[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Do Not Attempt.]

Summary

In the National Geographic docuseries ‘David Blaine Do Not Attempt,’ David Blaine showcases incredible individuals around the globe who perform feats that can only be considered magic.

The series explores the intersection of reality and illusion through unique skills that take a lifetime to perfect.

Blaine shares the journey of learning and pushing limits with cultural inspirations.

The six-part National Geographic series David Blaine Do Not Attempt, available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu, follows world-renowned magician and endurance artist David Blaine as he travels the world in search of extraordinary people who push boundaries beyond what seems possible and into the realm of the incredible. From mind-blowing card tricks to extraordinary illusions, Blaine has turned an inspiration sparked by the work of Harry Houdini into feats that require a level of physical and mental strength that seems impossible. His curiosity and respect for those around the globe that draw from their own culture and heritage to reshape how we perceive magic led him to Brazil, Southeast Asia, India, the Arctic Circle, South Africa and Japan as he sought out and learned from kindred spirits that each push their own limits in a variety of sometimes death-defying ways.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Blaine talked about his desire to explore the boundaries of what magic can be, the focus and skill it takes to pull off the seemingly impossible, making use of what’s available and turning it into something extraordinary, the fascinating story of Kobayashi, handling dangerous and deadly snakes, considering the risks involved with anything he decides to attempt, and the one thing he decided not to do.
David Blaine Travels the World to Uncover Magic for ‘Do Not Attempt’

“Obviously, these things are very, very dangerous and should not be reproduced, hence the title.”

Collider: I love that this series is a mixture of you, National Geographic, and people doing extraordinary things all over the world. At the same time, no TV series just comes together immediately out of nowhere, so how did this come about? Was this something you’d been thinking about for a while?
DAVID BLAINE: It actually began subconsciously, early on. I was always intrigued by these performers, like Harry Houdini, who had these incredible skills. They performed on vaudevillian circuits doing things that were death-defying and real, and that were based on physical endurance or just stretching human capabilities. So, I became obsessed with the superheroes of my time, which were actual people like Harry Houdini, or Mac Norton, The Human Aquarium, the human fire hydrant, the magicians that could catch bullets. All these different performers became my fantastical world and I started to think about what can really be done. It started with holding my breath and then trying to endure the cold. And then, as I started to become even more of a student of the history of magic, Ricky Jay wrote a book, called Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, and he featured all these amazing characters that existed throughout history in magic or in the vaudevillian circuit. He met with many of them because he was co-billing with them, so he would see them do these feats and he would write about them. He’d say, “Oh, this is real. This is how this one did it. This is how she endured this amount of fire.”
That opened my thinking into, “Whoa, this is incredible.” Around the same time, I saw magician that ate a thread and pulled it out of his stomach, and all the magicians freaked out and left it at that. But I was like, “You have to show me how you did that. Can you show me, please?” And he showed me. That was the beginning of the India episode, which is very difficult to watch because there are a lot of scary things in there. It was about the idea of taking real things and combining them with magic. My favorite one was the guy who would drink a gallon of water and then shoot it out of his mouth like he had a hose in his mouth and he would use it to put out a fire that he started with the kerosene that he had drank. Obviously, these things are very, very dangerous and should not be reproduced, hence the title, Do Not Attempt.
Matthew Akers, who directed Real or Magic, had done a Marina Abramovic documentary and he was very into the whole idea of performance art and what we’re capable of. He was like, “This is the stuff you have to show.” And I was like, “No, it’s very awkward. I’m uncomfortable showing this stuff.” And he was like, “No, this has to be a series.” That was the beginning of the idea of searching the world for these incredible people with these incredible skills and these fantastical stories and then trying to learn in real time with a fast learning curve, a small dose of what they’re doing. That was the journey of Do Not Attempt, which has been three years in the making.

Related

David Blaine Risks It All In Jaw-Dropping ‘Do Not Attempt’ Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

The series premieres on March 23.

You’re essentially challenging the way that we think about what magic is and what it can be.
BLAINE: I wanted to highlight these people that have these abilities that would be studied by Harry Houdini or other magicians and that would be written about by Ricky Jay, but that weren’t using it to perform magic tricks, per se. Kobayashi was using it so he could win eating competitions around the world. It began with him learning how to put six liters of water in his stomach within a minute, just to stretch his stomach out so he could then store hot dogs. He wouldn’t chew. He would just swallow the hot dogs and put them all in his stomach. When I saw him first do it, I was obsessed with him. But then, going to meet him, it became much deeper. It was emotional. I was moved by his story and what led him to do this. His dad wanted him to see the world and to be able to explore the world. His dad, when he was really young, would force him to eat lots of protein. It was to the point that, when Kobayashi actually saw the Nathan’s Hot Dog competition on TV, the record was 25 and he was like, “Wait, I can do that?” He went there with no knowledge and no experience, and he doubled it. He did 50 hot dogs in his first competition and changed the whole sport.
It’s those techniques that I look at. Mac Norton, The Human Aquarium, was able to put, not as much as Kobayashi, but four liters of water, making his stomach an aquarium. He wouldn’t eat for days. He would get rid of all the acid by using baking soda or at least take it down significantly. And then, he would put frogs and fish in his stomach and then produce them at will. To me, that was the coolest magic trick, ever. I didn’t even know if anybody could really stretch their something out to that capacity, but slowly I realized, “Oh, wait, it is possible.” And then, seeing Winston do it in Liberia was like, “Oh, wait, you can even make the water come up like a hose?” I started learning it immediately. Part of this series is also based on the idea that if something is done by one, it can be done by others. It’s been a dream come true to do this series. It’s been beyond anything that I could have ever imagined or expected.
Some people dream of puppies and kittens. You dream of setting yourself on fire and jumping off a bridge into the water. When do you know that something is more than just a thought or an idea and that it’s something you have to do?
BLAINE: Sometimes it starts with just a simple idea. It starts to evolve and it changes, and then I become obsessed with it and I’m like, “I really want to do this.” And then, other times, it’s something I never even thought could be done. When I was with Fitz in Indonesia, he’s a snake performer and he rescues the snakes as well. Watching him dance with the snake was one thing. But then, when he kissed the king cobra, it suddenly became beautiful. Yes, magicians have worked with fear and animals forever to show their ability to overcome, but he’s working with them to show that we can coexist and that we don’t need to wipe out everything that’s around us. Lots of the people we met have that same passion behind what they’re doing. They do these apparently crazy things that seem impossible or extremely dangerous because their drive and their message is so important to them. That’s been beautiful.
‘Do Not Attempt’ Led David Blaine to Find Meaning and Magic in the Unlikeliest of Places

