I found this interesting. Right after his hanging box stunt he came up with the "Dive of Death"



Here is the story from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3246287.stm
-----------------------

6 November, 2003, 10:07 GMT
Blaine plans chopper leap stunt

The US magician is already planning his next adventure, which will take place on his birthday - 4 April, 2004.

The announcement comes just weeks after he ended his enforced 44-day stay in a plastic box in London.

Blaine has not said where the helicopter plunge will take place, but added only a few had survived the jump - dubbed the "dive of death".

Speaking on CNN, he said: "If you go in (to the water) a little bit off if your body is not perfectly straight - you do not pierce the water right, you rip your ligaments off, you're paralysed, anything can go wrong," he said.

He also gave assurances that he would be doing the jump with no parachute and "no dummy either - it will actually be me".

----------------------------------
and from http://www.starswelove.com/scriptsphp/news.php?newsid=3920
----------------------------------

David Blaine's Next Stunt Will Be a Dive of Death

Tuesday, 11 Nov 2003

Illusionist David Blaine is already planning his next stunt after spending 44 days encased in a box above London's River Thames - he'll be 'diving to death' from a helicopter. Blaine came up with the idea in a bid to try and keep his mind sharp during his fast, and he reveals the death-defying leap will be terrifying. He says, "The whole time I was in that box I wrote down a whole list of what I need to do and the next thing I'm going to do is a crazy one. It has to do with a helicopter and me falling from a helicopter into a river, and it's called Dive Of Death, and it's going to be from such a tremendous height that there's only a couple of people who have lived from that height, falling into water - because when you fall at that height it's like hitting pavement. There will be no dummy. I'm going to learn how to hit water from a tremendous height, not the full height, but like 110 feet. It can be done but it can go terribly wrong, like everything I do."

From what I had heard through a few locals, Blaine began rehearsing that here in Northern California at Lake Shasta...

I can't be 100% sure of the facts as the source was from a shotty magic builder that many on here have been screwed by...

-Bryan

Well Blaines stunt was a bust, too bad.
Leo

I thought the magic on the special was ok, the final stunt when he jump I thought was pointless and stupid

Jose

And from what I can find, the press is really roasting him for it too.

For some reason .. I do think something got messed up. I'll have to watch it again .. but, I think he was suppose to completely vanish in a black out. The chopper would have removed him in the cover of darkness. Not sure what the crowd would hear and see .. but, it would have looked pretty cool on TV.

Instead .. it was pretty stupid as usual. He of course is laughing all the way to the bank.

Steve

I've seen several angles the one right and left are REALLY bad, the one from center, I can see what they were going for but yah. Seems like someone screwed the pooch on this one . . . ah well we all have our days. Just this one was on a worldwide TV situation . .

Here's some great YouTube footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7l87ktGds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7l87ktGds

And here's his new theme song:
http://hittrax.com.au/youtube.asp?ccode=......der=True

Did you know those are the same two links?

With a name like "Dive of Death", I would assume David was going to dive off the platform (head first), then swoop up like Superman and fly up into the sky. Obviously, something went very wrong. I felt cheated sitting there for two hours and watching the "spine tingling" finale - my daughter did a better performance at Circus World.

Jim

Love it or hate it, everyone around the office is talking about it today. Most aren't saying much about the 'Death Dive.' Instead I keep hearing things like "Did you see the one where she flicked the deck and her card flipped up?"

Oops. Thanks Mike,

Here's the other one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqRi4QAcJWI


Lyndel

My wife was chapped. She stayed up later than normal to see the dive of death and after said, is he coming back to do it for real? I don't think she will be speaking of it ever again, nor waiting up for his finale. What a let down after all the hyp.

I don't know why everyone is so surprised. Obviously nobody studied the stunt poster closely enough or they would have known what to expect:















;)

I bet the announcer felt like an idiot!

All the vid's are linked at MagicNewswire.com as well as several others.

The next day on the Regis and Kelly Show David Blaine mentioned the problem was the wind dealing with the balloons. He mentioned he was not suppose to go down and take as much time like he did.

Why is anyone surprised with this Guy!!

Well now he has the makings of a new TV special: "The New Improved Dive of Death"

Jim

Here is a link to the video of him on regis and kelly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGPrx8Wk-TA

cody