David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, It's Jay Sheddy and I'm thrilled to announce
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(00:25):
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meet you. There are a limited number of VIP experiences
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Head to Jysheddy dot me Forward Slash Tour and get
yours today. The first time I ever saw you, if

(00:46):
you were suspended miss box in the middle of London.
You were in it for forty four days.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I was on the edge of irreversible organ failure. I
do have effects that haven't recovered since, and that was
twenty two years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Over for a street magic and endurance stunt. I love
the reactions you get doing these tricks. The human endurance
pot is what's so fascinating about it.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
You just went for it, took an X ray. The
knife was on the edge of the nervousness. It was
really at that like exact line, when you're out of
your comfort zone, when you're breaking that, how do you
get out of that? Well? This series did that.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
What's the illusion that kept you up the most nights?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
The body is capable of doing things that science and
doctors don't even imagine could be possible.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is there anything that you're actually scared of?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
The Number one health and wellness.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Podcast Jetty Jay Sheddy Rely, Hey everyone, welcome back to
On Purpose. I am so excited for today because I'm
getting to sit down with someone that I have loved
and followed for the past two days, decades. This is
someone that I grew up watching when I was back

(02:03):
in London, I'd be wanting to watch every show, everything
he did. I was addicted and I still am today.
And this is one of those moments that I look
back and I'm like my ten year old self. My
fifteen year old self would be high fiving me so
bad right now. So I'm so pumped. I'm sitting down
with the world's most iconic illusionist, endurance artist, and mentalist,

(02:24):
from death defying stunts to pushing the limits of human potential.
He spent his career redefining what's possible, and his latest series,
Do Not Attempt, premiers March twenty third on National Geographic.
Please welcome to the show, David Blaine. David, I get
to sit down with a lot of cool people. But

(02:45):
when I heard you were coming on and we made
this happen, I honestly, I've felt like a kid the
whole time. You got captivated by a subway trick when
you were like four years old. That's what kind of
introduced you into this world. What was that trick?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
It also kept it was a bunch of things. Side
a friend that one of his relatives gave him a
trick called Scotch and soda, which is just it's like
a half dollar changes with English, but anyway, so he
couldn't figure out how to do it, and immediately I
understood it and I was able to do it and
present as a trick. So that that was one thing.
Another thing was seeing the guys in Coney Island that

(03:22):
would do sword sawing or rope tricks things like that.
Then people that were in the subways. I would watch
the three card Monty guys. So I think it was
like a constant, you know. For some reason, that's the
stuff I was most attracted to. And I loved how
cards fell, you know. So they're almost for me meditative,
like the way they feel in my hands. It's I think,

(03:44):
even before I even knew what to do with them,
I would almost just like meditate because I was holding them.
So it was really interesting, almost like a digital fixation.
I just became, I guess, like a security blanket almost,
you know. Yeah, and then when I realized I could
make my mother, I could change her day by doing
a simple magic trick, it was kind of like the

(04:05):
beginning of my love for performing. And then I would
only do it for her and her friends and they
would all react, and that was one part of the journey.
But yeah, it is seeing little performances, seeing a book
of Harry Houdini and seeing him chained to the side
of a building, watching him dangle over the edge of

(04:27):
a building. So yeah, it's a collective, but it all
processed early on.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, when did your mother realize that this was a
gift and not just a cute kid who could do
some tricks.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I could have done anything, and that was the you
know what I mean, so it was like, oh, my
son has a get no, but it's like everything I did.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
She was like, that's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
So it's not like I had any special gift. I didn't,
but I had a mother that believed that I had,
you know what I mean. So she encouraged it just
by being so excited.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
And so you know, yeah, well, I'm having a moment
now because just before we went on, you showed me
a video of your daughter performing, and I was thinking
you were doing the same thing. Like when I saw
you were watching that video you probably watched a million times.
By the way, your door is so talented. This it's
phenomenally talented. I can't wait to see her perform live.
But you were looking at that video like it was

(05:22):
the first time you'd seen it, and you were so
proud as a proud dad showed to me, and I'm thinking,
you're like mirroring your mom's energy.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
It's really special. It's amazing to see that. What does
it feel like to you now when you're watching Decert
perform and watching.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Her do anything, I'm like, mind blowing. It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
If she draws something, if she writes something, if she
makes something, whatever she does, it's like.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
I was saying to you, and you walked in today
that the first time I ever saw you was in
two thousand and three. You were doing your act above
the below and you were suspended thirty feet up or
something maybe higher in this box in the middle of London,
and you were in it for forty four days. You
survived on like four and a half liters of water

(06:11):
a day, and I think you lost like sixty pounds
and I just come wave at you, but you don't
remember me.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
I remember the good energy. That was something that changed
everything about the way. I think that one messed up
my metabolism, which is hence the side effects of it.
But it was absolutely one of the most beautiful, compelling experiences.

(06:39):
Aside from that, it was a stunt, and I did
do it publicly because so I feel like if I
didn't do this publicly, I could have never committed to
doing that type of a fast. And I was obsessed
with fasting because every time I would fast, you become
aware of everything around you that you normally ignore because

(07:00):
we spend so much time thinking about, oh what am
I going to have for breakfast? I'm not going for lunch.
Who am I going to see? But what are we
going to do for dinner? And your day is consumed
by these But as soon as you remove all of that,
suddenly you have like all this brain activity and it's incredible.
That's one of the best things for me about fasting
is that, And every stunt that I'd done was up

(07:21):
to that point was I fasted just so I wouldn't
have to use a toilet, right, So for me, the
fasting was one of the things that I was most
excited about. So I decided to make it into a
stunt forty four days, and I knew that the only
way that I would actually do it is if I
publicly committed to it. But so even though it was

(07:42):
difficult and I was suffering, it was one of the
most beautiful experiences that people I connected with. It was
like I would get emotional just by like looking at somebody,
you know, And I could never do something like that again.
So I think I was on the edge of irreversible
organ failure or something. I think I did go on

(08:02):
the threshold. But it's funny because I studied, I studied monks,
I studied Yogi's I studied all these the hunger strikers,
I read Bobby Sands, I read all of the books
about the people that pushed themselves to the edge. And
some were doing it as a protest, some were doing
it for enlightenment. But all the things that I read

(08:25):
about it were kind of similar. It's like, there are
certain beats, there are certain things that happen. In a
few days, you'd lose your hunger. But it has to
be pure water. It has to be nothing but water.
If you have other things, you keep your metabolism going.
And I don't recommend it obviously, because I do have
effects that haven't recovered since. And that was what two

(08:46):
thousand and three, so it was twenty two years ago.
But there's like around twenty eight days, it says that
you suddenly have this pair taste in your mouth. And
around day twenty eight I started to think that they
were putting sugar in my water. So I would pour
the water out to people walking by and I would say,

(09:06):
could you check? Could you could you tell? Because I
didn't trust my team. I thought they were like involved
in keeping me a lot. So I was like, can
you is there is that sweet? And they go no,
it's just water, but you can taste it because of
that paar taste in during starvation. And then then the
other thing you lose, the hunger. First around a month

(09:29):
you get that paar taste. But then around like day
thirty nine, I start to have really strange heart palpitations
and you start to feel like you're eating your body.
That's where it starts to become. You start to become
aware of that pain. But through that pain you find
this this other thing that's like the most beautiful experience

(09:50):
that I've ever felt. So it's amazing we were there
for that.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's amazing, I mean, but hearing about it from the
person who actually lived through it is pretty remarkable. And
I wondered, though, Like one thing I love about you, David,
is that these are not just tricks or experiments. These
are things that you research, you read, there's a story
that inspires it, there's a experiment that happened years ago
that inspires something you do. These are not just you know,

(10:16):
manufactured things. Then they're really deep lots of things you're
fascinated by. How did you start to come across stories,
ideas images that inspired these tricks? Where did that come from?

