Interview Magazine has just posted a lengthy profile of David Blaine and discusses his next stunt, where the ideas for them come from and why they are so important to him.
With these various feats, Blaine has revolutionized the contemporary world of magic, redefining the magician’s work as something more internal than supernatural—as about battles of will as well as tricks of the eye. The shark swim is just Blaine’s latest project as he prepares to cross the ocean next summer in a glass bottle. Blaine’s friend and sartorial accomplice Adam Kimmel recently spoke to him about his work, including the shark swim, and why his biggest dream challenge is one day beating the world record for staying awake.
When I do these challenges, I try to imagine how they will look as an image, almost even how they will photograph. For example, how the water tank came about is that I started thinking about how someone would look living in a sphere. That’s mainly how I operate. Then I have to work doing magic—at private events and stuff like that—to pay for these endurance stunts. I try to do it my way. So basically, I work all year doing magic to be able to pay for these things that I dream up.
One of the reasons I love doing these stunts is because as soon as you take away all the extravagances and superfluities that we live with every day of our lives—the things that we adhere to as being so important, like cell phones and the need to eat your favorite food or worry about a billion different things—the simplest things become the most amazing. It’s very hard to explain. By clearing all of that extraneous stuff away, you get this heightened sense of awareness.
Read The Complete Article Here Thanks to Jesse M. for sending this our way!