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Drowned Alive

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T Blixius

01:48 / 09.05.06

Monday night I tuned in to the thrilling melodrama that was DAVID BLAINE - Drowned Alive.

I think it was amazing that he tried - but failed - to hold his breath for 9 minutes, breaking the world record - after spending 7 days underwater, the longest any human has gone.

I enjoyed the tensions of watching him struggle to keep his breath. It was very hard to watch, but in an exciting way.
Watching him so emotional after losing was quite touching.

matthew.

01:58 / 09.05.06

It was impressive to watch him walk and wave and talk after all that. Tomorrow, every single muscle in his body is going to hurt, is going to be tense, is going to kill him.

To paraphrase Amy Poehler, "Magician David Blaine is going to try and live underwater for a week getting his food and oxygen from a tube. Next week, he's going to do some magic."

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:43 / 09.05.06

Gosh. The gitwizard failed to hold his breath for nine minutes. He is an inspiration to us all. I'm going to follow in his footsteps by failing to hold my breath for nine minutes right now.

Woo! Yeah!

Doctors sat there was liver damadge. Was he submerged in alcohol, or does long exposure to water mess up your liver somehow?

sleazenation

07:59 / 09.05.06

I'm kind of with Haus here - I don't find Blaines stunts in any way inspiring, quite the reverse, they smack of desperate attention seeking, of the child sticking a saucepan on his head in a vain attempt to impress...

Jack Denfeld

08:05 / 09.05.06

I like Blaine's stunts more than normal illusion magic like Chris Angel. Blaine's stunts seem like something I would do as a little kid. Bet I can stay in my room for 72 hours, bet I can stand on one foot for a day, betcha I can just drink soda pop for a week.

Ganesh

09:40 / 09.05.06

Inspired by Blaine, I'm off to challenge the limits of the human body by doing a really big poo. Would anyone care to watch?

sleazenation

09:50 / 09.05.06

Perhaps I could emulate him by sitting in a bath for, like, a really, really, really long time...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:00 / 09.05.06

I liked him more when he was doing the card tricks and stuff. Now his best trick seems to be vanishing up his own arse.

Although I did like that when he was in hospital after coming out of the glass box a couple of years back he told Uri Geller to stop visiting him AND to stop telling the newspapers they were really good friends.

Lama glama

16:18 / 09.05.06

Oh god, I turn into a prune if I stay in the bath for more than half an hour. Imagine what his skin must have been like afterwards.

So..

..saggy.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

16:25 / 09.05.06

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:45 / 09.05.06

I don't really see the magic here - I mean, if he'd stayed underrwater for a week and not gone all crinkly, that would have been impressive. This just tells us what we already know - that you'd have too be some sort of damp fool to stay underwater for a week.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:46 / 09.05.06

Mind you, if Marina Abramovich had done it I probably would have been all gushy. I'm a gitwizard hypocrite.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

18:35 / 09.05.06

I really like the term gitwizard.

I liked Blaine when he would do crazy close up magic on the street, card tricks beat standing on a huge pole any day.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:01 / 09.05.06

See, it's precisely this attitude that stops Blaine from doing these things in the UK...

Keep it up!

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:04 / 09.05.06

I have to say I've just watched it on the news and it is inspiring. Blaine starts to choke, two men dive in, one of them clamps a hand over his mouth but despite his condition he's able to fight them off and reach the surface.

Locust No longer

19:58 / 09.05.06

Yeah, the UK doesn't have anybody as silly

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:22 / 09.05.06

No transparent box. See?

Cherielabombe

20:47 / 09.05.06

I once took three baths in one day, but there was no camera crew and inspiring show for me..

ibis the being

22:07 / 09.05.06

Aw, you Brits are so cruel to poor David.

I watched Drowned Alive last night because in my house majority rule controls the television... I tried to ignore it and just play on the Internet but then my dog unplugged my laptop and I got sucked into the program.

Primarily I'm annoyed by the boring stunt aspect of what he does but there is a part of me that enjoys the childlike curiosity of "what will happen if I try..." like Deanfield said. At the end I got a little teared up, but I probably just had something in my eye.

Ganesh

22:31 / 09.05.06

Children do all sorts of things out of curiosity. They generally don't do it in the full glare of their own media machines, claiming it's a visceral exploration of the limits of bodily endurance. At least, that's not what my potty training was like.

ibis the being

22:57 / 09.05.06

Well then clearly you had a very underpriveleged childhood. We won't hold it against you.

Ganesh

23:05 / 09.05.06

Then again, I did get all the "what happens if I keep drinking lemonade and never go to the toilet" experiments out of my system (literally) before adulthood.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

23:08 / 09.05.06

I still do that! It's called therapy.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

23:09 / 09.05.06

Apparently.

Have I been lied to?

Spatula Clarke

23:09 / 09.05.06

This may be a silly question, but isn't 'Drowned Alive' a bit of an obvious title. Like, you'd have a job to be drowned dead, no?

Ganesh

23:10 / 09.05.06

I still do that! It's called therapy.

No, it's clearly a challenging exploration of the outer limits of bladderdom.

ONLY NICE THINGS

23:15 / 09.05.06

But surely, unless the tank had that chemical that turns your wee blue that we were all warned of but suspected was bollocks, there would be no such problem?

matthew.

00:24 / 10.05.06

Blaine is one of the best street magicians I've ever seen, if not the best. Why does he waste his talent with bullshit like this?

Triplets

02:06 / 10.05.06

Caption Contest!

Chinese archaeologists find Seventh (Terracotta) Soldier.

Phex: Dorset Doom

05:39 / 10.05.06

Eeew, what is that?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:16 / 10.05.06

'Northern chipshop causes controversy by selling pickled fingers'

uncle retrospective

08:53 / 10.05.06

It just went off in my hand officer.

Ganesh

09:15 / 10.05.06

Blaine is one of the best street magicians I've ever seen, if not the best.

He'd certainly make it into the first division of my league of the greatest street magicians of all time.

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