Welcome to this curated educational transcript of the Joe Rogan Experience. In this session, we examine the critical perspectives and historical dialogues presented in Episode #1527. Our goal is to provide a searchable, high-fidelity research resource for students of cultural history, technology, and global discourse. This transcript has been specifically optimized for academic reference, linguistic study, and archival preservation regarding Human Endurance, Physiological Limits, and the Psychology of Performance. This is a great collection. Yeah, these are all
from Plasticel. Look, even the sunglasses come
off on Biggie. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty dope. We
got John Wick. John Wick and his pitbull. 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 Plasticel. He makes some dope shit.
Yeah, he's amazing. 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, 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. 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's 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? I was about five years old
when I started playing with cards, but I didn't
know 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. 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, and 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 and my mom goes crazy. 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
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 so, you know, just it was always like
when you 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. 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 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, all the kids like,
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 more at 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 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 would like challenge them. I'd
be like, Let's say 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. A magician friend of mine
who's amazing and one of my heroes in life, he...
He told me a story as I was doing Buried Alive.
He said, you know, the Navy SEALs, they black
them out underwater so they're not afraid of
drowning. And I'm like, that can't, no way. Because
it seems so abstract to me. But it stuck in my
brain. And then when I wanted to do the water
tank stunt and I started learning about freediving
and stuff like that, I suddenly... realize 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 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.
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 it's but it feels better it's not like getting
knocked out with a punch it's like you get knocked
it's euphoric no but no yeah but choked out of
euphoric right yeah exactly except this one's
even better and then you have all these dreams
no it no you make it sound exciting that part
of it when 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, 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? Yeah. 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. Choked out is just a just shuts off
the blood to the brain. Right. And the brain
shuts off. Yeah. 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.
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. By the way. So how many times?
I don't know. Like between. 20 to 30 I mean oh
wow by the way you guys were talking about me
on the thing about the breath hold thing yeah
so yeah 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 yeah 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.
But if you actualize, so because he blacked out
and because it was so cold, the blood shunting
occurred were 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 that just shows
you that there's like 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.
That's what you did. Yeah. 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 has 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 teenage
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 came i blacked out
as i came out but i didn't know what that all
meant right so i blacked out was that So I was
like, OK, that 330 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 of 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 so you
start pure O2 you hold on to pure O2 and then
you go under I purge really hard on pure O2 so
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 and everything, no oxygen. And I was with
Luke Akins who jumped from 25 ,000 feet with
no parachute landing in that. 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, um, 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, the O2, you have to
take the O2 monitors. You have to be on them.
Right. So. And I was already in a hypobaric 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, 5, 96. He was at like 97.
He's like, oh, I'm winning. You know, joking
with me. And as soon as we crossed 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 ,000 plus 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. 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, but they did stay up at 98, 99.
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,
but they're still at 29 ,000 plus 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 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 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've.
learned that you could go three and a half minutes
or three minutes plus, right? 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's that it is magic
but it's it's art it's mind blowing it's an art
it's a performance it's not like it's incredible
now look there's guys that are card guys that
are like that also like lots lots of people i
love them they do the cards in a way that's like
but 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 starr who's called the human regurgitator
but he swallows crazy things like So he combines
magic with his ability. So he went on Jay Leno.
Yeah, I think it was Leno or Carson. He takes,
you know, 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. 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 your take 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 obviously
yeah i talked to him all the time Yeah, 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. But and he passed away and I filmed
that. And he's I'm going to do a really amazing
piece about him because he is incredible. But
he also was on like 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 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. 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 empty. 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 did he die from? Cancer? Yeah.
Yeah. Boy. Yeah. But wait. 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... But this is a guy
that died for his art, legitimately. Yeah, legitimately.
Yeah. Wow. So another, the guy I was telling
you about, that's like my favorite card magician,
the guy that taught, that showed me the Navy
SEAL, but just an amazing magician, 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. be able to find it anywhere
because it's not a video but he um 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 No, and he's
doing it. He's doing, I'm telling you, 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 the body would be capable
of doing. Yep. Yeah, that's that's it That's
what he's doing. That is the thing like if you
can either you know, 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 he wrote, 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. 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. 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 you, so 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 cards 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, it's interesting.
Like you ever watch a movie where a guy's 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 you're
edge detection, like you're understanding of
where the edge. It's very interesting to watch
your fingers move because they're so educated.
