0:02
Wow. This one's a winner.
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0:14
Hey, what's going on everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today we're joined by David Blaine.
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He's known the world over for his street magic and endurance stunts that include everything from being buried alive for 7 days to encasing himself in a block of ice to holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes.
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He also has a pair of high-profile projects on the way with his documentary adventure series Beyond Belief with David Blaine coming soon to Disney Plus and his sixth show Vegas residency with dates through the remainder of the year.
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David Blaine, welcome to the show.
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Wow, thank you for having me. Thank you.
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I'm so excited to be here by the way.
0:48
I'm very excited to have you.
0:48
I know that you're someone who can push themselves, but how are you around spicy food I don't know how I'm going to do with enduring this, but that is my thing, but um I'll tell you so just to give you an idea of how much I love Hot Ones.
1:04
My when I premiered my my show, which was the only premiere of a show I did it for realer magic, they wanted to go do it in a big place with a big movie screen so everybody could see it, you know, I said, "No, no, no.
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We have to premiere it Blondie's."
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And the premiere premiere was in a Buffalo Wing Joint a sport bar Buffalo Wing Joint up uptown in New York.
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So and and nobody could hear the show, but I was happy cuz I could eat all the wings.
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So this first one is the classic chili maple edition here. All right. Very nice.
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Maple, first time trying this one. Hit me. Yeah, it's great. Mhm.
2:10
As someone building a big stage magic act in Vegas, I'm curious if this quote from David Copperfield rings true to you.
2:17
It takes 500 shows to get a trick right and more than a thousand to make it feel good. Mhm.
2:23
That was one of the things that amazed me about David was I went to see him after a show and it was Saturday and it was midnight and and they were all so exhausted and um and his partner Chris says, "Oh, we've we've been here since 10:00 a. m. We've done three shows."
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I'm like, "Three shows in a day?"
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Cuz I can my show has to be like once a month or twice a month max.
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I said, "Wow, how like how many shows are you doing every day?"
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He said, "Well, we do three on Saturdays, two on every other day." Guess how many per year? 300. More? 400. 500. No. 600. 650 shows. I go, "Whoa!
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Like David, like that's crazy. What are you doing?"
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And he says, "Well, it takes me about 500 to get a new trick right, so that's the beginning of starting to understand a new trick." And I went, "Ah, got it. Bingo."
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So, yeah, I love that mentality and I agree and I think all of my magician friends, it's like a the ones that I love are just it's com- it's a compulsion. It's all they think. It's great.
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Yeah, little scotch bonnet, tropical action in there. Oh, it's great. Mhm.
3:37
So, when it comes to your obsession with magic, I've heard you recount multiple origin stories much like the Joker explaining how he got his scars.
3:42
Who is Lou Tannin and can you describe to me a typical day for a 10-year-old at Tannin's Magic Camp? you about that.
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That's funny, but I'm not going to tell you about camper, but talk you going to Tannen's. Okay. Mhm.
3:56
Back then, the store was like this darkly lit shop with all these glass cases.
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And the glass cases had all these objects that you would die to have.
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So, I'd stare at these things and just dream of like, "Oh my god, what could be done with all those things?"
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But, then in the back room, like this little side area, but it not in the store, if you were lucky, the best guys in the world would just be hanging out there.
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And so, I'd sit there and they would like blow my mind non-stop.
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Luckily, by the way, as a kid, I only did magic to my mother and her friends cuz if I did to other kids, they're a tough audience.
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They're going to be like, "Hey, you're weird, you know?" Yeah. "You suck."
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So, I did all the magic to to my mother and her friends, and I thought I was good because of their reactions, and then I just wanted to keep learning new things to, you know, make make her amazed or whatever. Mhm. Mhm.
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It might be like one of my favorite hot sauces I've ever had.
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I'm just having this really good. moment now, yeah. Mhm.
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So, this is the first shoot of the new season.
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It's my first time trying the hot sauces. Pico Rico.
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I just made my way into Mount Rushmore.
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I hate I hate to say this, but I kind of love all of them so far. Yeah, they are. They're all hitting. Delicious lineup.
