The Joe Rogan Experience - #1527 - David Blaine

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

David Blaine is an illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer. He is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance and has set and broken several world records. His new special "Ascension" premieres on YouTube live on August 31.

This is a great collection. Yeah, these are all from Plastacel. Look, even the sunglasses come off on Biggie. Wow. Yeah. It's pretty dope. It's awesome. I got John Wick and his pit bull.

Richard Pryor. This is awesome. Yeah. I got Kanye, Bruce Lee. But the glasses on Biggie is amazing. I know. Well, this guy's amazing. Shout out to Fong from Plastacel. He makes some dope shit. Yeah. He is amazing. I know. Well, this guy's amazing. Shout out to Fong from Plasticel.

He makes some dope shit. Yeah, he's amazing. But not as amazing as that shit you did in the green room, man. David just did some card wizardry. It's one thing that when you see that shit on TV, you're like, man, if I was there, I'd see some shit. I'd know what's going on. But when you see it in real life, you're like, what is happening here?

It's way better in person than in the hallway. Oh, yeah. Well, at the end, I don't want to give anything away, but at the end, literally a man is holding one of his wrists and another guy is holding the other wrist. And he still does the card trick. And we still can't figure out what happened. When did you get started? How old were you? Um, so I was about five years old when I started playing with cards, but I didn't know

what, what they were for really. So I just had a deck of cards that I carried everywhere, but I liked the way it felt, you know, just like, it felt like something cool. So eventually a librarian was like, Oh, we got this like magic self-working card trick book. And do you want to learn something? And I was like, yeah, of course. And she shows me that silly self-working mathematical trick that's a long process to do, but it's still a cool outcome. Like, oh, I found your card. Right.

And my mother, I used to wait for her at the library, and she'd come get me when she was done. And when she came, I said, can I show you this trick? And the librarian was excited for me to do it to her, which is what I do to my friends' kids. I teach them a trick and make them really good at it, and then I'm so excited to see them do it, you know? Right. Okay. So my mother comes, and I do the trick trick and my mom goes crazy like it was like it was the best thing ever and so like but that began the love of wanting to learn new tricks because i

wanted to keep making her you know react you know happy or whatever so that was basically the fundamental start of it and then also she would take me to Coney Island all the time. And, you know, on the boardwalk there, there's those weird freak show performers. So I'd watch those guys. And to me it was all, like, magical. So that was kind of the beginning of it. So isn't it funny how one positive experience when you're young can ignite this chain of events? Yeah, that changes your whole life by the way and also so then the librarian when i would come she would give me books and i would start looking at that

little magic section that was between like games and puzzles i thought i always wished magic would be like not there like it should be like an art or something you know just it was always like when you want a magic book it's always like that silly want a magic book, it's always like that silly, like kids jokey thing. But there's like, so in that section, I pulled out a book and I was like six years old and I see a guy chained to the side of a building, staring out, looking like death is upon him. And that was Houdini. And I didn't know anything about what that all meant. I looked through the pictures and he was hanging upside down and stuff like that. But when I went to sleep, I would have these dreams of this guy chained to the side of a building. And that began my curiosity and love of Houdini.

And then that began my curiosity of like not just like the magic trick stuff, but like this stuff. That's to me, it's more like real. Yeah. How do those two worlds collide? Because some of the things you're doing, they're just insane endurance and mental exercises. And then other things you're doing are what you would consider magic. Right. So I love both separately.

Like independently, like I always love, like I had a karate teacher at the YMCA that used to make us all run barefoot in the snow in the winter in Brooklyn. And all the kids, you know, we're young, we're like six, seven and all the kids like, ah, you know, and afraid they were going to cut their feet on glass or whatever. And I would run in it. And I felt like I could do this because I wasn't good at other things physically. Like I was born, my feet turned in and stuff like that. So I felt like this, I could do these things. So then I learned how to hold my breath. And the reason I learned how to hold my breath was simply because I was on the swim team at the Y also. And the other kids would swim back and forth and they'd destroy me because my feet didn't function perfectly well. And what I learned is that if I didn't breathe, if I just

swam, it would save me time because I didn't have to move my head, dip it out and you know, right. So I would just swim and the coach would gallop me, but suddenly I was no longer in last place. I was like now second and sometimes first. And that began my like, Oh God, you can actually do what the coach doesn't think is possible. You could swim there and back without breathing. And then the older kids would come to see me do that. And I't think is possible. You could swim there and back without breathing. And then the older kids would come to see me do that. And I would like challenge them. I'd be like, let's see, you could stay under the longest and you can go up and down five times.

I didn't understand the physiology of it that like going up and down doesn't help. It's more effective to just sit through the pain and just kind of chill. But I would just sit there and they'd go up and come back down, which makes it worse that they'd be out. Why does it make it worse? Because the breath holding thing is all about like a CO2 buildup in your bloodstream and it's about a tolerance level to it. So if you relax and efficiently keep your oxygen and not make this CO2 buildup more extreme, you can actually hold more efficiently. So when you have that feeling, everybody has that feeling where you need to breathe. It's not an O2 deprivation. It's a trigger from a CO2 buildup, which is giving you an alert that, for example, in 20 minutes from now, you will not recover. And I didn't believe that either. So a magician friend of mine who's amazing um and and one of my like heroes in life uh he he told me a story as i was

doing like buried alive and i was saying he said you know you know the navy seals you know they black them out underwater so they're not afraid of drowning and i'm like that can't no way like because it seems so abstract to me, you know? So, but it stuck in my brain. And then when I wanted to do the water tank stunt and I started learning about free diving and stuff like that, I suddenly realized blacking out is pretty straightforward. Like, you black out and then you get your head above the water and if you're supervised, you're fine. So, when I went to San Diego with the seals, I watched what they do and I actually did it, but I didn't black out. I went back and forth a few times in the pool.

But they have that viewing pool and they rope the seals up to some 45-pound weights and they have to walk across the bottom of the pool and the instructors are swimming above them. And when the seals black out, they cut the rope, bring them up to the top, and they're fine. But what that teaches you is that you do not need to worry about being underwater. Because if you're with a team and you – but by the way, nobody should try this. There is extreme dangers to shallow water blackouts, which lead to death. But if you are in somebody that's training and you have a team and you want to push it, as soon as you black out, it's like getting knocked out. But it feels better. It's not like getting knocked out with a punch. It's like you get knocked out. It's euphoric.

No, but no. Yeah. Choked out is euphoric. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Except this one's even better. And then you have all these dreams.

No, no. You make it sound exciting. That part of it, whenever I wake up from a blackout, I'm like, whoa. That's how people wake up when they get choked out. Really? The same? Yeah. When people get choked out. Really? The same? Yeah. When people get choked out, they wake up almost like they were dreaming.

Like sometimes they think they're at a disco. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. They're like, what? Oh, wow. And it's not the best thing in the world for you, but it's way better for you than getting knocked unconscious.

Yeah? Yeah. Because the head- Yeah. Choked out is just a, it just shuts off the blood to the brain, and the brain shuts off, and then it comes back online. But there's no trauma. Right.

Yeah, but it's not. Yeah, so it's like a blacking out underwater. The blacking out underwater thing, probably not a good idea to do too many times though, right? No, you could do it, I mean, I've blacked out underwater a lot. How many times? By the way, so, okay.

How many times? I don't know, like between 20 to 30. I mean, I have like two out underwater a lot. How many times? By the way. How many times? I don't know. Like between 20 to 30. I mean, I have like two. Oh, wow. By the way, you guys were talking about me on the thing about the breath hold thing. Yeah. So one time I went 20 minutes and two seconds. So I almost did what you were talking about, the length of a show.

But I did 20 minutes and two seconds. And I had telemetry there. And I had pulmonary experts and everything like that. And my heart rate dropped to eight beats per minute. Holy shit. And they pulled me up because they were freaked out. They thought you were dying. Yeah.

But back to what I was saying is the reason besides the Navy SEAL story that I knew that it was it made sense was because you hear about the kids in the news like in 1984 or whatever it was. A kid was under an icy river for 45 minutes with nothing blacked out unconscious underwater for 45 minutes. They rescue him out, pull him back, recover him and full recovery. So there's something that the body does that we don't understand it. But if you actualize, so because he blacked out and because it was so cold, the blood shunting occurred. We're all like the same as when you get cold, the blood rushes away from the extremities and protects the vital organs. And because he didn't inhale the water because he was completely out of it, when they recovered him, they didn't even

have to get water out of his lungs and he was perfectly fine. Wow. So, but, but that just shows you that there's like a certain levels of, of what the body can tolerate that we have no idea. So you in, in learning how to swim and learning how to go all the way back and forth and holding your breath, this started this idea of holding your breath for an extreme long period of time. Like what had been the record before you had like 20 minutes and how many seconds, two seconds? Yeah. That's what you did.

Yeah. But that's not the record. But what had you done before that? What had been your record? Okay. So when I was a kid, I heard, as I start reading about Houdini, his like proud record of his lifetime and he's the underwater escape King for a hundred years ago. And he had, he was around the best swimmers and he had access to, and he got up to three

and a half minutes. So by the time I was like a teenager, early teenager, I got to three and a half minutes. And did you think that that was a barrier that couldn't be crossed? Well, I blacked out as I came out. But I didn't know what that all meant, right? So I blacked out. So I was like, okay that 3 30 seems like the edge but then when i started working on the actual concept of like how long can you hold your breath

for then i started looking into and i'm like oh wow there's like people that can do five minutes six minutes seven minutes and then there was a hypothetical record of um of uh a hypothetical 13-minute record, but no evidence of it, and that was on pure O2. So it was a hypothetical pure O2 record of 13. When you say on pure O2, what's the process? That flushes everything out and oxygenates your body. So you start pure O2, you hold on to pure O2, and then you go under? I purge really hard on pure O2, which is like hypervent,

which gets rid of the co2 and gives you more room for oxygen and by the way i just went up to 25 000 feet in an airplane ascending at 500 feet per minute doors open everything no oxygen and i was with luke akins who jumped from 25 000 feet with no parachute landed in that he He was with me and two other, the pilot and two other guys. We just right under 25, it was a 24, seven, whatever. And he's, I said, let's see who goes hypoxic first. Right. So no, no, no. But we have, no, but you have to take the O2.

You have to take the O2 monitors. You have to be on them. Right. So, and I was already in a hypo barric chamber with the FAA at Oklahoma City. And I started purging just to see what it would do. And my levels, my oxygen levels shot up, which nobody believes is possible. So I get into the airplane and we put the monitors on and everybody's around the same. I was actually lower than Luke.

I was like at 90, whatever, five, 96. He was at like 97. He's like, oh, I'm winning. You know, joking with me and as soon as we cross 15 000 feet his slowly is starting to come down and i start doing the breathing technique the purging out like i said right my oxygen levels and we filmed all this, shot up to 98 and then 99% as I went up to 23 plus thousand feet. Now, these guys think I'm a magician. So they're like, yeah, uh-huh, like fake news.

That's what he wrote on the paper next to the levels because he was recording it. So I took his monitor off of his finger and he took mine. I put his monitor on my finger, put mine on his, bang, his was dropping around 70 and mine was 98, 99. Then I switched with everybody on the plane and the oxygen levels with the breathing all the way up to that altitude. And I'm not recommending this because I haven't tested enough in it, but they did stay up at 98, 99. And so my evidence for that was you hear about all the Sherpas that go up to the top of Everest up to 29,000 feet and they're not bringing oxygen. I get it. They're acclimating six,

but they're still at 29 plus thousand feet. So they're doing something that's allowing them to rewire their ability to not go hypoxic so this breathing technique you're essentially exhaling more than you're breathing in so you're breathing a small amount in and then and then i fill up everything for full but i mean full like top to bottom hold for a second and then exhale slowly and i like for example if when when we're done here if you have 20 minutes i'll get you up to a four and a half minute breath hold in 20 minutes and this is just through these breathing techniques yeah when we're done with this i'll show you how to do it and you will get up to four plus minutes for sure and how did you so you you've learned that you could go three and a half minutes or three minutes plus, right?

Yeah. And blackout. And then how did you have it in your head that you were going to eventually get to 20 minutes? Okay. So you really want to hear all that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a long. Okay, let's go.

Okay. And I forget where I'm going sometimes. Okay, that's okay. Don't worry about it. Okay, so you might have to remind me where we're going. Yeah. Okay. I just want to know the process because you're a magician by trade, right?

Well, but first of all, I like Houdini. So I love magic, but I like Houdini, and Houdini was like king of cards as well, but he's a guy that's doing real things. Right. And then I like guys that are like, as I go to the museum of broadcasting because there was no YouTube or whatever. So I'd look at like these magic, you search magic and I'd find like guys that would like drink a gallon of water, drink a liter of kerosene. He would float all the kerosene

on top of the water and then he would spit out kerosene out of his mouth, look like a human dragon and then put the fire out with a gallon of water. So it is magic but it's art. It's mind-blowing. It's a performance piece.

It's not like – it's incredible. Now, look, there's guys that are – card guys that are like that also. Like lots of people I love, they do the cards in a way that's like – but that act to me was what pressed a button. It was like, whoa, like how is he converting his body to do a trick? And there's a guy today performing called Stevie Star who's called the human regurgitator. But he swallows crazy things. So he combines magic with his ability.

So he went on Jay Leno. Yeah, I think it was Leno or Carson. He takes the little film canisters that you used to drink. So he puts a film canister empty, closes it for the, you know, you get the 35. And then he goes, and then he swallows it. So it's in, it's, yeah, it's gone. He goes like that, it's gone. Then he would take a bunch of water, drink that.

And then there'd be a cup with a goldfish in it. Drinks the cup and the goldfish. And then you have Jay Leno sign the cap, the lid thing to the thing with a piece of tape and sign it, right? Then he'd take that and go, now everything is gone. Then he does these weird sounds and movements, which is part of his show, right? And then he brings it up, spits it out, and the film canister is sealed, and in it is the water and the fish, and it's sealed with the signature. So to me, that's like the coolest magic, because when you see a trick, you know, like,

oh, that's cool, but it's a trick. So it's like you're being removed from being able to, like, absorb. But when you see something where somebody's doing something crazy and it seems like a trick, but it's also like, wait, this is real because he's really doing this. It's just way more exciting, you know? I understand. I understand. It's just – do you know how he did that one? Yeah.

