Wow, it's magic!!!

Coming to Manila to mesmerize Filipinos with death-defying and life-threatening acts at the Araneta Coliseum on Sept. 12, David Blaine (a.k.a. Magic Man) will prove how his feats of endurance have helped him break several world records

I bet that you and I, and everybody who will be there, will hold our collective breath when we watch David Blaine (a.k.a. Magic Man) at the Araneta Coliseum on Sept. 12 (a Friday) just as he did when he tried to hold his breath for several minutes when, in one of his death-defying and life-threatening acts, he was submerged in an eight-foot diameter, water-filled sphere in front of the Lincoln Center in New York sometime in 2006.

And as he did back then, emerging from the sphere with a triumphant smile as he acknowledged the deafening cheers from the audience, when he does it at the Big Dome and takes a bow after one such breath-taking act, we will heave a sigh of relief and breathe freely again as we give Blaine a standing ovation, bravo!!!

Born in Brooklyn, New York (where he was also raised) on April 4, 1973 (Aries) to a half-Puerto Rican/half-Italian father who’s a veteran of the Vietnam War and a Russian-Jewish mother who was a school teacher, Blaine became fascinated with magic at a very early age when he saw a magician performing magic in the subway, an interest that grew and grew and eventually led to his doing magic as a profession.

Asked about his style and why he preferred to perform magic on the streets, Blaine was quoted as saying, “I’d like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.”

Time magazine noted that Blaine’s “deceptively low-key, ultra-cool manner leaves spectators more amazed than if he’d razzle-dazzled,” a concept of focusing on spectator reactions that changed the way that magic has been shown on TV. According to the New York Times, Blaine “has taken a craft that has been around for hundreds of years and done something unique and fresh with it.”

So far, Blaine has wowed audiences around the world by being entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a three-ton water-filled tank for seven days, encased in a massive block of ice in an act called Frozen in Time, swimming with Great White Sharks, and surviving a 72-hour endurance stunt called Electrified: One Million Volts Always On.

Without using magic, Funfare did an exclusive e-mail interview with Blaine whose answers might give us an idea, no matter how vague, how his “magical” mind works.

What was the first magic that you performed?

“Everything began with a deck of cards. I can’t remember that far back but my mother’s friends remember me standing on a chair doing magic with a deck of cards when I was five years old. I imagine it was a simple, count to any card effect.” 

How and when did you get interested in magic? 

“My mother gave me a deck of cards when I was four and I just loved how they felt. I carried them everywhere. We didn’t have much so they meant the world to me.” 

Why do you prefer to do magic on the streets?

“I like the simplicity, it requires no set-up, and the reactions of the people are amazing.”

What is the most difficult magic that you have performed? Was it life-threatening?

“There’s a card move that took me 10 years to learn. It took me 20 years to learn how to hold my breath for over 10 minutes, which I’m still working on.” 

How do you prepare yourself for a magic show (as far as amount of sleep, diet and general physical well-being are concerned)? 

“I don’t eat for the whole day leading up to the show, then I drink four liters of water within five minutes. Right before I go on, I try to sit down and listen to music so I can focus on what I’m about to do.”

Who are the magic artists that you admire and why? 

“There are the obvious ones like Houdini and Hadji Ali, but I also have lots of close friends who are magicians and we have so much fun going out and trying out new things on people.”

Do you adapt the kind of magic that you perform to the kind of audience that you are performing it for? 

“It shifts according to how I feel, the situation and the people.”

As a spectator, what magic show is memorable to you, and why? 

“Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants because he combined magic and art.”

What can we Filipinos expect during your show in Manila? 

“It’s based on my last show, Real or Magic, a combination of the things I’ve worked on throughout my life, some death-defying acts, and new magic.” 

Any tips for people, especially the young, who want to take up magic artistry as a profession?      

“I can’t wait to see something I’ve never seen before.”

Have you ever encountered any accident or put your life in danger in any of your acts? 

“I’m combining water spouting with the breath hold, I’m depleting my body of electrolytes which is very dangerous, and my heart beat often goes irregular while I’m in the water tank. I’m pushing to hold my breath as long as I can before blacking out, although that has happened before. Every time I go on stage I’m putting my life in danger.”

(David Blaine Asia Tour 2014 Live in Manila is produced by Ovation Productions. For ticket inquiries, call 911-5555 and 532-8883.)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)