David Blaine, known for his headline-making spectacles of endurance, will attempt to hang from a wire five stories in the air for three days and nights.
David Blaine, known for his headline-making spectacles of physical, emotional and mental endurance, will live on the line -- literally. Blaine, the 'Upside Down Man,' will attempt to hang from a thin wire five stories in the air -- with no safety net or airbag to break his fall -- in Central Park's Wollman Rink for three days and nights. Using electro-magnetic boots, Blaine will walk on and under the wire during more than 60 hours of the challenge. How will he exit from his perch overlooking New York City? Details of Blaine's heart-stopping plunge at the conclusion of the special are a closely-guarded secret. He will surprise us all -- live -- on a new, two-hour ABC primetime special, David Blaine: Dive of Death, Wednesday, September 24 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
Additionally, viewers will join Blaine on a unique cross-country trip, as he makes his way from the east coast to the Grand Canyon, performing his jaw-dropping illusions for people in his own distinctive style. Blaine, who has triumphantly revived amazing crowd-pleasing spectacles of magic, surprises people by appearing in the most unexpected places, bringing his amazing illusions to people who need it the most. The real people with whom Blaine shares the power of his magic include residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, coal miners in West Virginia's Mingo County and inner city gangs of East St. Louis.
For more than 60 spellbinding hours, Blaine will be on the wire without food. He will pull himself up to drink liquids and to restore circulation. He will need to fight off muscle spasms and lack of sleep, as well as maintain maximum concentration in order to be successful. He will have to hang on for his life, even sleeping by dangling upside down.
Blaine's latest endurance challenge will take place in full public view -- a free, family friendly event beginning the morning of September 22 -- with passersby able to see him hanging precariously from his high wire.
Blaine successfully held his breath under water for longer than any human being (after inhaling pure oxygen) -- 17 minutes and four-seconds -- live on April 30 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In May 2006, on ABC's live special, David Blaine: Drowned Alive, he attempted to break the 8-minute, 58-second record for a breath-hold under water (after inhaling air that was not oxygenated) after living for a record seven days and nights underwater -- longer than any human -- in an acrylic sphere in front of New York's Lincoln Center.
He also successfully completed a 44-day fast in an acrylic box suspended over the Thames River in London in the fall of 2003, surviving only on water. American viewers have been following his exploits for years on ABC Television. On David Blaine: Vertigo, in May of 2002, he balanced on a platform, 22 inches in diameter, atop a 90-foot pillar in Manhattan's Bryant Park for 35 hours.
In November 2000, Blaine's Frozen in Time challenge drew massive crowds in Times Square, as he successfully survived inside a block of ice for over 61 hours. In April 1999, he was Buried Alive for seven days and seven nights, stunning thousands of New Yorkers who filed by his see-through crypt. The country was initially introduced to Blaine's amazing brand of incredible effects on his first ABC special, David Blaine: Street Magic, which aired in May 1997.
Two months ago we posted a photo of an early Kepplinger Holdout made by Will & Finck from the Doug Edwards Collection. This month Doug sent us a photo of the actual PJ Kepplinger apparatus as made and used by Kepplinger himself in 1888! He has researched this extensively and found an accurate description and depiction of it in the book 'Sharps and Flats' by John Nevil Maskelyne (1894). Although only four or five of these enigmatic machines were built by Kepplinger, this is the only one known to exist today. It is made of lightweight pen metal and still retains 100% of its original interior green felt lining. Doug says, "Of all the items in my magic collection, this is the most ingenious and most substantially made. The inner workings are a visual knockout."
David Blaine, known for his headline-making spectacles of endurance, will attempt to hang from a wire five stories in the air for three days and nights.
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