NEWS: David Blaine's Latest Trick... Stunt? Uh, Thing That Happens to Him

CELEB: David Blaine's Latest... Trick? Stunt? Uh, Thing That Happens to Him.

It's not often that a magician's trick actually creates the opposite effect on the observing audience. I mean, when Houdini escaped from a straightjacket, the effect didn't cause the audience to be inprisoned in straightjackets. And yet, that's what's bound to happen during David Blaine's latest stunt, an attempt to break the world's record for staying awake.

If you tried really hard, do you think you could you think of a less-appealing trick? Him covering himself in paint, and us watching it dry? Observing him in a hair-growing race with a baboon? Staying awake is slightly more impressive than watching a petulant child hold its breath in defiance of... Oh wait, that was his last trick, and he failed. That presents a scenario I don't recall ever happening before.

Isn't this like if Houdini had failed to escape from the water-filled milk jug, waited a few months and then announced an escape from a mid-air, upside-down straightjacket? Um, hey, what about that other thing? You, like, didn't do it yet. Hmm, if only there were some sort of well-worn expression or idiom to point out the way in this situation... something about the order of things... maybe drawing a comparison between walking, for example, and that step that always comes after walking. Ah, well...

How is he preparing for this latest feat?

That's a pretty restricted diet. Especially considering that he goes on to say:

So, then, why did you just arbitrarily make up a super-specific menu? "There's no research on how to go about this. Guess I better practice speaking Klingon and learn the banjo, just to be on the safe side..."

I'm not sure of the upside in doing a possibly life-threatening and yet supremely uninteresting stunt where the ideal end result is someone going, "Uh, yeah he did it, he stayed up the whole time... So, you guys wanna get something to eat or..."

And, I'm not sure why, as an illusionist/magician he's allowed to skip the actual magic in favor of "stunts." Trapped in ice, buried alive... That's not magic, that's just us watching him endure hardship. You know who seems to be pretty good at that trick? Our military, most poor people, and dozens of countries around the globe. Maybe he can cut them in on some of the profits, a friendly gesture from one "magician" to another.

His next trick should be us, as a country, beating the shit out of him, and then watching him crawl the 30 feet to the ambulance. Just hours of that. "Is he dead?" "Nope, his arm just twitched, he's still going! Or was that him dying?" "Somebody poke him with a stick!"

Either that or he should bring back the Houdini "punch in the stomach" test. Only, it takes place 24/7 and we get to strike without warning.




TheCoolerKing drunkenly performs the Houdini "punch in the stomach" test, every year on his birthday. He sort of regrets starting the ritual.

well, maybe we will get lucky and he will suffer enough braind damage to no longer be capable of thinking up something as asinine as this ever again.

Lame

i assume it was brain damage that inspired this latest stunt.

Unless this involves a rabit appearing out of nowhere, lame.

day 7: death!
let's keep our fingers crossed.
and then we can crack open that cooler full of beer, eh?

I used to really dig the right in front of you "I'm reading your mind" kinda illusions, but his stunts annoy the crap outta me. This one in particular, not wise dude. Never experiment with sleep deprivation.

guantanamo bay school of 'magic'.

Hahaha. So true.

yeah, there's gonna be some brain damage...i agree w/ the 36 hours stage, and Day 4, you do start to hallucinate, though it's probably different things for different people...and i never got paranoid or dreamed while awake...i never got past 100 hours...at the end of it, i was literally a drooling, mindless lunatic

does anybody remember "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" on nickelodeon? Didn't they do this once too?

David Blaine is a tool...but not a useful kind of tool that gets things done to teaches lessons...he's like one of those inventions by that weird Japanese guy who invented moon shoes.

Yawn.

all he does is very impressive, the way he survives stuff is very spiritual and i believe in him, he is awesome

I hope his next trick, stunt, or thing that happens to him involves trying to catch a bullet with his brain.

That show was awesome!
Blaine's not a magician so much as a guy who desperately wants to be a science experiment. :o

Staying awake is magic?

We have to start setting higher standards.

Chris Burden did this sort of stunt more imaginatively and at greater length thirty years ago...

Agreed. That show was pretty great.

Good theme song, too.

I was awake for 45 hours once... I didnt feel drunk, I felt friggin tired!

Pete and Pete definately did do this, they were trying to beat 11 days, but after 2 most of them started dropping, if im not mistaken the younger brother made it like 10 days and then completely gave up lol, btw I agree that you don't really dream while you're awake, but you halucinate like a mofo, you know the little birds that flew around the characters heads in old cartoons? Yeah basically I see those after 3 days, except they tend to be woodland creatures......it's scary.

Oh and, yeah blanes a washed up douch, heh.

Whatever. This is gonna fucking rule.

Most. Boring. Stunt. Ever.

So wait, David Blaine is a celebrity?

I will say the lack of sleep hallucinations are a blast and watching people go through them is funny stuff.
I have seen guys trying to put dollar bills into trees to "buy gummi bears".
I saw a highway with a bunch of trucks in the middle of the woods and my asking "are those trucks picking us up?" I also saw giant stick figures walking towards me.

It still isn't magic. Go to Ranger school or SF and you can see the same thing.

No thanks, I have no desire to even think about staying awake that long. 16 hours of consciousness is enough. I my REM cycle.

so do you mix and match songs in a pattern that you personally feel is best? or do you play albums straight thru? do you go from album to album in order chronologically, from most liked to least liked, or purely random there?

i personally don't have any REM albums, so my sleep is pretty boring. but i'm thinking about doing something about that. i dunno.

i've heard Blane's stage act used to be damned impressive, but these stunts are utter twaddle.