David Blaine Dishes on His Magical Journey of Discovery in New National Geographic Series ‘Do Not Attempt’

Magic is universal and comes in many forms as David Blaine looked to showcase in grand fashion through his new docuseries, aptly titled Do Not Attempt. The six-part show premiering March 23 on National Geographic sees the world-renowned magician and endurance artist venture across the globe. He immersed himself into the unique cultural, historical and spiritual elements unearthed within these remote destinations. All told through the lens of the extraordinary performers and masters he encounters along the way.

Blaine’s adventures took him to Brazil, Southeast Asia, India, Arctic Circle, South Africa and Japan. In all, the 51-year-old stopped at 33 different airports through 11 countries across five different continents and nine countries through filming. Over the course of three calendar years, he engaged in everything from sword swallowing and surviving venomous stings to feats of athleticism, and let’s not forget, kissing king cobras. For the performer, known for death-defying stunts, the project held a deeper meeting as he stretched his own mental and physical limits as he learned and attempted tricks not seen on this scale.  

Here Blaine, who just added nine new dates of his current Las Vegas production, opens up about what he took from his travels. 

David Blaine poses with his reptile-painted face and contact lenses. (credit: National Geographic/Dana Hayes)

This was quite the ambitious series to pull off. How did the concept come about? 

David Blaine: Since I was a kid I’ve always been obsessed with people in magic that did things that were real and combined with magic. For example, Harry Houdini or Mac Norton, who was in “The Human Aquarium.” There was “The Human Fire Hydrant,” too. These were my superheroes as a kid. I would look at these surreal images of these magicians who created and would dream and imagine all these things. I started to read Houdini’s “Miracle Mongers and Their Methods” where he explores these performers. Around 2013 and 2014, I found one of these types of performers in Liberia, Africa, who was able to put almost four liters, a gallon of water in his stomach and shoot it out of his mouth, just clean clear water. It would look like he had a hose coming out of his mouth. 

So, I tracked him down and spent 10 days or so in Liberia with him and started to work on this skill. That part of the process for me I don’t usually show. I show the end result, the trick or magic part of it after you’ve worked on it enough so it doesn’t look like a struggle. Matthew Akers, who directed Real or Magic, said, “This is the stuff you need to do.” We worked on this idea of traveling the world to meet these incredible performers with these incredible skills that they put thousands of hours in so it looks as close to magic as possible and show these people, feature them, show what inspires them. It’s really me showing this awkward side of myself that I’ve been reluctant to share because it’s me screaming, laughing, failing. 

Cyril Takayama (wearing the David mask) demonstrates his fire hand trick for David Blaine. (credit: National Geographic/Dana Hayes)

Showing emotion. 

Yes, stuff I’ve always hidden. I’ve always let the audience react. I’ve done the magic and let them react. Now I’m in the audience and watching these incredible performers. I’m screaming and running away and crying from excitement, etc. 

You mention how you’ve been reluctant to show this other side. Was there any trepidation at all from those featured about participating in the project? 

Not really. The idea of highlighting them and what they do was one of the driving forces of the series. The other thing that I love about what they shared with me is when you realize what the secret is, you have more respect for what they are doing. You realize this is thousands of hours of invisible work that goes into something, so when they do it, then it looks magical. When I do it, I like learning and working through it. I think it was nice to highlight that. 

I think one thing people that were doing these things probably don’t want others to think is you can just do it or learn it. There is great risk and these things are passed down over generations. These are worked on for countless thousands of hours. The danger is mitigated because it’s a slow learning curve and they worked it out. That is why the show is called Do Not Attempt because I don’t want anybody to try these things. I don’t want people to put themselves at risk. 

There are so many great places you go. One that may be surprising to people when it comes to magic and tricks is the Arctic Circle. What went into deciding where you would go? 

We had an amazing research team at Imagine Entertainment. We had a great team of writers, directors, creators and thinkers and researchers. When the Arctic Circle was brought up to me, I was obviously excited about going there in the middle of the winter. I was thinking what are we going to do? Then someone sent me Ken Stornes, who I already watched and saw on his Instagram of him doing this death dive to an icy fjord. I reached out to him on Instagram, and he wrote back. That was the beginning. Then we found more amazing talent like these ice divers, free divers that go up to three plus feet of ice and hold their breath and find this little escape. 

