BURIED ALIVE MYSTIFIER DAVID BLAINE FACES MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE -- TO BE FROZEN IN TIME Asks Public to Visit Him During 58-Hour Icebound Ordeal in Times Square NEW YORK November 20 -- Master Mystifier David Blaine, who amazed the world last year when he was buried alive for seven days, today announced that he is undertaking a dangerous new challenge, to be frozen in a six-ton block of ice for 58 hours. "Once again, this outstanding young man will test the limits of human endurance, using will-power to overcome the pain of being frozen alive," said James L. Nederlander, President of The Nederlander Producing Company of America, Inc., and producer of Blaine¹s "Buried Alive" and "Frozen in Time" challenges. "In the spirit of the great Harry Houdini, who brought magic to the world with challenges like this 100 years ago, we are providing this amazing drama free to New Yorkers and visitors to our city," Nederlander added. Blaine, 27, who has followed a grueling fitness regimen to prepare for his new challenge, stood up to his waist in a block of ice as he described the details and dangers of being frozen in time. "With the help and support of more than 100,000 people who came to visit my grave last year, I was able to endure for seven days," Blaine said. "Now, I ask well-wishers to lend me their warmth and support by visiting -- and touching -- the block of ice in which I will be frozen." Blaine fans also can visit his website at www.davidblaine.com which will provide round-the-clock live coverage of his latest challenge. On Monday, November 27, at Noon, Blaine will be encased in an six-ton block of ice at Broadway at 44th Street. Two halves of an eight-foot by six-foot by six foot block of ice, with Blaine¹s body contour cut into it, will close around Blaine and be welded together. The "Frozen in Time" site will be open to the public for the entire time of the challenge so people can walk in from Broadway and touch the ice in which Blaine is locked, standing in an upright position. Blaine¹s only lifeline is a tube running through the ice, carrying air and water. A medical team will be standing by, monitoring his vital signs, throughout the ordeal. He has worked out eye signals with his support staff in case of emergency. "The biggest dangers are loss of circulation and frostbite in his fingers and toes, and the threat of falling asleep, in which case his head could slump, bringing his face into contact with the ice, damaging the skin," said Ronald Rudin, MD, Blaine¹s medical consultant. "There also is the danger of blood clots which could break loose and move to the brain or other vital organs as David is being broken out of the ice." "The mythic magician Harry Houdini has been an inspiration for my work," Blaine said. "In his 1922 movie, The Man from Beyond, there is an image of Houdini frozen in ice, although he never actually tried this challenge. That movie premiered at The Times Square Theater at 42nd and Broadway, so I wanted to be frozen in time here in Times Square." Blaine has been preparing by immersing himself in tubs of ice and attempting to acclimate himself to cold temperatures. He will be wearing only a pair of pants and boots to protect himself. The world record for lying down in an ice encasement is 57 minutes. Blaine will not only attempt to break that record, but, if he is successful, set a new record for standing still in ice. Hypothermia and muscle spasms are among the other serious dangers Blaine will face in attempting to complete his endurance test. The public may visit Blaine live in the ice 24 hours a day, and may witness his breakout from the ice in person or watch the breakout live during his TV special, David Blaine: Frozen in Time at 10 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, on ABC. Blaine drew worldwide attention when he was buried alive April 5 - 12, 1999, lying in a see-through coffin under a tank holding four tons of water. The young mystifier cited Houdini as his inspiration for this feat also. Nederlander, a member of the third generation of the celebrated family known worldwide for outstanding theatrical productions, cultural presentations and popular musical attractions, says he is thrilled to be a part of Blaine¹s newest challenge. The website, www.davidblaine.com includes video clips from Blaine¹s past television specials, interactive illusions, a biographical photo gallery and David Blaine "favorites" page, and a sign-up page for a David Blaine email newsletter. Plans for additional programming include ongoing forums and chats, a David Blaine radio channel, multimedia-enabled e-postcards and more. The live web coverage will provide viewers a virtual, interactive front seat to Blaine¹s amazing test of how much cold the human body can endure. Through the conclusion of Blaine¹s challenge on November 29, fans will be able to view and chat with Blaine in real-time, have access to all his key vital statistics and also speak, via chat, with doctors, experts and even avalanche survivors who can tell of similar freezing experiences. ------------------ [This message has been edited by countingcrow (edited November 27, 2000).]
