Magic tricks don’t always go perfectly, and some fall apart so completely that the audience might not even be able to tell how it was supposed to work in the first place. But for David Blaine, catastrophe almost struck when a trick involving a real gun and bullet didn’t go as planned. Blaine isn’t generally someone whose tricks don’t work as they are supposed to — even when he can’t last the entire promised amount of time frozen in ice or living in a glass cube the feat is still impressive and something not everyone can do. This time though, the result was Blaine nearly dying when he accidentally shot himself in the throat.
The way Blaine’s “bullet catching” trick is supposed to work is that a rifle fires a gun at his face and and he catches it using a metal cup placed in his mouth. Apparently, as revealed during Saturday night’s Beyond Magic special, the mouthguard broke during one attempt and the bullet (and metal cup) ended up hitting Blaine in the back of the throat. As he tells it in the special, Blaine thought he was dead.
“Time just started to move really slow. When the bullet struck the cup, there was a high-pitched ringing in my ears and I felt an impact on the back of my throat. I was sure the bullet went right through my head and that I was dead.”
As would most people if they were accidentally shot in the throat of course. But David Blaine isn’t most people and despite worry from the people around him (and promises to never help him with the trick again), he isn’t about to drop it from his act just yet. Hopefully that decision doesn’t mean another injury or worse down the road.
(via People)