5:22
So, your name is synonymous with death-defying, larger-than-life spectacles.
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And to watch them from outside, they look like just such a pure stress test in human concentration and misery.
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But, is there one that you'd describe as being like the most fun?
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Ascension to me was the fun.
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That was the most fun, but but but that's cuz it was with my daughter, so that I worked out the hard part of it before she came to make it fun.
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But, I have to say all of them are so fun.
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I think it's similar to this.
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Like I think it's like So it's like you go in and you're like you're going up a mountain really hard, but like you're so excited about it.
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And yeah, you take a couple of shots obviously, but but it's it's it's the like everybody says, you know, it's not like getting to the end.
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It's like that whole process.
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So that process, that learning curve is what keeps me excited about life.
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So you know, so I can't So they're all fun in a certain way.
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Well, that actually really resonates with me cuz while you were saying that I was like that's exactly how I feel about these kinds of shoots where they're all kind of their own journey and then their own experience.
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And then as much as you can kind of figure out how things are going to go, there's lots of variables that you can't always test for and things always go kind of sideways and then you have to adapt to those things.
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And that's the stuff that I think is the best.
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It's like when you have to deal with the unknown, it's always amazing.
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So like on stage when you get like a curveball, it's like that's what that's what separates I think like a magician that's really comfortable to a magician that's uncomfortable and and which makes one seems great, one doesn't.
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The one that seems great, even though this guy might be just as practiced with the moves, the one that seems great when performing is when a curveball comes, he's ready for it.
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He No matter what scenario he's hit with, he can keep going.
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And it's interesting because magic people don't know the end result.
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So since they don't know the end, it's not over until you say it's over.
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So you could be like struggling for 10 minutes, but if the end is a monster, I like that whole, you know, the the the not working and then make it work.
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I like all these questions by the way.
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Oh, well, thank you very much.
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It's kind of early on in the game, you know, I have plenty of time.
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I have plenty of I have plenty of time to knock this thing off the tracks. Oh, right.
7:38
Looking at your face, I can tell it looks like we're four for four so far. Yeah. There we go.
7:44
So, your new documentary series Beyond Belief with David Blaine has been described as a global odyssey across remote cultures, each embedded with unique histories and practices.
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Is there a mystical tradition that you learned along your travels that you thought was most compelling or that more people should know about?
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Well, basically, when I was working on learning how to put a gallon of water in my stomach and spout it out, I saw a little video of a guy doing it in Africa, and we couldn't track him down. He wasn't a performer.
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He lived in a mud hut outside of Liberia by like 4 hours.
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So, we spent 5 years trying to find him or something like that. And he had the secret.
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So, I flew all the way there, learned the secrets from him, stayed there for, I think, a week or something like that, practiced all day, every day, and then finally I got a little water spout, which means basically you put a gallon of water in your stomach, then you can hold it for a few hours, then you can spout it out like a stream.
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I still haven't mastered it, but I was trying it over and over, trying to get better and better.
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And a good friend of mine calls me up and says, his name is Dirk.
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He says, "Um you know that thing that you put on your show where you spout the water? I think I can do that."
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And he comes over, and he comes in my bathroom, drinks a gallon of water, and goes pshh, and he does it better than any magician in history.
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So, I spent years, traveled the world, and the and the guy that could do it lives next door, like two blocks away. Yeah, I love it.
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I I I think I prefer that not as oily, but it's still great.
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First time with the oil-based sauce. great, though. Thumbs up. Thumbs up.
9:27
All right, Dave, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram, where we do a deep dive in our guest's Instagram full of interesting pictures that need more context.
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And for you, we have a theme called What Went Wrong.
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And we're going to start from 2006, Drowned Alive, where you spent a week inside a glass sphere filled with water. What didn't go wrong?
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First of all, before I stepped in to the water tank, all of a sudden they said, "Oh, you don't have insurance.
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You need insurance to get in the tank."
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And all of a sudden I'm supposed to start the stunt.
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We didn't have the right insurance for Lake Encounters. I was like, "Uh-oh."
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So, then we're, you know, going crazy trying to get the right Of course, you need all that stuff, but it was just one of those things that was overlooked.