I talk to him all the time. I love Stevie Star. You know how it was done, but you can't reveal that, right? Yeah. And, okay, there's another guy, Tom Mullica, who he passed away, and he was this guy. He's the first magician I ever saw. He did a simple card trick, and I was crying. I was like in tears.

I was like, oh, my God. And he passed away, and I filmed that. And I'm going to do a really amazing piece about him because he is incredible but he also was on like uh johnny carson shows what he would do is he would take a pack of cigarettes throw them into his mouth one at a time light them on fire bring them back out and then throw them into his mouth one at a time. Eat all the cigarettes. Yes. There he is. And watch, he eats the cigarettes. Wow, that's great how fast they pulled that up.

It's not they, it's young Jamie. Oh, it's you? He's a wizard. Yeah. He's a wizard of his own right. By the way, the sack killed him. So that's how dedicated to his craft he is. Did it really?

Yeah. Look, he was eating a pack of cigarettes every night on stage. So he swallows them? Swallows 20 cigarettes. And then he lights more. Yeah. But wait, he also throws them into his mouth. Oh, my God. So now he's chewing them.

What? What is he chewing? He's just amazing. But I get to where he's throwing them into his mouth, too. Oh, boy. Yes, he throws them into his mouth one at a time. They're lit. He chews them up

swallows them his mouth is like look at the lady she's like what the fuck am i doing here oh my god look at that stack in his mouth and then look the whole thing goes in by the way he also throws them one at a time does all that puts the paper in oh jesus christ and swallows it all That's it Oh my god Yep He's so amazing So how did this kill him? Every single night

Just cancer 20 shows a night At a bar Doing cigarettes In your mouth On fire Eating them Swallowing them

Right But what killed What did he die from? Cancer? Yeah Yeah Boy Yeah But wait so did he die from? Cancer? Yeah. Yeah. Boy.

Yeah. But wait, so. So he spits them out eventually or he just swallows them? I'm not going to give away his genius. Right. But in the video, do they ever come out? No, no, no. They're gone. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. See, that's the thing. It's like, I guess. This is a guy that died for his art. Legitimately. Legitimately. Yeah. Wow. So another, the guy I was telling you about, that's like, I guess. This is a guy that died for his art. Yeah. Legitimately. Yeah.

Wow. So another, the guy I was telling you about, that's like my favorite card, the guy that taught, that showed me the Navy SEAL, but just an amazing magician. He has a library. He's like this genius that if he came here, which he never would because he would never show anybody anything. But if he did and he showed you a couple of moves, like the first move he showed me was actually a card move called Ascension, where he makes the card float right through the deck. And like the greatest magician of all time, the card magician said it was one of the greatest tricks ever done. You won't be able to find it anywhere because it's not a video. But he only does it to a couple of magicians. So he performs for like, you know, a handful of his friends he shows a move and it's

mind-blowing and luckily he showed me stuff when I was young but he'll never ever perform he's like does a painter paint so he can show people it does a painter paint to paint but whenever you're on the phone with him you just hear cards like he's like and he's no and he's doing it he's doing I'm telling you like 13 day like 13 hours a day he's doing card moves alone and I said I was like Bill what do you do do you like do the trick to yourself and be like ah how did I do that you know what I mean

but he doesn't believe that it's not to him it's not a performance to him it's just about the technical love and feel of that well that's not there's a Japanese phrase for that about doing something over and over and over and over, the exact same thing over and over again to achieve a level of perfection that is almost physically unattainable to mere mortals.

You bypass what a person thinks the body would be capable of doing. Yep. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's what he's doing. That is the thing. You know who James Nestor is?

Yeah, of course. He wrote the book Deep. Yes. Yeah. Deep is amazing. I don't know Deep, but I've read Breath. That's a book about Deep. Yeah.

Breath is the one that I read and I had him on the podcast to talk about it. He's amazing. I was talking about this monk that was literally meditating and doing breathing exercises all day long for 30 years. And could do these insane things with his body. Like vary the temperature from one hand to another. Change the blood flow. Change it literally from one finger to the other. For sure.

And that the only way you could get to that place is you have to be that guy who sits in a cave and does breath work all day long for 30 years. And most people just aren't willing to do that. But if you do do that, there are some levels that you can reach that are just unattainable to a normal person. And even if you would talk to scientists and doctors. No, but it is attainable to normal people. Because when somebody gets paralyzed or something right i've seen people that the doctors say you're done you have no shot and they spend all day of every single waking moment trying to get like a little moment just like a tiny bit of movement in their little toe and eventually if they do

what you're saying if yes so it it is that yeah it is that it's but most people are not willing to get to that place most people are not going to sit there shuffling cars 13 hours a day like your friend yeah but there's people that can do that like when i was watching you move the cards around well it's interesting like you ever watch a movie where a guy smoking a cigarette you know that guy doesn't really smoke you can kind of tell by the way he's holding the cigarette. It just feels odd. That's good. You're moving these cards around like your edge detection,

like your understanding of where the edge. It's very interesting to watch your fingers move because they're so educated. You know, because of all the commentary that I do with martial arts and my years in martial arts, I'm fascinated by how different people move and they do the same thing. It looks different when other people do it. There's certain people that will throw a punch and you just walk out of there and you go, Jesus. There's something about the fluidity of the motion that's stunning even to this day.

And that was when I was watching you move your fingers and watching you move the cards like this motherfucker has shuffled a lot of cards. There's a weirdness to the movement of your hands. But I think it's what you're saying. It's like the punch thing. It's like there's... Yes. Yeah, but it is... But it's...

The mind forces the body into moving over and over and over again. You do it to this level of perfection that for a person like me who doesn't know anything about cards. I don't know anything about card tricks. I don't know how they work. I can't shuffle. If you watch me shuffle, you'd fucking laugh at me. But I watch your hand movements.

I'm like, oh, this is amazing. It's amazing. But now there's guys that I'm around that I wouldn't even pull a deck of cards out of my pocket if they're near me. Because they're that guy that does it 13 hours a day. Yeah. Like the guy I just told you about. Isn't that fascinating, though? Yeah, but there's also different aspects to it.

So, like, you know, there's also guys. I'm not going to go into details. But I met, I feel like I shouldn't even say this, but it's fine because it's fine. So I met a kid once who moved to Las Vegas when he was, this is a crazy story to tell. Damn. But it's a good story. Okay. I won't go into details. he moved to las vegas when he

was 12 he moved there because he wanted to meet a specific person who was considered the best card sheet ever meaning the guy this is the guy that the reason that vegas has those instead of like the dealer peeking the the down, they have to put it into a machine and push a button. He's the guy that the movie Casino was built around with the computer in the shoe. Like he was the best card sheet ever. But among magicians, he's like a phenomenon because he's working on moves not to entertain anybody. He's working on moves so he doesn't get his hands smashed up against the wall at Binion's. Right?

So he's working on moves so he's not going to get killed. Survival. Yes. Yeah. Right. So this kid at the age of 12 knows about him, moves to Las Vegas, and buys a craps table. He puts the craps table, it's him and his mom, right? The single mother and him, they live in this small apartment, very close to the man I was telling you about. And this kid throws dice 15 hours a day on this

craps table. By the way, their little bed is like under the table. You know what I mean? It's a small space and it's a real craps table, like a nice one. The only thing he does is repetitiously throw this and he can helicopter spin the dice. So you can't see them doing this. They have such force going around this way that when they hit the wall, one die won't break the number. such force going around this way that when they hit the wall, one die won't break the number. And he can throw it exactly to this part of the table, missing this from across the table so that one die locks and every time he can guarantee that number. He did that every day for almost

a decade until he could throw dice better than any other human being in the world. Then he went and got a job at one of the casinos that texts for car cheats and worked in the craps tables. It's all he did. And as soon as he turned 21, he went out, travels the world and wins the exact amount of money that he should win playing craps where you're not detected, but you can- What is the exact amount? I mean, under- Under a million? Yeah, probably a few million a year. So I'm saying it's not like he's going in and getting ready It's it's very smart and structured Yeah, and that's all their places and he can throw dice like I've never seen anybody throw dice. It's crazy

I know that they take people that are really good at cards like my friend Dana White has been barred from Casinos because he wins at Blackjack. He's probably just counting. I don't know what he's doing. Yeah, he's counting. But they've kicked him out of casinos because he's won a lot of money. But he's also lost a lot of money,

which is bizarre to me that you can go to a place and do really well, and they're like, you're doing too well, you've got to get out of here. Well, they also, it says behind every table, we have the right to refuse anybody, which is important. But do they do that with dice is the question. Do I get how they would do that with cards? Okay, so do you want to hear a dice story?

But this isn't me doing magic. This is luck. Okay. Okay. I don't believe you. It is. I don't like the way you paused. But I'm serious.

I know, but I'm saying that because I'm trying to be convincing. Okay. Okay. So, because I'm telling the truth. But anyway, I go to the Pal convincing. Okay. Okay. So, because I'm telling the truth. But anyway, I go to the Palms, you know, the... Yeah. Okay. And they had a bet on the craps table called the fire bet.

And it was like a game where you have to hit all the numbers, open and close, without crapping out. So, when I walk up to the table, right away, the pit boss and everybody, they make a big deal. Like, you can't touch the dice. And I said, you can call up. I can touch the dice. Because, you know, they invite me.

So I said, I can touch the dice. Because I wanted to throw. Right. I don't want to just gamble and rant. So anyway, because even though I'm not cheating, I still feel like, you know, maybe I'll get I have a little bit of an ability that's given. You know what I mean? Right. Not a cheating ability, but maybe I'm a little better than a random person.

Right. Got it. So the pit ball, they make a joke. And then the woman pit balls comes out. She says, well, if you take your shirt off, we'll let you throw the dice. Joking. So anyway, what I do is I bet for everybody at the end this i go to the low stakes table always so the high stakes table is that super bowl team right over there and they're like ah they're all

crazy right like all excited with these big bets i'm here with this table we all have little bets right but i say let's put a fire bet down for everybody so i put the fire bet down for every single person at the table, including the dealers, the pit, I mean the pit bull, you know, the, you know, with the dice and, uh, I'm throwing the dice, throwing the dice. And this goes on for two and a half hours. I keep throwing the dice. I didn't hit a, I didn't crap out.

I hit sevens in between each number. I don't know how craps work. So you have to roll like a five, let's say. And then I'm like, oh, no, I need to roll another five, which is statistically much more difficult than a seven because seven is the most common number to come up. So if you roll a five, you're like, oh, that's hard because you can only get a two, three or three, two on both dice or a one, four or four, one. So you have a four out of 36. So it's a one and nine so you're probably gonna crap out before you get the number that's why the game is to their favor so i'm throwing

the dice and it's two and a half hours later and they stop everything and they're like your fire bet just hit. And the table goes, what does that mean? They go, well, you all just won like 10 grand each. And they all go, ah! Everybody's going, they gave me the taste of it. Everybody's going nuts. And we hit the fire bet, which they've now removed from the palms, by the way. But it was a pretty unheard of, like the odds of hitting that bet is pretty rare.

But it's just luck. odds of hitting that bet is pretty rare but it's just luck nobody should hit that bet i mean statistically it's unlikely and i wasn't cheating so yeah so do they but the question i'm lucky for some reason i'm like i'm lucky with dice right but i'm not i but i can tell you I would be if I was great with dice. I'd tell you I was great with dice. By the way, I actually have a die on me. Why do you walk around with a die on you? I didn't even hear this story for this reason, but I do have a die on me. Have you practiced with dice?

No. Yes, but I'm terrible at it. So I do have a die. But it does make sense that if you look at what that is, that that's a physical thing. And then if you develop a touch, you develop a feel, you do something over and over and over again. Well, this is different. But here, look, take the die. Okay.

And can you like put it between your hand or whatever? Okay. And can you mix it like that? Uh-huh. And then squeeze it when you're done. Or keep it hidden, but put it on the table. But make sure you can't see it and I can't see it like that and then squeeze it when you're done or no keep it hidden but put it on the table but make sure you can't see it and i can't see it you agree like no one could see that right no one could see it are you sure 100 do you want to do it again try it again just no because

it could be weighted so just or you're done you're good yeah you're good yeah okay uh say a number between one and six like pick a number up to six okay that five is what i said on the craps table right yeah but but i already know that it's a four and the five is here basically how do you know that that's uncomfortable can you do that again probably not you know what we'll do stop but stop whenever you want yeah because it could be like a way to die by the way that's how people cheat with dices they also take the die and they flip it and they want it to be you know so it's like you throw the numbers so you said you wanted a five right yeah good yeah it's five get that voodoo away from me man the fuck is that that's so weird that must be a rush for you though just to blow people's minds like that

all the time but see so it's not you know i don't think of it so what happens is the digital fixation part of like the love of just like learning something new and exciting that's that's like really the the stimulus is like that that fixation almost it's like like the meditative thing that you're talking about but but as a magician that is performing and trying to make tv shows it's really difficult because you have to like keep coming up with new things which is that's hard to do how did you first get on television how'd you convince someone to let you try this on television well so back in those days the only magic that you could see and like i said it was pre you couldn't go watch it or get it or

any so there's no way to see magic and if you were me with a single mother in brooklyn or whatever how are you going to go there's no magic show i never went to a magic show so what happened was all those world's greatest tv specials were playing and they were called world's greatest men. And I would watch them and they were like the opposite of that. They were like not that they were like hard to watch. You know, it was like glossy, big, like dynamic. And the illusion is so far away from the whole thing. So I'm like, there's nothing magical about all this.

And then. So, OK, I think about it and i'm like i go through up so but i'm doing magic everywhere all the time so i'm one of the ways i'm making money is i'm going into those fancy restaurants in new york city like those upper park avenues and i do magic to the you know to the manager to this and i'm like if uh it can i do magic to the manager, to this. And I'm like, can I do magic to the table? And it's like what I did to you there. Like, do the magic. Like, oh, that's great.