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, I started fasting. Actually, I read said Arthur by
Hermas when I was young, I think like eleven twelve
thirty around around that time, and his character fasts, waits
and learns how to take control over his mind and body.
And I was fascinating with that principle. And then I

(10:49):
would just try to test myself with simple things, you know,
enduring the cold, holding my breath, things like that. But
I think it started earlier and then I connected to
it with that, and then fasting was I wanted to
bury myself alive. That was a pivotal part that made
the stunt easy to do, actually, because if you have
no food, it makes everything easier and you sleep easier.

(11:14):
Once you ignore the hunger. Once you lose that, then
your ability to focus. I guess you switch into a
different survival mode or something.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
You were saying earlier that when you're in the box
for forty four days it ruined your metabolism. How much
did you study and know that that was going to
happen or how much was that a real shock in
surprise to the system.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I knew I was going to do some damage, so
I was prepared for that. I knew that when you
push your body to that extreme, it's going to take
a toll. But there's a lot of things I do
that I know they're going to take a toll, and
I kind of balance out.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
The risk of it when is it worth it and
when is it not worth it.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Now I'm different because I have a daughter, right so
now I'm more careful about the risk. But I was
obsessed with the idea of staying awake for I think
the world record was eleven days, so I was thinking,
if you go, I think it's like eleven point five,

(12:13):
six or five, so I don't remember, but that would
be a million seconds. I got obsessed with this idea
and I started messing around with it, and I met
with doctor Dement, who's like the number one sleep expert
at the time up at Stanford. He was there when
the record was done at eleven days, and I thought

(12:33):
I could pull it off, and I started testing it.
The tests were very difficult, and then as I started
to really research it and speak to people and look
into it, it seemed like there is something that you
could do to your mind where you don't recover, So
you could tweak your brain and have it not recover.
So I yeh, that's not worth it. Yeah, losing your

(12:56):
sight isn't worth it. So when I was in India
and I was at the Ers festival and the Sufi
the video, Yeah, when they pull their eyes out, they
pull their eyes out. It's very very hard to watch.
But I called my my dear friend, who's who's a

(13:18):
great optometier, and and I just said, is there any uh?
How is how does this make sense? You say it
could be done, but you made degenerate your vision. So
I said, okay, I'm not going to mess around with that.
So there is I Can I pull this off? Or
am I going to do permanent damage? And it's it's

(13:38):
studying the past and finding experts and finding people that
have done things and then and then making a decision
or I guess it's more like a feeling. And then
the other thing that I like to do is I
use like numeric, like I use numbers. So I I'll
do a test where I test something to like, you know,
let me get to the halfway point. If I could
do the halfway point, then I can estimate how much

(14:01):
more can I tolerate. So that's kind of like if
I'm in a fast for forty four days, I'll do
something like a twenty two day fast just to just
to understand if I can do it, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, I love how mathematically is for you as well.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Though, like numbers play key factor.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, I love kind of diving into your mind right
now because I love that process. There's a lot of
it's also how you transition. But going back to that
video you just showed me, when everyone sees this in
the new nat GEO show, that is like, I mean
I had to look away multiple times, so if anyone
doesn't know what's going on, it's like this guy's like
expanding his eye up, but then he's like nearly gouging

(14:39):
it with like what like a steel rod or something.
How to even make sure that's disinfect.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
They know, they don't. They don't know because I pushed
an ice pick through my arm and I put it
on the I don't know. There wasn't even a table.
I just put it on. I think I'm a floor
in India. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he picked it up
and pushed it right through his spot. Yeah, it's crazy,
And how are they doing that?

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Like what did you learn from that experience of watching them?
Like if you had to look away.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
What they're doing. I think it's passed down for generations,
and I think they know exactly what they're doing. And
part of it is accepting what you have to do,
Like there's an acceptance to what they're going to do,
like a faith right. They know that they can do

(15:29):
these things. So when they push these things through their body,
they're just completely at ease, and I think therefore their
body recovers at a really fast rate because the body
is incredible. The body can do so many amazing things.
Through evolution, we've developed these abilities to survive. So one

(15:53):
that I wasn't prepared for. I was surrounded by doctors
and I was trying to hold my breath for as
long as possible. I had to lemetry on me and
everything else. I was surround by a great group of
doctors and pulmonary experts and free divers, and I was
holding I was holding my breath underwater, and at one

(16:15):
point I wasn't even aware of the time. I didn't
there was no such thing as time, So I'm holding
my breath at one point. I think it was once
I when I was like above eighteen minutes right, and
then all of a sudden I'm pulled out of the
water and it's twenty minutes and two seconds, and I
was just completely at peace. But they pulled me up

(16:37):
because my heart rate had dropped to eight beats per minute,
and in their minds, I'm going to go into cardiac
arrest and they're not going to be able to recover me.
But it was the opposite. I went. The body went
into this strained survival mode, I guess, and it does
everything it can to conserve all of your energy, shuts

(16:57):
the brain down because the brain uses oxygen. And again
I was at like complete peace, and then I was like,
why did you pull me out?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
But that's like a mind body disconnect. No, Like, isn't
your mind at peace and your body's going into cardiac arress? Like?
Is that?

Speaker 2 (17:13):
I don't think it was going into I think it
was going into survival mode. Right. There's a boy that
blacked out under an icy river. He was trapped under
the water and he was there for forty five minutes,
not breathing. They pulled him out. He fully recovered, no
brain damage, nothing, And it's the body is capable of

(17:34):
doing things that we don't even science and doctors don't
even imagine could be possible. And at the Earth's Festival
in India, they were all everything that I saw. It
was overwhelming, but it was still like they were doing
things that don't make any sense.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
And these are not tricks, that's your point. These are
not These are like you're saying, it's been passed down
for generations. These are not slight of hand. This is
not faking it.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
It's it's hard to say, right, you never know. But
but what I was seeing was it was as real
as it gets. But then there was one thing that
didn't make sense. There was one thing that I started
to think, well, what's the magic?

Speaker 1 (18:14):
You know?

Speaker 2 (18:15):
So who knows?

Speaker 1 (18:18):
What is that thing?

Speaker 2 (18:18):
I wanted? You know, the guy pushes the thing through
his neck and it comes in. But then I looked
carefully and there was no there was no hole. There's
no blood, no hole, no nothing. So I so then
I started thinking, like, whoa, so what how is that possible? Right?

Speaker 1 (18:35):
We don't know. No, you don't have an answer, you
don't figure it out.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
No, but it's funny because I so I wanted to
go to India first and we started shooting the series
because the first time I saw somebody combine magic with
real human in Durrance's feets other than pictures of Boudin
and stuff like that, was a magician that ate a
thread and then he pulled the threat out of a stomach.