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 when I was watching you move your fingers
and watching you move the cards, I was 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 – 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. 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. Like the guy 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.
Okay. 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. I won't go into details.
So 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 cheat ever.
Meaning the guy, this is the guy that the reason
that Vegas has those, instead of like the dealer
peeking the down card, 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
and 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 a wall at Binion's.
Right? So he's working on moves so he's not going
to get killed. Survival. Yes. Right. 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. 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. 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. That'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, you know. Under
a million? Yeah, probably a few million a year.
So I'm saying it's not like he's going in and
getting greedy. It's very smart and structured.
Yeah, and going to different 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, 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. Because I'm telling the truth.
But anyway, I go to the Palms. 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 of the numbers open and close without
but crapping out. And 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. I don't want to just gamble on a wrench.
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. And 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, right? So anyway,
what I do is I bet for everybody at the table.
And 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 bit down
for every single person at the table, including
the dealers, I mean the pit bull, you know, with
the dice. And 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
going to 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. 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.
Nobody should hit that bet. I mean, statistically,
it's unlikely, and I wasn't cheating. So, yeah.
So, do they, but... The question is – I'm lucky
– for some reason, I'm lucky with dice. Right.
But I'm not – 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 the 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
do I – 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. 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 know because it could be weighted.
Or you're done. You're good? Yeah. You're good?
Yeah. Okay. 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 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? But stop
whenever you want. Yeah, because it could be
like a weighted die. By the way, that's how people
cheat with dice is 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. 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 like really the stimulus is like that
fixation almost. It's like the meditative thing
that you're talking about. 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. And
that's hard to do. How did you first get on television?
How did 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 anything. 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 hard to watch, you know? It was like
glossy, big, like dynamic, and the illusionist
is so far away from the whole thing. So I'm like,
there's nothing magical about all this. And then,
so, okay, I think about it, and I'm like, I go
through, so. But I'm doing magic everywhere all
the time. So 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 manager, to this. And I'm
like, if... 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. Anyways, 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 a 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. 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
of 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 Central Booking
because I jumped the subway thing and 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 gonna get my ass kicked right 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.
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, 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 here
or 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 get the O out of them. 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. This made her happy.
Wow. That's a cool origin story. And it makes
sense that that feeling that you get. Like when
you show somebody, like the card trick you did
in the other room and everybody's like, oh! That
oh, the oh that you get out of people, that rush.
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 in 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 comes out and 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
World's Greatest. So I'm doing like card tricks,
right? But anyway, so. I'm like driving with
my friend in 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. 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, and they didn't, 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.
Pulled the door open, but I like – it made it
look like I'm just pulling it, but I was giving
it – the door opens up and it looks like I did
nothing. Then I get back in the car and leave
and I hear, they go, that's David. They go, ah!
It was like the best trick 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 – 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,
if you 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 had 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 were 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 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. That moment. They might be trying
to figure it out, but they're still, they're
not thinking about, oh, I 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 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 i'm always late so
i showed up late so i missed like what 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 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 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 and
mind things. So studying Houdini and all that
stuff. And then there's a poster of Houdini that
I loved where 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. And anyway, so. 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. I know,
but 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. 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. 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. But let's not jump around. So
the buried alive thing, where did you do it physically?
That was in New York City on the west side. Trump
had like this bunch of properties that he was
developing. And I was like, 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. How could they see you, though? I'm not
aware of this one. Yeah, so it was see -through.
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? See those two
big holes? See the holes above my head right
there? So the air was being blown in and out.
But it's pretty straightforward. That one's,
to me, not that impressive. You just laid there
for a week? Yeah. But you know what the hard
part – I mean, sure, body and you lose weight.
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 trucker's tube on and all that stuff, which
is like a con with a catheter or whatever. And
people are there the whole time. Like it suddenly
became like an event. And so there was never
like and I was they were 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'd have those
dreams. 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 that was the other was 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 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 that you were getting
air. Yeah. And where are you drinking water from?
