David Blaine Survives Death

Illusionist's 60-hour Dive of Death trick culminates in a two-hour ABC special

David Blaine lives to pretend to almost kill himself another day.

The 35-year-old illusionist/stuntmeister/attention-junkie has survived his latest feat of fortitude, a 44-foot "jump" after hanging 50 feet above the skating rink in New York City's Central Park, upside down, for 60 hours.

The mystery, supposedly, was whether Blaine's head would pop off, his lungs would explode or some other dastardly fate would befall him (pardon the pun) after spending all that time inverted, which in and of itself could cause breathing trouble, blindness, a stroke and a host of other organ difficulties, according to a vascular surgeon at the scene.

But not only did Blaine look pretty damn good, albeit a little bleary eyed, once he was turned upright, he evaded sharp scrutiny altogether. When it came time to "dive," he sort of fluttered down to Earth before the hoister of his harness whisked him away.

Mystifyingly into the ether, he'd have us believe.

The dishy magician was inevitably a little worse for wear after going since Monday morning without sleep, food or a proper place to pee—and, according to the host of the two-hour ABC special David Blaine: Dive of Death (what, you thought Blaine was doing this for his own amusement?), the magician's eyes started to swell shut by hour four.

"What was really quite remarkable was that his eyes, in the first hour or two, were incredibly swollen and red, and as the time went on, his eyes returned to normal," Blaine's personal physician, Dr. Ronald Ruden said upon observing how practically normal his patient looked.

"His ability to adapt is really almost superhuman."

They'd like us to think that, wouldn't they?