David Blaine, born April 4th 1973, is an American magician who took magic performance off the stage and onto the streets. With his unique style of street magic he wowed his audiences on a much more personal level, quickly making "David Blaine" a household name. The glitz and glamour of stage magic had become tired, old and predictable. The world had become disillusioned by magic, dismissing stage tricks to be mirrors and camera tricks. Blaine managed to bring the magic back with his up close and personal style. David Blaine's performances would create such raw and emotive responses from the public that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that his tricks weren't set ups and the participants were certainly not stooges.

One of the most remarkable things about David Blaine is his unique ability to connect with absolutely anyone. No matter where they're from in the world, whether they're rich or poor, young or old, Blaine has the remarkable ability to bridge the gap and unite everyone in amazement of his tricks. David Blaine performs in exactly the same way to the rich and famous as he does to the homeless. His magic is a language that speaks universally, breaking down cultural and language barriers with absolute ease.

After making his name with magic, David Blaine turned his attention to his own body, and how far he could push it. He started a series of endurance challenges which would push him to the limit both mentally and physically. Below are a summary of the different stunts he endured.

In New York on April 5th 1999, Blaine was encased in a plastic coffin below a 3 ton tank filled with water for seven days. His only communication with the world above him was a hand buzzer which would have alerted the emergency crew who were standing by in case he had any problems. Not only did Blaine endure a very cramped space (he had merely two inches either side of his body and 6 inches of head room), but he had nothing to eat and only two to three tablespoons of water per day. David Blaine's stunt was based on one his hero, Harry Houdini, planned to perform but nev er managed to due to his death in 1926.

On emerging David Blaine stated "I saw something very prophetic ... a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made all this worthwhile", a statement which could very easily be inspired by his own ability to bring people together and unite them in their awe of not only his illusions, but his own physical and mental endurance feats.

On 27th November 2000 David Blaine performed his next endurance stunt, something which would challenged his body far more than his previous challenge. Once again, David Blaine had been inspired by his hero Harry Houdini, who in the 1922 film "The Man from Beyond" was pictured frozen in ice. Though Houdini never tried this challenge himself, in homage to him Blaine incarcerated himself in an 8 foot tall block of ice which was 6 ton in weight in Manhattan's Times Square (incidently the same place where Houdini's film premiered). Not being able to eat was not a problem for Blaine during this stunt (in fact he fasted for 4 days beforehand), the real challenge, apart from enduring the freezing temperature, was staying awake to prevent himself from touching the ice. Wearing only a pair of trousers and boots, it was vital none of his body touched the ice so that Blaine would be able to successfully reach his goal of 58 hours. David Blaine not only managed to complete his challenge, but he managed to remain encased in the block of ice for a further 5 hours, in total lasting 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds before being cut out by chainsaws.

The public were free to come and see Blaine during his encarseration and once again David Blaine was using his performance to bring people together. Blaine's closest friend, William Kalush stated that "What David hopes his stunts to accomplish is to bring all kinds of people together, act out for them their common fears..." "...and help them see their common humanity,". Though monitored throughout the duration of the stunt by a team of medical experts, Blaine was rushed to hospital after coming out of the ice as doctors feared that his body was going into shock. David Blaine made a full recovery after the stunt with no lasting damage.

On 22nd May 2002 David Blaine performed his third endurance stunt in New York City. This time Blaine would stand on a 100 foot high and 22 inch wide pillar for 35 hours before ending his feat by jumping from it onto a 12 foot high pile of cardboard boxes.

Due to the height of the pillar, and the time of year, the strength of wind blowing against David Blaine could easily blow him from his position, which meant two retractable handles were installed on the top of the pillar so in the event of particularly harsh weather he would be able to steady himself.

Once again his performance was in a public place (Bryant Park) making it a free show with the public welcome to come and go as they please, watching him for as little or as much time as they liked, demonstrating David Blaine's ongoing desire to unite people of all age, race, class and culture. David Blaine managed to complete this stunt successfully, however on jumping from the pillar he to landed awkwardly resulting in concussion, however the head injury was mild with no lasting long term damage.

On 1 st May 2006 David Blaine was back in New York with his 5 th endurance challenge. For this feat, Blaine would spend seven days and seven nights submerged in water filled sphere (8 feet in diameter) using tubes for air and nutrition. He attempted to finish the challenge, buy attempting to hold his breath underwater for longer than 8 minutes and 58 seconds to break the current world record held by Tom Sietas.

To make the challenge even harder for himself he would have to free himself from the handcuffs and chains which were holding him underwater. David Blaine began to show signs of distress at around 7 minutes, at which point his support divers went into the water, one breathing air into his mouth, the other freeing him from his chains and then pulling him out from the water. In total, David Blaine was one minute and fifty seconds short of his goal - however it did not stop the New York public cheering him like a hero.

On 19 th November 2006 David Blaine undertook a challenge "for fun" in which he was tied to a gyroscope which would spin (at approx 8 revolutions per minute) for 16 hours before he would attempt to escape. 52 hours after the stunt began, having had no food or water, a very weak David Blaine jumped from the gyroscope to a wooden platform 30 feet below and successfully completing his stunt.

After completing the challenge, David Blaine took 100 children on a shopping spree, where they each received a $500 gift voucher from the retailer "Target". The children had each been selected by the Salvation Army, which was incredibly important to Blaine as it was the Salvation Army who provided him with clothes as a child.

David Blaine's most recent stunt, once again in New York, began on 18 th September 2008 where he was to hang upside down for 60 hours, risking many injuries including blindness.

This stunt was widly critisized as every hour David Blaine was lowered and allowed to stretch, relieve him self, and undergo a medical check. It was further critizised as his finale, the "dive of death" was not as dramatic or dangerous as people had anticipated, resulting in a very underwhelmed and disapointed public.