How are you getting water? 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 yeah they say
he did tablespoons of water but no it was it
was it was like a normal amount so 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 used 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. I had nothing but pure H2O for 44
days, lost 60 pounds, bone mass index dropped
33%. Yeah, 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 the doctor thought I was
cheating because he's a magician. By the way,
my friends that were with me that are magicians
and the guy building it, they're like, you need
to take these vitamins. And they hand me a handful
of sugary vitamins. And I'm like, no. 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 mode 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. But what I
was saying is the starvation expert that now
I have a paper published in the New England Journal
of Medicine with him, which I'm pretty proud
of. But 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 in all those days? You
have to slowly bring them back so that 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, somebody
sent me a trunk from Harrods full of food in
London like a friend. And I was giving it to
all the nurses and doctors because I knew I shouldn't
eat it. And 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. How so? I don't
know. I wouldn't recommend anybody does that.
It goes super, super long with no food. 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 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. 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 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 press into 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 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. 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 was
switching up and down with them while eating
burgers and reading the news. 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's - He knows me so well.
He was at 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. 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 in the ice? Could
that have been you? I was like, what do you mean?
He's like. OK, well, it's you know, so we go
on that special airs. Now he's convinced that
it wasn't me. And I especially is why you're
still. 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, OK, that means we
have like another six hours or whatever it is.
Right. By the way, my time estimations are. So
I'm like, OK, wait. It might have been 202. Wait,
wait, wait. And I wait, and 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. Three. 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. 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 that but i want to do but i want to
get to that before we get to that like while
you're in there what are you doing to occupy
your mind like how are you did you have were
you using meditation were you just thinking were
you just winging it like so okay so for some
of them what i do a big first of all yeah a lot
of things you get to you have free time to think
like there's no phones no distractions Aside
from the physical, but the one thing that I use
with everything is kind of like a breakdown of
numbers. I'm like, okay, 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 point. And I'll consider
that when I'm holding my breath, I do the same
thing. I'm 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, 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. But not
in the ice. No, the ice was kind of, there was
like a breathing thing, and I didn't really know
much about it back then, but I was 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? I
don't know. I hope not. Not because I don't care
about how long. I just don't want anybody to
hurt themselves. But I would imagine someone
does something so high profile like you did that,
that people would be like, hmm, I'm going to
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 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. Well, 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. university
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 Google. Don't pull this one up. Don't
pull this one. 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.
I'd done. 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, it's his situation's really bad. So it
kind of like set the tone before I did the thing.
The situation's really bad. From being upside
down for that long. What happened to him? I think
the blood, I think it does. 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 it. It
was bad. That I know. It was like in the news,
it was bad. I don't know what the permanent repercussion
is. 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. 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. Yeah.
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, but it was terrible. It was a
garbage stunt. But you were asking me like, what
things? So that was one that was like, 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 a 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, OK, 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, OK, great. OK, sure. So now
I need it to ascend. This is all hypothetical.
I'm not like a skydiver like that has a thousand
or ten thousand or twenty thousand 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 popped balloons with a gun. So there
are examples. So it's not like a complete hypothetical.
This one has like, OK, 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. What's that? 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. I can show one. Can you show
it to people? 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. 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 app 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 because 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. 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. 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. That was recent.
I was like. And the reason why is because I was
making you this video, a complete truth. But
I'm going to explain it to you. So 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 gonna make
it just back and but so here's the video i made
you though Can we play it for other people? Why
don't you airdrop it to Jamie? Oh, yeah. Okay.
Hold on. So let me airdrop. Isn't that funny,
though? It's pretty wild. I just bummed out that
I didn't get this before. Oh, well, yeah, so
I was going to, like, post it or something, and
I asked him if I should, and he's like, well,
wait, because maybe you'll just do the show.
So I think that's why he didn't, maybe, or something.
Maybe it got lost in the email or something.
It might have gotten to one of those. The email
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 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, like, cut through or whatever,
right? Sure. Okay. So I'm going to edit. I'm
going to just send you, like, 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, like with the current
temperature? Oh, yeah. 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. All right. Here we go.
Did you get that other one? I've only got one.
Okay. Just want to make sure. This is the one
you want me to play? Well, that's the first one.
So I can do this airdrop comeback? Sure. Okay.
Okay, check this out. 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 know.
I remember. You tell 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 that I let go on video.
I know, but you need to see. I can't play it
here, though, right, and show you like this.
We have to airdrop because it's going slow. Airdrop
is better because it's going slow. Well, I just
want to send this one that shows, like, how spectacular.
