Sorry to report that I failed to break my previous record of Watching a David Blaine Special, which was 52 minutes and 10 seconds. This time, I only lasted 47 minutes and 31 seconds before I felt myself gasping for air and my support team had to come in and get me out. And I have to admit that I cheated: Half an hour in, I couldn't stand the repetitive hype any longer and I fast-forwarded to the end to watch the finale as Blaine attempted and failed to break the world's record of holding one's breath underwater. (I suspect he did it the hard way: As I understand it, the record he was trying to shatter was for just holding one's breath. Blaine was trying to hold his breath and get out of eight pairs of handcuffs — which you'd kinda figure would make the breath-holding part a little more difficult.)
I admire the guy's physical stamina and to a certain extent, his showmanship. No one else these days — not Copperfield, not Lance Burton — is able to come up with a gimmick that will make a network buy a prime-time magic special. Blaine does, even though it means putting himself through physical hell and risking his life. I'm not sure that's entertainment and I'm not sure America does, either. Despite all the publicity and the opportunity to tune in and maybe see someone die on live TV, the ratings were only a slight improvement over whatever usually hovers in that time period. You'd think he'd do better than that, especially since a show like this would seem to have a two-pronged, foolproof appeal. Those who like David Blaine would tune in because they like him. Those who don't like David Blaine would tune in hoping to see him kill himself.
I'm not sure which of those groups I fall into, though I know I wouldn't want to see him kill himself. In fact, there's something very tasteless and irresponsible about all those doctors standing around, saying he shouldn't be doing this and that his life is in danger…but of course, they're there to support him. I think if I were a doctor and I was really concerned that the guy might off himself or do major damage to his body, I'd refuse to participate. There's a sense in which my presence would be enabling him to go on and attempt it. On the other hand, if I thought it was relatively safe, I don't think I'd be out there suggesting otherwise in order to ratchet up the drama.
As a magician, Blaine is quite skilled…though I've never quite understood the concept of Street Magic. He's always spoken of it like it's an old tradition but to the extent it is, it's also an outmoded one. Magicians may have done a lot of that before there were TV or Las Vegas showrooms or The Magic Castle but nowadays, Street Magic doesn't make a lot of sense. For one thing, there's no money in it. I don't think Mr. Blaine would be walking up to strangers on the boulevard and asking them to take a card, any card, unless he had a camera crew and a contract.
It's a nice gimmick — "taking magic to the people" — but it's also one that enables him to cheat a little. If you do magic before a legitimate audience — even taping for later editing and broadcast — and your trick fails, a lot of folks are going to see that failure. If you do tricks on a street corner for two people and a trick doesn't work, so what? Just toss that footage and do it again for someone else. Some of Blaine's on-the-street tricks depend on a little luck so he can tape one of them ten times with ten different "victims" and throw out the nine times it didn't work. Also, some of his tricks depend on the live audience not noticing some pretty simple gimmicks. If that audience is two people, that's a lot easier than if there are hundreds there…and of course, his camera crew and editors can control what we see or even if we see the trick at all.
In a way, Blaine redeems himself by going to the opposite extreme with the "live" part of his shows — the deadly feat performed in front of the whole world with no edits or camera tricks possible. If you find that kind of daredevil thing entertaining, I guess he does it well. I also guess I don't find it all that entertaining. I find it rather curious and odd, which is why I'm surprised I watched as much as I did.
Over and over, they kept telling us "don't try this at home," which always sounded to me like an odd way to phrase such a warning, even though I used to write that into the dialogue on a show that featured a lot of dangerous stunts. What they didn't want you to try at home because of the Blaine special was something Blaine himself wasn't trying it at home. He was in Lincoln Center surrounded by doctors and a rescue team with oxygen tanks. Frankly, there's zero chance of me trying something like that in my home…and only a slightly better chance of me watching the next David Blaine special there.