David Blaine White
Record Breaking Magician & Endurance Artist
David Blaine White, born April 4th 1973 is an American illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance, and has made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. He has set and broken several world records and has been referred to as a modern day Houdini. On May 19th 1997, Blaine's first television special, 'David Blaine: Street Magic' aired on the ABC network. On April 5th 1999, Blaine was entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days across from Trump Place in New York. The cramped plastic coffin offered six inches (152 mm) of headroom and two inches on each side and Blaine's only communication to the outside world was by a hand buzzer, which could alert an around-the-clock emergency crew standing by. During the endurance stunt Blaine ate nothing and drank only two to three tablespoons of water a day. An estimated 75,000 people visited the site. On April 12th, the final day of the stunt, hundreds of news teams were stationed at the site for the coffin-opening. Blaine emerged and told the crowd "I saw something very prophetic ... a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made all this worthwhile." BBC News stated, "The 26-year-old magician has outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it."
On November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called "Frozen in Time", which was covered on a TV special. Blaine stood encased in a massive block of ice located in Times Square, New York City. The ice was transparent and resting on an elevated platform to show that he was actually inside the ice the entire time. He was encased in the box of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds before being removed with chain saws. CNN confirmed that, "thousands of people braved the pouring rain Wednesday night to catch a glimpse of Blaine as workers cut away at the ice." He was removed from the ice in an obviously dazed and disoriented state, wrapped in blankets and taken to the hospital immediately because doctors feared he might be going into shock.
On September 5, 2003, Blaine began his 44-day endurance stunt sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 9 metres (30 ft) in the air next to Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames, the area between City Hall and Tower Bridge in London. The case, measuring 3 feet (0.9 m) by 7 feet (2.1 m) by 7 feet (2.1 m), had a webcam installed so that viewers could observe his progress. During the 44-day period, Blaine went without any food or nutrients and survived on just 4.5 litres of water per day.
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