Are you impressed with David Blaine's latest challenge?

I don't know if I'd call it impressed. When is this happening?

It's underway already. Day 10 out of 44 currently

Latest news:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12779674,00.html

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-12779331,00.html

Wow. People aren't too happy about his mission then?

I like him and I'm glad he's out there doing stuff like this...

There are a few 'tosser' Brits that think his challenge is wrong but they're just jealous that some people are actually doing something with their lives.

Ahh. Okay.

I couldn't care less. I'd never heard of him before this, and starving oneself in solitary confinement isn't something that impresses me.

I was over by the Saatchi Gallery earlier when some hooligans rode up on their bikes to a guard wanting to know where the bloke in the box was...

The page to forever to load and then I couldn't see any obvious explanation what you were talking about. I wasn't about to go poking around on some stupid website trying to figure out what this is about. Then I thought something seemed familiar so I checked here:

http://www.randi.org/jr/091203.html

The guy's dangling in a clear plastic box in London or something...whatever...

Nope.. I think the guy has just found a way to gain fame and fortune.

I'm not sure if I'm impressed -- can't really see the point except that it's a personal thing. I sure as hell wouldn't do it because, again, I can't see the point. Anyway, best of luck to him. I like his slight of hand stuff, though.

I am seriously impressed with David Blaine period! Any human who is so intent on taking their body to the extremes that this man has, in a quest to see how far he can possibly go(physically, spiritually, and psychologically) and then take us the viewing public along for the ride, for free, is amazing.
I've been doging and moaning about the frustration of this broken foot and having to hobble about on crutches and worrying about the healing process and then yesterday I spent some time reading about this new quest of David Blaine's and I gleaned a great feeling from the fact that he has repeatedly shown us that the human body is an incredible machine that can take some of the most extreme injury, starvation, fluctuations in temperature, etc, whether self induced or accidental...and then still be brought back to full recovery again.
No more moping for me. He is hungry. He is peeing in a tube, he is cold, he is suspended high in the air, he may very well lose his mind at some point, his organs may shut down....I've got it good in comparison.
Mind over Matter

Kind of. I'm more impressed with the magic tricks. Why would anyone subject themselves to starvation, when there are people who would kill for the privileges we have?

I'm guessing one of those tv reality show guys, ok, judging by what lil' bit that i read, some dude that's willing to starve in isolation for 44 days, what a media freak. I'm guessing that he's going to live through it, or get medical attention half way through it. If he succeeds, he'll be 'greater than Jesus' b/c Jesus was in the desert fasting for 40 days. I personally think Jesus was a cooler guy b/c he didn't do it for publicity (and I'm sure $$$), but instead did it for spiritual cleansing and enlightenment.

but the dude can levitate!!

So can Sue and Mallory... I've seen them do it.

c'mon...(please don't fool me on this one...)...for real???

As real as Mr. Blaine, using the same technique that tricks the eye. BTW, when David Blaine fully levitates his entire body off the ground...both feet, full frontal view...he uses...wires

Not at all. I think he's a good magician, and I always watch his shows, but this is just plain stupid. If he goes through with this he could seriously hurt, if not kill, himself. Also, I don't see how anyone else could possibly find this entertaining.

I can do it too.. works really well with my big boots..

Yeah, but he cant walk on water though. Just go with it considering I'm a non-christian.

I BET!!!!!!

Totally and completely not impressed - I believe it is fake.

Fake?

How come?

I have been invited to an event to go and throw sausages at David Blaine.

Seriously people are flashing those red light pens in his eyes, throwing food and flashing their breasts at him. If we as Brits manage to hound David Blaine out of the country by our childish stunts I, for once, will proudly stand up as proud to be British!

There is some trickery involved - I believe its too dangerous to do for real.

and impossible - read my above message as well which I know you'll disagree with.

His other stunts have all been very dangerous.

I think it's unfair how the minority of Brits have treated him. I, for one, will ashamedly lie low to be British!

Not sure, I might consider it stupidity though.

**sniff sniff**
my amazement is crushed, my yearning for the mysterious and unknown is gone...am so sad for i DO believe that one can make themselves levitate...am crushed..**sniff sniff**

ok...i feel really really stupid for believing or having faith should i say...no he can't walk on water...he can't do anything except deceive and fool the minds eye **sniff sniff**

The latest:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12782310,00.html

That is annoying about David Blaine.. What I read was that the people's faces on those clips you see are the reaction to him doing the actual trick.. the slight of hand stuff.. but they fill in the footage of him doing the trick with him doing it with wires and stuff.

So are you telling me that he's a grade A con artist? or he's not a con artist, and just has the potential for it? To each their own. I honestly do believe in telekinesis, pyrokinesis, ESP, etc. We only use 10% of our brain. (the age old question) Can you imagine what we could do if we used all of it? I'm not proposing that he uses 100% but maybe he is authentic (never heard of the guy before this survey) and he's tapped into some other part of his noggin.