But I could just send this one that's not as
big, which explains what's going on. So hold
on. Which one? Because there's three young James.
The MacBook Pro. Young Jamie. 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 Trapp. He's the one
that tried to cross the Atlantic with helium
-filled 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 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 you're
hanging on to the rope yeah but i'm gonna make
sure that i i'm not gonna have a parachute on
and i'm gonna i'll i'll have a system so i'm
completely secure so i'm not gonna fall off but
i'm not gonna wear the parachute because i don't
want to be I want it to look like a kid just
holding on to balloons. So that visual is the
important part. So the parachute's up in the
balloons. But once I get above like 1 ,000 feet
or so, I'm going to put the parachute on in the
air. So you're going to put the parachute on
while you're up there. Yeah, and then I want
to see how high I can go. See? How high do you
think 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. 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. Dude, your
loved ones panic when you start plotting things
like this? My daughter asks questions. How old
is she? Nine. And she has 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? It pops a balloon. But is
it radio? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And 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. And do
they have to weigh you before you get on? Oh,
yeah, it's precision. 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 like the best trainers, if you had like
your five best in the world, like 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 amazing. Or crazy. Right. It is also
crazy because 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 – 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 what I
mean? So it's crazy. It's all nuts. And because
you think of skydiving, you 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, OK, 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 the 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? 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. Hold on. I want to try to send
this video so I could explain making your video
if that's possible. Oh, now it's preparing it.
Okay, beautiful. Now it's going through? You
have it coming right now? Because it says it's
converting, so it might be coming. We're waiting
for an accept on this. Okay. As soon as I get
that. You bring this to YouTube. How long ago
was it? Like a year and a half ago or something
like that. They say, yay, let's do it. We're
fucking crazy. Yeah. And also, it's probably
going to have 100 million people watch it. So
it seems like a good idea. I don't know. I don't
know about that. Oh, I do. I don't know. Are
you going to float around in a fucking balloon
hanging on? A lot of people are going to watch
it, man. I don't know if that's true. Oh, 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 sense 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. So it'll be like that. Wow.
That's pretty cool. So it'll look just like that.
Are you harnessed? Yeah, it'll be like a little
thing that connects at my wrist, which like the
way the airless 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 2 ,000 to 3 ,000 feet, I could.
Holding on. Yeah, you can ascend. You can also
just put something around your foot like the
wires could come down. Okay, so something around
your foot would be just to take some of the weight
off. Just to help. Yeah, so it's doable. But
how long can you actually hang though? Like,
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. What? With one hand, you mean? Yeah,
with one hand. Oh, okay. But this has to look
like the one -handed image of a person floating.
It has to be exact. Right. You'd have to have
some freaky forearms, Popeye style. Yeah. So
I'll have assistance built. 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.
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? What are you using? Well, I'm using
this one called Dekunu right now, but it's big.
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 you know especially if you're
like me you don't even you only have 400 jumps
not even right right so and you're landing in
dicey areas because you don't know where you
are right 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?
If you come down into a mountain, you're going
to whack into that. It looks flat from here,
but if you didn't adjust, you're going to 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. 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. 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. 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. Yeah, 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.
You can't. I just want to get – the goal is if
I get up to like 20 – 5 ,000 feet, I'm excited.
Okay. Because that's where the ice, I want to
disappear, like I actually want the visual to
be that I disappear into the sky. Okay. So you
get up to 25 ,000. But I'm not going to kill
myself doing it. I hope not. I won't. Okay. I
believe you. But this one is different than the
ice. I'm going to 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 going to have the O2 monitors in my pocket.
I'm going to 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 of the communication
for every skydiving stunt movie. The same way
that a plane can communicate with the ground.
Yeah. Something. Yeah. And I have a transponder
up here. I have everything. So the planes, I'm
visible. Everybody knows where I am. 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. We have a couple of key points
that we're dreaming about doing this. Depending
on wind and weather, that's where we'll do it.
And how do you descend? Just let go of some?
You're just going to completely drop off? Yeah,
just release myself. So you're going to skydive
at 25 ,000 feet? Yeah. By the way, I told you
when I did that test, when I went up to almost
24 -7 or whatever, I had the helmet on. The first
breath I took, the entire thing was ice right
away. 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, 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, 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... He was hypoxic.