(19:01):
And when I saw that, I was like blown away.
And he wouldn't show anybody else, but he pulled me
into another He's like, I'll show you, and he showed
me and I was like whoa. And I thought it
was crazy how he did it. It's a magic combined
with doing something that most people wouldn't want to do.
And when I saw it kind of changed my theory

(19:23):
on what could be possible. And I think I've always
had that curiosity of you know, what the human body
can endure, what we could tolerate what? So I think
it was some sort of a trigger that led me
on this journey, which was not just as a magician,
but what are people doing that? Yeah, and the magicians
I like the most, like Harry Houdini, Ricky J. Ricky J.

(19:46):
Wrote a book called Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, which
is that kind of guidebook to all of these people
that were using their bodies to do crazy things well
their minds and their bodies to do these unbelievable fe.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
When did it turn for you from being magic tricks?
I used to I grew up watching you chuck cards
at a car door and it's on the window of
the inside of the you know the car, or you
talking about like, oh, you could guess who was calling
your house, you know when we all had landlines to
then actually pushing your body to limits, Like where was

(20:22):
that switch for you?

Speaker 2 (20:24):
I always like things that I believe, right, So it's
like I was always so if I'm watching a magician,
I like, if I know that he put tons of
work into one card move right. When I saw people
that were doing things that were defied logic, which is
what magic does, but then I knew that there was
an element of they are really doing that. I think

(20:46):
it led me first into the Sawmi mantra, which led
to the Buried Alive, which then led to me looking
into all the other things I was excited about, or
you know, but I would with magicians they would be like,
you can't what's the magic in it? Like, what's the
point you have to disappear from the pole in the

(21:06):
pereum boxes? Yeah, but there's no believability to that I'd
rather just jump into the box. Well then they're like, well,
you at least have to just disappear. I was like,
but then that ruins the whole, Like then it's not
a real thing. What would they say back, I mean,
they wouldn't win the argument, But then afterwards they were like,
all right, I get it.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, it's just the human endurance. Pot is what's so
fascinating about it. Because I feel like, there's the great
scene in the new show where you're like literally figuring
out how to put a knife.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Oh yeah, that was great.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
We'll cuss through that because you see the scan as well.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
You know, I'd done nails and the nose and things
like that because you could hammer and nails, you know,
back in. But then when I was in the favellum
Rio in Hosnia, this performer my still Leaves You took
a serrated steak knife and he just shoved it in

(22:05):
his nose, just pushed it all the way in. And
how is that possible? We don't think of that as
being you know, it seems like you're going to do something,
you know, to your nervousness. There's something right, he pushes
it all the way in and pulls it out, does
it a few times, and of course I'm like, WHOA,

(22:28):
that's crazy. But obviously my whole theory is like, if
somebody can do it, it means nobody should do it.
But it means there's an explanation. There's no, it's not
a magic thing. It's like, there's an explanation, so it
means it is possible. So I kind of trusted him
and just went for it and just pushed the thing in.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
You didn't want to start with anything, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
I watched him do it, and I trusted what he
was saying, and I think I was nobody should do it.
Actually is it's super super dangerous. Of course I did it,
but then I wanted to see it, so I took
an X ray. And then when we took the x ray,
we saw that the knife was on the edge of

(23:14):
the nervousness. So it was really at that like exact line,
you know, But again you're not it doesn't make sense.
But once again, you know, people have survived lots of
crazy things.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, how did you know how far back to not
let it go like you were that close on that scat?

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I don't know, I don't know I. Yeah, and I
trusted him who has done this so many times. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
God, I mean when I see you do this stuff.
The question I always ask myself when I'm watching you
is like, is there anything that you're actually scared of?

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Just something happening to my daughter. But by the way,
but these things when magicians or anybody are telling me,
oh well, I say, do the card tricks because that's
the best stuff. That's people like, do not do these
crazy things that you know, which is why this show
is called exactly.

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(25:34):
are there are lots of magicians, illusionist people that have
died trying to do crazy things like what are they?

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, there is actually funny enough, like the bullet catch
killed twelve magicians, but they were doing it as a trick,
and the guy that was doing it for real wasn't
a magician. He was just catching bullets and a little
cup in his mouth and he did it hundreds of
times and he was okay. But twelve magicians that were
doing it is a trick, that were witching bullets out

(26:00):
and stuff like that, twelve of them died. And I'm
not laughing, but twelve of them died doing it as
a trick.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
That's crazy. Yeah, what was difference about the guy that
was actually doing it? What was he doing differently?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
He was catching the bullet and the metal cup in
his mouth. I think one time it sliced to his cheek,
but yeah, he pulled it off.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Would you ever try the bullet cat?

Speaker 2 (26:23):
No? I did it?

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Oh yeah, yoh, sorry, Yeah I did it.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I had my best friend. It's funny because I'm looking
at don't shoot. So my best friend's a magician and
I saw him shoot a cup far away with a
baby gun. I was like, will you do the bullet
catch with me? And somehow I convinced him to do
it because he didn't want somebody else to mess up

(26:47):
and he knew he would get the mark, so he
did it. I caught the bullet. That was kind of crazy.
But then I wanted to do it again, but I
didn't want to have anybody shoot me because I didn't
want to make anybody that uncomfort. So I put a
string on the trigger of a rifle, a twenty two
long bullet, and I pulled the string and caught it

(27:09):
in that metal cup. Another thing nobody should ever do.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
So you were saying, no one should apart from you
putting yourself at risk, Ideally nothing else should get hurt
during the trip.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Right, Yeah, for sure, Yeah, that's right. And I do
tricks with frogs and things like that. I've never injured
a frog. They're my daughter's pet frogs. I've kept them
for years. They've been with us, and then I give
them to somebody. That's when they get too big. Then
I give them to somebody that's gonna care for them.
And yeah, so so my doctor's kids now have these

(27:42):
giant frogs and by the way, they try to hold them,
and the frogs won't let anybody. Nobody can pick them up.
And I hadn't seen the frog in like a year
or something, and I came to his house and they
were filming it and I put my hand in and
I'm not kidding. The frog walked right onto my hand

(28:02):
and I lifted it up and he just sat there.
We underestimate these creatures, right, but there's some sort of
I don't know, yeah, yeah, that was whatever it is, Yeah,
which is crazy.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
You are so right. We really do downplay the intelligence,
especially of animals. Yeah, but even humans but yau, Yeah,
we don't recognize it. And the body, Yeah, and the body,
that's right. Do you think it's interesting how the world's
we've focused on becoming more comfortable. What do you think
that's doing to us?