I am impressed in the way i don't know how he does everything but i also don't care
i hate magicians except for "Penn & Teller"

see..ok..that's exactly what i believed about this guy...i believed that he indeed is/was using more of his brain than what the 'norm' does...i believed w/ my entire being that this guy figured it out, that he is/was here on this planet right now as some sort of teacher/guide...to show that it is indeed possible to use what nature has always intended us to use....i believe in all that stuff..my ultamite goal, to use my brain, or should i just say what nature had given me at time of birth...
i first heard of this guy a few years ago when everything was 'mystical and magical' and he fell into place exactly w/ what was going on...i've become hardened, my faith is slipping, for HOW to attain such things appears foriegn, although i know it's right at my finger tips and always has been...i know that it's different for every single soul, but there MUST be a common root that links it all together, (are you following me or am i rambling?)......
anyhow...i've just believed that this guy is authentic...just crushed me a bit, um, ok a LOT, to hear that he's a phoney a fake whatever
i guess for an instant i felt childish for believing, like how i believe in fairies and talk to them...

I fully understand what you are saying, hence the reason on the survey I wrote about aspire to be like someone else, my reply were like the druids, buddah, etc, so I fully comprehend why you do/did believe in this guy. Now, the part I'm confused about is whether he's a fake or not. Has it actually been proven by reputable sources? Or is it 'people are saying' type of situations? Kinda like say...David Copperfield, obviously a master of illusions, Hudini the escape artist, Evil Knievil who constantly pushed himself more and more.

I don't believe that you're a fool, b/c like you said, when you first found out about David Blaine, your mind was wide open, willing to accept anything that fell in line. You just let your guard down a little bit is all.

In regards to the wee people, I believe in them, whether they are tangible or not, I truly don't know, but I perceive in them as Mother Earth's 'watchers' if you will.

i do not know if the sources are indeed reputable or not, who do they know? how do i know for that matter? i do not know...but all i'm saying is i guess that i have learned to NOT put my faith in ANYTHING 100%, nothing...learned to question all...so to hear david blaine's name again, re-sparked that feeling that everything is mysterous and wonderous...in fact just had an instance a couple of days ago, i was outside w/ my little family here, and ther were a WHOLE bunch of birds circling overhead, i have never seen these types of birds before, and they just keept circling, (ever read clive barker and what he says about birds?), anyhow...so i was in totaly awe byt these birds and that they were 'mystical and magical' ,(i use those words for lack of better terms)...but then a little while later, we were talking w/ our neighbor, and those birds were brought up in conversation, and i had said something along the line of, "wasn't that bizzare?" but the neighbor just replied, "nah those are just night hawks and they are the first migratory bird to pass through on their way down south they're just eating a bunch of bugs and things."
so, yeah...felt stupid BIG time! LOL
so yeah, i get these reminders that everything is ordinary and that i shouldn't put my belief 100% into anything

I don't know what Clive Barker ever said about birds, but the druids believed that crows/ravens (I forget which is american, and which is European) but they foretold the future, for lack of better words. A certain number of caws, in a certain manner, meant a specific thing, such as a death. Seeing certain birds foretold of rain, etc.

If it makes you feel any better, I was walking into a target store, and up in the overhang on a beam was perched a crow/raven cawing. Since I've never seen one so up close, I leaned against the entranceway outside, and merely watched and listened to it for about 10 minutes or so. Upon leaving the store, I didn't see it up above, and as I was walking out to my car, I saw it there, sitting on another car, b/c I had to pass it to get to my truck, it took a short flight, but every time it 'hopped away' it was getting closer to my truck. I remember wanting to try to touch it, and even possibly take it home with me. I almost believed that it wanted to be my companion by its actions, until it eventually flew elsewhere in the parking lot

clive barker said something along the lines of, wherever birds gather, is a weakness; meaning like a gap or something or portal to the 'other'; different realms or dimentions whatever you want to 'name' it...i believe that whenever i see a hawk, it's my messenger reassuring me that i'm on the right path, or eagle or owl for that matter...eagles and owls are rare so i keep my eyes open extra wide, or if i'm the only car in sight and i happen to see one, i KNOW it's for me....don Juan talked of birds as well, so did other authors and other 'wise' folk

i like you story...along the same lines as mine...i would'a thought the exact same thing though in all honesty....

I believe my reference on birds warning of various omens by the druids, is written in some detail by Morgan Morgan Llewelyn, she writes historical fiction. I'll see if I can dig up the book with the reference in it, and any others that I may be able to find.

