David Blaine Injured On Stage Again

David Blaine injured himself on stage again at the weekend. He did so in front of an audience in Las Vegas. Is this a story worth covering? Well, that’s what’s odd about it. It was only recently that Blaine accidentally messed up a trick with painful consequences.

One Ahead wrote about how Blaine injured himself on stage, and the conclusion was something of a — meh.

And that’s what’s wild about this story. Blaine’s injuries have been a constant source of press for his twice-monthly show at Resorts World. He’s said the show is so infrequent due to how dangerous it is to perform. This is a shame because Blaine would surely drop everything and move his life to Vegas to perform twice a night if the show was less hazardous.

But it is dangerous. Whether that’s Blaine messing up a smash and stab or doing what just happened at the weekend, the show is living up to its brand of dangerous hype… see David Blaine maybe die every month.

So how is this story of value to One Ahead readers? Maybe it’s a lesson on how to lean into mistakes and embrace them. But maybe there’s something else we can take from this — something no one is talking about.

The Hard Shoulder

A friend of One Ahead, Steven Bridges, saw Blaine’s show at the weekend. In his words, “It’s not a show. It’s a man on stage who can do incredible things, doing them. You feel like he could die in the show. Best opener I’ve seen.”

And what was the opener? Blaine climbs up incredibly high and freefalls into a pile of cardboard boxes alongside the audience. It’s a significant fall; his team says it's nine stories high. Blaine’s site says the theatre is 85 feet tall in total.

Nate Staniforth, acting as a member of Blaine’s creative team, was backstage at the show when Blaine lept from the platform and landed severely, suffering a “horrific shoulder injury”.

It was immediately apparent that something was wrong.

The show was paused.

Blaine’s team began providing medical assistance at the side of the stage. But they could not put Blaine’s shoulder back into its correct place.

It was then discovered that there happened to be an orthopaedic convention in Vegas that weekend. Orthopaedic doctors specialise in joint injuries. Several doctors in the audience volunteered to assist Blaine’s team.

Blaine was moved onto the stage and laid out in full view of the waiting audience.

For about thirty minutes, five doctors treated his shoulder on full display.

The sound of his shoulder finally popping back into place could be heard throughout the theatre. You could listen to it clearly in a story video posted to social media by another of Blaine’s creative team, Doug McKenzie.

His shoulder popped out again four minutes later.

Then, instead of going to the hospital, Blaine finished the show with one good arm, which included a ten-minute underwater breath hold.

The story about Blaine’s injury and his Vegas show has since been featured on Fox News, Yahoo, Los Angeles Times, NBC, Metro, Las Vegas Review, Pop Culture, The Star, and more.

Part 2. Does Blaine Lean Into His Mistakes?

Blaine’s career is riddled with press-worthy mistakes and injuries. One Ahead’s Bella Sophia has previously written about David Blaine’s controversial career.

Does he generate these mistakes intentionally? Likely not.

But does he toe the line, taking enormous risks and capitalising on mistakes when they happen — well, it certainly looks like it.

Could Blaine have created a live show free of risk? Yes.

Was he ever going to do that? Unlikely.

Blaine’s brand is built on being the one magician willing to take such dangerous risks. That’s how he is known. That’s how the show is marketed.

There are an absolute ton of tickets still available for his next show, and there’s no doubt the press from the weekend will help shift them.

Do people want to see Blaine fail on stage? Is that what they’re paying for?

If you’ve seen Blaine’s show this year, there’s a 1 in 3 chance you saw him painfully injure himself. Do the people who saw him in pain enjoy watching?

When we covered the story about Blaine accidentally stabbing his hand earlier in this year’s run, readers' responses varied. Perhaps it was because that time he messed up a method to a trick which led to the injury. There’s unlikely a secret method behind Blaine’s opening nine-story fall method.

One reader commented at the time, in part:

It’s interesting.

Blaine’s show is listed on its ticketing site as a show for all ages.

