30 Off-The-Record Facts About David Blaine You Never Knew Before

David Blaine, world renowned for his high-profile feats of endurance, has set and broken several world records in the last decade. He is one of the most popular magicians in history. He performed “Magic for Haiti,” for nearly 72 hours at the New York’s Times Square on January 15, 2010, to raise US$100,000 for Haiti earthquake relief. Here are some really interesting facts about the illusionist that will blow your mind:

"David Blaine by David Shankbone" by david_shankbone is licensed under CC BY 2.0

1.  He appeared on the April 30, 2008 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, setting a new Guinness World Record, holding his breath for 17 minutes 4-1/2 seconds, after entering the 1,800-US-gallon water tank. It was surpassed by German diver Tom Sietas, five months later.
2.  He was entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days, across from Trump Place on 68th St. and Riverside Boulevard, as part of a stunt titled "Buried Alive" on April 5, 1999.
3.  His only communication to the outside world was by a hand buzzer that would alert an around-the-clock emergency crew standing by.
4.  An estimated 75,000 people visited the site, including Marie Blood, Harry Houdini's niece, who said, "My uncle did some amazing things, but he could not have done this."
5.  On April 12, 1999, the final day of the stunt, a team of construction workers removed a portion of the 75 cubic feet of gravel surrounding the 6-foot deep coffin before a crane lifted the water tank.
6.  David Blaine was born on April 4, 1973, to William Perez and Patrice White in Brooklyn, New York City. He was raised by his single mother in Brooklyn.
7.  His father was a Vietnam War veteran of Puerto Rican and Italian descent, while his mother was a teacher of Russian-Jewish ancestry.
8.  He was four years old, when he saw a magician perform magic on the subway for the first time. Since then, he became interested in magic.
9.  He attended the Montessori school in Brooklyn. However, with the family moving to Little Falls, New Jersey, he attended Passaic Valley Regional High School.
10.  It has been reported that his mother developed cancer and passed away in 1994. Even before that, at the age of 17, he moved to Manhattan, New York City.

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11.  His first television special “David Blaine: Street Magic,” aired on May 19, 1997, on ABC, which was described as breaking new ground by Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller.
12.  The special features Blaine travelling across the country, entertaining unsuspecting pedestrians Atlantic City, Compton, Dallas, the Mojave Desert, New York City, and San Francisco.
13.  On November 27, 2000, Blaine performed a stunt called Frozen in Time, where he attempted and failed to stand in a large block of ice located in Times Square, New York City for 72 hours.
14.  He was removed from the ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds and taken to a hospital due to fears he might be going into shock.
15.  It was said that it took a month to fully recover and that he had no plans to attempt a stunt of this difficulty in the future.
16.  A crane lifted Blaine onto a 100 ft (30 m) high and 22 in (0.56 m) wide pillar in Bryant Park, New York City, on May 22, 2002. He remained on the pillar for 35 hours.
17.  He claimed that he had suffered from severe hallucinations in the final hours of this stunt, causing the buildings and structures around him to look like animal heads.
18.  He began an endurance stunt in which he was sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas box on September 5, 2003. The case was suspended 30 feet in the air next to Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames in London.
19.  The stunt lasted 44 days, during which Blaine drank 1.2 US gallons of water per day and did not eat. A webcam was installed inside the box so that viewers could observe his progress.
20.  The New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that documented his 44-day fast and stated his re-feeding was perhaps the most dangerous part of the stunt.

"Times Square David Blaine stunt" by andy in nyc is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

21.  The stunt ended on October 19, 2003, and he was subsequently hospitalized. He lost 24.5 kg – 25 percent of his original body weight—and his body mass index dropped from 29.0 to 21.6.
22.  On May 1, 2006, Blaine began his Drowned Alive stunt, which lasted seven days and involved a submersion in an 8 feet diameter, water-filled sphere containing isotonic saline in front of the Lincoln Center in New York City.
23.  He began his Revolution stunt on November 21, 2006, where he was shackled to a rotating gyroscope without food or water, intending to escape within 16 hours. The stunt was completed in 52 hours.
24.  In the year 2010, a 42 minute television special was aired, in which he performed an illusion of catching a .22 caliber bullet fired from a rifle into a small metal cup in his mouth.
25.  The special episode also featured 2008 footage of Blaine in New Orleans performing for people affected by Hurricane Katrina.
26.  He performed a 72-hour endurance stunt called Electrified: One Million Volts Always On atop a 22-foot high pillar on Pier 54 in New York City on October 5, 2012. He wore 34 pounds of gear, including a chainmail Faraday suit, designed to prevent electrical current from traveling through the body.
27.  He donated two $1 million Tesla Coils to Liberty Science Center, in Jersey City, New Jersey after performing this massive electricity stunt, to be exhibited on permanent display.
28.  He starred in “David Blaine: The Magic Way,” which aired on ABC on April 1, 2020, which consisted of various close-up magic acts, performing card tricks through video chat. The special also includes performances by Blaine's daughter.
29.  He performed the David Blaine Ascension stunt, which involved him floating while holding on to a cluster of 52 helium-filled balloons using a harness on September 2, 2020 in Page, Arizona.
30.  He managed to get to an altitude of 24,900 feet above sea level (more than 20,000 feet (6.1 km) above ground level), before parachuting down towards a flat ravine close to the initially planned landing zone. The entire stunt was streamed live on YouTube as a YouTube Original program.
31.  David Blaine Net Worth: $40 Million