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Um then we go in and the hands and the feet, we didn't understand how that would become so painful.
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Like a pain that is crazy.
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seeing the pictures of your hands.
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And then the breath hold, the big thing.
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My whole goal was I wanted to go obviously to the record, which was 9:08.
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And I think I got to 7:08 and I started convulsing.
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My best friend happened to be in the front, and he yelled, "Stop it!"
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And they all jumped in and pulled me out, but I felt like I could have kept pushing, you know, for like another 40 seconds or something like that.
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So, I Anyways, so see yeah, there was a lot of things that went crazy. Yeah.
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From April 1999, Buried Alive, where you spent 7 days and nights in a Plexiglas coffin.
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This one was the biggest mistake.
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It was the easiest one in in in retrospect, but my friend, Bill, same guy, said, "Um you should have something before you go in."
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So, he gave me like a It was called a mango bomb. It was a mango juice.
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And I couldn't use a bathroom in there, obviously, other than number one.
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So, the whole week I had to hold the bathroom.
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It was so painful, so difficult.
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All right, one more for you.
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This is from September 2020, Ascension, where you soared almost 25,000 ft in the air while holding on to dozens of weather balloons.
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Part of my plan was to go higher than anything on Earth, which is Mount Everest, 29,072 ft.
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And um we stopped at 25,000, but they they were remote popping the screw cuz I think they felt that I was starting to um become a little hypoxic up there.
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So, I think they were I keep hearing I'm up there trying to go higher and I hear pop and my balloon and I'm suddenly not going up anymore.
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But, it was perfect cuz nothing happened, nothing went wrong, so it was the ideal amazing scenario.
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Nothing has gone wrong so far in the hot sauce lineup.
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Are you ready to move on here to the back half? Sure. All right.
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So, this one turmeric bomb here in the sixth spot. Oh, I love turmeric.
12:22
Yeah, that one is hotter. Yeah.
12:25
So, magic historian, Jim Steinmeyer, he argues that the biggest problem with magic in the internet age is that it's damaged the skill of learning through asking.
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What are your thoughts on YouTube and the effects of social media in general on magic as an art form over the years?
12:39
Well, first of all, it's amazing that everybody now has access to see the great stuff.
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When I want to see kid like the good stuff as a kid when I want to see the best stuff as a kid, I'd have to go to the Museum of Broadcasting and you'd have to go through an archive cuz there was no way to dig stuff up.
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So, it is amazing that you can study, see, and learn from all of the greats.
12:58
The disadvantage is what you're saying.
13:00
It's like people like to copy.
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So, when they see it and they don't become When you read a book and learned a routine, you kind of processed it and you figured out your own presentation of it.
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And I think that's the best way to get your own character and your own learning curve.
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But, I think he's right about that that there is a side of it that is like, "Ah, oh well."
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It's so accessible and then the secrets are all given away.
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But, the secrets are often number one, inaccurate or the wrong method, you know, I think the good stuff is still hard to find.
13:28
So, this next one has kind of a fun name, Cosmic Disco here in the seventh spot. It's a party, we'll see. Wow. This one's great.
13:45
Taste-wise, this is like amazing. No, this one's amazing.
13:48
This is so far this is my favorite.
13:50
No, no, seriously, this Because it's hot as [ __ ] I respect it. I respect it.
14:00
If I wasn't here right now with all the cameras, I'd be getting these down to the bones, by the way.
14:07
I've had people come up to me at restaurants to say, "You eat like a pig." Well, here, open season.
14:12
Let it fly however you want, however you want, David Blaine.
14:17
So, academics and scientists, they've used you as a case study on the limits of the human condition.
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Do those findings, do they demystify the human condition for you, or is it the opposite? No, it's the opposite.
14:27
I think that's what I think is amazing about life and humanity and everything is that we're able to do things that we just It's like you can keep dreaming up or coming up with things and we're able to achieve them.
14:41
I love when I fail cuz it just gives me a chance to try harder, become better.
14:49
All right, so this next wing is the bomb beyond insanity.
14:52
We always go out with the old, in with the new on each new season, right?
14:55
Except for this one that stood the test of time because it's just that brutal.
