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I read he was going to try and break the world record for staying awake, bit of a let down his hanging upside down malarchy. Is hangining upside down really that dangerous? (that was actually meant as a serious question by the way, enter Tom...)

Whens he gonna do some Magic again?

How does

DAVID BLAINE will hang upside down above New York’s Central Park for three days and two nights

get to be called a

Dive of Death

Surely to be a dive there should be some downward movement rather than hanging around like a stranded bungee jumper? Breakfast TV this morning showed a reporter trying the same idea and they gave up after 16 minutes due to pressure on the eyeballs, lack of blood to the feet and legs so the stunt is certainly not without hazard but, IMHO, is still utterly pointless!

From what i read at the end he will plunge 44ft to the ground at the end. It didnt go into any more details though.

Darren @ The Magic Attic

Magic Chris wrote:Whens he gonna do some Magic again?

Here, Here.

I would enjoy a return to some similar material to what got him noticed in the first place. Do you think he's run out of idea's? Do you think he's worrying that his close-up magic might not be amazing enough anymore?

Shame really, close-up magic on TV usually seems to get a better response than televised stunts. Although Derren Brown has had some good response from his stunts now I come to think about it.

Here's a strange thought about Blaines new stunt. I heard once that when he did that pole standing ridiculousness......the aborted final plan was to use a crew of actors, fake doctors, and behind the scenes guys to somehow suggest he died in the fall! (Maybe even a te***s b*** under the armpit!) Only to re-emerge "back from the dead" so to speak!

Who knows?.....but the point is, if that rumour was actually true (not likely though considering my drunken mate being the source) does anyone think he may attempt a similar ending to his latest dangling stunt? I cant see how if he's suspended over an ice ring skating park? It would be funny if he fell through it.

I have an escapology friend who wanted to do similar thing. He wanted to do a Houdini style bridge jump and hand cuff escape in a river. His idea was to hire one of those underwater motor driven scuba things (to be discreetly stashed under the bridge on the river bed floor) Resulting in him escaping the cuffs, switching on the underwater scuba thing, and swimming off unseen to a place down river where he could get out undetected!

The idea being that they would find the un-locked cuffs, but no body would be recovered from the water! After many rounds of alcohol and debating the morality of faking your own death all in the name of entertainment, he reluctantly yeilded.

Hmmm, I wonder if Blaine has ever been thinking along the same lines?

I thinks hes actually lost it.....hes the Michael Jackson of Magic!

Magic Chris wrote:I thinks hes actually lost it.....hes the Michael Jackson of Magic!

Good comparrison!

Maybe that'll be his next trick.....turning himself white

I don't really get it at all. If you're a magician then do magic, if you're a stuntman then why not do something exciting to watch, dangling upside down just doesn't really do it for me.

*Greedoniz packs away the bedroom swing with a defeated look on his face*

He's gone with pretty odd stunts for someone who puts Houdini as an idol. You'd think he would have worked out the sense of danger and anticipation better in terms of interesting people. Anyone else doing most varieties of dangerous stunts would do them with a bit more pace to make it interesting. Make sure there are still a few spectators left at the end.

apparently he was going to dive from a helicopter over niagra falls at one point shame he didn't do it

They're 'endurance' stunts. Not regular thrill-seeker stunts.

So I can see where people find it difficult to be entertained. There isn't too much of an audience for it and he doesn't earn any respect either (which, if they are real, then he probably does deserve something).
I'm not a fan and I have no interest in his stunts any more other than to know what odd-bod bit of wackiness he's up to now, but fair enough, he earns a nice living on it and he likes 'testing himself' in these ways.

As I mentioned I dropped cable awhile ago (in order to be more productive, maybe next time I should drop forums instead) and was a little out of the loop concerning his latest special and stunt. The following resources were very interesting, and I'm rather excited to see it.

http://abc.go.com/specials/davidblaine/index?pn=index
http://ftl.nypress.com/blogx/display_bl ... d=30025704
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/ ... lan_t.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... blaine.xml

I found the last to be very interesting read worth the 3 pages devoted to it.

Watched the new special las night. Have to say, I wanst really impressed with the hanging upside down or the "Dive of Death" but I did like a lot of the other street magic footage that they showed.

My favorite was the triangle in the center of the hand and the one where he squeezed the deck and made all of the cards vanish except the chosen card and suit.

Cant wait to hear what other people thought

As was brought up in another post, I do notice that the more I get in to performing, a lot of stuff doesnt seem to have the wow factor anymore.

Big D

I thinks hes actually lost it.....hes the Michael Jackson of Magic!

I can't help but agree with you Chris

Most of the online news report that I read today have stated that he took a number of time outs where he was stood upright and therefore his claim at suspending upside down for however long it was, has been won more criticism than credit.

At least peopl eare talking about him which I suspect is part of his aim.