, you know like a really old like kind of gaggy trick which still looks amazing here
Um, but he sets him up with that. Yeah. He's like almost like i'm gonna show you a better illusion now, so
You can tell ricky's prime like he's going to see a trick and then david starts to actually put the needle through his arm. Yes
and ricky goes through stages of like
Well, this is clear. This is clearly not real
Yeah, this has got to be fake but david like reels him back in with his presentation saying no no, no, no come closer
You'll see you'll see when the trick happens
And ricky's just he doesn't know what to believe. He's just like
How is that not real?
Yeah
You're telling me it's real not real
but how is it not it's really interesting watching someone who's never seen that particular stunt and especially the the
Way that david sets it up. Yeah is is
It's almost mean but not quite it's a thing of beauty. It's it really just
Everything about it is is perfect in my head and I mean just with ricky it
It's also then he has ricky pull the the needle out of his arm
And then they just sit on ricky for a minute minute and a half where he's like
It couldn't have been real. Yeah, because why would somebody do that?
The only explanation is that he actually stuck the needle through his arm. Yeah, but he couldn't have done that
It's I love just the the internal logic that's going through his head. It's like why would anyone do that?
Well, you're sitting next to david blaine like which is like it's just not an answer, but also is the answer
Yeah, so one of the most perfect clips I think for for for me, you could choose any of them kanye or you know?
But for the needle through the arm with ricky
But the realer magic special is a really interesting
Sort of like approach that david blaine has taken throughout his entire career that we've we keep touching on which is yeah
He's mixing these real life body endurance tests with magic and the line
Is very delineated but because of the nature of david blaine it is
It is also blurred now, even though he's yeah, even though he's like going this is real. This is magic. Yep
You still don't know this is the pocket that I think
Is perfect for david finally? I think he's evolved to this one thing where he can do superhuman stuff that nobody else can do
But if you can mix it with a little bit of magic as well, it's another level now this needle through arm
That was you know, he really did it. Yeah
Didn't have the element of magic. He was trying to crowbar magic in
Presentationally yeah with ricky right which made a lot of sense
Yeah, but I think we'll talk about another trick that I think perfectly illustrates what i'm trying to say a little bit later
Uh, let's move on to number two. So number number three. Oh, yeah. Sorry three. I keep moving around. I'm, sorry
I'm, just so excited. We've just talked for too long
I can't I have no idea how long this is. Yeah, but yeah, no matter it's worth it number three
I've been i've been training to do this top 10 my entire life and I didn't even know it
I'm, so you know, I I don't want to rush through it at all. No, no, uh, like I think we're on numbers
No, there's 38. This is going great. It's going great. But number three number three and again, this could be number one
Yeah, um is the bullet catch? Oh, the the bullet catch was
It again
It blurs that line even though it's very clearly. Well, it's real
It's it's completely real definitely real but he's still playing with something that has forever been not real
Yeah, if you if you in this if you haven't seen it, you have to go look at it
Uh, there's an amazing slow motion clip of this bullet. Like I mean, he he's using a metal cup in his mouth
To catch the bullet. Yeah, um this it's crazy dangerous. It's arguably one of the more dangerous things. He's ever done. Yeah
uh, so this stunt
It's crazy to talk like this is something I have talked with like danny about and just like
how you know you watch this stuff on tv and
Yeah, it's crazy. And yeah, you felt the emotion of like oh my god
He's about to yeah, but like danny was in the room when that happened right really happened
Imagine standing there and watch somebody that you like or love. Yeah
Catch a bullet in their mouth that's interesting to me because there's there's two
Instances of genuinely real firearms that I can think of and it's this and then darren brown's russian roulette
Oh, yeah where it's like both of those
I instinctively know that everything is going to be fine because otherwise I would not be watching it on television
We are not yet in a society where we are going to put someone's death on live tv on purpose
Yeah, but at the same time I know those are real firearms because I know these guys do not mess around. No
well, I mean so he this is
I it's even a little bit more interesting for me because I was really good friends with carl the skeins family. Oh
Yeah, he he did this on television in the 80s like 1980 or something like that he's only done it a few times
yeah, which is
A few times imagine doing it once. All right
so
Carl's in the original clip now
This is similar to the underwater stuff where he actually carried it through to multiple specials after the first time
He did it. I wrote it down because I had a hard to tell what it what is magic
It was the first time that he did this
And he did it in a shooting range. I think is built bill kalush that actually pulls the trigger off. Oh, yeah
So he catches the bullet in his mouth and he's got like this metal cup that he that he catches it with
And it's a it's a rifle. It's stationary
It's not moving. It's like, you know, yeah, like it's like locked into position and right
It's like a laser sight these days if you want to put a bullet exactly somewhere. Yeah, there's a way to do it
Yeah, right, and that's what they're essentially doing except david blaine's head is behind
The cup that it's going into uh, then he then he carried it on into the beyond magic special
Yeah, now that's the one where it's no longer stationary. It's no well, the gun is stationary
But what he's doing is he's pulling a string to pull the trigger. Yeah, so he could move his head possibly. Yeah
He's standing there. He's got if i'm remembering correctly. He's using his cell phone to see the laser pointer
That's pointing into his mouth. So he's like
Yeah, there's there's this element that like it kicked it up a notch and it made it
Yeah, because I couldn't remember what it was
Yeah, it's like it's crazy to think that david watched the first clip possibly and said, you know what it's not theatrical enough
right
like
Like there's two maybe too much skill being attributed to the guy pulling the trigger, right?
