David Blaine ... er, WHY?

Oh dear! He's at it again!

Yep, David Blaine is going to have himself suspended, without a safety net, 50 feet above Central Park's Wollman Skating Rink in New York for 3 days.

Aside from not being able to sleep or eat the whole time and the obvious danger of hanging from a great height without a net, his doctor has said that since hanging upside down for a long time greatly increases blood pressure in the head, especially in the eyes, there is a very real risk of blindness.

Now I don't know about you, but when I read this I'm not thinking "Oooo! How daring and brave!" or "Oh my gosh! How exciting!" I'm sitting here thinking ... *shake of the head* why?!?!?

And let's face it, it's a "Why?" on so many levels.

Firstly, WHY does he do it? This is the guy whose previous stunts have included having himself buried alive, frozen in huge blocks of ice for 61 hours, starved for 44 consecutive days whilst imprisoned and suspended in a small Plexiglas box above the River Thames, submerged in a water-filled sphere for seven days and seven nights, and escaping from shackles following a 16 hour 'spin cycle' on a gyroscope. Is it really just a case of the cynical old story of doing it for the money and the fame? In every stunt he has seriously compromised his health and pushed his body to the limit, he claimed after the "Frozen in Time" stunt that it took him nearly a month just to be able to walk again!!! Is money and fame really worth THAT much? Is he just an uber-exhibitionist? His stunts always get a lot of interest from the media and the public (good work Mr Blaine's PR company btw!) but it seems to me that a lot of it is negative too. When he came over here for the "Above the Below" stunt there were daily reports of people taunting him, throwing things at his Plexiglas box, one discerning gentleman was even arrested for trying to cut off his water supply. That's not a popular guy in my book.

It seems to me that by doing what he does he has in effect turned himself into a modern day, one-man freak show. People go to gawp at him in wonder, but how do they really see him? General consensus seems to be that he's mildly entertaining but a total loon.

Which then makes me ask ... is he just plain mad as a box of frogs? And if he IS ... should we really be entertained by him?

I don't know why he does it, only David Blaine really knows the answer to that question. What interests me more and concerns me more is the next question:

WHY are we so fascinated by him and by what he does? We seem to be drawn and repelled in equal measures; like those people who took time out of their busy day just to go and taunt him or spent good money on food just to throw it at him. Even the people who go along to see him and just stand there shaking their heads in disbelief and muttering "Totally outta his gourd" can't deny their fascination.

But what is it that fascinates us? It's not him personally. He's not exactly a dynamic personality or even a hottie (although I'm sure there are plenty of women who would disagree with me on that point), he's just another 'wacky' American magician.

Wait, that makes me think of something else ... magician? Or illusionist? Are they same thing? He refers to himself as a magician but illusion seems closer to the mark since magic to my mind is what Gandalf does ... when David Blaine battles a Balrog I'll call him a magician, not before. And neither magic or illusion come into his 'stunts' which seem to be his main focus nowadays, that's simply endurance. And before DB's fans start jumping up and down in indignant outrage let me say that I'm not knocking what he does, what he does is extreme and very few people could do it and for that he has my grudging respect. Although I will never understand why someone wants to make a public show of physically pushing themselves to the point of harm or even death. Where is the line drawn between straight forward self-harm/suicide and an elaborate, dramatic death in the name of entertainment?

Because ladies and gentlemen, isn't THAT why we're all so fascinated with David Blaine? It's not WHAT he's doing or even HOW he's doing it that makes us watch and keep watching him; magicians/illusionists/escapologists are ten a penny nowadays and our society too de-sensitised and hardened by the glut of extreme stunts (thank you Jackass et al) and special effects in films and television to be amazed or even impressed by what he DOES. The exciting bit, the thing that makes us stare and hold our breaths in wonder is the possibility that he might actually fail. It is the consequence of things going horribly wrong that fascinates and draws us.

We like to fool ourselves with conceited notions of being civilised and humane, but the depressing truth is that David Blaine and his stunts make us revert in seconds back to the days when people flocked to the Colosseum, not to admire the gladiators or their fighting skills, but in the hope and expectation of seeing them mauled by a tiger or cut into ribbons by an opponents sword.

David Blaine is going to suspend himself, upside down, 50 ft above the ground without a net, without food or sleep for 3 days at great personal risk to himself for our amusement and what we're all denying but secretly rooting for is that by some chance the cable will snap or that at the very least he will suffer some terrible medical misfortune such as losing his sight, because THEN we'll get the sensationalism-buzz we're all addicted to and hungry for (the death of Princess Diana and 9/11 having turned us into Nations of drama junkies); we can feel better about ourselves by smugly saying "I told you he was crazy" and thereby justifying the fact we were hoping he would fail in the first place and of course we'll have another anecdote to impress others with "I remember/was there the day David Blaine died horribly".

I wish him luck.

I wish us all luck.