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I'm Tim Ferrris, author, entrepreneur, angel investor, and now TV host.
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I've spent my entire adult life asking questions, then scouring the globe to find the answers.
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On this show, I'll share the secrets of pioneers who have faced their own fears.
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We'll dig into the hard times, big mistakes, tough decisions, and how they got through it all.
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The goal isn't to be fearless.
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The goal is to learn to fear less.
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[music] [applause] Welcome to Fearless.
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I'm your host, Tim Ferrris.
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And on this stage, we'll be deconstructing worldclass performers of all different types to uncover the specific tactics [music] and strategies they've used to overcome doubt, tackle their hardest decisions, and ultimately succeed on their own terms.
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[music] So, let's take a look at my guest by the numbers. 17 minutes 4 seconds.
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His world record setting breath hold.
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If you can believe that, it's true. 44 days.
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How long you survived without food in a plexiglass box.
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63 hours 42 minutes and 15 [music] seconds.
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The amount of time he spent encased in a block of ice.
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For nearly 20 years, he has risked his life for your entertainment.
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Please welcome to the stage worldrenowned illusionist [music] and endurance artist David Blaine.
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[applause] [applause] step.
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[music] So, David, I have wanted to have this conversation for years now, and I know we're going to have fun tonight.
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And I thought one way we could start is with a video that maybe does not represent the most fun, but I think is a good video nonetheless.
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This is as close as I come to doing a magic trick. Focusing. You're doing good. Here we go.
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Working the next set of cuffs. from behind.
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There's a little bit of air on you guys. Get ready. There are some bubbles. [cheering] Go, go, go. Divers are in. Just relax. Relax. We got you, David. You're all right. You're all right.
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[cheering] The divers are in the sphere. You're okay, David. Just relax.
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We've got [cheering] you. Come on up. You okay? You're okay.
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The panic and quick shake that got David out of the bubble.
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[cheering] So that is a terrifying video.
2:34
What happened in that particular situation?
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Why did things go sideways in training when id worked on that?
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I I never the the record was I believe at the time was 9 minutes and I had never gotten up to 9 minutes.
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I got to 7 minutes and 47 seconds dry.
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No oxygen, just breath holding.
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And I figured if I starve myself, I'm in the sphere, my metabolism, everything slows down.
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I would be able to miraculously hold my breath much longer.
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And it did the opposite effect.
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So when it came time to do the stunt, I had handcuffs on.
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I was strapped at the bottom.
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And I just started to convulse.
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They jumped in to get me.
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And you can't see in the video. And I was like, "No."
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Like I held my finger up to stop them because I I thought I could keep going, but I'm blacking out.
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And luckily they did jump in because he had to take these things off to pull my head above the water. Yeah.
3:30
Seems like one of the main dangers of of any type of breath hold training is you feel fine until you're not right.
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I mean, some of it was, but when you black out, see, I learned that Navy Seals as part of the training, what they do is they make the SEALs comfortable with blacking out underwater.
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So what they do is they strap them to 45 lb plates and make them walk the bottom of a pool and they walk until they black out underwater and then they get pulled to the top and they're brought back and they're fine.
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But that makes everybody not afraid of drowning.
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You have no fear because you've already blacked out under water.
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You've already experienced the worst case scenario at TEDMED where you gave a great presentation.
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It's been a hugely popular talk.
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But what I remember personally was with a small group sitting in the audience and having you you held your breath train people.
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So check this out guys there maybe I'm making this number up maybe 15 people in the audience.
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You got up to almost 5 minutes. I got to 333.
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I remember very specific but there was there were people in the audience who got past five and these were people completely untrained.
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My breath hold record for me was around 45 seconds.
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I have lung issues and I got to 3 minutes and 33 seconds.
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And there were other people who just kept trucking.
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And that was maybe 15 or 20 minutes of exercises. Yeah. 20 minutes total.
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That was scarier than any of the stunts that I've ever done talking at the at that conference.
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Oh, talking at the conference. Yeah. The stunts are easy.
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But [laughter] I was in front of like 500 of my favorite people, you being one of them.
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And I had never given a public talk where I wasn't doing magic.
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So just to stand there and have to talk in front of everybody that I respect so much, I was like three days, three nights, no sleep.
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So that was its own stunt.
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So I mean it's all relative, right guys?
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I mean he's not afraid of that but he's afraid to talk in front of 500 people.
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So whatever your fears might be kind of puts it in perspective.
5:19
What was your what was your childhood like?
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How would you describe your your childhood early childhood?
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I grew up in Brooklyn with a single mother and we didn't have much.
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She worked multiple jobs, but she was so incredible because she allowed me to dream, imagine. Yeah, there you see.
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And also, do you see I have leg braces on? Oh, yeah.
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So, I was born I was born with my feet turned in.
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And so, I couldn't run fast and I couldn't swim fast.
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So, at the age of five, I was on the YMCA swim team.
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And that's where I started to learn to hold my breath because in order to keep up or even be faster than the other kids, I learned how to swim without breathing.
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So all the other kids had to learn how to do this and I would just swim straight across.
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And that's where that's where I started to develop an ability to hold my breath. Wow.
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Um but so back to my mom. Yes.
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So she was just the I could ask for nothing more amazing as she was the best gift that I could have had as a child.
