David Blaine High-Wires in Manhattan This Halloween

Yes! Since there are never enough things to make fun of, New York City is getting a gimme: David Blaine will be performing a Halloween high-wire act this October. The AP reports that Blaine wants to call this stunt "Easy and Fun," as "it's something that's been done in the circuses, based on the old high-wire acts. It's like family entertainment, this one." Please, family entertainment can also be throwing food and various detritus at some idiot in a Plexiglass box. And it will be "Easy and Fun" to think of various ways to make fun of Blaine, in what is clearly a bid to make NY Press's most loathsome list next year. Thanks, man!

Gothamist on David Blaine's insane pre-Plexiglass press conference and how Londoners reacted to the 2003 stunt.

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on April 22, 2005 8:37 AM

Comments [rss]

Richie Boy

When are we going to stop calling David Blaine a magician or illusionist? He doesn’t even perform magic tricks anymore and he’s not really mystifying people with illusions, unless he switched himself with a mechanized wax puppet that looked like him while he was boozing and nailing models the entire duration of the “tricks.” His feats of endurance and concentration (being entombed in ice, sitting in a plastic box, standing on pole) don’t seem to apply anymore to what a magician does. His tricks don’t seem nearly as impressive as people who climb Mount Everest, run ultra marathons, or who live like hermits in claustrophobic NYC studios for years. David, try living in a small apartment with an irate pet tiger, like that one New York guy.

What do we call him: spectacle artist or stunt monkey? Do we call him a “media Jedi” for his ability to convince hundreds of cameras, commentators, and news people to focus on him? Or how about “guy who can hang out in uncomfortable places for a long time?”

Given his penchant for being encased in small spaces, tests of deprivation and endurance, and threats with bodily harm, why doesn’t he, for his next trick, ride the New York subway dressed as a giant iPod for a week? Now, that would be impressive.

jenny

I remember seeing him in the ice at ABC's studios back when I first moved here. "Oh boy! I live in a city where I can see a guy in ice!" Am so glad I got out of that phase.

Kojak

Not again with this Blaine guy.

Why can't he use his weirdass magical powers to cure cancer or feed the homeless? And why the hell does anyone care about him locking himself up in a Plexiglass cage?

To hell with the tomatoes. Im gonna throw rocks.