David Blaine is an American illusionist and endurance artist. To gain fame, David Blaine followed the old Harry Houdini formula: perform a daring stunt and announce it to the press in advance. Quickly, Blaine rose to fame as a result of his unique kind of magic, uptown-casual attire, and friendships with A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Early Life
On April 4, 1973, David Blaine White entered our world. The son of Patrice Maureen White, a teacher, and William Perez, a Vietnam War soldier, Blaine was four years old when he first observed a magician performing magic on the subway. A fascination with magic was sparked in him by what he saw.
Blaine’s mother married John Bukalo when he was 10 years old, and the family relocated to Little Falls, New Jersey so that Blaine could attend Passaic Valley Regional High School. Blaine’s father was never in the picture. After finishing school, he promptly uprooted to the Big Apple. In 1997, Blaine had his first TV special, “David Blaine: Street Magic,” air on ABC.
Over the course of the next two years, he performed for unsuspecting pedestrians in cities like Dallas, New York, and San Francisco, all while being filmed by a tiny crew using handheld cameras.
Famous Live Stunts
In 1999, he performed his now-famous “Buried Alive” prank in New York City, opposite Trump Place, in which he hid for seven days in a plastic box within a 3-ton water-filled tank. He skipped meals and survived on about two to three tablespoons of water every day. Nearly 75,000 people, including Harry Houdini’s niece Marie Blood, visited the spot while he was buried alive.
Hundreds of reporters and television crews were present during the coffin opening on the final day of the prank. After excavating a 6-foot-deep grave for the water tank, a crew of construction workers uncovered it by removing the gravel around the casket’s perimeter.
The BBC said that Blaine, at the age of 26, had surpassed his idol, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar trick but had passed away in 1926 before he could carry it out.
Air and water were piped into the ice box for 63 hours, 52 minutes, and 15 seconds before he was cut free with chainsaws. Fearing he would go into shock, he has rushed to the hospital right away. It took him a whole month to recuperate.
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In May 2002, Blaine executed another feat, “Vertigo.” He was raised via crane onto a 100 feet high pillar in Bryant Park, New York City. He wasn’t secured to the pillar in any way, but there were two grab handles on either side of him in case of bad weather.
He spent 35 hours atop the pillar. When he landed on a platform fashioned from cardboard boxes, he had a slight concussion. During the closing hours of the stunt, he experienced acute hallucinations, he said.
In 2003, Blaine conducted another endurance experiment called “Above the Below” in London’s Potters Fields Park, near Tower Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames. He was confined inside a translucent Plexiglas container and suspended in the air. He could hardly move about in the 7 3-foot cages.
Blaine attempted to stand for three days in a block of ice in Times Square the next year, but he failed. There was a TV documentary about it called “Frozen in Time,” and it described how he shivered despite his light clothing as the ice cubes were being arranged around him.
In a typically British manner, onlookers teased Blaine viciously, pelting the box with eggs, golf balls, and other objects. Cheeseburgers were delivered to the box via a tormentingly remote-controlled helicopter. After 44 days, Blaine emerged from the box looking thin and weak from famine. He was rushed to the hospital.
On May 1, 2006, Blaine performed Drowned Alive, a stunt in which he spent seven days underwater while tied inside a sphere filled with 8 feet of water. After Blaine’s stunt, scientists from Yale followed him to observe the body’s response to extended submersion.
In 2012, Blaine did an endurance stunt in New York City called Electrified: One Million Volts Always On, which lasted for 72 hours. Blaine, while being filmed live on YouTube, stood on a pillar encircled by seven Tesla coils, each of which generated a million volts of electricity.
Specials
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In a 90-minute ABC special titled “David Blaine: Real or Magic,” Blaine performed magic tricks for well-known people under the direction of Matthew Akers in November 2013.
A 42-minute program titled “Beyond Magic” aired on ABC in November 2016 and featured Blaine doing magic for a variety of celebrities. The show centers around a magic act in which Blaine appears to capture a .22 caliber bullet in a little metal cup in his mouth.
On April 1, 2020, Blaine starred in another ABC special, “David Blaine: The Magic Way.” It consisted of numerous close-up magic acts, card tricks using video chat (thanks to COVID-19), and special performances by his daughter.
On three separate occasions, Blaine has performed in the Oval Office for three different US presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Net Worth of David Blaine
Even without going on tour, David can make $5 million a year from performing at private events and in Las Vegas. In years when he goes on tour, he can make $15 million. With his 2017 earnings, he reached a total of $4.5 million. With earnings of $13.5 million in 2018, he ranked as the world’s fourth-highest paid musician.
Personal Life
From 2009 until their 2014 breakup, Blaine was engaged to French model Alizee Guinochet. Dessa, their daughter, was born in 2011.
Three separate sexual assault allegations have resulted in investigations into Blane.
Real Estate
David, in 1998, spent a sum that will remain unknown on a Manhattan apartment of 1,000 square feet. He put the condo on the market in 2016 for $2.3 million. He spent $1.675 million purchasing a duplex in New York City’s Tribeca area in 2005. It appears that he still has ownership of both units.