David talks about doing many ill-advised things in his life, being obsessed with Houdini, his new National Geographic show “David Blaine: Do Not Attempt,” combining very real things with magic, kissing a King Cobra, having an ambulance on standby, the possibility of another big stunt, his daughter inspiring him and keeping him in check, and performing in Las Vegas.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Our next guest was buried alive for seven days.
00:03He was encased in ice for 63 hours.
00:05He held his breath for 17 minutes.
00:08He does ridiculous things.
00:09He has a new series called David Blaine, Do Not Attempt.
00:12It premieres March 23 on National Geographic.
00:15Please welcome David Blaine.
00:17What am I supposed to do about this?
00:39Well, I found these backstage in case you need them.
00:41OK, great.
00:42I'll do this myself.
00:43Yeah, I don't want you taking my finger off or anything like that.
00:46This is a crazy trick.
00:47I mean, this hanger is really serious.
00:49I mean, it's not like a trick hanger.
00:51It's a real hanger.
00:53It's twisted up good.
00:54Do people ever get mad at you when you take their stuff and do weird things with it?
00:59So it's funny, because I did this at a wedding in India.
01:04Really?
01:05I did the ring, and at the end, Guillermo wasn't there with that good tequila.
01:14So she didn't want to take it back.
01:15Oh, she wanted a new ring?
01:16Well, I don't know.
01:17Maybe it was a ruse.
01:18It was a nice one.
01:19Yeah, I think you got caught in between some kind of marital dispute there is what happened.
01:25You've done many, many, many ill-advised things.
01:28And now you're traveling the world and finding other people who do ill-advised things in
01:33other countries.
01:34Well, I have to say it's a little different.
01:36So as a kid, I was obsessed with Harry Houdini, and he wrote a book called Miracle Mongers
01:42and Their Methods.
01:43And he was able to search around the vaudevillian circuit and these incredible performers that
01:48had these amazing skills, and he was able to document it in this book.
01:53So I read these things.
01:54I was like, this can't be real.
01:57And for the first time, I've been lucky enough to travel the world and find those people
02:02that inspired lots of great magicians.
02:05Because the things that I like the most in magic is when you take something that's so
02:09hard to believe, but it's actually real, and then combine it with magic.
02:14That's my favorite stuff.
02:15Interesting.
02:16All right.
02:17So these are people that are, they've put thousands of hours into learning these unique
02:21skills.
02:22They're very passionate about it.
02:23Yes, some are dangerous, but they do it to the point that I consider them magicians.
02:28Yeah, and you show up and do it in like half an hour.
02:31You practice for like a little bit.
02:32Yeah, that's a problem, right.
02:33I saw a guy on the Southeast Asia show, there was a guy who eats hot coals, which is a-
02:40So you're right.
02:43That was a fast, all of this was a fast learning course.
02:46So I tried to eat the hot coal, but I didn't realize he drinks the water pretty quickly.
02:50So I was eating the hot coal and then swallowing them, and I burnt my esophagus, my mouth,
02:55and everything.
02:56So it was pretty crazy.
02:57Yeah, yeah, pretty crazy.
02:58By the way, within the course of, I would say, a couple of weeks, I learned how to kiss
03:03a king cobra, eat hot coals, eat razor blade.
03:07I was swarmed by a few hundred thousand bees and covered by a bunch of scorpions.
03:12So that's just one episode.
03:13How old was Houdini when he died?
03:15He died when he was 52.
03:17And how old are you now?
03:18I'm 51.
03:19Okay.
03:20All right.
03:21So maybe sit it out for the next year or so.
03:24Yeah, yeah.
03:25Season two isn't happening anytime soon.
03:27I do want to ask you about the king cobra, because that is an amazing thing to watch.
03:32You kind of training to kiss this king cobra.
03:35Can we show this clip?
03:36Yeah.
03:37Okay.
03:38Here you go.
03:39In this moment.
03:40Slowly, slowly.
03:41Nothing else exists.
03:42Okay.
03:43That's enough.
03:44Good.
03:45Oh, what was that?
04:11That was absolutely the most stressful kiss of my life.
04:16I would hope so.
04:18By the way, the king cobra has enough venom to kill a full grown elephant.
04:22That's what you said in the special.
04:23Yeah.
04:24Yeah, an elephant.
04:25Yeah.
04:26And how far away were you from the hospital?
04:27Well, we had an ambulance on standby, but you can't administer anti-venom until you're
04:32in a hospital.
04:33So that was about 20 minutes away.
04:35So that could have been dicey.
04:36Did you ever think about maybe doing it in the parking lot of the hospital instead?
