Saturday, June 3, 2017
“David Blaine is the greatest magician who ever lived.”
Howard Stern made that on-air proclamation, a sentiment echoed by Penn Jillette
of Penn and Teller, who referred to Blaine’s Street Magic as “the best TV magic
special ever done.” Blaine was just twenty- three when Street Magic first aired
on ABC, transforming televised magic by turning the camera on the audience.
Spectators at home could feel the visceral reaction of people being astonished.
The New York Times went on to declare that Blaine had “taken a craft that’s
been around for hundreds of years and done something unique and fresh with it,”
while The New Yorker prominently stated “he saved magic.”
LIVE STUNTS
“Buried Alive,” Blaine’s first live stunt, was a feat even
Houdini was unable to do in his lifetime. Entombed in an underground plastic
box beneath a three ton water tank for seven days with no food and little
water, Blaine would draw strength from the 75,000 visitors who came to the
event beside the Hudson River, topping foot traffic at both the Empire State
Building and Statue of Liberty combined. Upon emerging Blaine remarked, “I saw
a vision of every race, religion, and age group banding together.”