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and she'd walk me through the park all the time and even if I was late for school, [snorts] like one time I was walking through the park and I was late.
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So, and she was walking me before she had to go to work and I was like, "Mom, look, there's King Kong."
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And instead of her saying, "No, no, we're late. Let's go." She said, "Where?"
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You know, she engaged, right?
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So, we walked all the way over and it was just a log, you know, a tree that that was down.
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But the the idea that she let me imagine and believe and didn't want to stifle that, that's that's what made her so incredible.
6:52
How were you introduced to magic or magic tricks?
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When I was I was about 5 years old, my mother gave me a deck of cards and I would carry it everywhere that I went.
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It just it was like a treasure to me.
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And I would go to the library and wait for my mother to finish work and pick me up.
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And one of the librarians one day walked me through a simple book of magic, self-working stuff.
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And when my mother came and I did it to her and she went crazy, I became obsessed with with doing magic and getting her reaction and then getting her friends reactions.
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I never did it for the other kids cuz they would have been really difficult. Brutal. Yeah.
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[laughter] So I was lucky I just did it to my mother. Yeah. Yeah.
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Did you want to be a magician from that point onward or what did you think you were going to be when you were little?
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What did your mom think you were?
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When I was five, I said to my mom, "I'm going to be a magician one day."
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And she went, "That's amazing."
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So, so you stuck to the script like you Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Stuck to it.
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How has she affected how you live your life today?
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I mean, I think part of she was so brave, you know, when I was she got sick when I was a teenager and fought cancer and she fought without a complaint. She was very tough.
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But the way she approached suffering and death was was almost like she was so graceful about it that I was curious, you know, the suffering that she endured and and how she found so much beauty out of it.
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I think that was like one of the sort of planted the seed to, you know, what is there on this other side of endoring things that are and not viewing it as just a bad thing?
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And were you uh you were with her when she passed?
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Yeah, she died in my arm. I can't even imagine.
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That was I remember at that moment I felt like my body was like one big twig and it was like snapped and I became really afraid to uh connect like that to anybody else.
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How did besides the you know putting the armor on or not wanting to necessarily connect in that way, did anything else change?
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But I think also at that point that's when I became fearless because at that point I felt like I had nothing to lose.
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So when I was 19 or 20 or something like that, I was I was at the airport and my bag was missing and I saw a whole bunch of identical bags coming out and there was all these guys dressed in identical jumpers and I was like I think you guys have one of my bags cuz I have the exact same bag. It was a Tumi bag. They said, "Go ask him. Knock on the window."
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And it was a limousine, a white limo parked out front with tinted windows.
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And I knock on the window and the thing rolls down and Mike Tyson's there with his fist up.
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He's like, "You got a problem?"
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[laughter] And I was like, and I was like, "Holy no, Mike, you're like my favorite person and I grew up da da da," you know.
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So, um, he says, "Jump in."
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So I So I jump into the limo with him and we drive to the hotel he's staying at and in and I'm doing magic to him and it's it's amazing.
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And along the way he says to me, he says, "You know, I wasn't supposed to be the heavyweight champ."
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He's like, "I didn't have I wasn't tall enough.
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I didn't have long arms."
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He's like, "But I had nothing to lose."
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And when you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain.
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And I was kind of like, that was like another like great piece of information from Mike Tyson.
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[laughter] So you it's I mean these these types of encounters just blow my mind because if I look at like your chronology [snorts] so at 18 I think it was uh and I I don't know if this was a milestone or not but you I believe this is when you jumped to turnstyle got in some trouble for that. Yeah. Can you tell people?
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I was doing I was doing magic in restaurants and it started as a waiter where I would do magic and then I people wanted to come back and just see me doing magic.
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So I started walking up and down Park Avenue and trying to get different fancy restaurants to hire not hire me, let me do magic to the people that were dining and then they would tip me.
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As I started doing that, I started getting hired by wealthy New Yorkers to do their parties and things like that.
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One night I was I jumped over a turn style and that's when Giuliani was sweeping everybody. So I I got locked up.
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But as I was going there I kept breaking out of the cuffs for the cops.
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So they like Cops love that by the way. I'm kidding. They actually do. Oh, do they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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[laughter] So I had to pause.
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So you're like, "Hey guys, these aren't working."
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I mean, how do they how do they respond to that? Yeah.
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No, no, they they're all good.
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I don't They know that I'm not really a threat, but you know, so it's going to they know they just have to go through the motions. Yeah.
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So, I get put in central booking and central booking is crazy.
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It's like everybody's in and out of Riker.
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So, it's like a tough room and you're being moved from one cell to another and there's like 40 guys in there and I'm like, "Oh man, I'm going to get my ass kicked."
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So, there the four biggest guys are sitting on the ground playing spades.
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So, I walk up to them and grab the deck of cards from them.
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And I'm like, "Let me show you something."
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like you know they're they're they're ready to kill me and I start doing magic and then what happened was they started to go crazy and these are the toughest guys in the cell.
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So then the whole cell is around me you know 30 guys or 20 some guys all going crazy and then the guards come in and everybody was reacting to me doing m like they were all going crazy together. I was like whoa.
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So these people on Park Avenue, these super powerful people, and then in prison, these guys, the reactions are so amazing and so similar. I want to show that.
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So that became the impetus for the first TV show, which was called Street Magic.
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You know the guys that do three car money, right? Right. All right.