Speaker 2 (28:37):
That's right, that's good because I agree that that being
comfortable for me, I think is always the worst thing. Ever,
when you're comfortable, you achieve nothing, you learn, nothing, you do.
So it's like when you're out of your comfort zone,
when you're breaking that, it's like that's when everything becomes
intense and we're alive, right, And that's probably what you

(28:58):
experienced when you took yourself out of your comfort zone
and live with this incredible monk is then suddenly you're
living in the moment. You're living in this heightened sense
of awareness and that's all from breaking the comfort zone.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, And it's so interesting because you're so right, like
we just we all naturally though, And that's what you
were saying when you were talking about the guy earlier
who nearly gouged his eye out something that you said,
which is so subtle but so powerful. You were like,
but when he's doing it, his body's not repelling it,
and that's why somehow it works out. And I was
thinking about it that everything you do defies what we

(29:36):
want to do because we're looking for comfort. But it's like,
how do you prep yourself to actually want discomfort? Like,
how do we prepare our minds and brains to actually
seek out discomfort? Because just as you said, it's actually
better for us, even for survival, even for growth of
the species, But we don't. We kind of go backwards
into reclining, Netflix and chill. That's the life. Yeah, how

(30:01):
do you get out of that? What have you done
to continuously? Well?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
This series did that. When they were asking me what
I wanted to do, I said, here's the thing. So
we're talking about lots of ideas. Doug, my magician friend
that was here, he's the one that found d Pak
you know that in India, that did the most incredible
stuff I've ever mind blowing, just the way he is
able to override his body with his mind. But basically,

(30:28):
when they were coming to me with this idea, oh,
this one, that one. I said, here's the thing only
present to me, the ideas that when you tell me
about them, it makes you uncomfortable just saying that we're
going to go be a part of You know, I
wanted it to be. I wanted to be that. And
I think that's a big thing that I'd like to

(30:49):
do is put myself in major discomfort so I can.
So it wakes me up, you know, it brings me
to life.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
How did you train yourself to get then to do that?
Because I want to help people most who was sitting
here going you know what? I agree with David like,
I'm not going to go and you know, put a
knife down my nose, which he's not encouraging me either,
But I want to be able to push the boundaries
in my own growth, in my own life. How did
you kind of you've gone to the full extreme of it.

(31:16):
How do we kind of get to three out ten?

Speaker 2 (31:18):
I think it starts with baby steps. I think you
just go push yourself to do pub speak in front
of a classroom public. You know, I was super intimidated
by public speaking and I could do magic, but I
wasn't I was like, I'm not going to speak, so
you know, I wanted my brother to go to the
TED conference, so I agreed to like stand up and
speak for the first time with Nomad, just just do

(31:38):
a talk. And it was it was horrific for me.
It was like it was and I didn't sleep for
days on end before it, but also months before I
was working on the notes, writing it down, putting all
the thoughts on, and that part of it was already
incredible because then you're like it, but then I had
to get up and do it, and that was really
that was like. But then as soon as you start

(32:00):
and I put myself in the boiling speaking at TED
for your first time, I didn't go do little talks.
I started there right, So it's like, by by doing that,
suddenly I shocked the system. And now I went on
a speaking tour for like a year. I would do
dates in all different noises, and what I would do
is I would I wouldn't thoroughly prepare. I would kind
of just go out there and put myself in front

(32:23):
of everybody, and I would say often it was uncomfortable,
and often it didn't work, and often the audience didn't
react you know what I mean. It was like one
of the But eventually, after doing it over and over
and over and over and over, it really helped and
I really understood it changed the way I thought about
public speaking. But what it really did is it helped
me when I was doing magic because now I had like,

(32:45):
now the magic was a conversation. The point of breaking
your comfort zone. It could be anything. It could be
get up and do a talk. It could be, uh,
you know, go out, sit in the sauna, go in
the steam.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Room, jump in to Copeland.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah. So I think it's baby steps that can help
you kind of figure out how to do something, but
it could be to anything.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I love how giving a TED talk is harder for.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You than like, way harder. I love that it was
way harder. Given the TED talk for me was probably
more difficult than holding my breath for.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
The twenty minutes two seconds.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, and that talk, by the way, is when you
watch it down, it's it's exactly the length of my
actual breatholder two. No, it just worked out that way.
It's crazy. Twenty oh two was the actual breath all
the time, and the talk when you time it out
was I think it was almost twenty oh two.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Well, and that was hard for me.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
The talk was more uncomfortable, more difficult than the breath all.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
I mean, holding your breath for twenty minutes and two
seconds is insanity.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well, now the record's twenty four minutes and three seconds.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
You're going to go back.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I don't think it's safe at this point. That's what
you were saying. It's like you push yourself too far.
You can, you can, you could do not just irreversible
day it might be like game over. And I'm paranoid
about that stuff because one of my favorite magicians, Harry Houdini,
he was punching his stomach hypothetically, or he had a
ruptured to pen, whatever he had, he shouldn't have done

(34:16):
his stage show. He was feeling ill, he was in
lots of pain, but he didn't want to let the
audience down. Went in the show, He did his whole show,
got in the water tank. After the water tank, when
he came out, he collapsed on the stage. They rushed
into a hospitle and he died. So I do think
there's a limit to what the body can endure. And
things go wrong very easily and you're not prepared for them.

(34:39):
So there is a balance to all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Well, you had that crazy fall at your Vegas show
right like a couple of years.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Exactly, and I feel like I got lucky because just
my arm, my shoulder went down to my armpit. That
was terrible, but I mean it could have been my
neck back. So my Vegas show I wanted to by
I put a light light truss all the way up
and it was shaky and things which I thought would
be funny, and I climbed up and in the beginning,

(35:08):
I think I was jumping like sixty eight feet sixty
eight feet, and I put cardboard boxes down where the
seats were and I would jump down into the boxes.
But I was doing three shows per month, which is
like the max that I could even tolerate. But my
stunt guy, Jim Churchan, was helping put that together. He's like,
we gotta be careful because it's about twenty jess a

(35:29):
force and you can't keep doing this over and over.
You're getting something's gonna go wrong.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
For some reason, I figured I could pull it off,
and I kept increasing the height because I started with
the idea of like, Okay, I'm gonna go up and
then I would then I would like be like, but wait,
can I go like, I don't know. I just wanted
to keep pushing it right, So I don't know what
the reason. I should have just been content there, but
I'm never content, so I'm like, I have to higher higher,

(35:53):
and right when I got my head next to the ceiling,
I jumped. And it was after I was, you know,
in Thailand, and I had a swarm of bees covering
me and I was took a bunch of stungs. I
was stung all over a bunch of things. I was
stung all over the place I had to go on.
I think I had to take antibaque. So I wasn't

(36:14):
probably one hundred percent when I did that jump. I
did the jump, and I don't know what it was.
I didn't land right or my body was like there
and that happened. But then I'm I think about it,
I'm like, whoa, I was lucky because that could have
been anything. But yeah, that so that was the end
of that in the show. It's never recovered properly. But nuts,

(36:38):
I mean, that's not a big no. That's not like
the box in London, which is you know major.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
You feel like you're still recovering from that.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
From the London Then it messed me up.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, irreversibly, you feel like probably on some level.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah, there's other things I do that messed me up.
Like I used to drink kerosene, which I would float
on top of the water and my stomach terrible idea.
Eating the glass is really bad because there's also chemicals
in that glass and stuff like that, so aside from
the enamel and everything going away on your teeth. So
I never experienced hot and cold without such extreme ah, right,

(37:14):
So and then there's tons of little injuries, but the
ones that I'm most concerned with are those ones now
much more careful on some level because I have a daughter,
So I don't want something. You know, you think about
life differently and how you're going to push yourself differently
and what you can and can't do. Yeah, the London box.

