David Blaine

Did you know?!

1. A first

   Blaine spent 23 minutes breathing pure oxygen before he got into a 1800 usgal water tank. He stayed underwater without breathing for 17 minutes 4-1/2 seconds, beating Colat's earlier 16 minutes 32 seconds and setting a Guinness World Record.

2. First role

   Blaine's first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic, aired on ABC on May 19, 1997, and Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller said it broke new ground.

3. Own stunts

   Blaine's 2020 stunt, David Blaine Ascension, had him rise while gripping a harness attached to 52 helium balloons. He climbed to 24,900 feet above sea level, then released the balloons and parachuted toward a ravine near the planned landing zone.

4. Own stunts

   On September 5, 2003, Blaine started an endurance stunt, sealed in a clear Plexiglas box suspended 30 ft above London beside the River Thames. It lasted 44 days, and he drank 1.2 gal of water daily without eating.

5. Behind the camera

   Blaine published Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic in 2002, an autobiography that doubled as an armchair treasure hunt with magic trick instructions; the hunt was solved by Sherri Skanes in 2004.

6. Own stunts

   In 2012 Blaine performed Electrified, standing 72 hours on a pillar surrounded by seven Tesla coils discharging a million volts, wearing 34 pounds of gear including a chainmail Faraday suit.