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This is that game for you right now. Not for me, bro. No, no, no, no. Money. No money. This is just pretend.
12:47
Instead of three cards, you hold your fingers like this.
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So hold your fingers like this.
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Look, watch this card, right? Remember diamonds. Forget ace. Just diamonds. Hold it parallel. What card do you have? What? What card is that? Can I look at it? Yeah. Yeah, but name it. Name it. What is it? Ace of diamonds. Diamonds. Just diamonds. Look. Show it to them.
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Make sure it's all right. Bingo. All right. Show it to them, too. Bingo. Bango. Bingo. Bango. Cool, man. Hold it like this. Look. Lower. Lower. Lower. Watch. This one. Same thing. Just remember hearts. Forget ace. Just hearts. Watch this. Switch. Ready? See, I switched it. Look. I'll do it again. See, it switch back. Just switch twice.
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So quick you didn't see it. Get off my shoe, homie. Sorry. Yeah, switch twice.
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Look, I'll do it so so you could see it. Look, here's the move.
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See how the borders line up?
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Don't pull it on the bottom. Look. No, I'm I'm teaching. I know. I'm teaching.
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I'm teaching you right now. That's how I do it.
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Hold it tight, though, to make it impossible now cuz you know the move. I have diamonds. Ready? Right.
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Without looking at it, what would you bet on? Hearts or diamonds? Bet. You ain't got no money.
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All right, but pretend bet.
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Would you bet hearts here or hearts here?
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Or could I impress you if the heart was on top, diamonds on bottom?
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The heart's on top because you had a heart. Turn your hand over. Go ahead.
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Turn your hand over a clown.
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[laughter] Everybody thinks they're so different, but really there's also generalities among people.
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So, you can really kind of look at a group and you can estimate which person's going to react a certain way and you get better and better as it the the more you do it.
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Now, it's kind of like what psychics do. Sorry to interrupt.
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Like psychics basically when you walk in they profile you right away and they've done it so many times that they can kind of cold read what you do, where you're from, what you're looking for, whether you're skeptical, whether you're not.
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So it's like you just learn to read people read the cues. Yeah.
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What's what are some lines or approaches that you use when you just cold approach somebody?
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There was there was a magician named Harvey Cohen that I used to love.
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He taught me so much and he would approach people when he would do magic and he would say he he was very fumbly with the cards.
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But while he was fumbling cards, he was secretly like loading cards in your pocket doing all this stuff.
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So he'd kind of approach with this non approach.
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It wasn't like, "Look, I'm a magician. I'm going to amaze you."
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It was almost like he couldn't hold the card.
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So you'd be like hoping that he was going to succeed.
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was going to succeed. And then then at the end when you thought everything had gone wrong and there's two cards in your pocket and one on the you know so it was like the the the the approach that I always like to do magic is the opposite of what a magician would do cuz I always
15:19
imagined if somebody could really do magic they wouldn't really have big pattern they would kind of be fumbly and they'd say look at this thing and then just do something right so that was always the approach was simple simple and understated I think is the best approach. At what point did you go to acting
15:33
At what point did you go to acting school?
15:35
You did go to acting school. Yeah.
15:36
I went with Brian Ken who's who was amazing.
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I learned so much from him. He was incredible.
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Decided to go to acting school.
15:42
Well, you know, there's a famous quote that Orson Wells said, but it's from Roberam where he says, uh, a magician is just an actor playing the part of a magician.
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So, at that time, I was I was a close-up magician.
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There was really no there was no business in it.
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There was no way to make a living at it.
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So, I figured I would study acting and take it seriously and maybe apply it to magic and see what happens.
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And it was a really valuable year because what you learn in acting school is living truthfully in a given imaginary circumstance.
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So, it's interesting because when you apply that to magic, it's like instead of these are just tricks, you kind of like almost believe what you're seeing on some level.
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Not believe it like ah, how'd I do that?
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But you kind of play into that as opposed to the silly pattern and the silly trick.
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And it I feel like the magic comes to life that way.
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You know, it makes a performance more interesting.
16:33
One of the best things Brian taught me there, he was he was an early mentor to me.
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One of the quotes that his dad gave to him is always surround yourself with people that will inspire you or help you grow.
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And that was just a great piece of advice from him.
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I took that very seriously and pursued people that I looked up to or that I admired and and and tried to learn things from them since I didn't have really, you know, a father figure or anything like that.
17:00
Did you look for father figures kind of throughout that adolescent period or was it was it more surrounding yourself with peers? No.
17:09
Well, I mean, early on I would read about all the people I looked up to and, you know, that was kind of like my college was finding people that did things that I was really amazed by and then learning as much as I could.
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And and then what I started doing is I started finding all the books on Nobel Prize winners and then in literature specifically and then I would read what books they recommended and then I would read the books that they recommended and on the back of that book it would be what this book was influenced by.
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So, I started going through lots of that stuff.
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The original hyperlinks, bibliographies.
17:42
When did you start fasting and why?
17:46
I've been obsessed with fasting since I was a kid.
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But I think it started when I my mother gave me Sedartha to read the Herman Hessa book and I read it when I was 11 years old.
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And in it, he fasts and he stands and he does these things where he sees the world in a different way and and and he realizes that he can control his body and with his mind.
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So that was the beginning of the the seed of the curiosity and then loving the way you feel when you fast.