(37:35):
I don't think I would ever do something like that again, did.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
It change from the moment you held your do it
like when she was born? Like?

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Not right when she was When she was born was
like the most incredible moment of my life. But I
still when she was like one and a half, I
still I did a stunt I was in, you know,
a million volts of electricity, and it went wrong. My
legs swelled up from a dima ripped through the chain.
I was getting shocked. I spit some elect light water
out and it hit the coil and went inside and

(38:04):
really messed me up. So at the end of that stunt,
which was seventy three hours, I said, I'm not going
to do any of these things anymore because I don't
want something to go wrong. I have a daughter.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
But when I was saying is there anything you're scared of?
You just mentioned something happening to your daughter that it's
very real.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
When she she stretches and she goes into splits and
things that when I'm watching hers, it's so painful for me.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
To while imagine how she feels when you're putting a
knife through your nurse.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Then I talked to her and I'm very care Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
How does she react when she sees this?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well, she's grown up with it, so she's I think
she's like, even though it seems super crazy, I'm pretty
after really trust the person that's showing me, the teacher,
and you know, the learning curve for that series was short,
but these are masters that have done the countless thousands

(38:58):
of hours of work, and some secrets were passed down
to them, some they've developed on their own. It is
a matter of trust. And then this series, I was
very careful, even though it looks like there's so many crazy,
you know, things that I'm trying, or certain things like
sitting with the black mambas. It was an enclosure this

(39:21):
size of just like this space and there are six
black mambas in there. But the thing is, and I
was with this man named Neville, South Africa, man that
wants to show people that you don't need to when
you see a black number because they end up in schools,
they end up killing people, and it's because people react

(39:43):
to them and they try to push them over there,
and as soon as you do that, the black mamber
reacts back. So he sits with the mambas at peace,
and he's showing everybody that if you encounter a black mamba,
the best thing to do is to not be aggressive,
not act in a way that makes it uncome, just
be at peace and just stay very calm. They're very

(40:08):
instinctual like most animals like you. If there's some people
that go into a into a house and there's cats
that won't come out, and the cats come out with
some people and they go near them, right, And it's
just because that person has thissch energy this like this
stillness or whatever that makes the cat comfortable. And what
his point is is it's the same with the with

(40:29):
these feared black mambas. You just remain calm. So I
trusted him. It was the scariest thing I've ever done
in my lifetime. This is the one, oh yeah, absolutely
scariest thing I've ever done. And it doesn't look like
it is like when you watch it, you won't understand that.
And afrigat they call it the two step, so you

(40:51):
get one step and the second step and you're done.
But sitting there with them, even though I was like,
I knew I had to just follow it exactly what
he said, and I observed first, I watched him for
a few days and I realized he knows what he's doing.
He believes in everything that he's saying. And I sat

(41:11):
with him in there and then and then when one
started to come towards you know, when it was close,
he said, uh, you know, he said, don't worry if
something goes wrong, I'll take the hit. And I was like,
I think I'm ready to go. I think, can I
get out of here?

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Can I go?

Speaker 2 (41:32):
And He's like, nope, because you can't leave until until
it's what. You can't do any abrupt movement. So that
was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
You've got really close to it as well, didn't get really.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Close, but again I trusted. I trusted him completely.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
How does someone like him build that skill without dying
in the process.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Well, he was bitting a few times, so he did
go into a cooma once. He had a snake snake
related injury where he lost his legs. He has one
leg and he still does it. Yeah, and he sits
with them, so people will come and see him and
know that if they've seen this. It kind of gets
a point across, like if you see a guy sitting

(42:11):
in a small room like this with a bunch of
black mambas, you realize, Okay, so if a black mama
does come into our school or to our house or wherever,
you can just stay at peace, stay calm on some level.
So he's protecting the people and the mambas.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
And there's no way of training a mamba, so no, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
And these are wild, these are rescues. He keeps them
and then releases them back.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
So yeah, no, you know, yeah, I mean just listening
to that and you say, it's the hardest thing, craziest
you've ever done.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Not hard, but the scariest, scariest. It wasn't hard. It
was the opposite of heart. It's just all you have
to do is just sit still. Yeah, but you have
to stay still and you have to be you have
to be at ease.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Did you have to prepare that before you went in?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Oh, I look like I'm about to like run to
the bathroom the whole time.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I think all of us, I think us would get
in there. There's there's an interesting thing about animals in
that way, isn't there. There's my mon teacher who spend
time in when he traveled, would live in the forests
and things like that back in the day, and he
would always talk about how animals see whether you respect
them or whether you fear them. And he would talk
about that every time he saw an animal. It was

(43:24):
like he'd have to bow down to the animal in
his heart and mind, and and if he was to
do that, then the animal would know that that wasn't
a threat or there wasn't any fear, and then that
would be what created a sense of peace, that if
he could bow down and show respect, because yeah, we
we think we have to dominate and like show them

(43:44):
and then they'll run away.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
But it depends some you have to so it varies
some you have to show that you're not afraid and
that you're strong and you're not going to be an
easy target. Or they say with sharks, what you have
to do is if you're with the bun, if you're
around bull sharks and the usher whatever, you just look
at them and keep looking because they don't want to challenge.
They're so evolved, they don't want to have to waste

(44:07):
any energy. They're so perfect they can serve energy in
the most efficient way. So if you're looking at it,
it knows that it would it may get a fight back.
But if you're not looking, then.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Right, yeah, wow, think about energy.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
But he sits in there for hours and when I
met him, he was just sitting with the forest cobra,
another snake that could easily kill you, but he's just
like drinking his coffee. So yeah, he was amazing.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Wow, And as he got to a place of fearlessness,
Like would he say that he feels fearless or no,
he feels no.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
I think no. I think he respects and loves these snakes.
He thinks they're beautiful and incredible. So it's not yet
sure he's fearless with that specifically, Yeah, but I think
it's more like he has a just such a deep
respectful or like you said, like you know, bowing down
to Yeah, it's that.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
I mean, even listening to you though, there's such a
respect for your craft and art. Like the number of
times in this conversation you've always already said like I
trusted the teacher, I trusted Neville, trusted Deepak, Like there's
such a respect for mentors and trust for teachers and guides,
and there's such a respect for the art and craft.
It's not just you know, as today we kind of

(45:27):
make everything today just feel like entertainment, and even when
people have talents, it's kind of just like, oh yeah,
everyone's got talents now, but it's like, actually, for you,
it's a respect and study of the craft.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I think it's the same when you met the monk,
you immediately felt his knowledge and his faith and his
beliefs and his discipline, his wisdom, right, And I think
with the people I've met, all of them, I felt
that and as soon as I felt that, I was
okay to try things. So I think lots of it

(45:59):
has to do it just trusting the person and their
abilities and their understanding of what they're doing, and then
and then from that it's a leap of faith.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
It's beautiful to think about what you do that way,
because I think a lot of people can kind of
project it as like, oh, well, David's figured it out,
but it's actually like, no, you're willing to submit yourself
and study and become a beginner again, right, a mindset.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
That's right, And that's that's the part that's like breaking
the comfort zone is is trying something you haven't done,
trying something new, pushing yourself in a way that you're uncomfortable,
and working diligently and loving failure.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
The failure is like, it's that's okay, The failure is amazing.
When you're performing magic, it's the failures that you learn from. Right.
It's like you're performing a card trick and you fail, Well,
that's where you learn and you're constantly learning. That's what's
amazing about being a magicians. There's a constant learning curve
and it never stops. You're always actic singer, always, even

(47:01):
if it's the same trick that you've worked on for
for me thirty years, some of them forty, whatever it is,
and I'm still changing, I'm still learning, and that that's
for me the exciting part of everything.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Yeah, you're constantly going from becoming the expert, going back
to the beginner, become an expert. That cycle doesn't.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Stop, right, and therefore you're never an expert, you know.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yeah, it's really cool. I love that. What's the illusion
that kept you up the most nights before you've done it,
that you've had sleepless nights over as you prepare or
get ready for it.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Probably kissing the King Kobra, just because I understood that
the risk was it was you know, I understood the risk,
So that one I was that took me a long
time to mentally prepare for that one took me a
long time.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
How many times had you been in the pen before
you did that one? Or was that in that time
that night? No?