15:01
Are you ready to move on? Yeah.
15:04
All right, so woah, going right in. Wow. Good. Wow.
15:22
This one's still my favorite.
15:23
Yeah, I don't think that this one is going to take anybody favorite. Yeah.
15:28
This one is just But here's where I'm kind of diving into your mind a little bit cuz I'm wondering do you have like a an especially strong hot sauce tolerance or is your ability to kind of like concentrate, compartmentalize pain, focus through things?
15:48
Do you think that's given you an edge here in this kind of uh in this kind of setting?
15:52
Um I think I just like mentally prepare myself for something like that.
15:56
And I'm ready for whatever. Ah. Hold on 1 sec.
16:10
So when you were a teenager performing at posh restaurants for diners, what was like the number one guaranteed crowd-pleaser kind of trick in that setting?
16:23
Well, let me interrupt you on a thought. Sure.
16:25
So, there's a magician named Garrett Thomas. And he's incredible.
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And he knows how to walk up to you and destroy right away.
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And the reason why is because he works in Buffalo at a Buffalo wing joint.
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So, he has to get your attention over loud screens, sport events, people eating wings. So, it depends.
16:48
You want something short, visual, and strong.
16:50
For me, it's usually cards.
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And then once they're Oh, wow, this is interesting cuz there's some strange weirdo standing over me trying to do magic on me eating.
16:59
And then when you have them engaged, then you can start to do the stuff that like that you're passionate about.
17:06
You and me are probably similar in that we've seen some of the craziest physical reactions face-to-face with some of the biggest stars in the world, you know.
17:16
If we took your reactions and put them to my card tricks, I'd have like a whole new brand of magic. Yeah, it'd be amazing.
17:23
I need to pour like hot sauce on the cards.
17:26
Take a card and then lick it.
17:28
Dave, let's take the show on the road. Take a card and lick it.
17:30
Let's take the show on the road. That doesn't matter.
17:31
Look, card just We can move on here now to number nine, if you're ready. I would love to.
17:44
It is called Unique Garlic from Smokin' Ed's Curry. Mhm. Oh, yeah. Wow. This one. Wow. This one's a winner. Mhm. Wow. Yeah. This is from PuckerButt. Yeah, PuckerButt. I get it. Mhm.
18:25
But this one's delicious.
18:27
But this is the first one I'm like getting LIKE A WHOA, LIKE THAT BUZZ. WOW.
18:32
But you're liking the taste? I love it. I know, I can tell.
18:36
This one's incredible cuz it also gives you that rush. I got that rush.
18:38
I got a head high right now, David. I got a head high. That was nice. Yeah.
18:45
As someone who's done nine primetime magic specials, what would you say was like the goofiest creative note or suggestion you've ever gotten from a TV executive?
18:55
One of my One of my favorite um reactions to a trick was a I made a quarter disappear off of a boy's hand in Barstow.
19:03
And his reaction, he just looked at it and went cool.
19:11
And I was in love with this kid.
19:11
I was like, "Oh my god, this is the coolest reaction ever."
19:15
Like he was so it's like what I do when I'm doing magic.
19:18
I give it time and I'm bizarre like that was everything.
19:22
And I showed it to everybody so excited and they're like, "That's not That doesn't work. That's not good TV."
19:30
And I was like, "But look like look how amazing he is." And I fought.
19:33
I was like, "I'm airing that."
19:35
It was my first show by the way.
19:37
So I didn't have like I was fighting and I had like no Yeah, and everybody loved it. Cool.
19:45
That was like one of my favorite TV moments.
19:47
I would say that was like the one that I loved the most I had to fight for the hardest ironically. All right, David Blaine.
19:59
You don't have to if you don't want to, but as a showman I can see you're going there. Woah. I'm going to do it up.
20:08
I got to I got to meet it. I got to meet it.
20:12
I have to meet the opportunity.
20:16
Showman at heart over here.
20:17
So this is the final one. This is the final one. It's good. Yeah. Of course. It's really good. Of course it is. Wow.
20:31
David, we got to have you at the premiere every season, you know?
20:32
Just have you come in and make sure that we got the right sauces. All right.