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How you like colors change, the blues become vibrant, you notice the sky, you become more emotional.
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So I took everything away and and it was incredible.
18:23
So the fasting soart is one of my favorite books. Oh, absolutely.
18:25
And I remember have you got any you guys read that? It's a short read. It's amazing. It's amazing.
18:30
And I remember at least in two instances.
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So he's trying to court this uh noble woman I think she is and he's also trying to get a job with a merchant at one point.
18:43
And they ask him because he's effectively at least acting the part of monk at the time.
18:47
They say well what can you give? What can you do?
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And he said I can think I can wait and I can fast. Yeah.
18:54
And he talks about the value of not being beholden to food.
18:56
He says, "For for instance, if you asked me to work for you right now and I needed food, I'd have to say yes to whatever you offer me because since I can fast, I can think about it more rationally."
19:06
But I've done seven and 10 day fasts.
19:08
I've never gone as far as you have, but uh it's incredible when you click over from carbohydrate dependent to pulling on your fat stores.
19:17
I mean, cognitively it everything changes.
19:20
It's very, very interesting.
19:21
It's hard to go like you can't go back to how it was before in terms of viewing food and so on. Yeah, that's true. It's totally different.
19:28
Looking back over your stunts, all the magic, the endurance feats, which ended up being more dangerous than you expected or scarier than expected?
19:43
probably the 44 days with the water fast in London in a box because I think I went into mild organ failure and I had dropped a 33% BMI which was well documented but it was uh the recovery on that I think to this day it's it still screwed up my metabolism and my weight goes up and down really fast and it did real damage.
20:04
That's a vitamin deficiency. Little pigman leaves.
20:12
David, who has been there 44 days?
20:15
[cheering] No food, only water.
20:18
Yeah, I lost 60 lbs in 44 days. The plexiglass diet. Not not recommended. Not recommended.
20:26
Your dietitian will not have this on the multiple choice options.
20:29
What did your refeeding look like after that?
20:33
Well, that was a really interesting part.
20:35
So after I did the 44 days, I was rushed to the hospital where I stayed for I think 2 weeks.
20:40
When they started refeeding me, I think my phosphate levels jumped out of control and I almost went into shock and died.
20:47
And that was the refeeding syndrome. Yep.
20:49
We published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine about the refeeding syndrome which is because most hunger strikers in the past they do it and they're very anti-government anti- you know it's it's for a statement whereas I just did it as as a performance piece and therefore I was willing to give all my bloods and all my urine to doctors and let them use it as research.
21:14
So it actually became useful in the sense that there was a real documented study of the prolonged effects of fasting 44 days or starvation technically. Yeah.
21:28
Were there any any of your performances on the flip side that you thought were going to be very difficult or very scary that were easier than expected for you for whatever reason? Nope.
21:43
What does magic mean to you?
21:43
Because you you you do so much more than illusion and magic.
21:47
I mean, you you really have sort of a full stack performer kit at your disposal, but what does magic mean to you?
21:55
And for me, it's just a beautiful performance art.
21:56
Like, it's something where and it's also like you learn a really difficult skill.
22:02
It it it defies logic and then you have an immediate reaction to it.
22:08
So, it's something you can do almost anywhere, any time.
22:10
And it's also a constant pursuit of information, but information that isn't readily available.
22:18
So, it's like you have to dig up history.
22:19
You read about a guy that had done something from a hundred years ago.
22:23
He died, took his secrets to the grave.
22:25
So, you spend years trying to, you know, trying to understand how he did it.
22:30
And it's trial and error, practice, repetition.
22:32
And then finally, all of a sudden, you're, you know, able to do these things that you had only read about.
22:39
Like one was, you know, called the human aquarium, which is about a guy that could convert his body into an aquarium where he could store creatures.
22:46
Another was Yeah, I'm not kidding. This is a trick. Yeah. Another was a magician. Another was a magician.
22:54
Put a sturgeon in his mouth and like regurgitate it. Well, anything. Yeah.
22:56
Anything that could live in water and and land.
22:57
But then then you also find there's another guy that was the human dragon and he could drink kerosene.
23:04
It would float on top of a gallon of water in his stomach and then he would blow fireballs out of his mouth igniting a huge fire.
23:12
And then just when he thought that was the end, he'd use a gallon of water that was stored in his stomach and put out the fire.
23:22
[laughter] But of course one time he did it wrong and died.
23:25
So, but and took his secrets to the grave.
23:30
So, you know, inadvertently. Yeah.
23:32
But, but so I see the footage and I'm like, I want to do that, you know.
23:35
So, I spent like 20 years trying to figure it out and I couldn't because there was no nobody would nobody had the secrets.
23:42
So, I was like, oh man, maybe this isn't such a smart idea [laughter] to So, we uh we're going to pull up this video involving an ice pick.
23:50
You can see how complex and how dangerous to take an object and put it through your hand is.
23:58
And especially where David's doing it, there's a whole complex of arteries there.
24:12
[clears throat] You want me to pull it out? Yeah. Gnarly. Nothing. Just a hole. No blood. Nothing. Just a hole.
24:26
There's not any any blood on this thing either. Nothing. Explain that one, Dr. Rud. [laughter] Okay.
24:36
[applause] I don't think that deserves applause.
24:42
I think that deserves like you're out of your mind.