“It was beyond my wildest dreams.”

Image via Nat Geo

When you finally do something that you’ve thought about doing for a long time and you actually accomplish it, can you take a moment to appreciate it, or are you always thinking about the next thing?
BLAINE: As a team, we’re all in it together. When we pull something off, lots of the producers and the people that were around are emotionally moved. We all bonded over this exploration and all these amazing people and incredible places in the world that normally we wouldn’t get access to. You wouldn’t think that you’re going to find the most beautiful site of all time under three feet of ice in the Arctic Circle. When you see it, it’s the same thing that happens when you’re there. You forget the cold. You forget that you’re in this extreme environment because it’s so overwhelming and beautiful that you’re suddenly just living in that specific moment. It was beyond my wildest dreams.

Related

David Blaine Talks DAVID BLAINE: REAL OR MAGIC, Applying Technology to Perform Simple Tricks, Feats of Physical Endurance, and More

David Blaine Talks DAVID BLAINE: REAL OR MAGIC, Applying Technology to Perform Simple Tricks, Feats of Physical Endurance, and More

One of the things that I found most interesting about this is that you really get a sense of how culture, landscape, the environment, and the elements all play a role in magic that an individual can spend a lifetime devoting themselves to. And each of these individuals really do things so specific to who they are and where they are. Was that more impactful than you had even thought, as far as the collective experience of that?
BLAINE: What’s amazing about it is they’ve used what they have readily available to them and they’ve turned that into their art. They’ve turned that into their passion. They’ve taken their dreams in those environments that exist around them and have made them into realities, whether it’s jumping from the height of the Brooklyn Bridge into an icy fjord in subzero Arctic temperatures and doing the highest dive of all time. I’ve seen a trick called the Human Blockhead that some magicians have done, where you hammer nails, and I’ve done it myself, but I never would have assumed you could push a serrated steak knife into your nose. Their secrets were passed down or shared or developed over many, many countless thousands of hours. I trusted the people that were leading me through it all.
David Blaine Chose to Get Up Close and Personal With a Dangerous Snake for ‘Do Not Attempt’

“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.”

Image via Nat Geo

While you’re sticking a knife in your nose and you’re saying, “I know I’ll regret it if I don’t at least give it a try,” are there times that you regret it, or do you even see the mistakes or the things that go wrong as learning experiences to do the next thing or to get it right the next time?
BLAINE: All of that was the best part of it, breaking the comfort zone. We had such a fast learning curve. Normally, I’ll work on something for a few years. If I’m going to try to go for 44 days living on just water, I start by building up. I do a week. And then, I do two weeks. And then, I get to the halfway point and say, “Okay, I think I can do double this.” But I watched these masters. I observed, I listened, and then I made a decision about whether I thought I could pull it off safely. That was the process. We also had an incredible safety team. I entrusted everything with the performers or the experts that I was learning from. We pulled it off. And there were a few things I didn’t try. In India, they pull their eyeballs out of their head using a dulled rapier. They’ve developed that and passed it down as part of their religious beliefs. They’re able to do these crazy things where they defy the flesh to show that the spirit is greater. But when I called my optometrist and I said, “Do you think I can do this?,” and I showed him a picture of them pulling their eyes out. He said, “No, they’ve done that for a long time, slowly, and they’re able to do it. If you do it now, you’ll degenerate your vision for sure.” So, I didn’t even try it.
If there was anything where I felt like the risk was too great, I did not do that, other than with the black mambas. I sat in a little room with six black mambas that were rescued and that were wild. I was with a man in South Africa who had lost a leg from a snake-related injury and he was bitten by a snake two times where went into a coma. He meditates every day and he sits with these black mambas, or forest cobras, to show the people in the local communities that if you see a black mamba and it’s in your house or your school, which happens often, if you attack it, it’s going to attack you back, and if you try to kill it, it’s either you or the mamba will be severely, gravely injured. It’s best to just remain calm. And to prove his point, he sits with six black mambas. It took me a few days and it was probably the scariest thing that I’ve ever done in my life, but I trusted and I did exactly what I was told. I didn’t react. I sat as still and calmly as possible, and we pulled it off. But that was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

Do Not Attempt is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+. Check out the trailer: