David Blaine explains why he chose to be buried in coffin for 7 days with no food
David Blaine has revealed what inspired him to bury himself alive for seven days and nights - in full view of the public - without food.
Prepare to be bamboozled:
David Blaine is known for taking magic to the absolute extreme. From holding his breath for 17 minutes to standing on a pole for 35 hours, his magic has certainly evolved from just the standard card tricks to much more daring and risky stunts.
Advert
On an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Blaine explained to Rogan just how his magic has developed into 'insane things,' such as when he buried himself alive for seven days in front of Trump Place at Riverside South, at West 68th Street facing the Hudson River.
When most of us think of magic, we picture cards being shuffled to reveal the one we had remembered in our mind, a rabbit coming out of a hat or some cloth coming out of a fake thumb.
However, you don't get any of this with Blaine.
Blaine decided to take on another magician's trick - which they never ended up carrying out - burying himself alive in a coffin with no food for a week at the age of only 25 years old.
Although, so not to be seen as 'copying', Blaine adapted the trick.
Blaine explained how his inspiration for the trick came from Hungarian-American escape artist, magician and stunt performer, Harry Houdini.
Blaine told Rogan: "There's a poster of Houdini where he was buried alive, but he never did the stunt. He died before he got to do it. But he was going to be buried alive underground in a coffin.
"So I stared... I loved that poster since i was a kid, it's like in the magic books you see that poster.
"Anyway, Bill [William] Kalush (Founder of the Conjuring Arts Research Centre), comes up to me and says, 'What about this? What if you pretend to be buried alive in Central Park and we sneak you out and come back a month later?'."
While the trick inspired him, Blaine was adamant he didn't just want to 'copy' Houdini.
Nevertheless, Blaine thought of an alternative way to carry out the 'interesting' stunt, so that 'everybody could see [he] was buried alive'.
Kalush dismissed the idea, however Blaine revealed he bought a coffin round to his house to practice sleeping in it, not taking no for an answer.
The performer predicted he could probably do a week inside the coffin and 'pushed the idea of being buried alive'.
Blaine finally got his way and his adaptation of the trick was put into motion, with people able to see Blaine buried alive as the coffin was designed to be see through and had 'six tonnes of water on top of it'.
Blaine didn't eat for two weeks before the stunt so he didn't need a number two, but kept drinking water prior to and during the stunt and oxygen was blown in and out via holes above his head.
Rather than covering himself up when he needed the loo and risk people thinking he was cheating, Blaine used a catheter.
He joked: "The hard part of it, you'd never anticipate this bit as the hard part, if you're not used to peeing in front of lots of people staring at you, it's really hard."
Blaine explained how it took him 'hours' but eventually he was able to relieve himself in front of so many people by closing his eyes and trying to pretend they weren't there.
Blaine resolved: "What happened by midway through the stunt, I'd be waving and smiling and peeing and it was nothing."
Topics: US News, Joe Rogan, Donald Trump
Poppy Bilderbeck