24:46
Condemnation off the stage.
24:46
But I but ironically before I leave, I brought another thing similar that I have an X-ray of that I'll I'll show you that I recently learned.
24:55
So I'll show it to you before I go, which is a little crazier than this one.
25:00
I think the only way that I can even begin to approach talking about that is let's assume that it's totally real.
25:04
Like you actually figured out how to put that through your hand.
25:07
That's the the only place I can go with it.
25:10
What is your self-t talk when you're practicing that?
25:15
[snorts] Well, I mean, Houdini used to do this thing where he'd push pins through his face and then pull them all out, swallow razor blades, pull them out threaded.
25:24
But there there are ways to to do things that are real that that you know, you would assume it can't be done because you would assume that you're going to bleed, but there's a way to and I started with acupuncture needles just trying to see if you could go straight through.
25:43
I had X-rays taken, MRS, you know, the whole thing so I could know where all the blood vessels and everything lie.
25:49
And then I found a sweet spot and just started, you know, slowly figuring out how to go through the the hand.
25:58
Is there any particular trick or stunt that has obsessed you for a long time that you have not yet been able to figure out? Yeah.
26:05
The craziest one I've been obsessed with with the idea of sleep deprivation. Yeah.
26:10
No, but when you do sleep dep deprivation like the the Native Americans would do it and they would you get this really incredible hallucination. Yeah.
26:18
So it's like any I've done like 5 and a half days of no sleep and the for me hallucinations start to really kick in at like 55 hours if I'm standing up the whole time and it's a really rough environment and it's even though it's scary, it's also like you're having these dreams and these nightmares but you're awake.
26:37
But the North Koreans used it as a ultimate form of torture on the Americans when they were hostages and many of those hostages came back tweaked for life.
26:48
So it's like there is what is the breaking point?
26:51
The the risk benefit right analysis may not be in your favor.
26:56
So I remember at one point so one of my favorite parks in New York City, Bryant Park, was that where you were on top? Yeah.
27:04
[music] I was going to stand on this pillar for a day and a half with no food, no water, and nothing to catch me if I fell.
27:09
My legs are numb, my back is numb.
27:13
But at the end of this hour, I'm going to jump.
27:17
I'm going to jump straight down. Hopefully, I'll survive.
27:22
I remember reading at one point that talking about hallucinations, the buildings became like wolf heads or something. Yeah, animal heads. Yeah.
27:29
you look back that you see the shapes of just normal buildings and you suddenly think, "Wow, that looks like a lion."
27:36
So, I was up there for like 36 hours, but I started hallucinating at like hour 30, but just light hallucinations.
27:42
So, the buildings that were behind me that were perfectly flat, I started looking at them.
27:46
I was like, "Wow, I didn't know those buildings were lion heads."
27:50
So, the people down below, yeah, yeah, that's light.
27:54
So the people below that were working on a thing and and the and the you know people at ABC suddenly decided that there's no way I was going to hit my target.
28:05
So they built this huge thing of boxes that was enormous which pissed me off [laughter] and I ended up jumping and hitting the mark.
28:13
But that was during mild hallucinations.
28:18
Have you ever learned anything from your hallucinations? Very curious.
28:19
Not trying to imply that you have to have. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
28:23
Just curious because I'm I'm anal I'm in my mind comparing it to say some descriptions of the psychedelic experience. No. Yeah.
28:30
Also, you have that as well.
28:34
But but one of the things that I did learn is out of anything that I did that was extremely difficult when your brain starts to go like when you start to lose control of your mind there is nothing as horrific imaginable.
28:51
So, it's like I never understood when somebody has mental illness, I never understood how severe that is.
28:56
But it's like when I go through those things and it's like all of a sudden the world becomes scary because you don't have control anymore.
29:05
And I learned that like now anybody that I meet that has any kind of mental illness in any way, I I I'm extremely compassionate to not just compassionate, I'm like, "Yeah, this is this is this this is the craziest thing ever."
29:21
When that starts to set in, do have you developed any strategies to cope with it?
29:26
Well, that's interesting because basically what happens is your brain is trying to trick you.
29:30
So the brain knows that you need sleep so the brain can recover and you can your immune system rec everything is built.
29:41
So what happens is when you're staying awake, even if you have people helping you, your brain is coming at you with your biggest fears and anything that is your weakness, your brain is trying to say this is happening to you and you need to go to sleep otherwise this is going to get worse and worse.
29:58
So you start seeing like blemishes appearing all but they're not there.
30:02
You see your hand change into spiderw webs like everything that would freak you out.
30:07
So you would decide I can't do this anymore is going.
30:09
So you have to do it often enough and have a very sensitive, careful team around you that are guiding you almost that teach you how to override what your brain is trying to tell you to do.
30:27
It's pretty Yeah, it's pretty wild. Also a trained skill. Do you have any fears?
30:32
I mean, what are you afraid of or or what makes you anxious? Anything?
30:36
I don't I'm not I don't Well, first of all, I used to be horrified of insects.
30:40
So I would see like a cockroach.
30:40
Ah, [laughter] but I think I learned that from my mother cuz she was really afraid of bugs.
30:47
But then I went to Botswana, Africa, and I was sleeping in this little tent with these hippos circling the tent all night.