SSG, I fixed the problem with the link. It now works fine. ------------------ [This message has been edited by countingcrow (edited November 27, 2000).]
I'll be giving that performance the cold shoulder. Rock me! ------------------ Houston Sports Board The Anti-Bud Adams Page
Yeah he was on Conan a couple of days ago plugging it. ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams fan club. Web site coming soon atheistalliance.org
This guy has some serious mojo working. The stuff he does goes WAY beyond card tricks and simple illusion. ------------------ Time for a new cause.
Pardon my french, but that ice is gonna f*ck him up... I don't think it can be done. ------------------ My dream job is to be a Houston Rockets towel boy.
Man's got some big cojones. Of course, he's also a good candidate for the stupidest idea of the year award. I've got some more ideas for him, if he lives through this stunt: lava diving shark taunting Janet Reno's boyfriend ------------------ "Don't blame me. I think I voted for Gore." -Florida bumpersticker
He will not die because it is fake! There is know such thing as magic exccept the card game I play! I love illusions and trickery same as the next guy and I have seen some unexplanable stuff like the Statue of Liberty dissapearing but all Illusions or magic tricks have a scientific explanation for them. Now if this is real he is not a magician but a daredevil. ------------------
I understand he's going to have some kind of gel applies to his skin to protect it. Who knows what the gel is actually doing? Does it generate heat or keep the heat in his body from escaping? He's also wearing pants and boots. What kind of fluids is he getting through that "water tube"? What kind of injections or medication did he receive before being incased? Plenty of reason to doubt the feat, but who cares? It looks good! His "street magic" show a few years ago was really good, but if you dig around enough, you can find all the answers you need to the tricks. The real question: "Is it entertaining?" It is to me. ------------------ "We end up with Francis/Mobley isolations very often. More often, I'd say, then other teams." -- jamcracker
I lived in northern Labrador for most of my life and have a healthy respect for the cold. Hell, it used to have to be -70 degrees celsius for high school to be cancelled. I've seen what severe frostbite can do and it isn't pretty. If you lose circulation to your fingers and toes, the flesh quickly dies and rots off. My prediction is that he gives up after 24 hours. ------------------ My dream job is to be a Houston Rockets towel boy.
If anyone can explain to me how he does ANY of his tricks, by all means... Tell me. I'm dying to know. How the heck did he levitate in the air? How did he throw a card against a window and it get stuck on the other side. How does he know what people are thinking? ------------------
rendiggler: He buried himself once before and the most widely known and respected (by those who respect that sort of thing) skeptic actually came out to debunk what he was doing. He was allowed to inspect everything and was competely baffled by it. I suspect he will do the same again this time. As for the validity of this type of thing, I've read a few things done by journalists paid to attempt to find illusion in what he was doing (they were magicians, etc) and were astonished at what he did. I don't know if you've seen his TV specials, but the stuff the guy does is just plain spooky. fadeaway: You didn't answer my question. I know what cold can do as well. I'm just saying, what if it doesn't hurt him? I'm sure he has planned for his protection, but this is just bizarre. The reason I ask these questions is that there have been documented cases of martial artists, for example, who have slowed their heartbeat, blood pressure and respiration to the point where they were considered "dead" and held that for days at a time. One account I read a number of years ago was a monk who was buried for one week without air or food and came out unharmed and in perfect health. This was a guy who did it to prove to several skeptics and doctors who had come to witness it that it was possible with the proper control of the mind. I mean, how is it that Tai Chi masters in Asia can have a sword forced into their abdomen and, instead of the sword puncturing their skin, it bends like a piece of tin with no mark whatsoever left on them? I just think there is a lot out there we have no way of explaining and I find it all terribly interesting. ------------------ Time for a new cause. [This message has been edited by Jeff (edited November 27, 2000).]
