David Blaine: Real or Magic & What Is Magic?

Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller called Street Magic “the best TV magic special ever done; really breaking new ground.” Blaine performs in unconventional locations, from the streets of Compton to New York City’s Times Square, and even the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room. The show focuses on people’s reactions – laughter, screams, amazement and disbelief. Blaine has “taken a craft that’s been around for hundreds of years and done something unique and fresh with it,” noted the New York Times. Street Magic paved the way for all other magic specials around the world to this day.

In this special, Blaine brings magic to people around the world, traveling to Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Venezuela, and Haiti. Despite language and cultural barriers, he mystifies the Yanomami tribe and shows how people’s reactions are universal. Back in New York, he turns a homeless man’s cup of coffee into an overflowing cup of coins. His raw approach enables viewers at home to feel as though they are part of Blaine’s magic.

Blaine begins one of his most difficult endurance challenges to date, as he is encased in an enormous, transparent block of ice in Times Square. For 63 hours, he survives on nothing but water, battling sleep deprivation while risking his life. By the end of the stunt, Blaine is in an obvious state of delirium. This special also features clips of magic performances, including changing the treasurer’s signature on a dollar bill to the spectator’s signature and making a chosen card appear inside a basketball.

In Vertigo, Blaine is lifted by a crane onto a 30m tall, 55cm wide pillar in New York City’s Bryant Park. He wears no harness and has no safety net to protect him from the concrete below. After standing on the pillar for 36 hours, Blaine ends the feat by jumping off in front of 50,000 live spectators and landing on a layer of cardboard boxes. This special also includes Blaine’s close-up magic, such as refilling and resealing a crushed, empty beer can with beer by just tapping it with his fingertips. Blaine also reaches his arm through a jewelry store’s glass window and grabs a watch from the display case without breaking the glass.

In Drowned Alive, Blaine is submerged for seven days and seven nights in a water-filled sphere in front of Lincoln Center in New York City, after which he attempts to break the world record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds for underwater breath-holding. In addition to the live event, the special features scenes of Blaine’s innovative street magic including pulling a girl’s teeth out and blowing them back in. During his visit to the maximum security prison in Angola, Blaine bends the jail bars in front of a group of prisoners, stunning them with his “superhuman” strength.

David Blaine enters the Hurricane stricken Ninth Ward in New Orleans and changes some people's luck. When he returns home to New York City, viewers see him doing magic for some of his friends, including Orlando Bloom, John Mayer and the Super Bowl Champion NY Giants.