He was blacked out. But when he got to about
9 ,000 feet or so, he woke up. Yeah, but from
9 ,000 feet down, you have 40 seconds to figure
out where you are and what you're doing. Okay.
It still seems fucking terrifying. And so then
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 wins are fucked on August
31st, you push it a little bit. Yeah, 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. Yeah. 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 like
giddy. Like and all these adults are working
and we're all like laughing because we're like
kids playing with balloons, you know? It's like,
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. We called Mary, the
real Mary Poppins. She was a real Mary Poppins.
We'd 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 when you discuss
these things with her? She's so amazing. I run
ideas by her. Really? 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. Is there going to be pink? And I was
like, of course there's going to be pink. And
now there's pink. That's hilarious. Wow. Have
you been 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. 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.
It started like three years ago. It was the first
time I did that, which is crazy, right? Yeah.
I finally felt like I had the right material
to make a good show. And the show is so – it's
like I open it with the mouth sewing. So the
first thing is like – but I bring people up so
it's also comical. It's like funny, right? Like
joking around and stuff. And you see people like,
ah. Now, when you say mouth sewing, you actually
sew your mouth shut. Yeah. And you do that how
many nights a week? One? No. So I would do two
days on, one day off. But every day of a show
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.
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 this 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 my mouth, spit it. But see, 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 then I have them push an ice pick through
my arm every night, which is like you don't want
to hit a brachial, you know, anything. A nerve.
Yeah, or an artery or anything. Of course. And
I let them choose a spot. By the way, I also
brought the ice pick if you do want to see because
I know that you know it's real. Oh, I believe
it's real. But I still want to see it. I haven't
done it since my tour. Really? Yeah. Are you
itching to do it? I mean, I'd like you to do
it. I'd like you to do it just to see that it
is like 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. And so you're stitching
your mouth shut. But so see, 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, and I switched to here. That makes
sense. I would imagine that would really fuck
your hands up. Alcohol pads 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? Yeah. 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. Jim,
does this mic work? One second. Okay, Jim 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. 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. 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
stung him in the heart and then stingray was
gone but oh 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, 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, it stabbed
him in the heart. Instead of pulling it out,
which it's like a cork strew, he waited with
doctors until it beat out the other side, and
he was fine. You see? Wow. 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,
he's joking. So what happened was he started
to get too cocky. He started to think he was
fine. Oh, Jesus Christ. But, okay, so 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 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. 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? Anywhere? Sure. Where do you prefer?
Wherever you want. Like right there? Well, sure.
No? 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?
No, I liked where you were going. Right here.
I mean, that's fine. But you're going to have
to go like through. Well, what do you want me
to do? Yeah, you're going to push through. Okay.
Should I hold on to you here? Yeah, keep like
a straight path. Okay, like that? No, I'd go
straight. Like that? Yeah, I'd go straight through.
Okay, ready? Slowly. I'd go slow. Yeah. See that?
Yep. See? So, it's hard to believe that it's
real. You keep pushing. Keep going. Keep going.
Wait. Uh -oh. Hold on. What happened? I hit a
nerve. Oh, Jesus. You got to do it in another
spot. No, no, no. Come on, man. You got to 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, 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 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 there? Point
it. Ready? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'd go like that.
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
use is this. 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. 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. Yeah. Well, that's
because you hit something. Uh -huh. And your
body's healthy, so it's clotting up pretty quickly.
Okay. Should I put it out? Yeah. Okay. Slowly.
Go ahead. Cool. And that's it. Okay. So here,
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, like that.
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 the 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 thought
he could do anything. Yeah. 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 said to him, do it
again. And by the way, I'm not even in top physical.
So I said, do it again. But I obviously could
have kept going. Boom. And I did that based on
Houdini, right? Right. But here's the thing.
So Houdini would do this on stage every night.
And it's a great thing in the show. It's like,
look, blah, blah, blah. And he's 10 strongest
people in the audience. Come punch him. 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
with these two college kids. One kid's like,
watch out. 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. Voodoo.
He died from voodoo. Yeah. Wow. I mean, 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 it is not just that
it's hard to do, but that you might die. Yeah.
Right? Yeah. Or some people say, oh, how's he
doing it? Right. What's the trigger? So there's
all different interpretations. But the worry,
the thing that thrills people. Yeah. It's like
the, you know, 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. 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 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.
