Blaine’s deadly game

David Blaine enjoys pushing his body to the limit, said Cole Moreton in The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.). The magician has been buried alive for a week, held his breath underwater for 17 minutes—which should have left him brain damaged—and spent almost 64 hours encased in a block of ice. Some of his apparent illusions, like pushing an ice pick through his hand, are quite real. Blaine had in fact already created a permanent hole in his palm, by repeatedly piercing it in the same spot with an acupuncture needle. “The goal is that it looks like magic,” he says, “but it’s not a trick.” Such magic has its dangers. One of his heroes, Hadji Ali, aka the Amazing Regurgitator, died doing a stunt that Blaine has now adopted, in which he drinks a gallon of water followed by a pint of kerosene. Blaine spits out the kerosene and starts a fire, before regurgitating the water and extinguishing the flames. Ali accidentally inhaled some of the mixture and fatally damaged his lungs. “Now you have antibiotics for that,” Blaine says, “so if it happens to me, I am not going to die.” But if his stomach absorbs any kerosene, he notes, “there’s going to be a high risk of cancer. My odds are getting worse. But I’m betting against it.”

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