04:40Yeah, of course.
04:42But it was beautiful.
04:43We're in the most beautiful places in the world, meeting the most incredible people
04:47in the world.
04:48So I was so excited.
04:49Can you really trust a snake handler with your life?
04:52I mean-
04:53That guy has thousands and thousands of hours, and I watched him carefully, and I studied
04:59him, I trusted him, and I was so excited to be a student of his and learn.
05:03Is he annoyed at the end when you take to this so quickly and are able to kiss his snake?
05:08No, I can't do it like him.
05:10No, when you see what he does, he's a master.
05:14Everybody on the show, they're masters at what they do to the point that I consider
05:18them magicians.
05:19And what they do is so specific.
05:22It's their passion.
05:23It means everything.
05:24And yes, their life is on the line, but they love it so much.
05:30And that's what they're driven by.
05:32And it's amazing to see them do it.
05:34No, no.
05:35I'm doing a fast course learning, but when you see them do it, you're like, whoa.
05:40When I see you doing it, it's like, whoa.
05:43It seems less well-advised for you to do it.
05:46Are you planning another big, giant stunt that the world is watching yet?
05:50Not next year.
05:51Not next year.
05:52Not when I'm 52.
05:53Yeah.
05:54No, don't do that.
05:55But I do have one more thing that I've been-
05:56You have an idea?
05:57Yeah, I have one that's a culmination of everything that I've ever done in my life, and it's probably
06:01even more ridiculous than everything.
06:03Is there anyone in your life who tries to talk you out of doing these things?
06:07Well, that's a good question, by the way.
06:08So I have a daughter that's 14 years old, and I stopped doing stunts when she was one
06:14and a half because something went wrong with the electricity.
06:18And then I came back, and I did one thing for her, which was I flew away on balloons
06:23because I wanted her to see something beautiful.
06:25And now, anything that I do, I have to get her approval of.
06:29And this thing you're thinking of, has she given it the green light yet?
06:32No, not yet.
06:33He has not.
06:34Maybe when I'm 53.
06:35Yeah.
06:36Wow.
06:37When does she start doing stuff like this?
06:39No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but her dedication and her passion and her focus
06:46is mind-blowing.
06:47I watch her, and I'm inspired by her.
06:49OK.
06:50Oh, good.
06:51There's nothing, nothing is amazing to see somebody that is that passionate and dedicated.
06:55And watching her is the greatest experience of my life.
06:59She sounds great.
07:00Maybe I'll adopt her when you're killed in your next thing.
07:04You have a, yes, right.
07:06You have a show in Vegas now, which is funny.
07:08You know, I'm from Las Vegas.
07:09I grew up in Las Vegas.
07:10And you have to come see it then.
07:11I would love to come see it.
07:12And now you know my favorite trick of it.
07:15Yeah, now your favorite trick.
07:16But you, I love the idea of you in Las Vegas.
07:18Do you hang out with the other magicians?
07:21Do you have?
07:22Yeah, all my best friends forever have been magicians.
07:24So I'm surrounded by these incredible magicians that are artists that work thousands of hours
07:31on one card move that will work repetitively.
07:34And every time I call, some of my magician friends, you just hear, at any time, you hear
07:39krr, krr, and that's cards being shuffled and played with, yeah.
07:43So yeah, I think magicians, like comedians, I think have like this camaraderie, like we're
07:48all connected.
07:49Yeah, sure.
07:50Yeah, and we all, and I'm lucky to be surrounded by people that inspire me and, and yeah.
07:55Let me just show you my trick real quick, and I know it's a common one, but I'm pretty
07:58good at it.
07:59I, you know.
08:00Yeah, that looks really good.
08:02Not bad, right?
08:03But let me do it slowly.
08:05That looks great.
08:08Wow.
08:09All right.
08:10Thank you very much.
08:11By the way, that has my digestive track information on it as well.
08:13Oh, great.
08:14I'll look it up on the app.
08:16I'll let you know what your sleep score is tomorrow.
08:20David Blaine, Do Not Attempt, March 23rd on National Geographic, streams the next day
08:24on Disney Plus and Hulu, and new dates for his Vegas residency, At The Wind, go to Ticketmaster
08:29for the details.
08:30David Blaine, everybody.
08:31Thank you very much.
08:32I appreciate it.
08:33Guillermo, do you know how many subscribers we have on YouTube now?
08:3620 million.
08:38That's right.
08:39Yeah.
08:40That's why we're wearing these glasses.
08:41Thanks for being a subscriber.
08:42If you're not, help us get to 20 million and one.