Look and listen to him. I disbelieve all of it. He's an actor. "God bless us all."

"How do I speak to them?" he says pointing to the crowd. "I want to thank each and every one of you for making this possible."

Stunt is right.

11:00:34 PM    please comment []

That's the whole point, of course. I'm an eyeball, and they've got something to sell. (I don't think I've ever in my life bought something because I saw it on TV. But maybe I'm just kidding myself.)

And David Blaine? Sure, he's probably getting rich, but I suspect he'd do it for free. He likes being watched.

10:58:21 PM    please comment []

Traveling at 60 miles an hour, like hitting a brick wall at 20 miles per hour.

My legs are tired, he says.

10:55:55 PM    please comment []

Wearing a Richard the Lionhearted embroidered emblem he lands on some packing blankets on top of the boxes.

There's a scramble to uncover him. The camera shows his hand by his head. He gradually starts to move. Drama with a Capital D. I'm not worried.

The numb look is typical.

10:53:22 PM    please comment []

In the opening shot of the pillar and crowd at Bryant park, the shape of the area from overhead looked just like one of those Absolut Vodka ads with the pillar at the top of the bottle's neck. Coincidence?

10:49:12 PM    please comment []

David Blaine eats a garter snake in front of a boy who's afraid of snakes, while telling him that his fear of snakes will disappear.

Blaine "chews and swallows."

The onlookers are grossed out.

The boy's closed backpack is opened to reveal the snake. The boy eventually reaches in and takes the snake out. "David Blaine is the best magician in the world! I used to be afraid of snakes!"

10:46:55 PM    please comment []

When I was a kid, I was fearless. There was a large, playground-quality swingset in my backyard. It faced a shallow hill in one direction. I used to get on the swing, pump it up as high as I could go (beyond the horizontal) and then leap off onto the hill. It was like flying and it was incredibly fun.

When I came home after my freshman year of college I went out back and had a swing. At the height of my swing I looked across to the little hillock and realized that jumping was utterly and completely out of the question (I hadn't done it eight or ten years by that point). I couldn't imagine how I'd ever done it and considered it miraculous that I hadn't broken something long ago.

I've always liked to climb up things. But gradually I became more and more nervous about climbing down, and now I genuinely am uncomfortable in high places. I understand how easy it is to fall. Intention has nothing to do with it.

10:39:17 PM    please comment []

The way they've put this broadcast together is interesting. In between the "main event" live and backstory, they're showing examples of his street magic. In some of these, he's drawing the viewer's attention to his sleight of hand.

So he's saying, "I'm an illusionist." But also, "This is as real as it gets."

By having it both ways, he's performing a classic case of misdirection.

What SHOULD we be noticing instead?

10:32:27 PM    please comment []

The lions eat the Christians. No trickery there.

We no longer have public executions, those real life morality dramas that gave a thronging public the thrill of watching death while feeling safe and righteous.

Instead we have really grotesque horror movies, where violent death is often played for laughs (even one of the most literate, aesthetically polished entertainment vehicles, Pulp Fiction, is based on a comic book approach to the spectacle of mortality). I suspect much of the appeal of wrestling, racing, aerobatic flying, maybe even football, is the frisson prompted by the thought "somebody could really get hurt here and it would be spectacular."

We can't really know how dangerous David Blaine's stunt actually is. But it's clear that the goal of the show is to make it look as plausible as possible that he could badly hurt himself. Why watch otherwise?

And his aftectless narration, undoubtedly done before the broadcast, just adds to the perceived weirdness factor.

10:24:17 PM    please comment []

My friend D- was outraged that that this stunt is going to be broadcast live. He thinks it should be taped-delayed, just in case something goes wrong.

Of course there's a sizeable crowd below watching and waiting. I'm sure there are no small number of amateur video cameras trained on the figure at the top of the pillar.

Why is he using cardboard boxes instead of an airbag? Because everyone thinks they know what landing on a cardboard box feels like. Cardboard boxes are pedestrian, mundane, ordinary. The contrast between the common cardboard box and the exotic stunt makes the stunt more impressive.

10:13:54 PM    please comment []

As a follow-up to Blaine Stylites, I've got "David Blaine's Vertigo" on the TV in the background. Just listen to the way he speaks.

10:07:05 PM    please comment []