Enough is enough! David Blaine appears to be compelled to push his boundaries of endurance ever closer to the point of no return. What compels him to take these risks? Surely he has proved himself, if that is what motivates him. Surely he has amazed and startled to a degree far beyond any other of his ilk. It is time to stop.
David Blaine’s latest endurance test, ‘The Upside Down Man’, began on September 21 and is due to finish today, September 24, at 10.45 p.m., by which time Blaine would have been hanging upside down for 60 hours above Wollman Rink in Central Park. Hanging upside down is bad enough, but Blaine insists on making it all as difficult and dangerous as he possibly can. No safety net, no sleep, lack of food for the week before the feat began, and for its duration, are the sorts of provisos neither you nor I would willingly embrace. So, why does he? And why would anyone risk blindness, which is what his medical advisors have warned him of?
Some say that Blaine does what he does for publicity. Well, if that was his motivation he has achieved it. He need never do another of his death-enticing performances on that score. His name has been made, as it were. But what if it isn’t just about publicity? What if it is something deeper and sadder and way more serious? What if David Blaine does these things because it really is a compulsion, something internal that drives him to push his limits, and which may not have his best interests at heart?
During Blaine’s 2006 ‘Drowned Alive’ stunt, attempts by his medical team to get him to cease for health reasons were rebuffed. Dr. Gunel said, “I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused. He said he did not want to let the people down.” (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk). The implication that Blaine would prefer to put his own life at risk rather than fail ‘the people’ chills. ‘The people’ are strangers comprising an audience. Why do they matter so much?
To understand the sort of mentality which would put other people so much in the forefront when one is under duress probably requires the skills of a psychoanalyst, but some pertinent facts can be gleaned from public records on Blaine. He was born David Blaine White to a Russian-Jewish mother and a Puerto-Rican Catholic father (www.wikipedia.org). Blaine would not be the first person benefiting from a mixed heritage who has suffered a certain loss of identity; a gaping need to belong which, perhaps, the adoration of fans fills. Blaine’s words when he emerged from his seven day ‘Buried Alive’ stunt in !999 were, “I saw something very prophetic … a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made this worthwhile.” (www.wikipedia.org). Perhaps these words reflect what Blaine, as an individual of mixed race and religion, craved as a boy, when, displaced and lonely, he became intrigued by Houdini, the master of escape. Did he have things he wanted to escape from that shackles make tangible?
David Blaine was brought up by his mother alone till, when he was 10, she married John Bukalo. He has a half brother, Michael Bukalo. In those years when it was just David and his mother he became very close to her, so her dying of ovarian cancer when he was only 22 could not have helped his sense of self. There are hints his childhood was not easy. After completing ‘Revolution’ in 2006, Blaine took children selected by the Salvation Army shopping. He said, “This challenge is close to my heart”; the Salvation Army had provided him with clothing when he was a child (www.wikipedia.org).
In his early years in Brooklyn, Blaine changed schools a number of times before moving to New Jersey when he was 10 and adapting to yet another school and a new family life. Having to try and settle into new schools whilst young is a daunting prospect and if the process has to be repeated numerous times then it becomes difficult to make effective friendships. It can lead to loneliness. The acclaim of an amorphous public may provide a sense of comradeship. The fact that Blaine can be lowered to talk face to face with those watching him in his latest endurance test, suggests he needs the personal contact, the sense of being with his audience.
Blaine spent 44 days in a plexi-glass case on the south bank of the River Thames, London, in 2003. On this occasion, Blaine contended not only with the usual lack of food but also with a sometimes venomous reaction from members of the British public. It is interesting to note that after this foray out of New York City, which Blaine considers his home, saying, “I love New York. This is my hometown” after his ‘Drowned Alive’ stunt (http://news.bbc.co.uk), he has chosen not to stray again. When you are doing something to be loved and included, then a hostile public is a step too far.
One can only hope that Blaine’s relentless urge to push himself further will finally be sated after this latest endurance test. David Blaine is a charismatic man with enormous presence. Tamryn Stevens was a student at Oxford University, England, when David Blaine made an appearance at the Oxford Union. She said, “There is definitely something about him. He has an intense presence. I felt that he would be somebody worth talking to.” Unfortunately, Miss. Stevens never had that opportunity. I wonder how many people have. He seems to be one of those ‘alone’ people who relates best to others in concept, such as ‘an audience’ witnessing his suffering, rather than in reality.
Come on David Blaine, think about staying alive and well and stop with these gargantuan tasks which needlessly tempt death! Your real fans love you as you are! And besides, when so many scathing remarks have accompanied this attempt, with people seemingly keen to look for fault instead of endeavour, maybe it's time to question whether the audience, even the New York City audience, is worth the effort.
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