Yeah, it was an adventure. That is an adventure.
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... That's kind of amazing. In California,
they're like, go ahead. Give it a shot. Fuck
it. You're here. 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? We have
to take a break. I want to make sure that I'm
okay. Okay. Hold on. Can we take a break? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. We'll take a break. We'll be right
back. So we had to clean up your wound. It was
fine. Yeah. You seem to enjoy it. You really
do. You were laughing while they were cleaning
it up and checking it. And you're like, it's
good. We're good. It was just, what was it? The
blood? What was it that was bothering you? He's
drinking all the water to prepare for swallowing
a frog. I just felt, you know, too much. Of the
magic becoming real. It's the magic. How much
water do you have to drink to do what you want
to do? Oh, we'll see. What's up? Do you have
to 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. This is 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'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 because that's
a fucking live frog. 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 swallow them, and then you'd see him bring
them up. So it wasn't magical. It was like a
skill set. Usually what I would 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. I
have baking soda. It 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. 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 could happen for the rest of
your day. By the way, back to the James Nestor
book, The Woman Missing Deep, there's something
he talks about that's really amazing, which is
one of my favorite parts. And there he talks
about how coral 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. We're deep. Okay.
So I have like a bunch of notes. What app are
you using to read from? 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 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. 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. It'll 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 easier on the eyes.
Yes, that's what I'm saying. It's tricky on the
eyes as well. Okay, so can I just read it? Sure,
yeah, yeah. Okay, so it's part of what the Aquanauts
and Aquarius are trying to find out. They're
also trying to crack the more mystical marine
riddles, like the secret behind coral's telepathic
communication. This is so crazy when he writes
it. Every year, 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 of the same species
will, in synchronicity, spawn at the exact same
time. And they have no idea why. The synchronous
spawn is essential for coral survival. Coral
colonies must continuously 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. Is that crazy? That's insane. Yeah,
that's what I thought it was. But 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... Coral, 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
he's, like – 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 – the fungus underneath
the soil that actually the trees utilize it through
their root structures and they communicate through
that? Mm -mm. Yeah, there's some sort of a mycorrhizal
relationship that fungus has with these trees.
and they they actually somehow or another communicate
through each other as well they're like using
the soil like this that's crazy yeah we think
of soil as being dirt right just but it's there's
life in there 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 use the the fungi that
live in the soil 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 fungus. Yeah. And
they're living with these things. 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 the future and tell you what you're
doing wrong with the planet. 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...
But we think that's so important because it's
so important to us. Because it's so significant.
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 when you see a flock of birds fly in synchronicity
in some sort of strange dance. And you're like,
how the fuck are they doing that? And no one
knows. They really don't know. There's all this
guesswork. 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? They don't know. They don't know. How
does 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.
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 lets them
know and we don't know what it is we don't know
what it is but we up and we these river structures
and then they die and they die off the pacific
northwest has a they had a huge problem with
that and they they didn't understand it when
they first put these dams in place these salmon
would just pull up and they try to redistribute
them to other places and they're like nope i
need to go back to where i'm from It's weird,
man. Biological life is weird. It is amazing.
And it's funny. You're right. 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.
We just don't put a high priority on what they
can do for whatever egocentric reason. I was
swimming in Tonga in the Pacific Northwest, and
it was with humpback whales. And I was with my
daughter, and we looked at the mother and the
calf. I mean, you know, swimming, we were watching
them. And it's the most beautiful, overwhelming
moment. I'll show you after some footage. But
then I was alone. And I was, like, holding my
breath and kind of free diving next to them.
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 yeah so I'm like certain that
she's like trying to communicate or something
like that. So anyway, I'm still on the same breath
while I'm communicating. And I go like this.
I open my arms up and turn to the mother like
this. So as I'm swimming, I go like that. And
the mother mimics, 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 Ed Finzon. And the humpback is doing,
the mother is doing that to me and I'm swimming
in synchronicity with, 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, I think like, but also their
brains are so much bigger than our, 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. So 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. Okay, so hold on. I just
usually like to give him a little. Give him a
little bath? Yeah. 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? I don't
want it done. Anytime anybody complains. About
needing to pee. I'm going to show them this video.
Tenth. Tenth water. And what are they? Eight
ounces? Sixteen. Sixteen? It's my water, bro.