20:40
So, David, we've taken on the Wings of Death and now the rest of the show to me is kind of a mystery.
20:46
I don't know anything that's about to happen.
20:48
All I know is we are to clear the sauces, right, Dom? That's all I know.
20:52
So we'll clear the sauces from the table. All right.
21:07
I brought um a picture of something.
21:11
Okay, actually I'll hold it this way.
21:14
Okay, Carolina Reapers, that's what that looks like. Yeah, it's cool, right?
21:18
Yeah, I've eaten those a couple of times.
21:19
I want to stay as far away from those as possible.
21:23
Let's see if you see how they just look like they start to go. Yeah.
21:27
Um let me just open up the case cuz these you don't want to mess with.
21:33
So see um see like here they actually have uh These are a special from Smoking Ed. Directly.
21:45
My favorite footage is you and Klaus. Yes.
21:52
Yes, down in the basement of Jimmy's eating Reapers.
21:55
Yes, that clip is amazing.
21:55
So yeah, so a little gift from Smoking Ed. And you know these well. them too well.
22:04
And will you just I I mean I'll show you all the cards are different. Mix them up. Just yeah, perfect. That's good.
22:13
We'll go face up, so can you pull pull some pull some halfway out pull some Which which one did you want that or that? Which did you mean? I want this. That one? Yep. Not this one. Not that. Or this one? This one.
22:27
Or did you want that one? This one.
22:30
The king the suicidal king. Yeah, suicidal king.
22:32
Is that why you chose that one? That's funny.
22:36
Um okay, so we'll use your the suicidal king.
22:39
So look, I just give it a little Actually, can you pull the pull the piece for me? Yeah.
22:59
Not as good as the wings. It's gone.
23:08
Yeah, it appears to be gone.
23:12
You choose one for me and one for you.
23:16
All right, I'll have this one, you can have that one. sure?
23:20
No, now I'm going to swap them.
23:21
Do you want to change back? Yep.
23:25
Do you want to change again? No, I'm set. You're set? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:29
I took a knife from your uh your kitchen.
23:34
Can you cut the pepper that you chose in half? Yeah, and open it. Pull it open. You see inside. See there's a card. Yeah.
23:49
Can you see that little piece of the card is the king of hearts in here?
23:53
Put it Put it right here.
23:54
Let's put it right next to it here.
23:58
You see that this is actually the exact piece that goes right there.
24:08
And this is the piece This is What the [ __ ] Uh amazing.
24:21
I don't My brain is frazzled right now.
24:25
This was This is a smoking ed pepper.
24:29
And uh here comes the part that I'm most excited about, that I've never done, by the way.
24:34
All right, are you ready? I don't know. You You never are ready. You never are ready. Cheers. Cheers. Grip it and rip it.
24:46
Uh I already know what this is going to be like.
24:48
David Blaine, this camera, this camera, this camera.
24:50
Let the people know what you have going on in your life. Mhm. Wow. Wow. Incredible. Wow. That was pretty awesome. Wow, that was amazing.
25:26
So, that's the Hot Ones experience. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
25:33
So, you've never eaten a Carolina Reaper before? Never. This is my first time. What do you think? Amazing. Smokin' Ed is my hero. He is. He's all of our hero.
25:48
And I was like, how do cuz I asked you guys I asked you guys to get the pepper. Ah.
25:54
And then everybody said, "No, he's like, whatever, you know."
25:56
So, then I just figured out, "Oh, I'd call Smokin' Ed and he's amazing." through. Oh, this milkshake hits. some ice cream? I don't know. No? Okay, thanks.
26:14
Thank you so much for watching today's video and Hot Ones fans, I have a very exciting announcement.
26:19
The Hot Ones Shake Shack collab is finally here.
26:21
The Hot Ones cheese fries, the Hot Ones burger, the Hot Ones chicken, all made with a Shack sauce that includes Hot Ones the classic along with the Last Dab.
26:35
It's very spicy, it's very delicious, and it's available for a limited time now through the end of the year at Shake Shacks nationwide and via the Shake Shack app.
26:44
Be careful around your eyes and don't forget to order a milkshake. Woo!