Speaker 2 (47:59):
No, I know I took time on that one. I
wasn't ready so I left came back months later. I
tried to understand the behavior of the King Kobra. I
met with my friends that had King Kobra's that undersea.
I mean that one was a pretty intense learning curve
because you know, they strike fast and yeah, if it

(48:22):
gets you, you know, So that I think of everything
I've done, that that might have been the most intimidating one.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Probably I think that's very legitimate kissing a King Kobra.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Yeah, because all of the stunts, all the other things
that I've done, there was no real immediate risk of death. Yes,
something could go wrong, but there's not a this is
a lights out situation, where with the King Kobra, I
understood the risk was great. So I wanted to know
that I had the ability to get out of the
way and that I could understand its movements and its timing.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
And are you scared of dying?

Speaker 2 (48:59):
I'm not a r of dying, but I understand. You know,
my mother died in my arm. Some I don't. And
the last word she said to me is God is love.
But since having a daughter, it's like you want to
live for as long as possible. But previous to having
a daughter, I didn't even I was like, yeah, just

(49:21):
whatever now because of my daughter, I want to not
either do something.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
It's like, oo, what was it like losing your mother?
So sorry for your lost.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
She got sick when I was sixteen. She died when
I was twenty. She was a warrior through it and
a peaceful warrior. When she died, I felt like I
felt like my body was like a tree and it
was like the bran, one big branch of a trig
or something, and it went like that. It was like
an immediate like broken you know. It was like I

(49:56):
never want to feel that type of pain again. It
was it was it was like literally like I felt
like like something broke in half. So that was that
was good. And I was so close to my mother
was she was my best friend, she was my world.
But then what started to happen was I started to

(50:21):
find there was like messages by the way, whenever I
did stunts. I'm not even kidding, she would always like
I would get a sign from her, and those signs
would make me know I was going to be okay.
It was when I was buried alive. It sounds crazy,
but like you just the I think the energy is
always there, right, So I was buried alive and I

(50:44):
was like it was all cloudy and I was like, mom,
can you give me a sign? And right when I
said it, I'm not even kidding, it was like the
clouds opened and the sun came through. It was like
an immediate thing. When I was in the box in
London forty four days day forty, I was having these
terrible heart palpitations, like I mean no, but I thought
I was going to die or something, right, and I

(51:05):
and I went in my head again. Bob gave me aside,
like you know, what should I do? And at that
exact moment, you know, I could see the tower Bridge
over there, and this is day forty. I had to
go to day forty four and there was a bunch
of people yelling, you know, from from the tower bridge
and I look over and I'm not even kidding. Right
when I said that, they open up this banner that

(51:27):
they made and it just said God is Love and
exactly and that word yes. So it was like it's
like the energy is just there and she so so
basically when she wasn't there, she was, she's even more.
You know, It's like her presence became so strong.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
That's sowerful. Yeah, that's really special.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah. Do you look for her and I don't need to? Yeah,
well yeah, yeah, I didn't think of that, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I've had a couple of experiences recently. I was officiating
a wedding not last Christmas, the Christmas before December before,
and the couple that I had introduced had met through
meditations that I had led for them, and so I
was leading a meditation for their wedding ceremony because they

(52:23):
I'd asked for it, And so me and the couple
closed their eyes during that period, but the rest of
the audience I think some of them probably joined in.
Some people don't want to join it, so they didn't
join it. And it was amazing because we were Interulom
in Mexico and this I had my eyes closed, I

(52:43):
didn't see it, but this huge blue butterfly flew from
between the couple and then flew throughout the whole audience,
and for those who had their eyes open sore, and
for most of us who had our eyes closed, we
didn't see it. And then we found out later on
that the lady who's getting married, she has a blue
butterfly on her neck. Because it represents her father who

(53:04):
is passed on and we didn't see it because we
had a rise towards meditation, but beautifully just and there's
just one barfly. No one really saw it. And it's
just I love things like that when people have such
a strong semblance to signs.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yeah, there are signs everywhere if you pay attention to them,
if you look for them, if you're open to them,
and it's easy to block off from all that stuff,
but it's like, yeah, if you open to it, it's everywhere.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Well, that's what I love about the way you think
about it, because I think there's a lot of illusionists
in the world who almost see illusion as a way
of saying there are no there is no mysticism in
the world. There's a lot of illusionists wh will say, oh, yeah,
because I can explain everything. It kind of proves that
there is no right other worldly, supernatural or mystic or

(53:53):
whatever language you want to use for it.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
But you seem to have somewhat of a well, it's yeah,
I mean, it's more about like being open to it.
So if you're open to it, you'll you'll find it
because that's what you're looking for, right, But if you're like,
then you won't. And it's like, I feel like the
better approach is to be open to it so you
can experience these incredible things.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
You know, what's one of the most amazing things you've
experienced by being open?

Speaker 2 (54:20):
No, I mean just by being just like, you know,
watching my daughter just grow and you know that's the
most amazing and watching who she becomes. And you say that,
but yeah, when you need those signs, if you're open
to it, they'll be there. And if you're close to it,
you'll never see them because you're like, nah, you know what.

(54:42):
I kept writing my journal when I was in the
box of ourvideos. That's the only thing I really brought
was no toothbrush, no nothing. But I had a journal
and a couple of pens, and I kept writing. Everything
is perspective. Everything is how you decide to see. Because
people kept saying, are you bored in the box, I'm like, boredom?
Is it choice? Like you choose to be bored because

(55:03):
your mind has so many things that can think about, create, do, wonder,
dream everything. So it's like, so, so those two things
are the things that that are all over that journal.
Everything is perspective and bored him is a choice. And
then there was a lot of numbers and mapping out
like the amount of time and graphs and but those

(55:23):
were two of the very strong prominent thoughts of what
I learned and became very clear to me during that
forty four day fast. It opened me up to so
many thoughts, and it was like this clarity that that
I that I never get because there's very few distracts,
no phone, no this, no that, no food, no distractions really,

(55:44):
so you suddenly you become hyper aware, like you're it's
like a heightened sense of awareness and everything becomes intense
and beautiful, and which is probably what you were doing
for the three years.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Yeah, we were talking about it earlier, Like you start
realizing that this guy is not just blue. There's so
many different variations that not every leaf you see is green.
There's so many variations. But if you look on an
average day, it's like, oh, this guy's blue, the trees
are green, Like we have this we kind of have
this almost veneer or this lens we put on everything