I was like, can I do magic to the people eating? And I won't ask them for anything. I bought like a nice suit at Century 21, like a $100 jacket. Anyway, so I go up to these tables, and that's a hard situation. Because it's very difficult to approach people that do not want you near them and try to figure out how to win with magic. And it's like even on the street, wherever you do it, it's like a complicated scenario. Once the camera comes up, it changes it because now they're like, oh, he has a camera. It's fine.

Right. But you'd have to walk up to a table of a bunch like us, we're sitting there, and some like, you know, sketchy magician kid comes up to us, like, hey, can I show you a card trick? And you and I are going to be like nice to him probably, but not really want him around. So what I had to learn quickly was like little things that are so important, like distance, like how close should you be to the table or how far and then you start to really understand the psychology of the magic is way more important than the tricks right so if you're too close you're like over you're they don't want you near them so you're like they're

like no thank you if you're too far away it's easy for them to say no thank you right so there's like a balancing point just on where you stand and then who you do the first trick to and then what the first trick is and so by doing all this I started to really figure out how to get reactions from anybody really fast so I could walk up to anybody anywhere and just do magic like one time I was in um central booking because I jumped the subway thing they were sweeping everybody up and there was four guys sitting in the middle playing spades. The only other like kid that looked like me that was in there got the shit kicked out of him, right? And I'm like, I'm going to get my ass kicked because I was with a button-up shirt.

Like, you know, anyway. So the guys are sitting in the middle that were playing spades. I go, let me show you guys something. I take the. Come on. I grab the deck of cards and I start doing magic to the four toughest looking guys in the cell, right? Within two minutes they're erupting. And once they're erupting,

the whole, everybody, because Central Book is removed here, everybody's standing around going nuts. And then all of a sudden the guards are there. And now everybody's watching together. And I'm like, this is what the magic show needs to be. Whether you're like here, this, whether you're this, that, whether you're young, old, rich, poor, black, white, whatever. Everybody wants to see it.

No, no. Everybody's got a good side. I want to show that people are all the same. Sure, there's some that are horrific and do horrible. But at the core of everybody, there's like an innocent kid somewhere. Maybe he got really far lost. And magic just pulls that out of people. You know?

And that's why. And people say, oh, well, how could you do magic? I do magic to anybody. Because whether it's like visiting underage kids in prison that like you don't know what happens to them. And you see them come walking up with their eyes down. They don't want to look at you because they don't like anybody there that's authority right that's what ruined their lives and then as soon as you do these tricks suddenly they're like little happy sweet kids you know you get that and that's what and that's what magic did originally

to my mom like i would do it to her and she'd be like reacting and even if she had a terrible day you know she was working three jobs it was this made her happy wow that's that's a cool origin story that and it makes sense that that feeling that you get like when you show somebody like in like the car trick you did in the other room and everybody's like oh that that oh the oh that you get out of people that that that rush. That's that, that is because at that moment, no one's thinking of anything else at that moment. They're like, what the fuck? How did you, what? Oh, man.

And by the way, I've walked many times when people were fighting about to erupt into big fights. I walked into the middle of those fights, started doing magic and those fights. No, I know. And then the fights were done. Done. Because everybody's like, what? Do you want to hear the funniest non-magical magic story?

Sure, sure. Okay, so after the TV show, stuff like that, I get more known. By the way, so World's Greatest City, but then I was like, okay, let me do the opposite of that. So I called it Street Magic because I was trying to come up with the lowest name. Like I was trying to come up with

set the expectations as low as possible, right? Because the world's greatest. So I come up, I'm doing like car tricks, right? But anyway, so I'm like driving with my friend in his, one of those smart cars in New York. And it's like the coldest day in New York. It's like freezing, like a February, like 12 degrees out type situation. like a February, like 12 degrees out type situation. And we're stuck at a red light, and there's a car with these four people outside of it. And you could see they're like struggling.

They couldn't get the door open, so they realized they lost their keys. They couldn't figure it out. They couldn't get into their car, right? But I know that that's not what's going on. Like, it's freezing. So I understand the situation. So I go, Doug, stop one second. And I walk up next to these, this group, walk up to the car, pull the door open. But I like, it made it look like I'm just pulling it, but I was giving it for the door opens up and it looks like I did nothing. And then I get back in the car and leave. And I hear, they go, that's David.

And they go, ah! And it was like the best drink I ever did. But it was just opening up a door on a frozen night because I knew that it was just frozen. But that's the same as what magic is. It's like, and when, and so the, and the whole, so there's a book called Magic and Showmanship, which is all about like what makes magic effective.

And it's called like the ham sandwich. He says, just said reach in your pocket right now there's a ham sandwich that's a good trick but if you were like man i'm hungry i would love a ham sandwich and i'd already put it there and i'm like reach in your pocket and then there's that's real magic so it's just context that's where it's so baffling. Because then people walk away, how the fuck did he know I was going to say ham sandwich? Like the folded car that you somehow or another shoved into Jeff's wrist below his watch. We're all like, what? I mean, I know there's something to it. I don't know what you're doing.

But that O, the result, the O, is pretty phenomenal. But in that moment, no one's the O, is pretty phenomenal. But in that moment, no one's thinking of anything else. Yeah. But it's short. No, but there's also a lot of people that are trying to figure it out. Yeah. But they're still going, oh.

Even if they're trying to figure it out, they're not thinking of anything other than that trick. Right. That moment. They might be trying to figure it out. But they're still, they're not thinking about, oh, I've got to feed the dog. They're thinking about that moment. Unless they're like good friends of mine. They'll do magic and they're like, oh, okay. But that's different.

Yeah, we can all get too accustomed to things. So you first get on television, you first do these things, and then your magic evolves, and your magic evolves. And your magic goes from being just magic to some of the more insane things you've done, like standing in a block of ice. For how long did you do it for?

70? Like 63 hours. 63 hours. I'm always late, so I showed up late. So I missed the length of time I was supposed to do. So that's all. But I'm always late. I made it here on time, though, didn't I?

You were early. yeah perfect but I rode the motorcycle here and was flying because I had to make I wanted to be on time so I flew you were on time yeah um the the ice thing why what made you decide to stand in a block of ice for 60 plus hours well so I'll tell you that so you were saying how do you go from the magic tricks? To these extreme physical endurance. So studying Houdini and all that stuff. And then there's a poster of Houdini that I loved where he was, it was, he was buried alive, but he never did the stunt. He died before he got to do it, but he was going to be buried alive underground in a coffin. So I stare at, I love that poster since I was a kid. It's like in the magic books, you see that poster.

Yeah. love that poster since I was a kid. It's like in the magic books, you see that poster. And anyway, so Bill, again, the guy I told you about, Bill Kalush, comes up to me and he's like, what about this? And he shows me an image of an Indian fakira that was buried alive for a month. He's like, what if you pretend to be buried alive in Central Park? We'll sneak you out and you'll come back a month later. And I was like, I always wanted to do Houdini-like things, but I never wanted to copy. But that one he never did. So I was kind of like, well, that's interesting.

But what if instead of doing it the way he did it, what if I did it and everybody could see that I was buried alive? So what if I was really just buried alive? Like, it can't be that hard. He's like, yeah, you can't do that. And I was staying at his place. So we got a coffin from Queens where actually Houdini was buried. I bought a coffin. We brought it back to his house. And then I would just practice sleeping in the coffin.

Then suddenly I realized you don't eat food. And then if you have a little thing to go to the bathroom, I did four days like nothing. So I'm like, okay, I can do a week. And that was it. And then I pushed the idea of doing the Buried Alive and convinced people to let me do it publicly. then I pushed the idea of doing the Buried Alive and convinced people to let me do it publicly. And what's funny is like firemen and stuff like would come to the stunt in the middle of the night

and they would shine like holograms at me and their lights and stuff. And they, oh, that's the ice. And then they would assume that I wasn't actually in there. Okay, so here, so back to this one. Well, let's go, but let's not jump around. So the Buried Alive thing, where did you do it physically? to this one well well let's go but let's let's not jump around so the buried alive thing yeah where did you do it physically where um that was in new york city on the west side uh trump had

like this a bunch of properties that he was developing and i was like uh i want to be buried alive on one of your properties is that possible he's like sure he just sent me his driver and i went around and that's where i did my first stunt. And how could they see you though? And then Jimmy, who I do, who liked. Oh, there it is. Yeah. So it was see-through, but right. And then we put six tons of water on top of it.

So that's basically it. And then, so I was there. And how are you getting oxygen? Well, there was, see those two big holes. So the oxygen was being, see the holes above my head right there. So the air was being blown in and out. But it's pretty straightforward. Like that one's not, to me, not that impressive.

Like if I said to you. You just laid there for a week. Yeah. But you know what the hard part, I mean, sure, body and you lose weight and all that stuff. But the hard part of it is, and you would never anticipate this being the hard part. But if you're not used to like peeing while standing in front of lots of people staring at you, it's actually really hard. So I'd be buried alive and I had the truckers tube on and all that stuff, which is like a con

with a cath or whatever. And, um, and people are there the whole time. Like it suddenly became like an event. And so there was never like, and I was like, oh, we'll cover it so no one can see. I'm like, no. Then people are going to think I'm sneaking in and out. So I had to learn. So I would close my eyes like when you were a kid sleeping and you would have those dreams. I had a mattress in front of me. And it would take me hours and I'd finally be able to pee, right?

But then – and by the way, I didn't eat for a few weeks before. So I had no food. So the other wasn't an issue. But what happened by midway through the stunt, I'd be waving and smiling and like peeing. And it was like nothing, you know, but these are things that you don't consider when you're practicing in your coffin in your house. So you, you didn't eat for how long? Two weeks before?

Yeah. Yeah. But I was always into fasting i read siddhartha as a kid and i had done like a week with just water and you know knew all that knew the body's really good with that so you were comfortable with the fact that you were able to fast and that wouldn't be an issue yeah and you were comfortable with the fact you were getting air and where are you drinking water from how are you getting water oh i had like a little bit of water in there that I could suck through a thing like that. And that was fine. It was like, it was enough. How much water do you think you drank over the week that you were in there?

Uh, I don't know. They always say it was like just a little bit, but it was a good amount. It was like, uh, I don't know, probably, probably three liters a day or something. Oh, okay. So it's real water. They say he did tablespoons of water, but no, it was like a normal amount. And then by the way, I did 44 days with nothing but water and I did nothing but pure H2O.

So it's not even like it had minerals in it and body was full recovery. And my starvation expert, who's like one of the top guys in the world in London, my doctor at the end thought that I was cheating. So they put me on an IV. So you're using distilled water? It was a company called H2O and their thing is it's just pure.

Yeah, exactly. Distilled. Right. No minerals. Right. Which is irrelevant, by the way. So I had nothing but pure H2O for 44 days, lost 60 pounds, bone mass index dropped 33%. Yeah, people get, that's what I was going to say.

Yeah, no, no, it was bad. No, it wasn't good. Yeah, it wasn't good. But doctor thought I was cheating because he's a magician. By the way, my friends that were with me that are, you know, magicians and the guy building, they're like, you need to take these vitamins. And they hand me a handful of sugary vitamins. And I'm like, no, it's just because if I'm going to do it, I want to like actually do it.

Right. Right. And if I would have taken those vitamins, I feel like my metabolism wouldn't have gone into starvation. And I might have had irreversible damage from it. So the fact that I actually did it, I went into starvation mode and the body Protects itself doesn't but what I was saying is the starvation expert that now I have a paper published in the New England Journal Medicine with him which I'm pretty proud about but um he he didn't believe me So he put me on an IV and right away the phosphate levels reacted and I almost went into shock So I almost actually did die when they refit fed me. So his paper is called the refeeding syndrome.

They say like after World War Two, when they rescued the from the from the camps, the Jews and everybody was starving the camps. And a lot of soldiers gave them like candy bars and stuff. And all of a sudden their systems went into shock and they died from not being refed the right way. So what is the correct way to refeed someone if they haven't eaten? being refed the right way so what is the correct way to refeed someone if they haven't eaten you have to slowly bring them back so you don't have what happened to me which is phosphate levels go all crazy so very small amounts of food yeah but then two days later i somebody sent me a trunk from harrods full of food in london like a friend and uh and i was giving it to all the nurses and doctors because i knew i shouldn't eat it and i I was trying to do it right. Then like in the middle of the night, I woke up and had like a bag of potato chips.

And then a bagel with cream cheese. And I was wrecked. It was like the most painful. I also didn't go to the bathroom for a month and a half. What? Think about that. So how long does it take you to recover from one of these things? That one I feel like I never fully recovered from but how so i don't know i wouldn't recommend anybody does that like goes like super super long with no food

but but by the way so when you say you don't think you ever recovered what do you mean by that my body always goes like this now it's always confused when i like train i go up down really quick really easy. And it was since that. Because your body freaked out because it went into starvation mode. Yeah, I feel like that. But there's no way to prove that. That's a common thing, though, with people who cut weight for fights.

Really? Yeah, they get to a certain point when they have kidney failure. Yeah. And then their body. Exactly. That's what happened to me. And I keep having problems with my kidneys. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a spot on my kidney right body. Exactly. That's what happened to me. And I keep having problems with my kidneys. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. And I have a spot on my kidney right now. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. That's a real common one with guys. Daniel Cormier actually had to drop out of the Olympics because of that.

I didn't know that. His kidneys failed. Yeah. Kidney failure is a big one with fighters. Kidney stones, too, for a lot of guys who cut weight. So that was probably, in your opinion, the one that damaged you the most or left the most residual damage? So the most difficult one was the ice by far. The ice was a monster. And the reason why was because – and now there's also something great about it.