But then it is marketed as having death-defying stunts. Does that mean people know going in that they might see Blaine “horrifically” injure himself and swear in agony for thirty minutes in front of the audience? Or their kids might see Blaine stab his hand, and drip blood onto the stage. Should there be a more prominent warning?

Maybe this is too much overthinking.

One comment on Instagram about the incident even reads:

Some are more critical, writing:

But the majority of commenters appear to love what happened. Many refer to Blaine as a “Legend.”

Maybe Blaine in pain is what the audience wants to see.

His team must believe this to be somewhat true.

Could there be another reason they decided to lay down Blaine in excruciating pain and treat him on stage in front of the audience? Is there another reason Blaine and his team posted the ordeal on social media? The fact Blaine’s stunt failed and caused agony certainly isn’t something they’ve chosen to keep secret.

Yes, it’s terrific that Blaine keeps finishing his shows after injuring himself. But that’s the sort of kudos actors get after accidentally tripping and falling backstage, not injuring themselves doing stunts they’re opting into.

Look — this whole story brings way more questions than answers. There’s just a huge disconnect that’s hard to get through. You look at all of it, and the question that comes up the most is… why?

It’s easy to imagine that the audience gets to leave with a once-in-a-lifetime story. “The night I saw Blaine, he injured himself!” Though — at this rate, “I saw Blaine, and he didn’t injure himself” might become a rarer story.

Anyways — the irony is that many walk away from mind reader Derren Brown’s live shows with a similar once-in-a-lifetime story. It’s not because Derren keeps injuring himself — it’s because he’s very good at acting like everything is happening for the first and only time.

Blaine’s opening does look incredible.

You see him fall far into cardboard boxes, inches from the audience members. Wow! Who wouldn’t have wanted to see that? Do you want to see it more or less now that you know how badly it could end?

The danger is captivating.

The idea of danger is, anyways.

Penn of Penn and Teller once discussed danger in magic as part of an on-camera interview. His transcribed words read:

Later in the clip, Penn doubles down on this notion:

Part 3. Blaine’s Mistakes As A Blueprint

There is an interesting takeaway for most magicians in the community from all this Blaine nonsense. This is the thought that you can use Blaine’s mistakes as a blueprint for your manufactured mistakes.

We’ve all, at some point, seen a magician pretend that something in their show has gone wrong. Maybe they’ve faked an injury or pretended that a method has messed up. It is almost always not at all believable.

The audience doesn’t buy it.

It’s weird.

Sometimes, a magician will reveal the trick has not gone wrong. Occasionally, they’ll use magic to fix the situation, which almost always makes the thing that went wrong feel even more fake. Anyways, we can discuss when to pretend to make a mistake in your show in another post — because when you do it correctly, it’s quite a good tool for the magician, though, it’s rarely used effectively.

So, look — imagine you want it to appear like you’ve stabbed your hand accidentally on stage in front of an audience. Imagine a script you would write. Imagine what you would do. You’re wrong.

Well, you’re probably wrong because what you’re imagining isn’t what Blaine did when he accidentally stabbed himself on stage.

First, Blaine yells, “ahhhh.”

Then he yells, “Woooohooo.”

He walks away, kicking one leg into the air.

He exclaims, “That wasn’t good.”

He turns to face the audience.

He stomps his right foot on the floor.

He exclaims, “dammit.”

He looks at his hand and stomps two more times.

Then he strides off stage left, laughing.

“That was not great,” he says next.

Blaine can do what he wants, and if he enjoys it, then have a ball, mate.

But, for the magicians who are reading this article and do not wish to inflict genuine pain upon themselves in front of their audiences. Well, maybe you can be more like Penn & Teller, with manufactured risk and the mutual understanding that it’s all just a show with no actual harm to be done.

And if you’re able to create that mutual understanding, and you want your manufactured danger to feel more genuine, study David Blaine.

Use Blaine’s mistakes as inspiration for your manufactured ones.