David Blaine Official Web Site

David Blaine's official web site, www.davidblaine.com, once provided fabulous clips of the magician performing street magic. The clips are not there at this time but the site has recently undergone a dramatic face lift, displaying pictures of the artist as well as some merchandise and general information.

David Blaine DVD's and Videos and Books

David Blaine currently has three DVD’s out on the international market and a best selling book. In the UK, Telstar produced Mystifier DVD and Showman DVD for Blaine — a compilation of his first three national television specials titled Street Magic; Magic Man; Frozen in Time. In the US, Blaine featured all three specials on a single DVD entitled Fearless.

There are currently two different versions of his best selling book, Mysterious Stranger, which leads the path to a buried treasure in the USA through codes and hidden symbols on the DVD. This contest is no longer active.

Telstar introduced Blaine to a UK audience and is responsible for creating a huge amount of recognition for Blaine (through ads created by BananaSplit's Steve Kemsley) that deliberately introduced David Blain to Britain more as a rock star idol than as a magician. Popular opinion of Blaine is divided as of late, due to a stunt Blaine pulled when he lasted 44 days on no food while suspended in a persplex box over London. It seems UK folk didn't like Blaine taking so much attention away from their daily lives as the media blitz hummed on and caused traffic jams and hogged attention on the tube. In one of the funniest stunts played on Blaine during this time, a radio controlled helicopter dangled a fat cheeseburger inches away from Blaine's glass box while Blaine looked on.

David Blaine and Women

Blaine has been rumored to date some of the hottest names in the business: Fiona Apple, Madonna, and Josie Maran to name a few.

How did Blaine get started in street magic ?

Taking a small digital video camera out into the seedy world of Times Square New York, Blaine and a friend shot footage of Blaine performing street magic for passersby with just a pack of cards and a few coins. Contrary to overwhelming belief, Blaine had never performed street magic before this time.

The results for such a simple idea were phenomenal. David Blaine’s camera caught reactions of people screaming in the street, laughing in shock, and crying in hysteria. This raw early footage would be something to look back on now in light of the fame Blaine has achieved.

Blaine took the crude footage to ABC television in New York, managed to get an appointment, and after completely wowing executives with his bland yet powerful brand of close up magic - got a $1,000,000 contract and paycheck to perform in the first ever Street Magic television special. This was in 1997... David Blaine Street Magic still airs to this day (on TLC The Learning Channel). For TV updates of all Blaine airings as well as other magic specials, go to this TV magic guide page and bookmark it. You can now purchase (and perform) one of Blaine's favorite card tricks from the Ellusionist web site, just perform a search for Strange Travelers in the top search bar (available as of May 8, 2006).

What Happened with David Blaine's mother?

Blaine's mother, Patrice White discovered she had ovarian cancer. The woman David loved and who had inspired David to take up magic at an early age was dying. She refused to change her lifestyle in spite of the illness but would continue supporting David through his goals and dreams to become a successful entertainer. Her drive and ambition gradually stopped cancerous tumors for a long period of time, but in 1994, she died at the age of 48. Until her dying day, she donated to charity, helped the poor, and lived a life of compassion and generosity.

Her son David Blaine was devastated and Patrice remains a key figure in Blaine's life to this day - both in spirit and memory. You can see images of Patrick on www.davidblaine.com by going to the Gallery.

Trick Monkey: David Blaine's deal with Robert Deniro's Tribeca Productions

Tribeca Productions, the partnership between Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, has formalized a first-look deal at MGM. Tribeca has made a deal to develop "Trick Monkey" a film based on the exploits of up-and-coming magician David Blaine, with De Niro and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio attached. It's a kind of father-son scenario. De Niro would play a magician, DiCaprio his apprentice. Jim Uhls ("Dead Reckoning") is scripting.

Learning How to Perform David Blaine Magic

When searching through the vast internet looking for magic sites to learn from, you'll come across a plethora of sites with cheap .gif backgrounds with stars flashing in the background on black pages and overblown text telling you they have the secret to life and a few of Blaine's secrets too. For nothing more than a click of your mouse, you get a couple of secrets that you may or may not understand and poorly written instruction on how to actually perform the given trick.

Save yourself the time. If you're not careful you'll get sucked into an black hole of mis-knowledge and a de-basing of the magic art at Blaine's expense.

If you want to learn and perform street magic (not necessarily confined to the street) you'll have to plunk down at least a few dollars to pick up a book, or some magic props, or, by far the best and fastest learning tool: a DVD that teaches the art and caters directly to your experience level.

The site that teaches the most people worldwide, hands down and no questions asked - is ellusionist.com Street Magic. According to sources the site is often recommended by David Blaine himself (and his managers) to those who want to learn the art of street magic. If you have never done magic before, it's recommended to start with an ellusionist video called How to Do Street Magic.. what follows is a brief review of the tape from pro reviewer RT Showmann...