So it was a warm November. So the air coming through was like, you know, it happened to be a 68 degree three day spread, which led to the ice keep dripping the cold on me and it's radiating this way. But I'm also standing up in one spot completely still and you can't sleep because if you fall asleep and you present to ice, you get frostbite, you have to cut your skin off, right? So I'm staying completely awake the entire time. And it's a difficult situation. On hour 55, exactly, I look back at all of it.

My friends knew. My eyes just go out. And I'm now hallucinating like you could never, ever. No hallucinogenic drug will ever give you those kind of hallucinations. What was it? First of all, it's amazing. But it's also when it goes into that nightmare part, it's scary. But there's also that amazing part of it.

And if you have people after that stunt, now whenever I hallucinate on stunts, I have friends there that I say I'm going to start hallucinating. Just talk me through it. But so here's when I started realizing that I was halluc I'm going to start hallucinating. Just talk me through it. But so here's when I started realizing that I was hallucinating because you don't know when you are right. And by the way, the one stunt I never did was sleep deprivation. If you remind me, I'll explain that whole thing, but I'll forget. But so, so what happens is when I started realizing it is I need to know like what time it is because I'm done at 10 p.m. because it was live on ABC. So I'm like, I need to know how much longer I got to go through this because it's getting tough. So it's there.

By the way, and my doorman would come and like news or whatever, Fox News said David Blaine is not really in the eye. They did a special on it, an hour long special on Fox saying that I was never in the ice and I had a double of me that was in the ice. I'm switching up and down with them while eating burgers and reading. Fox News did that? No, Fox. Fox, the TV station. Oh. Yeah, yeah.

But they did a one hour special that I was never in there. So my doorman. How did they get away with doing that? I don't know. I don't care. But listen, so my doorman who comes to – this is the funny part, though. So my doorman that comes to see me, he knows me so well. He was buried alive, and he's so nice, right?

So he comes to visit me in New York, and he walks up to the ice, and he sees me, and he's looking at me all weird. I wasn't hallucinating it. He's looking at me all weird. Then he leaves. But I go back. I was like, what's up? He's like, are you sure that that was you and I? Could that have been you? I was like, what do you mean, Eddie? He's like, okay, well, it's, you know, so we go on. That's special airs. Now he's convinced that it wasn't me. The special airs while you're still in the ice.

No, no, no. That's after. But he already thinks because he doesn't believe it. My friends, my best friends when I was buried alive, they didn't think I was really doing it. They thought it was a trick. Right. So he asked me, he's like, was that really you? Because they said that you were a double of yourself and you were switching.

And I was like, Eddie, but you looked at me. Like, if I have a twin brother, like, where is that identical twin brother? And why would I switch up? So anyway, so back to the, when I get to 55 hours. So I'm looking around and I need the time. So I go like this like what time is it and the guy goes 402 yeah so he shows me 402 so I'm like okay that means we have like another six hours or

whatever it is right and by the way my time estimations. So I'm like, okay, wait. Or it might have been too old. I wait, I wait, I wait. And I wait, and I'm enduring. It's hard. I'm like, things are moving. Everything's weird. Spiders are walking up. People are like sitting in the ice.

I'm waiting, waiting. Voices are talking to me that I'm talking back to, right? But I'm waiting, and I'm waiting. And I wait for like a few hours before I ask anybody the time again. And I see somebody and I'm like – and the guy goes, 4-0-3. Oh, no. And that's when it all crashed out. It was like when that connection and then the hallucinations were just rampant and my eyes were all crazy.

When the drill was – when the chainsaw was coming through, I tried to grab it. Yeah. Yeah, see? Look at that. Oh, you're gone. But, okay, but now that I've learned that, sleep deprivation is one of the most amazing ways, if it's controlled, to go to another place. It's like the native. I've heard that, but I want to get to that.

Before we get to that, while you're in there, what are you doing to occupy your mind? Did you have, were you using meditation? Were you just thinking? Were you just winging it? Okay, so for some of them what i do a big first of all yeah a lot of things you get to your free time to think like there's no phones no distractions aside from the physical but but the one thing that i use with everything is kind of like a breakdown of numbers i'm like okay i have this much i have to get to this point then when i get

to this point even when i run on a treadmill i'm like okay i have to get to this point which means let me get to the halfway, even when I run on a treadmill, I'm like, okay, I have to get to this point, which means let me get to the halfway point. And I'll consider that when I'm holding my breath, I do the same thing. Like, okay, I need to get to 15 minutes. So let me get to seven and I'll start at seven. Then at seven, I'm like, okay, I'm at seven left. I have to get to another three and a half, then three and a half. And then what I always do is whenever I'm training, I always go past it. So it's the same thing. So like when I'm running a treadmill, I'm like, if I have to do, let's say like, you know, 3.1, whatever it is, I set that as my

target, but then I always go like another half a mile past it because I won't, you can't quit before because then you'll be in the mindset that, okay, I can stop before. So like anything that I do, I use numbers to get there. I get halfway and then I push the goal further every single time, I use numbers to get there. I get halfway, and then I push the goal further every single time no matter what. So it's a mathematical system, ironically. So you don't necessarily have any sort of meditative techniques. You're just concentrating on the numbers.

Meditation for breath holding all the time. Every time I do a breath hold, it's all meditation. No, the ice was kind of like a breathing thing, and I didn't really know much about it back then, but I was like more like fighting it. What is it like on your ankles or your knees and your back? Everything swells up like edema really bad and all that stuff. And the pain is excruciating and unbearable. But yeah, I mean, you're waiting. And you didn't have any residual effects of that?

Just my ankles and legs were really swollen. Just for a few days or so? Longer than that but yeah yeah now has anybody ever tried to break that uh i don't know i hope not and not because i want i don't care about how long i just don't want anybody to hurt themselves but i would imagine like someone does something so high profile like you did that that people would be like hmm i'm gonna try that i mean i think it's too weird so people aren't really like oh i want to do that there's billions of people i would imagine that someone would step in and try to try that. I mean, I think it's too weird. So people aren't really like, oh, I want to do that.

But there's billions of people. I would imagine that someone would step in and try to emulate that. Obviously, it was so. I pray not. And that's why I pray my daughter never becomes a magician, even though she's so amazing at it. Because if she started doing these things, I like if she's going to bump her knee. I'm like, I have a heart attack. That's the problem with being a parent, right? Yeah.

The things that make you amazing are your ability to overcome adversity and then you shelter your children from adversity. You know, it's all my favorite people are all, they all came from a very tumultuous childhood. They all came from like turmoil and no one wants that for their child. You want to protect your children. Yeah. It's weird.

It's very weird. So what are the ones have you done where like while you were doing it, you were thinking, what the fuck have I done? Because you committed. There was one. Don't pull this one up. Don't pull this one up. Don't pull this one up. It was called The Dive of Death. And I started to get cocky.

I'd done like the thing in London. I'd done like the water tank. So I started to get too cocky, right? I didn't have time. And ABC wanted to show really quick. I was like, okay, I'm going to go upside down for 60 hours, three days, whatever, right? I was going to be upside down. And then some guy was in a parachute upside down on a tree in Italy, and he was in the hospital because he was three days upside down in the tree.

And I was trying to speak to him, but he was like not – didn't want to talk at all. And then they were like, his situation is really bad. So it kind of like set the tone before I did the thing. The situation is really bad. From being upside down for that long what happened to him i i think he's the blood i think it i think it does i i don't know because he didn't i didn't get to ask they wouldn't tell me but he wouldn't also engage in a it was bad that i know it was like in the news it was bad um I don't know what the permanent repercussion. But so when I did this thing upside down in New York, I didn't practice it.

I thought I could just wing it. My stunt guy who taught me to jump off the pole. He's like, you can never, ever just go wing something and not dial it in and rehearse and figure it out. You can't just go do it. It's a you can't hope for luck. And that was the first one ever. And last one that I was like, OK, let me just hope that just go do it. It's a, you'll, you can't hope for luck. And that was the first one ever. And last one that I was like, okay, let me just hope that I can do this. As soon as I went upside down, remember I said you could never prepare for certain things. I had that catheter

hooked up. And the first time I peed, it just went upside down all over me. So this way, and I was like, I'm done. So the whole stunt went down over there. That was like, that was a great learning lesson because I learned you never just dial it in. Did you make it through that one? Yes, done. So the whole stunt went down over there. That was like, that was a great learning lesson because I learned you never just dial it in. Did you make it through that one? Yes, but it was terrible. It was a garbage stunt. But you were asking me like, what things? So that was one that was like, oh, but all of the others, they were amazing. The team that working with the best people, all of it. And this one is the most amazing. Like I have a team that's- The one you're doing right now.

I have the most amazing, I've never been able to have a team like this. This is the balloon one. Yes. Okay, explain this. Okay, so I went to YouTube with Crazy Idea, who by the way, this is YouTube, and they've been a blessing beyond, beyond.

So I'm like, okay, here's what I want to do. Like I want to grab a bunch of balloons and go floating up into the sky and disappear. Like, okay, great. Okay, sure. So now I need it to ascend. This is all hypothetical. I'm not like a skydiver like that has a thousand or 10,000 or 20,000 jumps. I'm not a balloon pilot.

I have no experience in any of this stuff. I just know that I want to do this and I've wanted to do it forever. But I had drawings of it made 15 years ago. But now you have to get for real. So there is a guy that flies balloons and there's a guy like Lawn Chair Larry that went up on balloons with like a lawn chair and a bunch of beer. That was his ballast. And he like pop balloons with a gun. So there are examples. So it's not like a complete hypothetical. This one has like, okay, so what if I could take the balloons, that idea, and just have the innocent image of a kid like we all dream of, just holding the balloons and drifting up and into the sky.

Here, I'll show you a picture of it. What's that one from? From their website. From whose website is that, Jamie? Balloon Company. Right. So that's my balloons. Is that you up there?

Yeah, we did short flights, not big in public. We kept it small. Can I show these to Jamie? No? I don't know. Yeah, to him. Can you show it to the people? I'm not sure. All right, then don't know. Yeah. To him. I can show one. Can you show it to the people?

No? I'm not sure. All right, then don't. Wait, that's my balloons. Yeah. Oh, well, that's on. But that's the end of it. It's not him doing it yet.

It's just a picture of the balloons. Right. So this is, but I think maybe not. But anyway, so, okay, so it starts with just the idea of that. But now I have to go get a hot air balloon pilot license. So I go meet with the best hot air balloon pilot instructor and also flyer. But isn't that the different situation than a hot air balloon because you don't have the ability to control? You have to first get your hot air balloon pilot license.

So you have to learn how to fly and land a balloon, which is amazing, right? It's like so – and then you have to take that written test. And I don't have time because I'm trying to do so much. So I had to cram study the whole written test in eight hours with a guy helping me. I studied the whole thing, went to the airport, took the test, got that. Then you need to go get your gas restriction lifted, which means – and very few people even ever bothered to do this because who's flying hydrogen or helium nowadays? So I went and met this guy, Bert Padelt, who's the best gas balloonist in the world.

He's the one that built around the world in 80 days. He's built every balloon that's done the longest flights and you fly. Now, a hot air balloon, you're like, right? You have to control it. And it's helium and hydrogen. You're just part of the wind. You're literally just floating away. And it'll keep going up to 84,000 feet until they pop there. Like you are just floating. Like, I can't explain that feeling of floating. Anyway, so I had to go learn how to fly and land hydrogen balloons and use hydrogen because

helium is more expensive and stuff like that. Now we have to go test the whole rig. So now, and at the same time, I have to also try to get as close to 500 jumps out of an airplane because I need to be really comfortable in the air. If I have to jump out and land, I need to land safely. Right. And when you're up at 25 plus thousand feet, you don't know where you are. Right. So, yeah. So now, and by the way, the video, did you see the video I made for you? You didn't see

it. No. You made a video for me? Yeah. Because when you did the thing with Post and Post was like, he's not real. And you were defending me. I was like, not that I was defending. Hold on. I made a video. I sent it to Matt. I texted him. I didn't get a video. He didn't show it to you?

Did you get a video? No. Hold on. I made you this video. So this is me yelling from the plane. And by the way, this is after the wingsuit guys jump out of the airplane. So remember, I'm also crushing lots of jumps really fast. This is when I ran into a fence and almost killed myself.

And Luke, who's the best in the world that has 25,000 more jumps, jumped from 25,000 feet without a parachute and landed in a net. I saw that. Yeah. So he's the guy coaching me. So he's the one filming this. And he landed at the state troopers patrol thing because we were so far lost. at the state troopers patrol thing because we were so far lost and i ended up trying to make it back almost hitting the trees really really close and then crashing into a fence my legs were all bloodied up ripped through the thing flipped over landed i was fine i was recent i was like

and the reason why is because i was making you this video a complete truth but i'm gonna explain it to you to make the video i had to wait until the wingsuits were out of the plane because they're last, right? But that means – and by the way, the conditions, you'll see what they were like in a second. So the plane is moving really, really far away, right, because it's still going. That means the drop zone is way over there. And I made the video and it was longer than I said it was going to be. And then when we jump, we're like lost in the clouds. And I see the only hole. So I fly through the hole.

And now because I flew through that hole, we're so far away from everything. And I should have followed Luke and went to the state patrol thing. But I was like, no, I'm going to make it just back. But so here's the video I made you though. Can we play it for other people? Yeah. Why don't you airdrop it to Jamie? Oh, yeah.

Okay. Hold on. can we play it for other people yeah okay why don't you airdrop it to jamie oh yeah okay hold on so let me uh airdrop isn't that funny though it's pretty wild but you don't just bummed out that i didn't get this before oh well yeah so i was gonna like post it or something i asked him if i should and he's like well wait cause maybe he'll just do the show so I think that's why he didn't maybe or something like I don't know but hold on maybe it got lost in the email or something it might have gotten to one of those

that the email dumps get pretty big sometimes the point where I can't keep up is it young James young Jamie young James dumps get pretty big sometimes the point where i can't keep up is it young james young jamie young james okay so that's that one but then i'm going to show you the rest of the shot but you might have to scroll through it to get to it but um i'll show you but by the way it's the most amazing so i'll show you the rest of that shot and then you'll see where he landed and where i landed so i'm going to send you first the pretty version of it.