Yeah, maybe I should be the one that pulls the trigger, right?
Yeah, and you know you got to imagine he worked on this. I don't know how many times he's actually shot himself in the face
I don't know. I've only seen a couple clips
I I know that david blaine has shot himself in the face more often than I have. Yeah
That's the only thing I know for certain right now. There's a great clip where he's doing it
Uh, I think he's doing it in orlando. I think they went down to orlando. It's got aussie wind in this clip and danny. Garcia
And carl skeens as well and there's some other characters roaming around in the back
Where this is where david's pulling he's got a string and he's pulling it
and he's got the cell phone and he's kind of doing this and then bam and you can see the relief on danny and
Aussie says why don't you just kill yourself and get it over with right so I don't have to watch that ever again
um
Crazy now the other thing that's insane. This goes back to the live show
I remember when the live show was being talked about he was talking about doing all these different stunts that he's done throughout his career
And he was talking about doing the bullet catch every night
I'm, so glad that he didn't put it in the sp in the live show because we don't need another chungling scenario
He was proud. I think I think this was real. I think he was really trying to put it in the show
and then what happened was he was doing a show in mgm and
The the cup broke in his mouth yeah and he like shot himself in the face
And you could there's some clip. I don't know if it's in a special or
Something an interview or something or you just thought he died
Yeah, you know because like the bullet ended up like bouncing around in something and he ended up getting a cut inside his throat
Yeah, I don't remember what it was. But um
Yeah, I I couldn't imagine
Seeing that on a stage every night. Oh, I mean imagine if it went wrong in front of a theater full of holy crap
I saw penn and teller back in the day when they were doing the bullet catch live every night, and I know
That that bullet catch is 100 safe, but I remember being in that theater and going this is there's a loaded gun right there
Yeah, this is unnecessary. I do not want to be here right now
Yeah, I can see I can I please leave and then come back and see the end of the show
Yeah as much as I would have loved to have seen the bullet catch live. Um
Yeah, they're really happy that I didn't. Yeah, there's a human part of you. That is like this is fine
Yeah, I think he's done with the bullet catch. Maybe don't know
Um, it kind of had its you know end point there
It's like yeah
Let's not put this in the show and I think everybody he was working with like don't put this in the show
yeah, i'm guessing I don't know but um
He doesn't tend to listen to them very often i'm guessing i'm guessing. I don't know
All right, let's let's get off of the bullet catch. Uh, okay i'm getting very uncomfortable right now
So let's move on to number two. Okay, number two
Is similar to the needle through the arm, and I put this here because I think it kind of perfectly illustrates
The pocket that I want to see david blaine in these days
and that is uh
This is the trick
It was on reeler magic. I believe it was on one of the newer specials or it's just performing for celebrities and this is where
Uh, he he borrows a ring. He makes it disappear
But he doesn't he? Yeah puts it in his mouth
Right, it goes into his mouth
And then he swallows it yeah, right
and then he gets them to go grab a
Coat hanger one of the metal ones. Yeah, and then he fashions it in a way where
He shoves it down his throat. Oh and then pulls the hanger out and then the ring
Is on the coat hanger? Yeah, okay
It's crazy the reactions that on this are
Insane and it's a little bit of a tough one to watch if you if you watch it
All right. No, I i'm remembering this now. And and I was just he does it for like travolta
And like margot robbie and johnny dab. Oh, yeah, but it's difficult to watch
It's super difficult to watch the reason why I think it illustrates and yeah
Maybe it's not the best trick, but I think it's like the height of what kind of what I want to see
from blaine going forward is that this is
This is a stunt like a sword swallowing stunt. Yeah, that's completely real mixed with a magic trick
Yeah, right because when the when the ring comes out of the the coat hanger, it is linked to the coat hanger
Yeah, it's not it's not like hanging from it is on there. Yeah, like that's a magic trick, right?
So what's really interesting and this is stuff that I can't do stuff that you can't do right?