It’s subzero temperatures. Watching them do what they do and seeing that side of the arctic, that underside of that beautiful lake and looking from underneath up at this ice. You can’t even describe what it looks like in words. It’s otherworldly. You forget you’re in this extreme cold and you’re not breathing. For a moment, it’s overwhelming beauty and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Then having Miro, who is one of the great freedivers. Ice divers, there are very few places you can have them. There were so many amazing teachers, coaches and safety teams around. It was one of the highlights of my entire career. 

David Blaine burns a 10,000 yen note during his bill restore trick. (credit: National Geographic/Dana Hayes)

What were some of the moments that really stood out for you? 

One was really going under the ice, which was something as a kid I always liked to endure the cold and hold my breath. So, the combination of those two things in that region was amazing. Going to Indonesia, watching the Debus performers and practitioners, but also watching Fiitz kiss a king cobra. It was overwhelming. He took something you see as danger and made it beautiful. It was like he connected to the snake I didn’t think was possible. In South Africa, it was the car spinners. I didn’t even know spinners existed. I’d been in car accidents when I was young, but watching them take a car out of control, realizing it’s not out of control, but done with extreme precision. They do these stunts out of these cars. They are almost magicians in a sense they know how to get the crowd to react and surprising you with what they are doing and working for so many hours on these skills they are coming up with and passing on. 

It’s presented as the greatest live action magic show. There are so many of these going on in the world. Watching Gan in Thailand, who is a bee bearder, who put a queen bee and covered himself with thousands of bees. Again, when you see it, you think it’s beautiful, intense, uncomfortable. When the ideas were passed back and forth, I said, “Whatever you give me, it should be something you don’t even want to say to me because it makes you uncomfortable.” I wasn’t looking for the easy, beautiful, I was using it for the beauty that was hard to find. When you go into these places you don’t get to visit or see. Discovering the beauty in those parts of the world within those people, I consider them masters to the extent I consider them magicians. 

Japan was one of my favorite destinations. How was it meeting up with [Takeru] Kobayashi?

Kobayashi I’ve been obsessed with since I first saw him do things.  You see what he does and most people think he is just winning an eating competition. Really, what he is doing is expanding his stomach to almost six liters of water he puts in under a minute. He expands his stomach. There is no pain in my stage show that I experience that is like putting water in my stomach that fast and that much. He came up with that technique of swallowing the food whole. It’s almost like he is doing Tetris with everything going inside. By doing so, he has changed the entire sport. How that relates to what I’m obsessed with is like “The Human Fire Hydrant,” who can drink kerosene and blow fire and put out the fire with the water, which nobody should do because it’s very dangerous. 

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Having someone who started this when he was young, in Japan growing up. His dad wanted him to have a chance of seeing the world and started forcing him to eat high protein meals, work out. When Kobayashi saw this eating competition on TV said, “Wait, I can do that.” He doubled the record the first time, which I think was 25 hot dogs. When he went, the first year he did 50. It was his chance to see the world and explore the world. In the series he tells me we were kindred spirits. I was emotional watching him do it. I made a beautiful revelation, which was that so many of the people in the entire series are kindred spirits. They are all working on a passion most would ask what are you doing? There is no guide book or university. You are risking everything to learn something that seems impossible. That was one of the greatest and most beautiful parts of making this series. 

How would you say this experience impacted how you do magic moving forward? 

It’s that continual feeling to keep learning, keep pushing, keep being a student. You’re always trying to learn new things. I was inspired in many ways by the people I met. All of these  stories are so incredible. They were just such amazing humans to be around. I think the inspiration is constantly being a student and never getting comfortable. 

If you did another season of this, where would you want to go? 

I don’t know. This was a lot. I don’t know if my body could handle more. 

David Blaine Do Not Attempt premiere, March 23, 9/8c, National Geographic (Next day on Disney and Hulu)

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