You guys can cut through or whatever, right? Sure. Okay. Yeah. So I'm going to edit. I'm going to just send you the full, and then you'll look through. So here's another one. When is this one supposed to be?

In two weeks. In two weeks. Yeah. And do you have to take any consideration the wind the like what what the current oh yeah yeah temperature and that's why we can't like confirm a location because winds determine everything so even though now i'm at like you know almost 400 jumps the winds still decide where you go. Oh, here. Alright, here we go. Did you get that other one? I only got one.

Well, that's the first one. So I can do this air drop come back? Sure. Okay. Check this out. Gloving is for real. And if you want to see a little bit about it, watch my last YouTube video. The show, I hope to come show you in person because that might actually save my life. Oh, Jesus Christ. Okay, but so you see the clouds.

Now, hold on. This one's going to come. So you're hanging on to a plane. How high are you there? No, that was just, I don't know, like 13,000 or something. Oh, nothing. No, but I went to 25,000. I remember you telling me.

Yeah. Yeah, but still. You're still 13,000 feet off the air hanging on to a plane, and you jump off. Maybe it's another one. Maybe it's this one. It's hilarious that you're like oh it's only 13 000 feet hang on to the wing of a plane and i let go on video i know but you need to see that i can i can't play it here though right and show you like this

we have to airdrop because it's going airdrop is better because well first i'll say low well i just want to send this one that shows like how spectacular but i could just send this one which explains what's going on. So hold on. Which one? Because there's three Young James. The MacBook Pro. Young Jamie.

MVP. But there's three MVP. It doesn't matter. Just click one and it should work. Now, when you decide to do something like this, do you get an inspiration? And then you consult people to see if it's feasible? Well, so that's where i was lucky so what i was saying is i come up with the idea and then i find a guy his name is jonathan trap he's the one that tried to cross the atlantic with healing for balloons and but i mean he has

it's like a full system he has a basket so it's like a real balloon like a hot air balloon system with so nobody's ever done it where they just float where their bodies are the basket. You know what I mean? So he had the whole system and then he came and tested it out and I was like, could I go try it like this? And he's like, no, we're not ready. You'll kill yourself or whatever. And you're hanging on to the rope? Yeah, but I'm going to make sure that – I'm not going to have a parachute on and I'm going to – I'll have a system so I'm completely secure. So I'm not going to have a parachute on and I'm going to, I'll, I'll have a system. So I'm completely secure. So I'm not going to fall off, but I'm not going to wear the parachute because

I don't want to be, I want it to look like a kid just holding onto balloons. So like that visual is the important part. So the parachutes up in the balloons, but once I get above like a thousand feet or so, I'm going to put the parachute on in the air. So you're'm gonna put the parachute on oh so you're gonna put the parachute on while you're up there yeah and then I want to see if how high I can go see you can go well so the highest thing on earth is Mount Everest right so that's kind of my goal but I have to be careful because if you don't come back down, you're dead. So if you can't get down from there, that zone is like the death zone. So from like 25,000 to 30,000 is very, very dangerous.

You can black out like this. So I'm going to do a couple more hypoxic tests and see if I'm right. I'll have emergency stuff up there like oxygen if I need it, but I don't want to use it. Floating around with you. Up there in the balloons. Yeah, we have like the – The way it's not.

Do your loved ones panic when you start plotting things like this? My daughter asks questions. How old is she? Nine, and she asks great questions. And the plate, the tail number of the plate is for me and her. So it's N for number, but nine for her age, 47 for my age. And then DB for me and her, we're both Dessa and David Blaine. But which is the balloon that has, I made, this has to be a registered aircraft. So we had to get it registered. We had to fly it up. We had to prove that it's completely safe.

We had to land it with nobody on it. So the body one time that I went wasn't me. It was sand that weighed exactly what I weighed. We had to remote dump the sand. We had to use squibs to remote pop the balloons, fly it over. And this is at 22,000 feet. And squibs, what is controlling it? What is it, radio? Yeah is it radio yeah yeah exactly and I I have the whole team helping me that did like Alan Eustace when he jumped and

Felix Baumgartner when he jumped from the edge of space so we have Don Day the best meteorologist so he did they have to weigh you before you get on so it's exactly it's precision and then so we had to fly it all the way up to 22,000 feet as proof that this aircraft is actually completely doable. And then remote land it exactly where Dande predicted we were going to land it. And we've done that multiple times. We've flown it. We've deployed the imitation. There's a massive amount of time involved in constructing one of these things and orchestrating it.

Time and team. And team is everything. So it'd be like you when you have the best trainers, if you had your five best in the world tweaking you before fights like that. So when you plan on doing something like this, did you bring this up to these folks? These are the first people,

the people that you're doing it with. These are the people that you brought it up to the first time. Yeah. Nobody said, get the fuck out of here with this. Nope. Went straight to YouTube. And I was like,

I have this idea. So you went to these guys and did they hesitate at all? No, they're, they're amazing. Or crazy. That's one of the, right.

It is also crazy. It is just a hypothetical idea. That's insane. That's true. And they did let me like, but there were stages. I had to prove each step. So I had to prove that, number one, the balloon is doable. Number two, I'm not going to hopefully kill myself. Number three, I can actually get the job. Oh, and then for the skydives, by the way, because I had to get 500 jumps really quick.

And this is all during the last year. Right. So insurance wouldn't cover that i mean they would cover but it's not affordable so i had to do five almost 500 400 jumps or so with no insurance you know what i mean and so that's a whole separate thing that's not related so i had to go do them for my own as fun and do everything through my own you see so it's crazy it It's all nuts. Jesus. And because you think of skydiving and think like, oh, you have the best coach.

It's fine. But there's still like when you're trying to do 15 jumps a day, it's like you can do what I did, which is try to avoid hitting an airplane in a hangar and turn too low and come whacking down. And when did you come up with this idea? I mean, I think it was like inspired when I was a kid. I think like the idea of like the little boy drifting balloon. So I think it was like, but I never really thought of it as a reality. But then 15 years ago or so, I had drawings made of it.

So I started having, I'll show you the drawings. I can't open it on there or whatever. So when did you put it into motion? It was never even possible until YouTube said, okay, we'll back this. Because the idea is like all of my other stunts, there's like the budget's pretty very, you know, not, you couldn't afford to do something like this. This is to build, test a flight, build an actual aircraft, fly it, land it, get all the jumps, learn how to do everything, get all the skill set. So this is, but that's the first drawing. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So you drew this when you were? I didn't draw it. Oh, someone else did. Yeah, Mark Stutzman, who's an amazing artist that did my poster for this thing, which I'll show you. Can I send this to Jamie? Yeah.

It's not working, but you can try. Airdrop's not working? I noticed something weird was happening when he was trying to do it. But maybe the picture will go. If not, I can restart the phone and maybe it'll work. Was it showing up for you, Jamie? No, right? Let me restart the phone.

There's a lot of... Okay, now it says it's waiting. There's like so many MacBook Pros. You got it? Yeah, there's three. Oh, it went? Yeah, that one went through. Okay, then I'll also send... Oh, but wait. So should I also show you the poster that I had made?

Sure. Okay. So you come to YouTube, powerful YouTube. They come up with this idea. I mean, they agree with this idea. They're just amazing. That's the original, but this is the latest one. Did you send that one to him too?

Yeah. I'll send it to you, Jeremy. It's coming through right now, supposedly. It's like I have to accept them for some reason. It doesn't just go. Is it showing up for you? No? I think I should restart the phone because those videos, too, I want to send.

There it goes. Okay. How did you get it to go, though? Which one did you press? I don't know. There's so many of them. It doesn't make any sense. Your phone is being monitored by the government.

They're cloning all the text messages. Hold on. I want to try to send this video so I can explain making your video, if that's possible. But did when you... Oh oh now it's preparing it so now it's going through you have it coming right now because it says it's converting so it might be coming okay so you bring this to YouTube and how long ago was it uh? Like a year and a half ago or something they say yeah, let's do it. We're fucking crazy. I Yeah, and also it's probably gonna have a hundred million people watch it, so it seems I don't know I don't know about that. Oh, I do yeah

I don't know float around in a fucking balloon know about that oh i do yeah i don't know you're gonna float around in a fucking balloon hanging on a lot of people are gonna watch it man i don't know if that's true oh i'm i'll bet on it but this one by far is my favorite that i've ever done it's the most visual the most colorful it's the first one that i've ever done where my friends are like i want to do that they're not like why do you do that you know what i mean you're holding on but you know all the other scents i do people are like like that's it's great that you're doing it but that's crazy or why are you doing it this one they're like i want to ride the balloons because it's such a childhood yeah there there yeah like so it'll be like that wow that's pretty cool so it'll look just like that

and what how is it are you harnessed it's, yeah, it'll be like a little thing that connects at my wrist, which like the way the aerialists have a connection. And then it's connected to your body, your torso somehow? Yeah, it'll be connected somewhat. Through your crotch? Yeah, hopefully. It's a nightmare. Something. Yeah, because when you get up to like minus, you know, 20 degrees or whatever, you'll be non-functional up there.

So you can't just rely. Well, you can't really rely on your hand anyway after a certain point. No, no, no. If I had to do this up to like, you know, 2,000 to 3,000 feet, I could. Holding on. Yeah, you can ascend. You can also do what, you know, just put something around your foot. Like the wires could come down.

Okay, so something around your foot would be just to help yeah so it's doable right and then and then how long can you actually hang though like i mean it's really hard to hang for more than a couple of minutes it's hard to hang for more than a minute i think like the record is like two minutes but what with one hand you mean yeah with one hand oh but this has to look the whole that this has to look like the one-handed image of the person floating it has to be exact so right you'd have to have some freaky forearms popeye yeah so i'll have assistance built but so i won't have a parachute or any of that stuff that'll be above me so it'll look really clean but i'll be supported now if there's a balloon failure or something like that, obviously I'm in trouble.

Obviously. But once I get the parachute on, once I get to 5,000 feet, then we know, okay, he's not going to die. He has a parachute on. I can get away. And now the big challenge is how high can he go? So once you get – how are you going to know? Do you have an altimeter on the – I'll have an altimeter, but I'm also going to have a communication.

I'll have full everything. So I'm going to have cameras with me. Are you using a watch for the altimeter? Like what are you using to – Well, I'm using this one called Dekunu right now, but it's big. Okay, sure. No, but I've been jumping with Suunto's and things just to check how accurate they are. And they're not bad.

They're like off by like 200 feet or something like that. But on the landing, you don't want to be off. Especially if you're like me, you only have 400 jumps, not even, right? Right. And you're landing in dicey areas because you don't know where you are, right? But a gust of wind can throw you here or there. Yeah, anything. But you also have to like not hit a power line or a building or an obstacle or anything wherever you are right so dust of wind can throw you here or there yeah anything but you also have to like

not hit a power line or a building or an obstacle or anything wherever you are right if you if you come down into a mountain you're gonna whack into that it looks flat from here but if you didn't adjust you're gonna come in hard and that's it you'll eat it right if you hit a power line you're dead so yeah those types of things we have to like and which is why when I'm controlling the balloons and going up and up and up and up and up, I'm going to hopefully be five. Hopefully. You're scaring the shit out of me already. So at 5,000 feet, how do you get the parachute? It's up there in the balloons, and I'm going to pull it down.

It's on like a fishing wire thing. I pull it down, and then I put it on. That's the only like really difficult thing. Have you done this already? You've practiced that aspect of it? I've practiced it and that's like really scary to everybody around. Oh yeah. Like they're asking me why won't I just wear the thing? Like everybody. Yeah. They're like you have to wear it. And you don't want to wear it. And my brother's really obsessed with it. My daughter's new question is, how come you're not wearing the parachute? But I'm telling her it's fine.

But you haven't, have you done this transition yet where you go from floating to putting the parachute on? No, that'll be done live the first time. Oh, Jesus, David. This whole thing will be done the first time live, and I've never done it in completion. I've done all the elements of it. So I've done the jumps. I've done the first time live, and I've never done it in completion. I've done all of the elements of it. So I've done the jumps. I've done the balloon flights. I've flown the rig, but I've never put it all together.

That's all going to happen for the first time live on YouTube. Oh, my God. And so once you get the vest on, once you get the parachute on, then the goal is to see how high you can get up. That's the part that I'm obsessed with. When you get to the area of 30,000 plus feet... No, no, you can't cross there. The goal is if I get up to

25,000 feet, I'm excited. I want to disappear. I actually want the visual to be that I disappear into the sky. Okay. So you get up to 25, i'm not gonna kill myself doing it i hope not i won't okay i believe you but this one is different than i'm gonna have the o2 things by the way you can't send the o2 pulse oximeter signals down so they won't know if i'm hypoxic but i'm gonna have the o2 monitors in my pocket i'm gonna put put them on I'm going to show them

to the camera they can still communicate with you yeah now if they can't that's a big issue so if communication fails then this is for me communication is done through what RF this incredible guy that builds all the communication for every skydiving

stunt movie so he's the same way that a plane can communicate with the ground. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Something. Yeah. And I have a transponder up here.

I have everything. So the planes, I'm visible. Everybody knows where I am. Okay. We're clearing everything with the FAA, the ATC. So everything is going to be completely organized as it needs to be. We have a wind path in every location that we're going to possibly do this in. Of course, New York is a dream, and there's some other dreams that we have.

So, you know, this is still, we have a couple of key points that we're dreaming about doing this. And depending on wind and weather, that's where we'll do it. And how do you get, how do you descend? Just let go of some, are you just going to completely drop off? Yeah gonna just completely drop off so yeah so you're gonna skydive at 25 000 feet yeah by the way when i did that when i did the i told you when i did that uh test when i went up to 20 almost 20 24 7 or whatever i had the uh the helmet on the first breath i took the entire thing was ice right away. So, and I was flying down looking through like a little hole in the helmet. I couldn't see. Jesus Christ. And so when you land,

you have to land, I mean, you're from 25,000 feet. You have to make sure that you're conscious. You have to make sure that you can see. That's right. But usually, by the way, that you're conscious. You have to make sure that you can see. That's right. But usually, by the way, even if you are hypoxic and you're dropping, you clear up at like 10,000 feet. So Luke Akins, who you watch, he did a jump once where he was jumping with Felix Bumgarner, who he trained. And he was hypoxic. He was blackeded out but when he got to about 9 000 feet or so he woke up and then from yeah but from 9 000 feet down you have you know 40 seconds to figure out where you are and what you're doing okay it seems it still seems fucking terrifying um and so then you're you're floating down and you have to find a good spot to land.