But david blaine can do right where it's like I still get this
Satisfaction of doing this superhuman thing of shoving a coat anger down my throat, right? Yeah, but
mixed with
with the ring and if you watch the reactions on this clip, it's it goes from like
cringing right to
To like just total surprise and like how the hell is that possible?
Yeah, because it ends with a magic trick and I can't really pinpoint too many other of these stunt tricks
Uh that that that does this specifically yeah
this is a really really fascinating because there's more he's doing more and more of these things where you're just you're
Yeah, it's there is a clear line. Yeah, and and he'll tell you where that clear line is
But your brain makes that line go away. Right, right
He still gives you magic at the end because you still want to see david blaine do a magic trick
Yeah
And I think at the very beginning when we're talking about
The stunts and sometimes you talk to people like why does he do that to himself?
Right because you want to see david blaine do a cool trick. Yeah, right. Everybody wants to see david blaine
Do you want to see him do a cool trick that only david blaine can do?
Yes, and that is like the full evolution right where you're getting everything into like this one one particular trick to me
That's one of the best things i've ever seen him
do there's one trick that I haven't heard you talk about yet, and I I
think you might have it to be number one and let's let's because
if it as you're talking about this evolution of david blaine and going to something where
Is something is real and you get a magic trick and then you she tells you what is what yeah
You still don't believe it. I think I know what you're getting at for number one, but let me hear you say it
Yeah, so number one. I mean we're talking tricks. I wanted to put tricks at the end here, right and
I woke up one morning just a few years ago. And you see uh, david blaine's trended somewhere. He's on jimmy fallon
Oh and i'm like oh, of course, I can't wait to watch this
Yeah, right and I I always make sure that I don't I don't want to see anything
I don't I just want to just want to you want to experience it in the moment
I don't want I don't want to see the title of the youtube, you know, right click, right? I don't want to see that
It's just a full screen link full screen. Right right completely right and uh, he's on there
Now he did this twice on there, right? So I I had seen it once before. Yeah, he did it in like
2016
I didn't even touch on the fact that he is kind of the master of the um, the late night talk show uh spot
Yeah, david blaine really exists in his own specials and late night talk shows. Yes clips, right?
Yeah, because those late night talk show clips. He really
You have no idea where it's going to go
But you do know that at the end of it i'm going to be hearing about it on good morning. America tomorrow
Yeah, so let's just talk about the the more recent one, uh where he does an amazing trick
Which he did in his live show where he uh sews his mouth up
Right and the card is a card is chosen or whatever and ends up in his mouth
I mean we could talk about that trick in detail. Why does he sew his mouth shut every night. I don't know
Something he enjoys crazy, but then the kicker ending, of course
Is a
frog comes out of his mouth
Right, which is just it's the thing is it's real it's real
It's real
Yeah
And then another frog I can't remember if he does multiple frogs on this one special in the original clip that he did on
Jimmy fallon, he's just doing card tricks
Yeah card tricks for like 10 minutes or nine minutes and they're they're like good card awesome card tricks
Yeah, they're they're wonderful and then out of nowhere
He vomits a frog and and this is kind of like what I was talking about with stunts and magic right? Yeah great
He's on the fallon show. He's doing card tricks. You want to see david blaine do card tricks, right?
yeah, and then he's able to hit him with just a kicker ending of and
Here's a frog, you know, and I have to say in in the pantheon of kicker endings
Throwing up a frog is is right above the pop-up move in the ambitious card unbelievable
Yeah, like you you remember that's how that's where he's come from the pop-up
Remember, do you remember seeing the pop-up move in the first special? Unbelievable? You were just like I can't
How do you how do you top this and the answer is you throw up a frog on the roots? Yes
Twice yeah
Like you still gotta do it. So like it's interesting that like that's now david's like
Because he here's what success is amazing about it. Can I also say that um, you know,
How like paul rudd has that thing wherever he's on conan. He always like shows that
Uh, they're always like, uh, we hear you brought a clip and he shows that clip from the 80s of that like weird robot
I hope that as long as fallon is on the air and as long as david blaine keeps going on. Yeah
His his paul rudd moment is that he keeps throwing up frogs on the roof. Yeah
Well, he did it in his live show
You know, it's just it's it's crazy because when it comes yes, it's got this crazy shock value to it
the human aquarium is what he calls it by the way, um,
Because apparently somebody else did this he loves finding those old sideshow things. Yeah
Well, somebody else did let's talk about the spouting for a little bit. Sure. Yeah
As well the spouting was like a big part of that special when the human aquarium started going up, which is a real thing
No, you're right. Because I think that's probably the evolution for him like is training his stomach to be able to regurgitate stuff
There's not a lot of people who can do the water spouting our friend kieran lefeifer. Does it really well? Karen's a
