INTERVIEW: On his new TV show, David Blaine searches for magical encounters
Photo: David Blaine Do Not Attempt finds the magician heading around the world in search of unbelievable feats of strength and stamina. Photo courtesy of Nat Geo / Provided with permission.
David Blaine Do Not Attempt, the National Geographic series now available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu, finds the famed illusionist heading to various countries and cultures to learn about local practices and meet individuals who are able to perform unbelievable stunts. Blaine is clearly impressed with what he finds in the world, which is saying a lot because Blaine himself is seen as this generation’s most impressive magician and illusionist, someone who has pushed the limits of the art form in so many divergent directions.
“I find a lot exciting about it,” said Christopher St. John, an executive producer of the TV series. “I’m really excited because it shows David in a way that, frankly, I don’t think anybody has seen before. It really shows David’s process. It shows him as a real person, not as this man of mystery who performs incredible stunts and then disappears into the night. I think people are really reacting well to that. … We just had an amazing team who shot some beautiful shows. We’re really excited about it as an overall production, but ultimately how can you not pick something like kissing a king cobra on the head or jumping off a bridge on fire or breaking through frozen ice in the Arctic Circle. It’s just unbelievable.”
The episodes in this inaugural season took Blaine and the team to Brazil, Southeast Asia, India, the Arctic Circle, South Africa and Japan. In each locale, he participated in some death-defying activities and met some locals who have a trick or two up their sleeves. As the show’s title suggests, these acts should not be attempted at home. For example, in the Arctic Circle, Blaine dives beneath the ice and tries to punch himself out of the freezing depths of water.
“David has spent many years in front of cameras,” St. John said. “We worked on the show for three years, and we just developed a really great rapport with him. We were in the trenches. We would go out to far-flung places for 3-4 weeks at a time, really grinding, to be perfectly honest, and he and everybody we worked with really fell into a groove. And he’s a very open and generous person and truly interested in the people and the places we were visiting, which helped, and it shows through, I think.”
The size of the team that would travel with Blaine depended on the scenario being filmed. That Arctic Circle stunt required more people because of the amount of risk involved. The crew grew in size, with locals, experts, professionals and, of course, safety team members.
“Our core camera team itself was relatively small,” said the producer, who is joined on the EP team by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Blaine, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Matthew Akers, Erica Sashin and Toby Oppenheimer. “We generally always had at least two cameras going, but then depending upon the shoot, there were specialty cameras, other things. … It’s not a tiny crew, but we kept it pretty nimble so we could move around and follow leads when we got them.”
Throughout the process of filming Do Not Attempt, St. John learned some vital lessons about the seemingly endless boundaries of magic. He went into the project with one definition of what constitutes a magical feat, and he left the project with a completely different understanding.
“I have been influenced by David’s perception of magic, which is a lot broader than what the average person would describe,” he said. “They are thinking of card tricks or coins coming out of your ears, things like that, things that frankly David does a lot of in his street-magic specials, but for David what he finds most magical are things that are real — like real, true, physical acts that seem so astounding that it feels like there might be a trick. There might be a camera trick. There might be some source of oxygen under the water somewhere, but in reality, they’re real. So they transcend and become something special. In my opinion, a lot of these things are stunts in the strict sense and less magic. There is no illusion per se, but they certainly feel magical to me.”
The last two episodes — South Africa and Japan — are now streaming, and St. John finds these segments particularly incredible. He called South Africa a stunning country, and it’s here where Blaine comes face to face with a deadly snake, similar to the Southeast Asia episode. However, the centerpiece of the South Africa sequence is an act involving cars that has to be seen to be believed.
“I think it took David out of his comfort zone to another level,” the EP said. “It was just so unlike anything he’s done before, and Japan is just a beautiful episode. Japan, as everybody knows, is a gorgeous place, and he does a lot of things there. Japan’s really about mastery, about people who have spent their 10,000-plus hours becoming just incredible at one thing and how just by honing something it kind of blossoms and opens this thing up from what seems small into something larger and more impressive. One of the people we visit there is [Takeru] Kobayashi, the speed-eating champion, and you wouldn’t think that is magic by itself, but it’s a scene that unfolds and is great both because of the rapport with David and also where we go with it. … It’s pretty exciting and fun.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
David Blaine Do Not Attempt, a National Geographic series, is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Click here for more information.