No, I wasn't impressed by his previous stunts anymore than I'm impressed by his current one.

yes, thats impressive, but also at the same time, very dumb.

cool...thanks

i have to tell you this though...so lately i've noticed that when i'm driving, birds appear in groups as a warning to me, to watch out and be alert, all types of birds. for example...i was driving to my folks house, and there was some construction on this back road and it was all torn up, so i decided to go around it. so, i'm heading down this one road, and over a minor hill, i noticed roughly 50 birds of some sort just hanging out in the road...as i approached, i began to be aware of what was goin on around me, (for i was having a lot of similar experiences lately), and was watching, then 3 HUGE bucks ran out in front of the car....i was waiting though, so it wasn't a big deal...but that was conformation to me, anyways, that when birds appear like that they're telling me to watch out...they had appeared by blind corners and then all of a sudden a car would be there, or they tell of other woodland creatures in the area by the road....i just keep an extra eye out now whenever i'm driving

Maybe they're your spirit sign. I unfortunately live in a city, and I can't recall every noticing anything like that (I was too young) when I lived in GA, but I will definitely keep that in mind when I go for my long drives.

well, one of the many signs for sure...i've got these really cool 'cards', they're called medicine cards and they' relate w/ animal guides...you're supposed to pick cards and they represent your animal spirit totem, is what they call it...similar to tarot cards in a sense, but different of course...i just recently pulled a different totem for myself, for i've changed since the last time i pulled a set, (you're only supposed to pull a totem once), but these are the animals i pulled...otter, dog, deer, ant, lizard, swan, buffalo, moose, hawk..........of course they all carry different messages/lessons
but really though, keep an extra eye out when you're out of the city

Not in the slightest. He'll either be dead by the end of September or else he's a faker - either way, it's pretty stupid. I would have a lot of respect for what he was doing if it wasn't some big self-publicity stunt. Why, why, why isn't he using it to raise money for famine-relief charities or to raise awareness of the conditions faced by prisoners in some parts of the world? It would be no skin off his nose to have his publicists organise some fundraising while he's in his box and for him to talk for a few minutes about the topic at a press conference or two. But no, he's doing it to try and make himself look good and that's the sole reason.

No, the kind of person who impresses me is better represented by the Leukaemia survivor who ran the London marathon wearing an old fashioned diving suit (one of the ones with the huge metal helmets where air would be pumped from the surface and lead-weighted boots) weighing 130lbs. He's now the Guinness World record holder for the slowest marathon ever - I believe he ran for over 5 days days. He was sponsored about £100,000 before he set off and was given over £11,000 more by passersby as he ran. He's recently announced that he's going to run the length of Loch Ness (on the bottom, again wearing the diving suit. He's raised a lot of money for charity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1949069.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1932941.stm

Who?

Biggles, this is definitely one guy that I respect and admire. Do you know if he ever ran the New York Marathon, b/c I didn't hear of this gent before you. I just ran a search on Lloyd Scott on the New York Times paper (since 1996) and I didn't see any articles about him which is a real shame.

EVERY ONE READ MY THREAD IN FORUM

Have responded!

why should he be dead? I think he should be able to last that long without food, as long as he's getting water... he's not actually exposed to the elements... I think his major concern is going batcrap crazy

I can see some personal, spiritual, reasons to do this type of a quest... what puts me off is the public nature of it.

I haven't quite understood the 'magic' bit of what he does... it tends to seem to be more of an endurance challenge than anything

He claims he won't be taking in anything but water and that there won't be any supplements of any kind in the water. He can survive without food for more than 44 days if he wants, but he can't survive that long without salt. It may go against the stereotype, but it's actually pretty hot here right now! He's sat in a plastic box in the sun and he'sgoing to be sweating. Even if he wasn't sweating much, he'd still be losing lots of salt each day. Unless he replaces that salt, his systems will shut down and he'll die long before he's due to come out of the box. Doctors will have told him that, so either he's insane, or there's salt being added to the water supply, in which case he's lying- the trickery would be where the "magic" comes in

There was a snippet about it in New Scientist recently: "But there is one factor that could be Blaine's undoing. If he really is taking water and nothing else, he will start to get seriously short of salt. After three weeks, this will force down his blood pressure, he will get dizzy and eventually pass out. The Irish republican hunger strikers took salt supplements to avoid this.

So it looks as though Blaine cannot win. If he does take just plain water, he will be unconscious by the end of September and the stunt will end early. If he lasts the distance, on the other hand, it will be highly likely he has been lying to us. Now there's a reason to put aside your qualms and start watching."

I seem to remember seeing footage of him running the NY marathon on the news, but I could be wrong.

ah that's a good point about the salt... I hadn't thought of that.

I was there just a few days ago... I was sweating! I don't usually sweat in London

*shakes head*....and ppl thought Houdini wasn't in his right mind...not that David isn't...but then again....why?.....I have found his other 'magik tricks' more to my liking, enjoy the way he handles himself that way and he seems like a nice guy.