30:55
And you're there by yourself and you're in this little tent filled with spiders and all these bugs and they become like your good friends, you know, cuz [laughter] you're like these hippos could chomp you in half in one second.
31:08
So I mean you're mentioning something that I think is really worth underscoring because it seems to have come up a couple times which is if you're afraid of something you can try to think your way out of it or you can just expose yourself to it and sort of inoculate yourself with these these these small doses.
31:23
So if someone for instance Ko was considered the perfect stoic and he cared how people judged him at one point.
31:33
He was very concerned with how other people felt about him.
31:34
So he started wearing oddc colored clothing and so on so that he would get ridiculed.
31:40
He did it on purpose so that he could practice not caring about being embarrassed about things unless they were truly important. Right?
31:46
And uh practicing poverty similar idea right even they say you take senica or some of these other famous stoics and they would take a certain period of time and eat the cheapest of food sleep on a hard floor bare floors. Exactly.
32:01
so that they would know, you know, is this is this the condition I so feared is what they would ask themselves.
32:08
So, I want to pull up some audience questions from Twitter. This is Ty Koe.
32:11
What are somewhat average things that you can't do despite all attempts? Dance. [laughter] Karaoke. Uh, karaoke.
32:26
God, yeah, that's a tough one. Uh, [laughter] not much.
32:31
I always do nothing but a hound dog.
32:33
I don't know why it's like my default.
32:34
I'm like, I can't do karaoke, but that's my go-to.
32:37
But it's like wearing the odd clothes. So, you can be a stoic.
32:39
We should just go out and karaoke until we're be hard watching. At least I am.
32:44
Uh, the next question is somewhat related to what we were just talking about.
32:49
What is your secret reserve of strength when you feel that your body or mind can't push through?
32:56
That's that's a really good question.
32:56
So what I what I do is uh a lot of it is based on numbers.
33:01
So I create and and I and I run it across the board.
33:04
So it's like if I'm if I'm going to run a 10K, I make sure that I get not just to the 6.
33:11
2, but I'll go always further like maybe to seven or I'll pick a number that's important.
33:16
And then I have these superstitions that if I don't get to this number, something terrible is going to happen.
33:21
So by committing to this this almost superstition that's that's based on numbers, you can use, you know, the halfway mark like, okay, I'm going to get to 22 days of a fast, but I know I have 44 days.
33:37
So first I reach the 22 day mark and then I start counting backwards.
33:41
I said, but I already did half. So that half.
33:42
So now I could pretend I'm starting fresh. So I have 22 days to go.
33:46
So let me get through another 11 days.
33:48
let me get through and and it's just it's basically just breaking it down in in little chunks but making sure that you get to that finish line.
33:58
Didn't you do something or have a very similar superstition when you were a kid in school really like your school bus you have to do certain things uh pull a leaf off a tree or Oh yeah yeah yeah or something terrible would happen. Yeah. Yeah.
34:10
I would stop and there'd be a leaf that was just out of reach when you jump and I' I'd just keep jumping and jumping and then I have to put something down until I got that just little things.
34:21
But it's weird because when when I for me it was almost like training because I'd set a goal that was very difficult and then I just wouldn't quit until I got it.
34:29
And part of it was a superstition of doing this ridiculous thing that has no meaning but just not quitting until it's done.
34:37
This one's from Facebook.
34:37
This is Patrick Makuka Zagambo. I like this question.
34:42
I have 90 days to practice to perform a close-up magic event.
34:44
What skills should I focus on to maximize my results in such a small time frame?
34:52
I mean, the way I do it is not the way others do it, but what I like to do is I like to commit to something and put myself in the hot seat because I already committed to doing something that I'm not ready for.
35:02
So, I know like your thing when you did, you know, a week to get ready to do something.
35:06
So you're all in because you have no choice.
35:09
So even just when I do certain big magic stunts or feats, I I announce them before I do them and then I work diligently to get there.
35:18
So I would say find a few things that that that you really like.
35:28
Work on them, research them, learn how to do them, and they're going to be very messy.
35:33
Keep working until you start to figure out how to do it among friends and family. Just let me try this. Try it. Try it over and over.
35:41
And then go out maybe to a friend's party or wherever you are and try it over and over and over and over.
35:49
And after you fail a couple of, you know, a few hundred times, you might start to become okay at it, you know. Yeah.
35:56
And it's it's I I find also with a lot of these questions like this, I think you made a great point.
36:02
People are looking for more information or some type of uh particular way of training, but what they really need is just social accountability and the incentive, right?
36:12
So, if you publicly announce it, you will figure out how to make it work. You're committed to it.
36:17
Uh I I have a buddy uh AJ Jacobs. He lives in New York.
36:20
He's a writer for Esquire. Really good guy.
36:21
And he he couldn't lose weight despite all of his attempts. And he wasn't obese.
36:25
He described his physique as a python that swallowed a goat.
36:28
Like just kind of like middle-aged ponch like in the little prince. Yeah.
36:31
And he wanted and he wanted to fix it.
36:33
And so and and he he had all the diet books. He just wasn't doing it.
36:37
So he he's he's a Jewish guy. He wrote a check.
36:39
I believe it was to the American Nazi party for like $1,000.
36:43
Gave it to either one of his best friends or his wife and said, "If I don't lose like 20 pounds by the end of next month, I want you to mail this in."