And when are you going to do this? Like what's the official launch date? Is it? August 31. 100%. Depending on wins. Depending on wins. So if the winds are fucked on August 31st, you push it a little bit.

Exactly. And that's the other thing YouTube's been amazing on. There it is. David Blaine. Ascension. YouTube Originals. August 31st. Yeah, that's basically what it's called.

I love that YouTube stepped up to do this. Yeah, it is amazing. It is amazing. Look at you floating above the cloud in that image. And that's literally what you're going to be doing. That's so fucked. But also the thing about this one, aside from like the technical part of it, is like the visual on it so far is my favorite one. Yeah.

It's like up, like when they did it with the animated movie. But when I look at the balloons, I become giddy. And all these adults are working. We're all laughing because we're like kids playing with balloons. It's iconic. It's something that every kid has kind of thought of. Yeah. Yeah.

Grabbing a balloon and flying to the air like Mary Poppins. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, man. And that was my daughter's nickname when she was growing up but we called uh mary the real mary poppins she was a real mary poppins and we put a balloon up and we'd always watch it and dream and talk about where it goes and stuff like that what is it like for her to when you discuss things these things she's so amazing i run ideas by her. She's amazing. Yeah. She's amazing. By the way, the reason there's pink balloons in this one is because I was showing her all

the balloons and she went, is there going to be pink? And I was like, of course there's going to be pink. And now there's pink. Wow. Now you, have you been doing live shows this whole time or are you, are you able to with COVID? Not during COVID. No, but right up to COVID I was doing live shows this whole time or are you able to with COVID? Not during COVID, no. But right up to COVID I was doing live. And I haven't been promoting or anything, but it's like my favorite thing because I've been working on the live show for 20 some years.

And I've never done one until like the last few years. Like started like three years ago is the first time I did that which is crazy right yeah but I finally felt like I had the right material to make a good show and the show is so it was it's so it's like I open it with the mouse sewing so the first thing is like it but I bring people up so it's also comical it's like funny right like joking around something you see people like that yeah when you say mouth sewing you actually sew your mouth yeah yeah and you do that how many nights a week one uh no so i so i would do two days on one day off but every day of a show it

means you can't eat for 36 hours before the show because i also have to put a gallon of water in my stomach i have to put a cup of kerosene but now i don't swallow the kerosene i put water in my stomach. I have to put a cup of kerosene. But now I don't swallow the kerosene. I put it in my mouth now and spit it. So I don't swallow it. But on Jimmy Kimmel, I drank the stuff. And it's like really, really... That's how the guy died, Haji Ali, that I told you. So now I just put it in the mouth, spit it. And then I do the

frogs in the stomach. I put the hanger all the way down the throat to fetch somebody's ring. I do the breath hold every single night and um and then and then i push the eye and then i have them push an ice pick through my arm every night which is like you don't want to hit a break you know anything nerve yeah or an artery or anything of course so but i and i let them choose a spot by the way i also brought the ice pick if you do do want to see because Because I know that you know it's real. Oh, I believe it's real.

But I still do want to see it. I haven't done it since my tour. Really? Yeah. Are you itching to do it? Is that what's going on here? I mean, I'd like you to do it. I'd like you to do it just to see that it is pretty straightforward.

Oh, I believe it's straightforward. But I brought one with me, and I got the alcohol from that. So here is, look at that girl. Poor girl. So you're stitching your mouth shut. So what I was able to do with the stage show is I bring people up on stage and I have the cameras with the big screen. So you see people reacting to this stuff. So it's the magic plus the reaction.

So you get that whole. And this girl's really into it. Look at her. So you do this all the time? The stitching the mouth shut? I would imagine you would accumulate some scar tissue. No, that one's easy, but this one's legit. This one I used to do it through the hand.

This is the ice way. This one I used to do through the hand, and I developed so much scar tissue that when I move my fingers a certain way, I get a shooting pain. So I stopped doing the hands hands and I switch to here. That makes sense. I would imagine that would really fuck

your hands up. I need some alcohol pads from the from your COVID test. So wait, so I might have to sit next to you or something. Do you want me to do this to you? Is this what's going on here? I can come over to your side. Okay.

Is that okay? Okay. All right. But wait, don't you need the, or you can put those on? I'll just come walk over. Should I take the thing off? You can if you'd like. We'll both be basically talking into the same microphone. No, but we can do it sitting.

Yeah. But can you put those ones on? Yeah. Sure. Jamie, does this mic work? One second. Okay, Jamie will turn this mic on and I'll crank this thing over to here. Okay, so you choose the arm. Do you want the left or the right? Let's do the right since it's right next to me. Okay. Do you want them to come in and see it as well? No, good enough. Okay, so now this is not a new

ice pick and usually I do it with new ones which means this isn't as sharp as it needs to be. So it means the push is going to be a little more difficult, I guess. Why do you like to do this? Are these ones that you give us are these pure alcohol? Yes. I believe so.

I mean, they're just the standard ones that you get. That's fine, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you want to make sure there's no scent in it or anything? No, no, no. I want to make sure that there's no bacteria in it. Right, but I mean on the alcohol strip. Oh, yeah, exactly, yeah.

Why do you enjoy this? You seem, you're excited about this. Well, first of all, it's amazing that you can actually do something like this like it's nothing. So there's a guy named Mirandayo. Can you pull up Mirandayo, you think? So Mirandayo, it's this guy, and nobody believed he was doing it for real. And he would take rapiers, and he would have them push right through the middle of his body, through his lungs and everything. He would show on all sides, and then they would pull him out, and he'd be perfectly fine.

And every doctor would say, oh, you can't do that. So remember when Steve Irwin died? Do you know why he died? No. Because he pulled the stingray thing out of his heart. The stingray stabbed him and he pulled it out, right? Crocodile. So if he kept it in there, he would have lived? Right after that, a 70-year-old man was on his boat and a stingray jumped up out of the water, after that a 70 year old man was on his boat and a stingray jumped up out of the water stung him in the heart and then stingray was gone but though i didn't even yeah oh my god look at that isn't that crazy but the fact that you can actually do this is what's crazy like the body can you with your mind you can override it and then the thing is he got so cocky though that he thought he could do anything. And then he ate one of these things.

He swallowed it and it killed him. He bled internally and died. But see, he got really cocky because he was like, I can do anything. That is fucking insane. Is he going through his liver? He can go through anything. And that's what I'm saying. So the 70-year-old guy that got the stingray to it stabbed him in the heart instead

of pulling it out which it's like a cork strew he waited till they with doctors till it beat out the other side and he was fine you see wow so instead of pulling it out he waited until what happened the doctors waited and with the heart they let it beat out the other side and they slowly let it come out. It went through his whole body? If they would have pulled it, it's like a corkscrew. It would rip him apart. He would die. How long did it take for it to beat through his body?

I don't know, but I know that the doctors, what they did is they let it go through. This fucking guy. How many times did this guy get stabbed like this? I've done that one, by the way, right there. That's a safe place. That's, like, not an issue. But when you go through the lungs and stuff, it's crazy. Look.

It's crazy. But this is too much. I wouldn't show it. That's a thick fucking sword, man. He went to that one? Listen. Joe. Oh!

So what happened was he started to get too cocky. He started to think he was fine. Oh, Jesus Christ. But, okay, so Joe, listen to the origin of this trick, though. That's not a trick. No, but I know, but listen. So the origin of this is as a kid, there's that trick where they do needle through arm. Yes.

Right? And it's like the rubber, you know, the stuff, and it sticks your skin together. It looks perfect. It looks like it's really through your arm. And then they, like, squeeze blood out of the thing. Right. So I saw that, and then I was like, but maybe that's, like, actually doable. Like, maybe that trick could really be done.

Like the same exact trick, but for real. Right. So that's this. Okay. Okay, so that's this. Okay. Okay, so you take that. Okay. Like I said, it's going to be a little tricky to push through just because it's usually sharp, and this time it's not as sharp. And how do you know where to do it through?

We're going to pick. There's no particular spot? You just don't want to hit an artery. How do I know I'm not going to hit an artery there? I don't know. You're smart. I can't kill you, bro. What if you die?

So you want me to just right here?'m not going to hit an artery there i don't know you i can't kill you bro what if you die so you want me just right here anywhere sure what's where do you prefer wherever you want like right there well sure i don't know but yeah do it there where you want do it where you want when you say well sure like where do you like it to go through the bottom like no i liked where you were going right here you're i mean that's that's fine but you're gonna have to go like through well what do you want me to do yeah you're gonna push through okay so hold on to you here yeah keep like a straight path okay like that no it goes like that yeah i'd go straight through yeah okay ready slowly and go slow yeah yeah see that see

so it's hard to believe that it's real keep pushing keep going keep going wait uh oh hold on whew what happened I hit a nerve Hold on What happened?

I hit a nerve Oh Jesus You gotta do it in another spot No no no Come on man You gotta do it in another spot You were hitting a nerve Yeah but what if I

Fuck your arm up man And then you can't hang From the balloon And then YouTube's mad at me Okay again Jesus bro Okay So by the way Honest to God Okay. Again. Jesus, bro. Okay.

So, by the way, honest to God, I never go in this direction. Which way do you go? I always go this direction. Why? From inside to out. I'm just saying of all the times I did it, I've always gone this direction. Do you want me to go that direction? I'm just telling you, I've never done it. Is that better?

No. So, what's the difference? I'm just saying I've never done it this way. Oh, okay. So it's a groundbreaking. No, I'm saying it's nuts. Well, it's definitely nuts. So hold my wrist again. Okay. Good. No, but from the bottom. Like this? Like that. Yeah. And then I go again. And I would try to go like a straight path through. Like right there? No, I would go like lower and in. Like just. Like there? Point it. Ready? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'd go like that. in like just like there I'd go point ready yeah okay yeah I'd go like that and keep hold on wait wait push yeah like that like that that's good yep we're on a clean path we hit something but it's fine now what I's fine. I use the skin here and I push

so you can see it come through. Push. That's it. See? Alrighty. Super unnecessary. But it does seem like a magic trick. It definitely doesn't seem like a magic trick to me. But hold on. There's blood vessels in everything. Yes.

How come there's no blood? Well, it's a very small hole in comparison to... No, it's a good size. And there is blood on the other hole. Oh, okay. That's because you hit something. And your body's healthy, so it's clotting up pretty quickly.

Should I put it out? Yeah. Slowly. Go ahead. Pull. Pull. it's clotting up pretty quickly okay all right should i put it out yeah okay here we go slowly go ahead pull pull and that's it okay so here this is for you to keep i can't say i enjoyed that that was very uncomfortable this is for you to keep. I can't say I enjoyed that. That was very uncomfortable. But what's weird to me more than anything

is that you seem to enjoy it. You enjoyed the freak out part of it. No. I like what I said. I like that you can override your body with your brain to do things

that seem like they're not real. Yeah. It doesn't seem you know it's real because of what you do to your body with your brain to do things that seem like they're not real. Yeah. It doesn't seem. You know it's real because of what you do to your body. But most people see all the things they're doing and think it's a magic trick. Right. They think it's a trick.

Like, okay, it's a trick. Like he's not holding his breath. And you've done that thing with a sword where you've gone through your body? Yeah, but it was not very thick and it was through right here. I didn't go through the lung. Okay, so you didn't go through the organs like this guy did. No. But I think you can.

Oh, obviously. He did it. Right. And swallowing this is what killed him? So he got really, he thought he could do anything. So he's like, I'm going to swallow this type of thing and then I'm going to bring it up. He swallowed it and he couldn't bring it up. And then he fell asleep and it ruptured his heart.

He died. He woke up. They found him cold. Oh, boy. Internal bleeding. Jesus Christ. That is the thing about these extreme feats, right? Is that you possibly might be pushing the boundaries of what's physically possible,

which means you could die like Houdini. Like Houdini died from getting punched, right? Yeah, in the stomach. Yeah. How does a punch to the stomach kill you? Well, so normally, like I had Kimbo Slice punch me in the stomach. Did you really? Yeah.

Ouch. Yeah, and then I had him do it again, and then I felt bad. I didn't want to make him keep doing it because it wasn't, you know. Right. Because as you know, you can train to take a punch. Yes. Obviously. So I basically had my trainer, Rich Beretta, throw heavy balls, kick me in the stomach, do everything.

And I trained for a long, like a year just to take a punch from anybody. Oh, yeah. Here comes Kimbo. Boom. Oh, dude. And then I was like, and then I said to him, do it again. So, and by the way, I'm not even in top physical. So I said, do it again. And then I, but I could have it again. So, and by the way, I'm not even in top physical. So I said, do it again.

And then I, but I could have obviously could have kept going. So, and I did that based on Houdini, right? So, but here's the thing. So Houdini would do this on stage every night. And it's a, it's a great thing in the show. It's like, look, every, any 10 strongest people in the audience come punch him. And so the, and these kids think he's invisible, invincible, right? Like this is Houdini, Man of Steel, whatever, right?

So he's sleeping in his dressing room, these two college kids. One kid's like, watch how strong he is. And they punch Houdini in the stomach really hard. While he's asleep? Yes. And as you know, that's dangerous because you don't have a wall up. So he ruptured something, but he's a workaholic. So the guy is in a lot of pain.

Maybe it wasn't related. Maybe it's something different. Maybe he had appendicitis. Who knows, right? He's in a lot of pain, but he wouldn't let the audience down. So he wouldn't quit his show. So he did his show, and at the end of the show, he's upside down in the water tank, everything else when he shouldn't have been. He should have been in the hospital.