I bet! It's still hot now - I was out in Sheffield today. I was too warm and I'm sure it's much warmer in London

They're talking about pulling his stunt now - because of the reaction from the British public. I can't believe that the reaction isn't what they expected

At least someone smells worse than I do

it does seem naive of them to have thought people wouldn't react this way

I don't know why people are reacting that way. Are they bored? Why do they give him extra attention if they don't like him? The whole thing doesn't seem all that worthy of the attention it's getting.

And just because people are reacting, that's no reason to pull it. If he still wants to be up there despite people picking on him, let him hang there getting picked on.

You don't know why people are reacting in that way? Have you met any Brits?

There was a great article about this in The Guardian today:

"A pain in the Blaine

John O'Farrell
Friday September 26, 2003
The Guardian

Imagine the excitement when Channel 4's head of entertainment burst into the boardroom earlier this year.
"Guess what! I've just signed a massive deal to secure the rights for a new one-man show starring David Blaine!"

"David Blaine, the famous magician and illusionist?"

"The very same!"

"What a coup. We'll make this the highlight of our autumn schedule," exclaimed the controller, reaching for the champagne. "So what's the idea of the show?"

"Well, I haven't had time to read the proposal properly yet... um, let's have a look; 'David will sit in a glass box for six weeks...'"

"And?"

"Er... I think there must be a sheet of paper missing ..."

As entertainment spectaculars go, the sight of Blaine doing nothing is right up there with the week when all the badgers failed to turn up for Badger Watch Live. Basically it's a bloke who looks like he needs a shave sitting down wrapped in a blanket. You can see that beside thousands of cashpoint machines in any major city in Britain.

But the difference here is that Blaine is an attention-beggar. A sign has gone up near Tower Bridge: "Attention-beggars are known to be operating in this area. Please do not give them any attention, as this only encourages them. If you wish to give attention to someone, why don't you read a book to your kids or ring up your mum?"

Of course, it's not all just sitting there in silence for 44 days. Now and then Blaine might scratch his head or have a drink of water; these are the sort of gripping highlights that you'll have missed if you haven't paid a fiver to watch it live on the Channel 4 webcam.

The endurance part of the stunt is that David is doing all of this without the aid of food. Just when every television show seems to be full of people preparing and tucking into delicious nosh, Channel 4 and Sky have discovered that showing people not eating is even less interesting.

We are now halfway through his marathon fast and something has to be done to liven things up a bit. Maybe they could cover the box, relocate it and pull the sheets off to show David that he was now being dangled over downtown Baghdad. That might make him jump about a bit more.

But despite the dullness of the performance, the stunt has turned out to be the source of a great deal of entertainment. Because in the face of all the hype and the multi-million pound deals, the British people have responded with a heart-warming refusal to be impressed.

The real entertainment has come from ordinary people on the ground. First prize goes to the person who attached a Big Mac and fries under his remote control helicopter and then manoeuvred it to hover outside where the starving Blaine was trying not to think about food. The other day I got a pizza leaflet saying: "We deliver anywhere". Perhaps now is the right time to put them to the test.

Blaine's organisation was quite unprepared for the level of antipathy that their man has provoked. Part of the problem is that he completely lacks any humour or humility. But the other thing he fails to understand about Britain is that you're only allowed to do this sort of thing if it is for char-idy. If he was starving himself to raise money for famine relief, we'd cheer him all the way and send all our milk bottle tops to Blue Peter on his behalf. But frankly this is just showing off, and so young David has to be taught a lesson.

When he comes out we should organise an enormous audience to be present, but crucially we'll pretend we've all turned up to watch another man performing 10 yards away. To the amazement of the crowd, this entertainer will be able to throw a peanut in the air and occasionally catch one in his mouth. Plus he can do a shadow puppet of a dog and then a rabbit.

And amid the gasps and cheers, one audience member should notice the emaciated David finally staggering exhausted from his glass box and nonchalantly say: "Oh hi, David, you're just in time. Have you seen this bloke? He's incredible."

Because it's all very well being buried alive, or standing on a tall column for a day-and-a-half,or being encased in ice, but if Blaine really wants to impress us, how about some endurance tests that Britons can relate to?

"Witness every second live on the web as David Blaine attempts to watch a game of cricket. Then gasp in amazement as he reads to the end of Memoirs by Douglas Hurd." Or "Watch David try and get served at the returns desk at Ikea". Plus "Can he stay in bed during Thought for the Day?"

Or, the very ultimate test of endurance: "Live on Sky One and before your very eyes, David Blaine will attempt to follow the Hutton inquiry".

Nah, it could never be done, could it?

comment@guardian.co.uk "

I'd have to agree that people's reactions are more interesting.