36:51
In which case, his name would be on the record, like public records having donated to this organization.
36:55
Lo and behold, he lost the weight.
36:57
So, I think the the accountability is is such a huge part of it.
37:01
Uh, what are you learning right now, Josh Anderson on Facebook?
37:06
What what am I learning currently?
37:06
So, what I'm working on is I'm trying to figure out how to put together a stage show because I've never really conquered that and and haven't done it in a way that I feel is right yet.
37:17
So, I've been working just getting up on like little comedy stages and and and trying out different things and and and and the idea of being able to do something in in in a in a intimate room and then also in a bigger room that that's that's that's my goal.
37:34
So, that's that's the thing I'm working on diligently and I'm most consumed with right now.
37:42
And it's a big learning curve.
37:44
you know, you need to do thousands of shows before you really figure out what you're doing. Yeah.
37:51
So, it's hard to get that time and space necessary, but that's that's my big goal.
37:56
Working on your material in a way that Yeah.
38:00
I mean, I remember watching a comedian in the documentary with Jerry Seinfeld and also another upandcomer and I was it was it was so sobering and reassuring to watch because you see Seinfeld who's one of the biggest stars in the world at that point and then he goes back to work on new material as a standup and you just see him bomb.
38:18
You see him bomb in these little venues and he just forgets his lines and he just sits there on stage and he's like a minute trying to remember his lines.
38:26
It's just excruciating, but it's reassuring in the sense you're like, "Okay, this guy, it's not like he just wakes up in the morning with a finished one hour set."
38:35
No, you just have to put in the time to hone it and refine it.
38:39
So, when you think of the word or hear the word successful, who's the first person who comes to mind for you? My mother. Mhm.
38:48
She was a school teacher and she came from a very powerful family.
38:51
Left her family, moved to Brooklyn, decided to do social work and teach and things like that.
38:58
And she was really incredible and really cared about doing and helping and giving.
39:05
And so to me, that's that's like the greatest thing you can do.
39:09
So she was in that regard extremely successful.
39:15
What's success to you personally when when you give as much as as you you you know I think like um Bill Gates is a great example because he he's made so much money but he basically figured out that he knows he he can figure out how to give it better than most institutions can.
39:35
So he directs his money outward.
39:35
So it's not like I want to have so much.
39:40
It's like I want to amass this amount so that I can give it to the right places.
39:44
I think that's really important.
39:44
And um you know for me personally it's like one of my favorite stories.
39:51
So around Thanksgiving whenever I can I go to BAMY which is the Brook Army Medical Center and I go into the burn unit there where all the kids that are burnt from the war and just terrible tragedies.
40:07
So, every year that I would go, I'd try to get everybody that I can.
40:11
And one year, there was a kid uh named Victor who was 21.
40:14
And a really handsome kid that that got blown up in a Humvey.
40:23
And when he was rushed to the hospital, he had basically been burnt exactly on half of his face and the top of his head, but half of his face was completely burnt.
40:36
The other half was perfect. And he wouldn't go out.
40:38
He wouldn't interact with the other people.
40:44
He wouldn't he stayed in his room.
40:44
He was he was more angry that he was suddenly burnt on half his face than the actual losing the fingers, losing the ears, all that stuff.
40:53
And I asked the nurse, "Have I done it?"
40:57
She said, "Yeah, but there's one kid, but he won't see anybody.
41:00
He's not He won't even talk to the nurses.
41:03
He won't meet with the therap nothing."
41:04
I said, "Bring me to him." She said, "No, no, no. He won't see anybody."
41:09
I said, "Just bring me to him."
41:11
So, she asked his mother, who was standing in the room with him all the time, dying inside.
41:15
And the mother's like, "Sure."
41:19
I mean, my son's not going to talk to him, but sure.
41:21
I walk in and uh he's like stonefaced.
41:23
He won't even look at me. Let me try.
41:25
And I grab his hand, which people don't touch him like that, like like nothing's wrong. So, I grab his hand.
41:32
Let me show you something. And hold your hand out.
41:33
and I start doing magic to him and all of a sudden because I'm not treating him like he was disfigured suddenly I see him interested then I keep going and he cracks a little smile and I I see his mother when when that happens balling in the corner but holding it in.
41:53
So I'm like fighting my hardest not to cry.
41:58
Anyway, I I could completely finish doing magic to the guy.
42:00
I put my hat on his head, which you should not do because it's open wounds.
42:04
And I leave the hospital content that now I had done magic to everybody, including the guy that didn't want to see me.
42:12
And then I decide to come back the next morning, the day after Thanksgiving.
42:18
And the mother comes out and she's balling.
42:20
And she she says to me when she sees me, she's like, "Right when you left, my son let the nurses put him in a wheelchair and he went out with the other guys and he started his physical therapy."
42:35
So it was like just that little bit of like being treating him like there was nothing.
42:42
And so I came back the next year and uh he had had all this so he looked really good.
42:48
He had all this reconstructive surgery and uh and it was in Texas and I took him out for dinner and then to a strip club.
42:55
We had the [laughter] we had the time of our lives. It was amazing. Wow. All right.
43:02
[laughter] I It's hard to follow that up with just about anything.
43:06
But uh what is what is your if you have one your end goal with magic?
43:12
What d what keeps driving you?