It's more than a gallon of water. Yeah. Now,
here's the magical part. It's 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 to, like... Do
you feel him moving around inside of you? When
there's a lot. When there's ten? Jamie, your
face. Here he comes. No, I got to first 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... 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.
I got salmonella. No, I didn't swallow 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. It's because I drank so much, so it's
like I have to locate him. You have to locate
him. 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. You're going to have to
condense that. No, no, no, 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. God, this is so strange. Oh, he spit
on Biggie. That's called the water spout. That's
how you usually put out the fire. Oh, my God.
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. Where's he at right now? You got him
in there? Put him in my hands? Okay. 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. You want to put him back in the jar?
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 was 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 a little
tool to show me how to... A couple tools. How
to what? How to open them. What's this plastic
thing on? 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. 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.
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.
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? 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. 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. Yeah. 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. We can
keep talking. Now I'm 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 used for bait. So I asked the guy,
I was like, could you give me some of your...
And they became my daughter's pets. So I've never
ever injured or hurt a frog. But how did 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 frog. It started with like bingo balls and
things like that. And I would put them inside
and see if they'd come out. But I started playing
around. So it started with like, you know...
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 lamp oil. That's got to be so bad for
you. Bad for you. What is kerosene like inside
your body? Do you feel it burning? No, but the
problem is all that stuff has a residue. What
is this guy doing, Jamie? It's oil -based. This
is the kerosene. It's a water spout thing. Haji
Ali, Egyptian fire eater and human fountain.
Do you know of this guy? Yeah, that's the guy
I'm talking about. Oh, there he is. There it
is. Yeah, he's amazing. Oh, boy. 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. I mean, that guy. 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? Oh, yeah.
Forget those. We don't need to do that. They're
very slippery. So let me get back to the question
that I had before you ran off because 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 bizarre things that require
so much of 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 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 how many do you have like on the
back burner in the back your head i have two
more crazy ones that i'm trying can you share
them uh i the the thing i will tell you is that
if you put them all together the the letters
all equal out like my name so that and that's
yeah That's all you can say? Well, yeah. I don't
want to go too into it. What do you enjoy most?
Because I feel like if you talk about something
too much, then you talk it away. I understand.
Yeah. You take away the magic of, like, 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 out, just random people out with
magic? Kind of just, 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
human aquarium guy, you know, the frogs and goldfish
and stuff, that came from Houdini writing a miracle
monger. It's 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 Jay 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 and
insane is like actually take these ideas that
seem impossible 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 can't be real.
But it was real if you believe it was real. How
many of you are there out there? I always think
of stand -up comedians as being a very small
group of people that kind of only understand
each other. 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 - Oh, like the crazy,
bizarre, like mixing it all? You're transcending
magic. You go into this weird realm of what the
fuck is he doing? 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
force you to be a doctor. Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah,
but like you have to figure it out But you also
have do you balance it out with like I mean you
obviously develop some problems from not eating
that one time and you know You've you've got
these stunts where they have this possibility
of physically injuring you permanently Yeah.
So I worry. To 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 bucks. Five
liters, basically. 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 usually cap it a gallon. Well, it's dangerous,
right? You can die from drinking too much water.
Water intoxication? Yeah, but I think that's
if you flush it out too much. But when you combine
that with other things, then it's dangerous.
Well, kids have done, like in fraternity, when
they have to do those hazing rituals, they've
died. From drinking too much water. 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? And your heart stops. 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 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?
No, 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 spouted 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
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. And you're – there's not
– I've met a lot of people, but you're in this
new like, oh, and then there's this guy. This
is like a totally new frequency of human. Or
just freak. Take out the Quincy. Both. But, I
mean, 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. What's
this? Or this could, you know. 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. 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. No, but what you do is crazy. You fight.
I haven't done that in a long time. 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 you know it's and then 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 Well,
I'm fascinated by people that are really far
down on a path. We ever brought up that woman
Stephanie Millinger on the podcast before? I
follow her on Instagram, and I know I've posted
some of her stuff on Instagram, but she's like
a contortionist. She has, like, incredible balance
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 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. 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, it's just the
years of time. This is what I'm saying. 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 where you 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've got this
bar that's like a small chin -up bar. Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah. So it's a round thing bouncing 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. Or like Cirque
du Soleil. 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. 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. 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.