David Blaine

David Blaine White was born on April 4, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. to Patrice Maureen White, a school teacher, and William Perez, a veteran of the Vietnam War. He is of mixed ancestry.

He was raised by a single mother who worked at several jobs to make ends meet. As a four year old David saw a magician performing tricks in the subway and was thoroughly fascinated. He started practicing magic tricks himself with the tarot cards presented to him by his grandmother.

He attended Passaic Valley Regional High School. He developed an interest in acting as a teenager and went to an acting school in Manhattan.

By the time he was 20, he had decided that he wanted to devote his life to magic. He received considerable support from his mother but she tragically passed away due to cancer when David was 21.

David Blaine started out as a street performer and was able to gain considerable popularity due to his intuitive tricks and charismatic personality. His success as a street magician prompted him to record a tape of his performance which he sent to NBC.

He was soon invited for an interview and his first television special, ‘David Blaine: Street Magic’ was aired on NBC on May 19, 1997. It was very successful and was followed by ‘David Blaine: Magic Man’ two years later.

For his shows he travelled across the country and performed tricks in the streets before real, unsuspecting people. He performed such tricks in Atlantic City, Compton, Dallas, the Mojave Desert, New York City, and San Francisco, and was soon a national celebrity.

He performed his first endurance stunt in 1999, by submerging himself in a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days. He touched new heights of fame following this trick as he had outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it.

In 2000 he performed a stunt called "Frozen in Time" in which he was frozen into a block of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds. Three years later, on September 5, 2003 he began his 44-day endurance stunt sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 9 metres (30 ft) in the air next to Potters Fields Park on the south bank of the River Thames. He emerged from the case on October 19, murmuring "I love you all!"

His 2003 stunt ‘Above the Below’ was one of his much publicized ones. Meant to be a 44-day endurance stunt, Blaine was sealed inside a transparent Plexiglas case suspended 9 metres (30 ft) in the air next to Potters Fields Park on September 5. He survived on just 4.5 litres of water per day over the period and went without any food or nutrients. He completed the stunt successfully and earned much media attention.