I've seen his shows before and he is simply amazing. He is way beyond the typical illusions. What makes him different is that he does all his stuff one on one. I've seen his shows where is walking around in NY and just does these things right in people's faces. He is definetly a new generation of illusionists. Watch his special when it comes on. You will be amazed. ------------------ RocketFuel is dead!
Either it works and he's a legend or it doesn't work and he gets hurt bad, which could include the loss of appendages or worst case scenario he wins the Darwin Award..... ------------------ "It's incredible to see how he [Mobley] can beat his guy one-on-one every time. That is a tremendous talent. The combination of Steve and Cuttino, I think, is wonderful in the backcourt." --the Dream
I haven't read much about this but I checked his webcam out. From looking at the webcam inside the ice it appears there is a fairly large amount of space in the ice. In other words he is not directly touching the ice very much, if at all. That explains quite a bit because air is actually a very good insulator. That's why your hands don't instatly catch on fire when you take something out of the oven. If he's not touching the ice his skin won't get that cold. His natural body heat will warm the air around him enough to not cause tissue damage (I imagine). Still way cool though... dylan ------------------
Along the lines of what Jeff said... martial artists have been known to do some wild things. I've watched the demonstration of the bending of swords on a monk's abdomen just as Jeff described. Another inexplicable thing I saw was a monk igniting a piece of paper by hovering his hand over it and channeling "his energy" into it. The cameramen and reporters all thought it was fake, so they handed the guy a crumbled up piece of notebook paper to ignite. He threw it on the ground, knelt before it, put his hand over it and the within seconds the damn thing started smoking. It eventually combusted into flames. It was pretty incredible. Maybe Blaine is just tapping into the same source of power that's latent in many of us and that people such as the Tibetan monks have known about forever. On a side note, the same story showed Tibetan monks that lived in the Himalayas who used one thin blanket for protection. Folks, it was sub-freezing and snow was falling, yet they slept up in the mountains like this. ------------------ -------------- Did you know? Derrick Chievous sucked. It's true. -- from the ClutchCity.net "Did You Know" sidebar
I did some sleuthing around the WWW and found the following excerpt. He does indeed practice some form of "martial arts meditation" that use energy transference through the muscles, muchlike the monk that ignited the piece of paper. But folks, if you think the ice trick is incredible... feast on this (this is scary) : After the "frozen alive", he said he will receive a shot on the chest, with nothing over it, fall on the ground, remove the bullet, and go away walking! Sound a little risky? Not to worry, he explains, “I’ve been working in the gym several hours a day, doing ancient Chinese exercises involving energy transferal through the muscles.” By strengthening his body and mind, he intends to “stop” the bullet with his body. The following year he hopes to be tied upside down off the side of a building 10 stories above a sidewalk. Also, I never saw the levitation trick that you guys are talking about, but if it's the one where a guy appears to levitate himself about 3-6 inches off the ground, they've shown on specials how that trick is done. It's all done with "after-editing" of the film as the following URL somewhat explains. Now if the guy flew into a 3 story building by levitating, well... that's another story... http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/7308/balducci.html ------------------ -------------- Did you know? Derrick Chievous sucked. It's true. -- from the ClutchCity.net "Did You Know" sidebar
Good stuff, Dr. The levitation thing has always had me a tad skeptical but I read about a guy who was actually on the street when Blaine did it. He was a writer for a independant magazine in NYC and his story got published in some other places. I can't remember where the hell I read it, though. Anyway, he said he saw a camera and walked over to see what was up and said this guy was floating for like 10 seconds about 3 feet above the sidewalk and that he was looking all around for wires, etc. He found out that it was Blaine and said he was amazed. Wierd stuff, indeed. ------------------ Time for a new cause.
