How David Blaine Held His Breath For 17 Minutes

Published on January 22nd, 2010

33 users responded in " How David Blaine Held His Breath For 17 Minutes "

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# 1 bdgbill said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:47 am

Answer: He didn’t. No human can hold its breath that long. He also didn’t live in a box in London for 45 days without food. If he had, he would have emerged looking like a concentration camp victim (if he lived at all).

Also…David Blaine and his boyfriend Chris Angel are douche bags because they have eliminated the only part of the traditional magic act that was in the least bit interesting…the smoking hot assistant babe.

# 2 pedro said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 am

Boooooring. I could only stand 2 minutes of the thing. And I think I should have bailed out sooner.

# 3 coolismo said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:31 am

Please post instructions on how to tolerate the gitwizard for more than 17 seconds with or without purging yourself,,,

# 4 Lou said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:38 am

Should have gone for 20.

# 5 jobs said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 7:10 am

I was going to bail after the first minute but with my amazing skill of fast forward I got through most of it. I’m now actually impressed with blaine’s persistences and stupidity.

# 6 jccalhoun said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:11 am

I can’t believe TED had him speak. He’s a magician. He didn’t do any of those things. They were all tricks. How could he stand up there and lie like that? There’s a grain of truth to what he was saying about trying to put the thing down his throat and stuff but he didn’t hold hid breath that long or do any of those other things.

# 7 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:19 am

OK, geniuses…where did he get a breath then?

# 8 pedro said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:23 am

#6 Which kinda speaks volumes about TED and what the agenda of their speakers is.

# 9 GlowingApple said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:38 am

#1, bdgbill

Not sure about this stunt, but when he fasted for 44 days, he did lose 25% of his body mass.

Completely agree with your second point though. Without the assistant it just isn’t a true magic act!

# 10 jobs said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:57 am

I believe he held his breath for 17 minutes, he has nothing to do. Of course if he really didn’t then give him credit for the trick he played on TED.

# 11 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 10:03 am

Oh wait, I know…Blaine was Photoshopped into that fishbowl! Or maybe it was an optical illusion…he was never in the water?

But seriously, nobody has ever tried to do what he did, so we don’t really know what’s humanly possible.

# 12 Scubasteve said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 am

#11 They have, I think it’s called drowning or something

# 13 bdgbill said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 11:50 am

@# 11 Olo Baggins of Bywater #11

Yes you’re right. David Blaine is clearly a supernatural being living amongst us.

He’s still a douchebag.

# 14 SN said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm

7. “OK, geniuses…where did he get a breath then?”

The masked magician explained the trick behind this illusion on that Fox show Magic’s Greatest Secrets Revealed. You can probably find it on youtube. It’s much easier than you’d ever imagine. I’ll give you a clue, it involves a clear air tube. Yep, the trick is damn easy.

According to Wikipedia it’s show nine from the 2009 season.

# 15 whaap said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:19 pm

#1, DITTO that.
Blaine is an Assclown illusionist and NOT a very good one at that. I don’t know about his butt buddy.

# 16 Zybch said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:37 pm

That guy really needs a cup of coffee to wake up a bit.

# 17 jccalhoun said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Allegedly they gave him a guiness record for it. However, I’m dubious. He’s a magician. He does tricks. So I don’t believe he really did it any more than he really reads people minds to figure out their card.

# 18 SN said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm

17. “Allegedly they gave him a guiness record for it…”

As I already pointed out, the Masked Magician exposed this trick on his show back in 2009. I’m shocked that anyone is still giving this guy attention.

# 19 clancys_daddy said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:57 pm

I will give him 20 bucks if he lets me put a plastic bag over his head. I however get to decide when to take it off.

# 20 xjonx said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 3:51 pm

Either he did it and the joke is on us. Or he didn’t do it and the joke is still on us. Take your pick.

# 21 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm

The Greatest Secrets vid:

That looks way too clunky for Blaine. I can’t find that Blaine’s stunt on YouTube, curious how it compares.

# 22 chuck said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:59 pm

Neat video here showing an “invisible bottle” illusion:

I can imagine using a similar method (on a larger scale) to conceal a transparent breathing tube which would let him breathe.

Blaine has succeeded in the most stunning magic trick of all: making $money while speaking in the most boring monotone imaginable.

# 23 pedro said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm

#18 The TED people seem to think he’s valuable. Great concept of what valuable is they have over there.

# 24 Ebo Boxwad said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:31 pm

Blaine is an amazing performer, that almost single-handedly brought a new style of magic to the public. Or, maybe you pine for the Doug Henning style to come back into vogue.

His record has been broken BTW.

Yes it is possible to hold your breath pretty long.

# 25 qb said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:49 pm

From TED: All things are Moleeds

# 26 totalmarketing said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 7:15 pm

He really did it.

Blaine is continuing the age-old tradition of the fakirs of India who push themselves beyond known limits, achieving a form of transcendence.

The fakir path is a spiritual path–transcendence through extremis.

This is common among yogis, tantrics and fakirs in India.

Yogis in Indai have been buried underground for weeks (and longer) at a time. They go further than Blaine and put themselves into samadhi, or a kind of suspended animation–a much more still and restful state than Blaine did in 17 minutes. No breathing at all… This level requires very advanced knowledge and a guru to teach you.

# 27 Animby said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 7:17 pm

I’ve always found watching Blaine to be a painfully boring experience.

Listening to him speak for 30 minutes? I’d rather be waterboarded.

# 28 charmingbob said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm

I think Chris Rock said it best about David Blaine:

Are we so desperate for entertainment, that we fall for a trickless magician? Saw a lady in half. Pull a rabbit out of a hat. Do something. What’s his last trick? I’m in a box and I aint going to eat. I’m in a box and I aint going to eat. That aint no trick. That’s called living in the projects.

# 29 Common_Sense said, on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:27 pm

You guys who don’t believe he did this are under the impression that this is a superhuman feat. A lot of what he does is trickery, but this is one of those things he does where he just pushes the limits.

Remember, he’s not holding his breath that long like you or I do at the pool. He’s got the record for “oxygen-assisted static apnea”, where you pump yourself full of pure O2 before-hand. There are several documented cases of people going near this mark, which he actually outlines if you suffer through his sleep-inducing speech. There is a reason that the record for NOT using that method is half as long.

It sounds impressive, but remember this. A human like Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, or Ussain Bolt are rare — but there are thousands and thousands of people every year trying to become that guy, and sooner or later you hit someone with a high VO2 max, pain tolerance, mental toughness, etc — all in one body. If that many people were trying to break this record as their life-long dream, some idiot would have gone 20 minutes by now.

I’m not taking away from what he’s done, but when you look objectively at it, this is not so hard to believe.

# 30 lens42 said, on January 23rd, 2010 at 1:03 am

IT’S A MAGIC TRICK FOR CRISSAKES! I don’t how he did, but I don’t know Penn and Teller catch bullets in their teeth either.

# 31 pedro said, on January 23rd, 2010 at 7:26 am

#25 No, thanks. I’ll never lose time with another TED video in my life.

# 32 qb said, on January 23rd, 2010 at 8:23 am

pedro, aw come on. I dare you. I double dare you. I double dog dare you.

# 33 Guilherme said, on January 26th, 2010 at 9:16 am

TED – Ideas worth spreading

Try to KILL yourself

What are these guys thinking?

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