Blaine does magic for Pacquiao family

MANILA, Philippines - David Blaine flew to General Santos City yesterday because he wanted to meet Manny Pacquiao.

The famous American magician got what he wanted as the Filipino boxing icon welcomed Blaine to his mansion that goes by the codename White House.

Blaine, who staged a one-night show Friday in Manila, performed some of his newest tricks before Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee, their kids and some house guests.

As everybody watched closely, the 41-year-old illusionist from Brooklyn in New York made a deck of cards disappear from the palm of his hands.

“That’s amazing,” remarked Pacquiao as told to The STAR by GMA-7 sportscaster Mark Zambrano who was in the mansion when Blaine arrived a little past noon.

Blaine pulled off a lot of tricks before the 35-year-old boxer.

Blaine is a self-confessed Pacquiao fan, and according to Zambrano, the former knew everything about the Filipino superstar.

Blaine has been following Pacquiao since the days Pacquiao was fighting in Thailand. He can recite all of Pacquiao’s fights – the dates, the name of the opponents and the results.

Blaine is no ordinary magician.

In 1999, he was entombed underground in a plastic box for seven days, and in 2000 he was encased in a box of ice for nearly 64 hours. His endurance skills were also tested in New York in 2002 when he stood on a 22-inch wide pillar 100 feet high and stayed there for 35 hours.

He performed mostly card tricks for the Pacquiaos. All eyes were glued to his hands, and yet no one could figure out how the master of close-up magic pulled them off.

Blaine was treated to lunch of Filipino adobo, pinakbet and rice, and later on the fighting congressman challenged his visitor to try balut (duck embryo) and durian, an exotic fruit that you can smell from a mile away.

Blaine obliged and seemed to like them, too.

The noted endurance artist came with his crew, and filmed Pacquiao for a segment to be aired soon on his popular show “David Blaine Street Magic.”

Blaine has had some famous Hollywood celebrities appear on his show, including Will Smith, Harrison Ford and Robert de Niro, and has added Pacquiao to the list.

Blaine wanted to make sure he met Pacquiao personally.

Pacquiao is scheduled to fight undefeated Chris Algieri in Macau on Nov. 23, and is scheduled to start training tomorrow.

It was not mentioned if Pacquiao invited Blaine to watch his next fight live.

The eight-division boxing champion performed his own magic trick before Blaine, using a deck of cards, and Pacquiao nicely pulled it off.

Everybody clapped, including Blaine.