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Originally Posted by Stipperella
O.K. so you are saying he really isn't in that aquarium or bowl whatever its called?
Okay, I'll reveal a bit of info here because I've gotten about 20 PMs so far. So, before I continue, I'm going to warn everyone...THIS POST IS A SPOILER, SO IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW HOW SOME OF BLAINE'S TRICKS WORK, DO NOT READ FURTHER!!!!
Okay, so now that I've covered my butt, let me explain a few things about Blaine. In his first special, "Street Magic" there were virtually no illusions he performed that couldn't be found at a theme park magic shop. It was proof positive to the magic world that you didn't need talent to make it big, just a good publicist and an angle. In fact, most of the dime-store illusions he performed were not even performed well. So, this being said, many of his stunts have been published by now so there are a few of them I don't mind exposing (please don't PM me and ask "how did he do this one..." because I won't answer them. I will, however, answer how he did his stunt where he was frozen in a block of ice for 63 hours. The reason is that it might give you a bit of insight as to how he's doing his current illusion living underwater.
Another thing you have to realize about Blaine is that, unlike Copperfield, Lance Burton, Chris Angel, or any of the other great illusionists and magicians, he cannot perform any of his magic in front of a theatre full of people. The reason is that, contrary to what he claims, he never performs any of his magic in front of a real audience. If you see him on camera, you're seeing his stooges too. Nobody on camera is someone who just happened to be walking by. They are all plants...each and every one of them and in most cases, they are very carefully and strategically placed so that the cameras cannot catch key components to his trick. So this means that, yes, he uses camera tricks too...LOTS of 'em and lots of special editing. Now, I'm not for editing an illusion for TV sake completely. Years ago David Copperfield taped an illusion once called Amazon Ritual where he was suspended by a burning rope and had to escape from a straight jacket before the rope burned through and he fell do his death. The illusion on television lasted only a few minutes but they taped it at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas over several days. They filmed this illusion over and over and over and over again in front of the same audience. They filmed it with jib-arm cameras, mounted cameras, helicopters, etc. Every possible angle was filmed and the illusion was performed dozens of times. When assembled in the editing bay, it looked like it was all one shot. Now, there was no real trickery here because this was done to achieve the best looking visual effect for the TV audience. Blaine however, cannot do his illusions this way because he relies on the editing to make his magic happen unlike Copperfield who does it to make it look better.
Now that you understand this, let's move on to the ice block. First, you have to understand that it really isn't that cold in there. Living inside a block of ice actually makes it quite HOT inside, not cold. It's the same effect that Eskimos feel daily living in igloos. When you encase yourself in ice that way, it insulates and actually causes body heat to build up inside so actually Blaine was quite comfortable inside and, if anything, was more uncomfortable from the heat than the cold. So you're probably asking yourself, "If it's warm inside, why didn't the ice melt from the inside out?" Actually, it did. Before we get into that though, you have to also understand that there were a few things that happened during that illusion that you didn't see or hear about.
The most important one was Blaine's "potty breaks". I am told that they covered the ice block with sheets at least twice in the 60 hours he was inside to give him some "privacy". Of course, you, the viewing public, were never told of this. It was during this private session that he most likely conveniently slipped out through the bottom and a double was put in his place. With the thick ice, you never would have known. Hell, you could have replaced Blaine with Krusty the Clown and you'd never know the difference through all that ice. So now they have switched him with a double and Blaine is back in his trailor sipping his hot chocolate. Later on, they do this switch in a more clever way.
As I mentioned, the ice starts to melt from the inside out and it doesn't take long before the ice starts to get pretty thin. This is where the spin-doctors take control. One of his representatives goes on camera and announces that due to the higher external temperatures, the ice is melting from the outside (which is a lie because it's melting from the inside) so to preserve the stunt, they need to add even more ice to the outside in a huge hurry or the stunt will be shot and David would have risked his life for nothing. So they get these teams of people to surround the ice block and start padding it with these huge blocks of ice. With all the hubub going on, it's the perfect misdirection (one of the primary principles in magic) and another switch is done back to the real Blaine who now has quite a bit of maneuvering room insice because of all the internal melting. Of course when they go to rescue him, they do so with sledge hammers to destroy all evidence of this. So Blaine is actually only inside the block for a few hours in the beginning and a few more at the end. For the money he made doing that special, I'm sure he had no problem tolerating standing still for a while.
Now, this all being said, think about it a bit and think how he might be able to perpetrate a similar stund in a tank full of water. Just use your brains a bit and I'll bet you can figure it out...and no, I won't tell you how it's done. :)