But instead, he did the show that night, collapsed on the stage, was not from the water tank, but right after the water tank, was rushed to a hospital and then died in the hospital. And what was the diagnosis? What did he die from? Well, it was 1926. Right. Voodoo. He died from voodoo.

Yeah. Wow. So when, I mean, that that's the thing about someone who does something that pushes it to the edge like that i mean when someone sees you hold your breath for 20 minutes what's fascinating about is not just that it's hard to do but that you might die yeah right yeah yeah or some people say oh what what's how's he doing it? What's the trigger? So there's all different interpretations. But the worry, the thing that thrills people. Yeah, it's like the, well, yeah, the idea that something could go wrong.

That's why everybody watched Evil Knievel because he might wipe out on it. And he often did wipe out on his bike. Yeah. This thrill of getting to that edge is very dangerous, right? Because you keep pushing. There's a danger, but I feel like if you rehearse and practice and put the best team and don't just do crazy things without like a plan, then I feel like the danger is like, sure, the danger is there.

But I also rode my motorcycle here, which is also extraordinary. I've lost a lot of friends on bikes. Yeah. Right? So, sure. I get what you're saying, and I understand all that. You seem to like thrills. Well, I mean, I like adventures. Like riding a motorcycle thrill.

Yeah, it was an adventure. That is an adventure. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I look at people that do it every day, and I go, that's a braver person than I am. And in California, you're allowed to weave, dude. So that's kind of amazing. In California, they're like, go ahead.

Give it a shot. Fuck it, you're here. You know? Where do you see this? Do you have a grand vision of your life in terms of these stunts that you do? Do you have some ultimate threshold that you'd like to get to wait we have to take a break i want to make sure that i'm okay okay hold on can you bleed yeah yeah we'll take a break i'll be right back so we got to clean up your wound yeah it was fine yeah

you're you seem to enjoy it you really do You were laughing while they were cleaning it up and checking it and like, it's good. We're good. It was just, uh, what was it? The blood? What was it that was bothering you?

He's drinking all the water. Prepare for swallowing a frog. I just felt, uh, you know, too much, uh, of the magic becoming real.

It's the magic. How much water do you have to drink? Uh, I'll probably do what you want to do oh we'll see what's up do you have to drink it at a certain speaks I've seen people that can chug these they just shove the whole thing down their face it's almost like a magic trick in itself they can trick drink it at a certain speed? Because I've seen people that can chug these. They just shove the whole thing down their face. It's almost like a magic trick in itself. They can drink it. Yeah, those guys that just...

I had the guy that was the fastest work on it with me. How many do you have to drink? You've drank three so far? Yeah, plus the two out there, but yeah. So five. You have to drink eight total? Do you need a bucket or anything to throw the frog up in? Do we have a bucket?

Ice bucket? That doesn't seem like enough fluid, though. Bucket can. There's an American flag bucket in the back, that big one. Oh, perfect. Oh, look at that. How convenient. This poor frog has no idea. He, look at that. How convenient. This poor frog has no idea.

He's a magical frog. How do you know he's real? He's real. Well, you don't know. That could be a magic trick. Well, if it is, it's amazing you should sell these to people that don't want biological frogs. That's a fucking live frog. I mean, he's looking at me.

He's moving around. He's bobbing his head. I mean, he's looking at me. He's moving around. He's bobbing his head. He's trying to get the fuck out. He's making the thing with the throat. Look at him. He's trying to get out. That's a real frog, kids. No doubt.

When did you start doing this? The frog thing. Is that enough? What if it overflows? There was a guy called the human aquarium. So the thing about most of the acts that I'm doing, by the way, like night after night, usually the people that did them, it was like their one act.

So there was one guy called the human aquarium, and he was the guy that could swallow frogs and bring them up. But he would do it, you'd see him him swallow them and then you'd see him bring them up so it wasn't magical it was like a skill set i would usually what i'd do is i'd put them in my stomach keep them in there for like two hours and then bring them up and freak you out right you see and i'd have a gallon of water in my stomach so i have an aquarium that baking soda gets rid of the acid no food 36 hours and then once i drink this we're at a gallon we're at four liters so just under a gallon so did you not eat for 36 hours in preparation for this yes

that's a lot of not eating for this poor frog's worst moment of his life. This poor little dude, Jamie. Just in case you don't think he's real. He's real. He's real. Oh, there's more than one in there. No, that's just him. It's just an illusion.

I thought there was a little one in there. That's a decent-sized frog, too, by the way. You wouldn't want to swallow a frog that large. Mark Twain has a quote. He says, eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse can happen for the rest of your day. By the way, back to the James Nestor book, the one missing deep. There's something he talks about that's really amazing, which is one of my favorite parts in there.

He talks about how choral communicates. Can I read this thing? Sure. Yeah, sure. So he talks about, it's one of my favorite things that he talks about. It's so amazing. So let's see where deep okay so i have like a bunch of notes what app are you using to read from uh iBooks just because you could keep all the books there

and you highlight things with iBooks yeah of course i didn't know you could oh yeah yeah and then you keep all of your books here right oh no i do that on of course. I didn't know you could highlight things. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you keep all of your books here. Right. Oh, no, I do that on my phone, but I didn't know you could highlight. I rarely read on the phone, too. I usually use a Kindle. Yeah, I only use,

this is the thing I live by, so it's like ruined my life, but also helped it somehow, I guess, some way. Let's see. Hold on, hold on take me a second to pull it up i just like the kindle because it looks like paper you know the paper white ones yeah and they're yeah and they're easier on the eyes yes that's tricky on the eyes as well okay so can i just read it yeah yeah okay so it's part of what the aquanauts on Aquarius are trying to find out.

They're also trying to crack the more mystical marine riddles, like the secret behind corals' telepathic communication. This is so crazy what he writes about. on the same day, at the same hour, usually within the same minute, corals of the same species, although separated by thousands of miles, will suddenly spawn in perfect synchronicity. The dates and times vary from year to year for reasons only the coral knows. Stranger still, while one species of coral spawns during one hour, another species right next to it waits for a different hour or a different day or a different week before spawning in synchronicity with its own species. Distance seems to have no effect. If you broke off a chunk of coral and placed it in a bucket beneath a sink in London, that chunk would, in most cases, spawn at the same time as other coral of the same species around the world which is crazy like you could take a piece of coral break it off put it in London and another coral the

same species will in synchronicity spawn at the exact same time from they have no idea why the synchronous spawn is essential for coral survival. Coral colonies must continuously expand outward to thrive, expand outward to thrive. To remain healthy and strong, they must breed outside of their gene pool with neighboring colonies. Once released to the surface, the coral sperm and eggs have only about 30 minutes to fuse. Any longer and the coral eggs and sperm will either dissipate or die off. Researchers have found that if the spawning is just 15 minutes out of sync, coral colonies' chances of survival are greatly reduced. Coral is the largest biological structure on the planet and covers 175,000 square miles of the seafloor, and it can communicate in a way far more sophisticated than anyone ever thought.

And yet coral is one of the most primitive animals on Earth. Coral has no eyes, no ears, and no brain. Isn't that crazy? That's insane. Yeah, that's what I thought it was. Well, it's fascinating, too, that they just have no idea why or how. I mean, what's the mechanism for their communication? The fact that if something's under a sink in London, it sinks up with the same species on another side of the planet.

Like, what is happening? I think, like, one of the most futuristic minds of our lifetimes is Jim Cameron. I think, like, Avatar and Terminator 2 and, like, the machines taking over. Yeah, it's true. I think we're going to look back and be like, wow, he really predicted a lot. He knew some shit. The trees all communicating with each other. Yeah.

Well, have you read about the mycelium and the fungus underneath the soil that actually the trees utilize it through their root structures and they communicate through that. Yeah, there's some sort of a mycorrhizal relationship that fungus has with these trees. And they actually somehow or another communicate through each other as well. They're like using the soil. That's crazy. We think of soil as being dirt, right? But there's life in there.

Yeah. Yeah. All sorts of biological life living in that soil. Yes. And these trees and different plants actually through their root structure communicate and use the fungi that live in the soil. and use the fungi that live in the soil. And it's very, very, Paul Stamets,

who's a wizard when it comes to mycology and talking about fungus, and he's got some amazing work that he's done just his whole life studying mushrooms. And it's like so advanced. When he talks to you about it, like you just really get this feeling like there's something going on that we don't totally understand.

Like the largest animal. But fungus is kind of an animal. It breathes oxygen. And it breathes out carbon dioxide. That's crazy. I didn't even know that. Yeah. So the relationship that fungus, that mushrooms have with the earth is in some ways more similar to us than it is to plants.

Because plants are breathing in carbon dioxide, obviously, and breathing out oxygen. So we're closer to fungi. Yeah. Then they're living with these things. And there's a group of fungi, I guess, in the Pacific Northwest. It's the largest living creature other than, I guess, like biological organism you'd say was the coral reef. But there's something in the Pacific Northwest that's fucking enormous. And it's just one interconnected mushroom structure. Wow.

It's very heavy. Yeah. And obviously, the right ones can bring you to God. The right ones can connect you to alien life and, you know, the future and tell you what you're doing wrong with the planet. Yeah. So there's something going on with these things. That touches into a different part of your consciousness.

Well, we're just very egocentric and arrogant in our ideas about what the human race means to the rest of the planet because we have this ability to manipulate things and send texts and emails. Which is just about our proportions, basically, just because our fingers and our ability to like, yeah. But we think that's so important because it's so important to us because it's so significant. Like the ability to watch a television show or not be able to, the ability to fly in a plane or not. Those things are so significant that we think of them as being the most significant things in the world.

But meanwhile, there's some animals like like when you see a flock of birds fly in synchronicity and some sort of strange dance And you're like how the fuck are they doing that? No one knows they really don't know there's all this guesswork They're not really sure exactly what's going on How do they know how to travel thousands of miles every season and go back to the place where they spawned? Like they don't know yeah They don't know like how to salmon salmon figure out a way to get all the way back to where they were born? They make their way all the way through the river to the ocean, and then when it's time to rock and roll, they get all the way back.

And they have to get back to that one spot. They can't get to just any old river. They won't make it. They won't survive. They won't spawn. They won't do it. They have to get back to the place where they belong and something in their little salmon brains or in their salmon biological system Let's know and we don't know what it is

We don't know what it is but we fuck up and we damn these river structures and then they die and they die off the Pacific Northwest is a They had a huge problem with that and they didn't understand it when they first put these dams in place these salmon would just and they didn't understand it when they first put these dams in place these salmon would just pool up and they try to redistribute them to other places and then they're like nope i need to go back to where i'm from it's weird man biological life is weird and amazing it is amazing and it's funny you're right like yeah we think we're so because we can do things that other ones can't do but they can do things we can't do. Yeah. We just don't put a high priority on what they can do. Yeah.

For whatever egocentric reason. Yeah. So I was swimming in Tonga in the Pacific Northwest, and I was with humpback whales. Ooh. And I was with my daughter, and we looked at the mother and the calf. I mean, swimming, we were watching them. at the mother and the calf, you know, I mean, you know, swimming, we're watching them. And, um, it was, it's, it's the most beautiful, overwhelming moment. I'll show you after, uh, some footage,

but, um, then I was alone and I was like holding my breath and kind of free diving next to them. And, and, you know, when you're not on scuba, it's not. They're happy to be around you. And I'm free diving and swimming with the mother and the baby. And I'm looking at the mother, and I'm certain, certain that she's just looking at me, but in the nicest way, like in the most peaceful. It was just it's not like a shark eye. That's like, whoa, this thing is like, you know. So I'm like certain that she's like being trying to communicate something.

So I'm still on the same breath. I'm communicating. And I go like this. I open my arms up and turn to the mother like this so i'm going to go like that and the mother mimics the the humpback mimics me and turns right towards me and goes like this right so now we're swimming together and i'm like this like kicking ad fins on and the the humpback is doing the mother is doing that to me and I'm swimming in synchronicity with the mother

and the baby's following her and then as soon as I'm like done from here and I go back down, she goes back down and it was like I wanted to cry. But yeah, it's like you think, like humpbacks, of course, but also their brains

are so much bigger than ours, but of course they're so, yeah, I still have all this water in my stomach, so if I'm going to do this, I might need to do it. Let's do it. You need another one of those? What is the reason why you need so much water to do this? Is it so that the frog has a place to be?

So the frog is safe. I've never injured a frog or anything. I'm sure he feels very comfortable knowing that. Here he goes. Oh, Jesus. Did he hop right out? Yeah. He's like, I know what the fuck is happening here.

Oh, hey, buddy. Hold on. Let me just... Okay. So hold on. Okay. I just usually like to give him a little... Give him a little bath?

Oh, yeah. A little bath. Good. Okay. So this is basically the technique, and I've put up to 10 frogs inside. Look. So he come... Hmm? Need more?

And now we can hang and talk for You know as long as we want So how long does he stay in there? What's the longest you've kept him in there? And they live? Like three hours or so And none of them have ever died? Nope Wow

That's pretty mean How bad do you have to pee right now? On a one to ten Anytime anybody complains About needing to pee, I'm going to show them this video. Tenth water. And what are they, 8 ounces? 16. 16?

It's not water, bro. It's like, it's more than a gallon of water yeah now here's the magical part I shut my mouth empty and I have to like get him to swim up to the

how do you do that I don't know I just like did it and had fluoroscopies and looked where they were and then saw that, and then figured out how to, I did sword swamp. Do you feel them moving around inside of you? When there's a lot. When there's ten? Jamie, your face.

Here he comes. No, I got it. No? First I like to get a little bit of... You forcing him out now? Can't talk. I'll just get some more water. When was the first time you did this one?