Interesting guy to meet the first time that I you introduced me to him. Uh, he said hi
My name is kieran and then he human block-headed his own glasses up his noses
but there's
The spouting is a real thing
and then he does it where he drinks the water and then he floats the kerosene on it and then
Yeah spouts fire. Yes, which is a crazy dangerous. I mean
I i'm a fire eater and i've spit fire in a film and it's not something I ever really want to do again
No, I that's another one that he was I believe he was doing in his live show and he ended up stopping dude
he didn't do it the one I was at but uh
Yeah, I think he like lit his logo on fire at the beginning of his uh of his live show. Yeah, right, which is just
Crazy to think about uh, and maybe I you know, I don't I mean think about the body preparation
You gotta put yourself through to be able to do that
as your opener in your show and to do it in a way that it's like
Vomiting a throg bringing a frog back up from your stomach is already gross but to bring it up in a clean manner
Like no idea. Yeah, that's right. There's a there's a lot the show doesn't stop when the show's over for david
He's got like body stuff. He's got to do before he gets to the next city. Yeah, right. I can't even imagine
What what was going on, you know, it's you know, we can't have a frog coming up with uh lunch coming
Like you got to figure all this stuff out. I mean it's it's so
Detail-oriented. Yeah in a way that i've never detail-oriented to show
It's wild when you start peeling back the layers and actually thinking about what that takes and it's evident in these clips where you're like
Okay. Yeah, you just vomit a frog that's that's crazy. No, but holy crap
He never went backstage like once you realize it can't be a trick. Yeah, right, like it's just madness the human aquarium really does
Sort of emphasize a lot of what you're talking about where we're talking about everything that he has done
Tremendous amounts of preparation whether you go back to the early specials where yeah
He's doing crazy magic where like do you like do you remember the early card through window?
Yeah
Like that takes serious preparation because he's not doing like the danny garcia chaos where you can do it by yourself
I mean like he's got to set this up
The cab that I mentioned earlier like going by with the dude's name on it or the black light stuff showing up like that
the
The tattoo yeah of the ladies it's all this serious preparation and going further and above and beyond
Anyone else and now to the point where his life is no longer
Like his life is dictated by the show that he's going to do
Because he has to do these constant preparations to be able to do the same show night after night after night to be able to
Cleanly bring a frog back. Yeah, right, which is why I kind of said at the beginning. I think we've come to the end
of like the david blaine like uh, just
Arc or period I think we're gonna see more from david blaine
I hope I hope that the new arc is that he goes, you know, i'm going to do doug henning better than anyone else
so we started seeing
David with illusions and hippy dippy stuff. Well, I would predict that possibly the frogs might be one thing that we see
A little bit of crossover on right where he's where he's got like a baby shark or something in his stomach. Oh, yeah
Especially if he starts just humming do do do do do do he starts humming, baby shark
Yeah, cause I I think that one he really enjoys and for some reason
It kind of seems easy for him
Even though i'm sure the preparation is a nightmare. I think he I think he kind of gets a kick out of that
Well, just a guess. I have no idea
I'm sure he gets a kick out of it because uh, you know, I can't think of a way to be
more close with your pets
Oh, I think I asked daddy um, oh my god, oh
I can't quite remember the name
But I had asked danny one day danny garcia was
One of david's consultants and helps create a lot of the great
Magic that you see on those specials, but I had asked danny if the frogs had names
And um they do they do they do and they one was named after an actor and I can't quite remember which one it was
Unfortunately, we're gonna have to put that down below. Yeah. I hope it's something like leonardo dicaprio
It was something like that. And so it was something amazing like that
Yeah, leave us a comment
If you know what the frog's names were but it's always fun to uh to find that out as well
Yeah, but yeah, that's uh, that's it
I think he's kind of come full circle, which is a good time for us to talk about this
Yeah, I can't believe that I got to talk about this
Yeah, it's really it's an amazing pointless career and they're still you know
They're still working on more magic and I think he's working on a new show. I'm sure i'm sure i'm
You know, I can't wait to do this. David
Blaine was a lot of fun. I feel like we should definitely do one for david copperfield for sure
As well as I mean, I think there's a couple of other like sort of iconic magicians. We could definitely do this. Yeah, absolutely
Absolutely. Well if there's any of david blaine's tricks or moments or specials that we missed that you
Uh, did we miss anything? I don't know
Obviously we both love david blaine
but and also if there's any sort of iconic magicians that you want us to do one of these like breakdowns and top tens on
Leave us a comment below
We'd love to hear about it and be sure to subscribe so that you can hear more penguin top 10 lists
Thanks to nikla capo for joining me today
My name is again, eric tate and on behalf of everyone else here at the p3 magic studios. Thanks for watching
We'll see you next time. David blaine. We are not worthy
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