(56:16):
which makes it all the same. And you look at
that in society too, where like you go down most
city centers, every shop is the same. We see the
same coffee shop. Everywhere you see the same like, you know,
we homogenize everything in the world. Yeah, and there's a
sense of comfort. There's a sense of comfort when you
see I remember my friend was given us a tour

(56:36):
of Oxford. He was studying at Oxford University, and he
was going around. He was saying, this is where Lord
of the Rings was written, and this is where Alice
in Wonderland was written. He was giving me this and
me and him were like loving this. And we were
with someone and then we walked into the town center
and they were like, oh my god, there's an urban
outfits here. It's like the clothes store. And we're all like,
what is wrong with you? But it's like for them,

(56:58):
that was a sense of comfort. Yeah. I was like,
wait a minute, like this is what Alice in Wonderland
has written.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Everything is perspective and that person maybe just as excited
about that as this person is about this, which is
amazing and it's so fascinating.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
It's like, yeah, who have you met or what have
you done that is just shifted your perspective the most
in the last few decades. Is this a person you met,
a place you went to.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
That just I mean there's so many it's just a
well books books or that's like a big one, right,
and just books just you know. I think like what
books do to the mind is identical to what exercise
and does for the body. That's the main problem with
the phones is it's really taken away, Like my ability

(57:45):
to just read a book has changed because I'm so
distracted by you know. So it's like but it's like
just being able to like open up your mind and
and explore these incredible worlds that were meticulously done by
these brilliant writers. Is that studied psychology and philosophy and
that outpouring of of of just you know, knowledge. But

(58:09):
so I think books would be the first thing that
have like that have like.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Impacted any favorites, anyone that you saw.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Cervantes then his life story was incredible. Servantes, he's fascinating,
And then Don Quixote is like one of the most
I think one of the most important books written. In
many ways, his story is incredible because he was the
son of a surgeon. He grew up very poor Servantes,
so he went to fight for his country and during

(58:38):
during the Inquisition, I guess he was maimed on his
left sides. He was paralyzed on his left side, he
couldn't use his arm, and he was given the equivalent
of a purple heart. So on his way back, the
boat was seized, like they took him captive, and he
was tortured and beaten for years. Right, he wasn't able

(59:00):
to really, he couldn't get out, and his brother finally
raised enough money that he was by the way from
the monasteries. Whether they raised enough money. When he came out,
they gave him a job as a tax collector, and
he didn't want to do that. He didn't want to
collect taxes because he thought, like, if I'm doing this
to a mother of six and she you know, she

(59:23):
can't afford this, I don't want to do this. They
ended up putting him in jail for I think twelve years.
While he was in prison, he wrote Don Quixote, which
is this book about a guy that wants to save
the world, to make the world a better place. But
he finished it. When he came out. The book was
published and it became like the number one book in Europe.

(59:47):
But the book publisher, I don't think they ever really
paid him. So this this book that became like the
Shakespeare even wrote an entire play about one character in
the book called Cardinio, which is that characteris edible, but
that when he was basically when he came out, they
never gave him his his his his earnings, and he

(01:00:10):
died completely broken. The story of Don Quixote is a
guy that wants to make the world a better place,
but it's not possible, you know, which is what his
mission was. Yeah, well that's a great book.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Yeah, thank you. How does that speak to you now, Like,
how does his dilemma speak?

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
I mean, it's related to everything right, hope for the
best and expect the worst. It's the theme of his book.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a beautiful statement that it
reminds me of from F. Scott Fitzgerald who said that
the sign of a first rate intelligence is the ability
to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the
same time. So one should be able to look around
and see that everything is hopeless, but still be determined

(01:00:56):
to make.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
It to be hopeful.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Yeah, exactly like that ability to Yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Right to absorb to to truly, Yeah, because the brain's
not meant to be malleable. So it's like, you think
one way, and it's very hard to unthink that. It's
very hard to change the direction of what you accept
and what you like. But you're right, that sign of
intelligence is the ability to grow and learn and scrap
previous ideas and change the way you think and continue

(01:01:22):
to break everything that you think you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
But that's literally what you do in a physical, tangible
mental way, because everything about you knows that putting a
blade close to your body cuts it, that being close
to a black mamber like kills you. Like that that's
what you're you're literally living that. Because I'm intrigued to
know this because you're one of the most unrelatable people
on the planet, because you've done things that even if

(01:01:49):
you explain them and even if we watch you do them,
nine nine point nine percent of people even more than that,
that's even a low percentage, have no idea what it
even feels like, how does that feel?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
I don't think of it like that. Okay, Actually, I
think everybody has their their thing, Like, everybody has that
thing that they're like, it's the same thing. It's just
it just it speaks differently. Yeah, And it just speaks differently. Yeah,
so I think everybody, like if you look into every
single person, there's like you can find, you know, it's
like things that you can't understand or you know, and

(01:02:26):
it's like it's amazing to like explore that, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
I like that perspective. I like that perspective. Everyone has.
Everyone can feel that way if they want to. It's
they do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Yeah, Like everybody has their thing that's unique to them.
It might be that, and there's so many, you know,
it's like it's like the skill that I respect on
my mother being the best mother ever, right that, But
that's hard. That's like complete surrender, dedication and belief.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
And past you know, that's that's a special source.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Yeah, that's there. That's their passion, that's what that's what
lights their fire.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Yeah, you avoided You avoided fire for a while, like
you was wanting to do that. You finally succeed with
the bridge dives. I mean, how did that feel? Why
were you avoiding it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
It just never came together properly, Like it just never
The idea was planted in my head, but it never
really came to It never came together properly. But then
when I went to Brazil and I met these incredible
you know, high divers. The Carina who had like walked
over traversed a volcano and by the way, she she

(01:03:42):
almost died doing that. She was bleeding through her mouth
and she couldn't even breathe. But when you look at
the images of her walking across a volcano lake, it's whoa.
But anyway, so there was a man Andre who's this
fire genius that just respect becks and love fires the
same way Neville does with the Black Mambas. They helped

(01:04:03):
me put together this this idea of just you know,
doing something off of a bridge on fire and that. Yeah,
and it was it was amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
I mean, but you you had a set amount of
time that you had to like, right quick, Yeah it
was quick. Yeah, it was quick. Yeah. Did it live
up to your feeling of wanting to do with fire?

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Yeah? Do I want to do it the game? Yeah? No, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. Because you're always thinking like, oh, well, you
know it was bright out, it was a nighttime would
have been you know, so yeah, you're always thinking about like,
you know, that's not like the Box, which is one
I can't ever do again. That's one that's like that's interesting.
So my the way that this show can was. My

(01:04:44):
concept was if something can be done by one, it
can be done by others, right, And I think that's
part of what happens, is like somebody does something and
somebody else, Oh, this guy ran a mile and four minutes,
so that I can break it. And then it's almost
like a continual like part that I love is one
thing leads to another. You push somebody, the idea opens up.