43:12
I mean, I think the ultimate goal is just I always wanted to just bring magic to the people, you know, just bring magic in a good way or in a new way or in a different way or, you know, so that's the end goal.
43:27
Yeah, maybe we should try something in here.
43:29
Yeah, we could try something in here.
43:31
You guys want to try something live? All right.
43:33
So, how should we how should we begin?
43:38
Can I take the uh the X-ray?
43:42
So, one of the new things that I've been working on, might be hard to see, but I'll let you hold this up. So, this is an X-ray.
43:55
Can you all make it out somewhat?
43:55
Can you all see what that is? See? Yeah.
43:59
There's a sword that I recently learned how to push all the way inside like a sword swallower, basically.
44:06
And I learned it to work on one new trick.
44:08
So, if I could Yeah, good.
44:11
So, here's my little Now, you guys are seeing this when it's brand new.
44:18
So, and this is much bigger than the one in the picture.
44:20
The one in the picture is actually pretty thin.
44:24
And the esophagus is is very, very thin.
44:27
So, I'm going to try to push this down inside.
44:30
And lots of people assume when sword swallows do what they do that it's a trick, but it's really not.
44:37
I recently learned that in studying this.
44:42
I don't know if I'm going to succeed, but we'll try.
44:43
[laughter] You got to come closer though [laughter] to make sure it's real. Okay. Yeah, that's real.
45:23
[applause] [applause] I'm not going to have him try it yet.
45:36
I'm going to give Tim a week to learn it.
45:39
[laughter] Let me give this might have some food and stuff. No, I'm just kidding.
45:47
Should we try this one other thing?
45:56
I'll let I'll let Tim help.
45:56
So, there's something else I've been working on, which is a strength thing.
46:01
Um, just because you're the closest, do you want to help with this? Do you mind?
46:09
You'll have to jump up on stage.
46:11
I'll take I'll give you here. Good.
46:16
So, one of the things I've been obsessed with is is just feats of strength.
46:23
But Tim, can you mix the deck? Shuffle it up. Not very good. Let him shuffle, too.
46:30
[laughter] Might be hard, too.
46:35
And my my crew, but you agree that they're they're all shuffled.
46:38
There's no order, nothing like that. Yes. Mhm. So, Tim Mhm.
46:44
I'm going to give you a uh like a quarter of the deck. Okay. Just Yeah. Like tear it in half. Yeah. Tear it in half. Exactly. Oh, god. Here we go. Uh that's all together. So, it's one neat rip. Yeah.
47:00
Make it neat all together. Oh my god. Try it.
47:02
I'm going to mess this up.
47:05
No, but put them like uh like this flat and then Yeah. And then rip it. So, it's one unit.
47:10
Otherwise, you're ripping one card at a time.
47:13
That's the only way I can do it.
47:16
[laughter] So, it's difficult. It's difficult.
47:18
So, I'm going to teach you the technique right now. So, the idea is this.
47:20
So, see I pinch here and then and it's almost like pretty simple. See, that was very cool. But, okay. You know what?
47:40
Whi which half do you want? Uh, this one. Okay. So, take that. And now do this for me. Cut.
47:46
Pick up a bunch of cards. Put them on bottom. Yep.
47:49
And put them on the bottom. Good. And do it again. Pick up a bunch. Put them on bottom. Great.
47:54
Now, every time you do that, the top and the bottom card and the middle cards, everything is going to change. Understood?
48:03
So, every time you do it, the order changes. Yep.
48:07
This time, I want you to do it behind your back.
48:10
So, behind your back, I want you to cut the deck, complete the cut, and then keep them behind your back. Good. And they're slippery. Don't let them spill.
48:17
and take either the top piece or the bottom piece and put it in your hide it in your pocket.
48:22
Either the top or the bottom. It's up to you.
48:24
And And we don't need the rest of the big pile. Good. So, here's the idea. Can I give you these? Yes.
48:32
So, just to show you that they are shuffled.
48:34
You You did mix everything up, correct? Yes. Yes.
48:38
I'm going to have you just choose one from inside. Okay.
48:40
Actually, we'll do a few.
48:43
So, here you just just reach in and pull. Yeah. pull one or one is fine.
48:48
Now, let me just say something.
48:51
Most people would go for the obvious card like the ace of spades or even the king. You didn't do that. You shifted.
49:02
You went to a card that was not obvious. What card was it?
49:07
The n the seven of spades.
49:11
So when you chose, you had the choice and you shifted around and pulled one, but behind your back, you didn't know what you chose.
49:19
You just pulled a card without looking and hid it in your pocket. Correct?
49:26
So you have half of a card in your pocket and there's another half of a card in your hand.
49:35
You want me to take it out? Sure.
49:39
[laughter] Let everybody see. Put them together. See if they fit. [applause] David Blaine.
49:56
Everybody, [applause] if you had a a huge billboard, could put anything on it, something short.
50:08
uh meaning get a message out to the world.
50:11
What would you put on it?
50:13
I mean it's the last thing that my mother said to me is God is love.
50:18
What does that mean to you?
50:20
Well, to me it means like love is the ultimate God.
50:22
So like loving everything and everybody and not being filled with hate or animosity or fear and trying to find love.
50:29
To me that's like that's the ultimate in life.
50:34
David Blaine, you're amazing.
50:34
Guys, give it up for David Bla.
50:39
[applause] [applause] Thank you guys. [music]