David Blaine is the guy who entombed himself in a block of ice—the one who also stood on top of a 100-foot pillar in NYC for a day and a half. As the caption goes at the start of “Vertigo,” the television special documenting the latter feat: “Do Not Attempt to Imitate.” “Vertigo” along with “Drowned Alive” and “What is Magic?” are collected in a two-DVD set, “David Blaine: Decade of Magic.”
An illusionist whose hand is quicker than any eye, Blaine is shown taking someone’s empty can of Miller Lite and returning it in a flash, refilled and sealed. Later, Blaine shatters someone else’s wine glass without touching it. He is best known for the physical and mental discipline that has made him heir to Houdini, but where his death-defying predecessor maintained a carefully cultivated mystique, Blaine readily admits to the pain of standing on that pillar. His legs atrophied by the time he was ready to jump, he suffered a mild concussion upon landing and looked worn and haggard in the camera. Yet the rock concert audience cheered and loved it.
Blaine speaks of the Stylites, the Eastern Orthodox saints who sat on pillars to protest conditions in their society. They felt closer to God on their precarious perch while Blaine, although invoking the deity, feels closer to the people who gather below. He feels he is setting an example for overcoming fear and the accepted limitations of the human condition. In one of the only interesting comments garnered from the onlookers, a young man said: “One of the most profound things you can do in New York is stand still.” Pity that the hyperkinetic editing of “Vertigo” didn’t follow that lead and let the viewers share in Blaine’s still, silent exhilaration.
