Street Magic and Science : a Way of Life

David Blaine is a featured guest at TEDMED, a conference uniting brilliant personalities from TED with trendsetters and influent people which will be held on October 27-30 2009 in San Diego.
David will present “Why will I talk for only 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds ?”, a speech related to one of his latest feat and guinness record that was broadcasted on Oprah’s show.

Part 1


Part 2

From a bio on the TEDMED site:
During the interview with Oprah Winfrey after coming out of the sphere, Blaine stated: “I really thought I was not going to make it.” He also claimed that he had managed it by staying in a meditative state which was helped by the stage lights reflecting off the sphere. According to Blaine, besides the pressure of performing on television, the heart-rate monitor happened to be close enough to his ear so that he heard its beeping, and he had to keep his feet locked in holds at the bottom of the sphere — instead of just floating freely, as he did in the pool on Grand Cayman months earlier. Back then he said he was so relaxed he “wasn’t even there” during most of the breath-hold. But when he emerged from the sphere today, he told Oprah, “I was pretty much here the whole time”.

For the next Magic Tuesday, I will post a David Blaine trick showing you how easy it can be done when it comes to him. I don’t think he is human ;-)

Some might argue they don’t see what is magic about his feats and I would answer : “there is nothing magic, bring it on and do it, everything else is magic !”. If you have read his biography you will perhaps understand that the point of his acts is to unite people from any background to the same conclusion : “That guy has something, whatever we may think, its crazy we are all around watching him in wonder !”.

Meanwhile, here is another TED talk from another famous magician and cardician, Lennart Green, recorded in 2005. As interesting as usual, TED does really have ideas worth spreading.