I worked on it. I started like three or four years ago, and it's been a, you know, it's crazy. The first time you put the frog in your mouth and swallowed it. I got salmonella. No, I didn't swallow it the first time. I just wanted to get comfortable with the frog. You got salmonella? Yeah, and then I got it again after I tried it the second time,

and then I built up a resistance to salmonella. Oh, jeez. That's good if you like sushi. Mouth empty. Right. Here he comes. This is so bizarre. Here he comes.

this is so bizarre here it comes it's because I drank so much so it's like I have to like locate them you have to locate kind of the sound what would you call this jamie asmr this is so strange so for people that are just listening i highly recommend you go to the video because you're gonna have to condense no no no We're going to keep this up exactly the way it is People need to see Oh Take out like a liter of water Oh my god take out like a. Oh my God.

Hold on. The frog is probably like, what the fuck did I do to deserve this? I bet that frog was just like an asshole person in another life. That's a lot of water. Do we need another bucket? Maybe. Go get that plastic bucket in the back.

I don't know if that's good enough, but for now, we'll just use that for now. It is quite preposterous to watch the amount of water that's coming out of you. Let's just get a little better. Where's he at right now? Boy. He's there. You got him in there? Put him in my hands? Okay.

And there he is. Oh, boy. Here. Little fella. Just watch. Little fella. You've had a rough life. You've had a road.

You've had a road, buddy. So that's the frog trick. He's alive. And perfect. Yeah, he seems fine. Don't lose him. I don't want to lose him. Hey, you want to put him back in the jar?

I'll give him a big little, hold on, let's give him a little bit of water, fresh. Okay. I think I'm going to need more than paper towels, Jamie. Yeah, I'm going to wash my hands eventually. Oh, there is handcuffs here. Oh, you have a pair? Yeah, Jamie. Real ones?

I don't know. But is that just coincidental? No, no, no. There's a guy, Ed Calderon. He's a guy who used to work with the Mexican police at the border. Let me take a few paper towels, too. And he brought us some handcuffs to teach us how to get out of them, right? Yeah. Just noticed that they were there.

Random. That seems planned. Yeah. But that's really, they were just here? He gave them to me. And he gave me like a little tool to show me how to... How to what? How to open them.

What's this plastic thing on them? I have no idea. But he gave you tools to show you how to open them. Like how? I don't remember. I'd have to go back and watch the video. If you ever get caught. Yeah, if you ever get handcuffed.

Yeah. How to get the fuck out. Oh, like how to pick them, you mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How to shove it through the thing to kind of like go past the teeth of the lock to make it open up. So how to pick them, right? Yes, exactly. Is it not going to work?

I don't know. What are you trying to do there? I just want to see, like... What are you physically trying to do? Oh, I just want to see if I can actually break them. Break them? Yeah, like break the metal. So, like, really break them for real.

How do you usually do that? I don't know. You don't know? No, it's like really hard to break them. Was it usually easy to break them? No, it's always very difficult to break handcuffs because you're breaking the handcuffs. Right, but you're trying. Yeah.

Because there's some sort of technique to it or something? Using leverage? That's what I'm hoping, but I don't know. How many days of your life do you think you've spent fucking with handcuffs? If you could just boil it all down to time. 50? Yeah. boil it all down to time. 50? Yeah, but this is probably boring for like anybody that's a big...

So you're just trying to use the way the attachment as a leverage point. Yeah, just that yellow thing. That thing might be weird, that yellow thing. Yeah, I'm trying to use like a... What is the yellow thing? I don't know.

I don't know. This is just how Ed brought them to us. Yeah, I don't know if I can get these things broken. Hmm. You want to keep talking? Now I'm like going to be stuck on this thing. Yeah, but you'll know if I can get these things broken. Hmm. You want to keep talking? Now I'm like going to be stuck on this thing. Yeah, but you'll be so preoccupied. Yeah.

That frog's like, what the fuck just happened? Look at him. He's just sitting there breathing. He's chilling. Yeah. Imagine him being a frog. You're like, well, this is it. I knew it was coming one day.

That's why I'm so scared of bass. By the way, yeah, the ones I get are like, normally they would be like used for bait. So I asked the guy, I was like, could you give me some here? And they became my daughter's pets. So I've never, never, ever injured or hurt a frog. But how'd you know that that was going to be the case when you first swallowed one? The first one you swallowed, you probably had to be like, no, I didn't start the fire. It started with like bingo balls and things like that.

And I would put them inside and see if they'd come out. I started playing around. So it started with like, you know, um, how much water could I put in? Then how could I spout the water out to use it to put out the fire? Then could the Kerosene float on top then I went to that's gonna be so bad for you What is kerosene like inside your body? Do you feel it burning? No, but like the problem is all that's no The problem is all that stuff has a residue. What does this guy doing Jamie? It's oil-based

Haji Ali Egyptian fire- fire eater and human fountain. Do you know of this guy? Yeah, that's the guy I'm talking about. Oh, there he is. He's amazing. There's a really funny clip. See, he's spitting the kerosene and then he puts it out with the water

which is underneath because it floats on top. Look how much control he has. I saw that act and wanted to figure that out. What year is this? Did it almost 100 years ago. 1925, it says it was going on. Almost 100 years ago. I mean, that guy.

Haji Ali, yeah. He was called the Human Fire Hydrant. That had to be a rough way to go. However, he died. Because he probably did that every day, right? Yeah, this stuff took a toll. Oh, yeah yeah forget those we don't need to do they're very slippery so let me get back to the question that i had before you

ran off because you got you were worried about your arm do you do you have like you've done so many insane stunts and so many really of these uh bizarre things that require so much of you do you do you like have a thing in your mind that you have to keep ramping it up and that do you have a place that you would ultimately like to get to with these with these things no i just constantly like kind of try to figure out like what things have been done in the past historically and then i try to figure out how to make them interesting, and then I figure out how to make them kind of modern. So it's not like a, you know, it's like,

it's a small step-by-step process, and I think about each thing, and then I try to put them all together. But do you feel like you have to keep pushing the envelope? Well, I have like a few things that I've been trying to work on to get to that place. So there is like a – it's not a push the envelope. It's just I have a bunch of things I've been trying to figure out.

How many do you have like on the back burner in the back of your head? I have two more crazy ones that I'm trying to figure out. Can you share them? I have two more crazy ones that I'm trying to think of. Can you share them? The thing I will tell you is that if you put them all together, the letters all equal out like my name. So that's all you can say? Yeah.

I don't want to go too into it. What do you enjoy most? Do you enjoy doing these? Because I feel like if you talk about something too much, then you talk it away. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. You take away the magic of like, what he's going to do what?

Yeah. Like when it gets announced. Yeah. Yeah. Do you enjoy doing these big things or do you enjoy the live shows or do you enjoy freaking people, just random people out with magic like all of it so it's not like one specific thing i kind of love doing card tricks i love doing magic i love doing things from history i love looking like the the human aquarium guy uh you know the frogs and

goldfish and some of that came from houdini writing and miracle monger is all about his act so it's like you look into the history of things that have been done like haji ali the human fire hydrant and you find these there's a great book that ricky j wrote who's an amazing magician where he discusses and explains everything you learn all these things put them together and then what i do that ricky thought was amazing is and and insane is like actually take these ideas that that seem but magical, and that's what the amazing part is, taking them from a hypothetical image and then learning how to do them. So that's like what's amazing about the whole process to me. And Ricky's book called Learning Pigs and Firebirds, there's so many bizarre but amazing acts that exist in there. So it's like you look at them and you're like, no, that that can't be real but it was real if you believe it was real how many of their how many of you are

there out there like this must be a like i always think of stand-up comedians as being a very small group of people that kind of only understand each other there's there's a good amount of amazing magicians how many a thousand on the planet no there's a lot of guys that are on me yeah and there's different categories but the stuff that you're doing is not just magic what i'm saying is like this sort of like the crazy bizarre like you're mixing it all you're transcending magic into you go into this weird realm of what i like well the thing is i like to use the body as the prop so i like to figure out how to do things where like your body is magic and I think that comes from like I didn't have like you know a lot of many resources to like oh go get which is lucky

because then I was like okay so what can I do with like what's around okay an ice pick or a bunch of water or force you to be industrious yeah yeah yeah Not yet, but you have to figure it out. But do you balance it out? I mean, you obviously develop some problems from not eating that one time. And you've got these stunts where they have this possibility of physically injuring you permanently. Yeah. So you have to balance out the risks and the rewards. There's not that many of those people out there. I hope not. No balance out the risks and the rewards. Yeah.

There's not that many of those people out there. I hope not. No, that's what I'm saying. Like the people. I would worry about them. But you don't worry about yourself. Well, I think I'm careful, you know. Yeah.

I'm still like, so we did one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten bottles. So it's five liters, basically. So that's like a, I think that's, in one shot, I think that's a record. I don't think I've actually ever done that many. You never drank that much water before? I don't think so. I think, I usually cap at a gallon. Well, it's dangerous, right?

You can die from drinking too much water. Water intoxication? Yes. Yeah, but I think that's if you, like, out too much, but, but when you combine that with other things, then it's dangerous. So that's. Well, kids have done like in, uh, like for Tori fraternity when they have to do those hazing rituals, they've died from drinking too much water.

And there was a woman in San Jose. Yeah, it is possible. Of course. It was San Jose where she was on the radio, and there was a thing, like, how much water can you drink? And she wanted to win an Xbox for a kid, and she died. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's when your electrolyte levels get messed up.

Is that what it is? Yeah, because yeah. So your water becomes, there's too much water in your system, and your body doesn't know what to do with it, and yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And it flushes out and to puts the imbalance off on your electrolytes so when you do something like this do you make sure that you consume a lot of electrolytes beforehand because you're not

because i couldn't eat or do anything if you're going to do the frog and why is it important my friend told me do not do the frog out here he said it sounds gross i don't want you to have to do that because I'm going to have to listen to it. It definitely does sound gross. But you feel okay after drinking all that water that quickly? Yeah, but I spatted it out. That's true. Most of it, right?

There's got to be a lot still in you. Yeah, which is on purpose. Yeah. Jesus. You're a weird man, David Blaine. You really are. That's what I was getting at, like when I'm saying there's not a lot of people like you out there. I'm glad you're there.

I really am. I'm glad you're out there, first of all, because I think you're very entertaining, but also because I love when there's a new type of person that I meet. You know, and there's not – I've met a lot of people, but you're, you're in this new, like, oh, and then there's this guy, you know, this is like a totally new frequency of human. Or just freak. Take out the Quincy.

Both. But I mean, it's, it's a very strange path that you're on. I mean, ultimately it's like at the end of the day, it's trying to just figure out how to make things that seem as close to magic as possible. And the process is really difficult and tricky and laborious to get to. But eventually you start to figure, oh, this could look magical. But you seem like a very joyful person because of all this. You clearly love what you do. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Look at that. You're sparked up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I do it.

No, you love it. Yeah. That's what's interesting. It's like such a strange thing to love to do. Stand in blocks of ice and hold the water. It's crazy. You fight. I haven't done that in a long but that but i'm saying that's

crazy like it is maybe but that's the same it's the same you're pushing your body to do things that most people but you're basically you're living in a place where you have to override discomfort and you have to override what your body's trying to tell you not to do and you push yourself. And it's that whole journey of pushing yourself to do things that you physically don't think you can do or to set a goal that that's the best part. I'm fascinated by people that are really far down on a path. Have we ever brought up that woman stephanie millinger on the podcast before i follow her on instagram and i know i've posted some some of her stuff on instagram but she's like a contortionist and um she has like incredible balance and and core strength and she's this very small woman who does insane things with her body. Like she did this one, she's on a handstand

and she bends her back so that her butt touches her head. Like her spine is so flexible that you look at some of the things that she does and they don't seem to be, like watch this, look at this. Yeah. Watch how she does this. And also she's bouncing on these posts, right? So look what she does with her back.

Wow. Look at that. That is amazing. Amazing. Yeah. And also she's bouncing on these posts, right? So look what she does with her back. Wow. Look at that. That is amazing. Amazing. Yeah. And then she stands with one hand. And by the way, she does this like off the side of cliffs.

And she's incredible. Like look at the way her body is contorting. Yeah. That's incredible. She's pressing her butt against the top of her head in the craziest way. Like, it doesn't seem like a person should be able to do that. And the amount of physical strength that it takes to move your body like this and balance while you're doing it is just, it's the years of time. Yeah. This is what I'm saying.

Like, she's so far down the path. See if you can find the one where she bounces on the plates that one in the middle We see the plate watch this So she takes a this is like a standard Olympic weightlifting plate right so she puts it down so it's on its edge and Then she stands it on top of a bar right so you got this like this bar That was it's like a like a small chin-up bar. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's a round thing balancing on another round thing. That is amazing. And then she lifts her whole body all the way up and over and does a handstand on this fucking thing. I mean, she's amazing. It's unbelievable. And again, always smiling, always like joyful, loves this. But the physical strength that it takes to do something like that and the kind of balance, that's what I'm talking about. Like someone who's on this crazy path where if you asked someone, could someone do that? You'd be like, no, your body doesn't work like that.

That's not how a body works. But it does. You just have to take these little baby steps for years and then you look back and you're in a different place and then also you find a version of it and then you figure out how to make it your own yes yeah taking something and then made it like a whole yes new art right poetic yeah yeah she's or like cirque de soleil that like whenever i time i go to see sir i've seen most of the cirque de soleil shows every time i go to see, I've seen most of the Cirque du Soleil shows. Every time I go, I'm like, how the fuck?

How is that possible? What are they? They're aliens. Yeah. But they're on a path. They're just really far down on this path of extreme dedication, extreme focus. And that's what you're doing. You're just doing it with bizarre physical feats and magic.

It's very interesting. It's very interesting. I'm really happy that you're around. I really am. I enjoy the fact that a person like you exists. Oh, thank you, Jeff. And I want to thank you for being here too, man. I really enjoyed the fuck out of it.

It was very cool. Very cool to talk to you too. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. My pleasure. My honor. Thank you very much. Thank you. So one more time, this will most likely be taking place August 31st, weather permitting. Based on weather.

But we will let everybody know. We'll put it on Instagram. We'll put it on Twitter. And if there's any sort of a change, let me know and we'll let everybody know. Great. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it, man. Thank you, man.

Goodbye, everybody. man goodbye everybody