Is David Blaine real or fake?

David Blaine is probably one of the biggest living magicians. He became famous for his amazing street magic, performing tricks for celebrities and endurance feats. He likes to take his performances to the extreme.

But many people are wondering: does he really do all these extreme things or is it all just clever trickery? After all, he is a magician. Some of the things he does, like simple card tricks, are obviously just illusions. The main point of magic is to use clever tricks to create the appearence of something magical or paranormal happening. We know that there are rational explanations for those tricks, and you can find many explanations on our website.

What is more interesting are his performances of mentalism, where he appears to read people's minds. Is he really doing it, or are those also only tricks? Well, it depends. Sometimes, Blaine uses techniques you could genuinely call 'mind reading'. A great example of this is when he reads body language to find out what people are thinking of. A great example of this is his mind reading trick with Jimmy Fallon.

Sometimes, Blaine simply uses statistics. For example, if you ask people to think of a number between 1 and 20, most people will say 17. And this is exactly the knowledge Blaine uses in his trick with George Bush. There are many other similar statistics he uses.

But the most interesting part are his endurance feats and other crazy things he does with his body. Are those all fake, or does he really do all these insane things. Here, the answer is surprising. While he sometimes uses some trickery to make something look more impressive, most of his endurance stunts are actually real. David puts a lot of energy, work and preparation into this stunts and realy does them. It's not just an illuson. A nice example of this is holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes. Also, when he stabs a needle through his arm in the Ricky Gervais trick, the needle actually goes through his arm. The secret lies in preparation.

So, is David Blaine real or fake? You decide. Most of what he does are just really good magic tricks. But from time to time, he does something really impressive, without any trickery.