(01:05:05):
The idea opens up that you can do anything, or
you can do something you didn't think was possible, and
then it just snowballs and it affects people around. And
I think that's what's interesting about the magicians that I love,
is they create this fantasy land. Right, they do these
things that seem impossible. But the ones that I like
are really doing things that are actually possible, but we

(01:05:26):
think it's not possible. And then it relates to everybody
because anybody that wants to do, Oh I want to
write a book, they can write a book. Right, you
just have to believe in Oh I want to direct
a movie, they can direct a movie. I want to
be a photographer for National Geograph, they can be a photographer.
So it's like I want to do this. I want
to build a rocket. It's unlimited, so I think, and

(01:05:47):
that's that's the thing that I love about, the search
for people that are doing things that to me feel
like it's as close to magic as possible because it
defies what we know to be possible. Well, I think
it's what's amazing about humanity is we just keep improving,
and we keep learning, and we keep evolving to become

(01:06:07):
better and better and better. So so yeah, so I
think part of the search for these fascinating people, or
this love of magic, stems from that idea that everybody
is basically the same, like there is nobody that's different things,
and you can apply that thinking to anything. And so

(01:06:28):
I'm inspired by the people that do these things, not
just magicians, but the people have been searching for throughout
the world that just push the limits of what we
would assume to be possible.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
I love that answer. Yeah, that's brilliant, that idea that
every single person gets to kind of pass on the batter, right,
Like the idea of like I open up the door
and now it's open. And I always ask people, I'm like,
find your monk. And what I mean by that is
if I didn't meet this monk, the entire trajectory of
my life wouldn't have shifted and changed. It was like

(01:07:00):
meeting this one person right completely pivoted my whole life journey.
And whoever that is for me were open to it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
And I've understood that that's right, and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
We also need to be open to that. Like, who's
that person who could just completely or perspective that could
completely shift and change your trajectory? That's right, it's pretty phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
And it's not and anybody. And what's nice about that
is then therefore it's like anything can inspire you to do,
to do anything that you that you want or that
you dream of her. And that's the stuff that once again,
that's what I love about. When I studied these incredible performers,
these magicians, these vaudavillions, these dime circus, I would read

(01:07:41):
these things. I'd say, wait, how is this guy human aquarium?
Like does that make sense? But he couldn't. Houdini wrote
about mac Norton the human Aquarium. But I'm like, but wait,
he couldn't have fooled to Deani because Whudini is a magician.
He's looking for the trick and if Houdini's saying, the
guy's really doing it, it has to be real. So
that just let that was like the planting of the seed. Right.
So it's like and just all these fascinating characters throughout

(01:08:04):
the history of magic, and there's like these surreal images
of these posters that these magicians created that when you
look at them, it's like this, it's like this fantastical, mystical,
magical world. So it's like, and that's what I think
great books do, is they open up your mind, They
open up your thinking to this, like to this, to this.
It's like not just beauty, it's it's it's your imagination,

(01:08:27):
it's your creations, it's your visualization. And then it's like
converting that into through repetition, failure, practice, repeat into whatever
you and and by the way, you shoot for this
and then it may end up here, but that you
shop and so you know, and it's a constant, you know,
which is part of the thing that I love about
all these types of feelings or or people or or inspirations,

(01:08:52):
Like you found your your monk who led you into
this whole your brain change you open the door, right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
And it seems like that's why you will never be
done because that's what drives you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
And that's why we'll all never be done.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
David, You've been so generous with your time. I've loved
every moment of this. You are truly one of the
most fascinating people I've ever spoken to. And we end
on purpose with a final five of fast five. These
have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. Okay,
so these are your David Blaine, these are your final five.
Question Number one, what is the best life advice you've
ever heard or received?

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
I mean, I like, always surround yourself with people that
will inspire you and help you grow.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
That was a good one good advice. Question number two,
what's the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
Don't go for your dream? Don't you're not going to succeed.
Don't even bother worst advice?

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Yeah, I think a lot of people have had that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
If you listen to the people that are that, they're
gonna know you cannot. You have to go for You
have to at least try. By the way, you may fail,
but if you keep failing, eventually you're probably gonna do
some thing. You'll get, you know, some version of what
you want to do.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
So, if you wanted your life to leave behind three messages,
what would they be?

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
That you can find magic everywhere, you know, the connections
between there's like the way I feel with my daughter,
finding that connection that surrendered that love is that's the
most beautiful thing that I have ever experienced. And then
one more thing. I guess it goes to the first thing,

(01:10:31):
which is just to try to always experience that feeling
of wonder, like always be amazed. Allow yourself to be amazed,
you know, allow yourself to Yeah what we were talking at,
allow yourself to see the blue in the sky, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
Yeah, I love allow I love that. Allow yourself to
be amazed because today, yeah, we don't allow ourselves because
we're kind of used to it. We don't even realize
even though we all make phones look bad, but this
is actually phenomenal that exists. It's amazing that allow yourself
to be amazed. A is a great line. I love

(01:11:05):
that question number four. When your mother left you with
the words God is love. What does that mean to you?

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
To it means love is God. God is love. Like
the feeling of love, the surrender that is everything, that's that,
that's that that is what life is about. That that's
what life is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
That's the ultimate.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Yeah, the giving into that feeling, which we're all very guarded.
You know, I'm super guarded, and like you said, as
a magician, I'm super skeptical. But at the same time,
I still do believe there's so much that we don't know,
that we don't understand. And we're all connected to this
one We're we're all part of this one connection. We're

(01:11:46):
all connected, we're all made of the same molecules and atoms.
So I think we're everything is connected, and everything is one,
and I don't think there's a beginning or an andy,
and energy isn't either created nor destroyed, so it's always it.
So that whole.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Fifth and final question, if you could be asked this
every guest who's ever been on the show, if you
could create one law that everyone in the world had
to follow, what would it be?

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
Wow? So one law.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
It can be as tangible or intangible as you like it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
Yes, So then it should be the law of love.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Simple.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Yeah, I'd like just that surrender that like, because that's
there's no ego in that, there's.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
No no ego. Is definitely it, but it's so hard.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
To you know, it's like we're so locked in all
this stuff. But yeah, giving up just like surrender.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
When do you feel you have the least ego? When
do you feel you experience no ego?

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
When I'm with my daughter is it's like that's like
everything disappears.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
David Blaine, thank you so much for your time, your energy.
Everyone who's been listening and watching, make sure you go
and watch. Then you show David Blaine, do not attempt.
It's on that geo. I can't wait for you to
see it. It's phenomenal. You got to hear some of
the stories here out March twenty third, on National Geographic,
David takes viewers on an incredible journey where he immerses

(01:13:16):
himself in unique cultures and meeting extraordinary performers who inspire
and share their rare skills and secrets. And of course
you can also see David as Las Vegas residency at
the Encore Theater and at the Win. I can't wait
to go. I'm coming to see you live. I'm really
looking forward to it. And congratulations my friend, and thank you.
Really wonderful getting to know you for you too, Thank

(01:13:37):
you If you love this podcast you love my episode
with Lewis Hamilton. Lewis and I talk about why you
should stop chasing society's definition of success and how to
be more intentional with your goals. You don't want to
miss it like. It's not about being perfect. It's about
just every day, one step at a time, trying to
be better, trying to do more. I'm learning a lot

(01:13:59):
about myself. I had to break myself down in order
to be able to be better.

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