Joe Rogan Experience #1527 - David Blaine

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (laughs) This is a…

   1. DBDavid Blaine0:00

      (laughs) This is a great collection.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      Yeah, this is, these are all from Plastisel. Look, even the sunglasses come off on Biggie.

   3. DBDavid Blaine0:07

      Wow.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:08

      Yeah. It's pretty dope.

   5. DBDavid Blaine0:10

      Yeah, it's awesome.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      We got John Wick. (laughs)

   7. DBDavid Blaine0:13

      (laughs)

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      John Wick and his pit bull. Richard Pryor.

   9. DBDavid Blaine0:15

      This is awesome.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:17

       Yeah, I got Kanye, Bruce Lee.

   11. DBDavid Blaine0:19

       (laughs) But the glasses on Biggie is amazing.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:21

       I know. Well, this guy's amazing.

   13. DBDavid Blaine0:23

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:23

       Shout-out to Fong from Plastisel. He makes some dope shit.

   15. DBDavid Blaine0:27

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       Yeah, he's amazing. (clears throat) But not as amazing as that shit you did in the green room, man.

   17. DBDavid Blaine0:32

       (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       David just did, uh, some card wizardry that, uh-

   19. DBDavid Blaine0:37

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       ... it's one thing that you see... when you see that shit on TV. You're like, "Eh, if I was there, I'd see some shit."

   21. DBDavid Blaine0:42

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       "I'd know what's going on." But when you see it in real life, you're like, "Wha- what is happening here?"

   23. DBDavid Blaine0:47

       Yeah, it's way better, like, uh, in person than

   24. NANarrator0:49

       (laughs)

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       ... well.

   26. DBDavid Blaine0:50

       Oh, yeah. Well, at the end, I don't wanna give anything away, but at the end, literally, a man is holding one of his wristss, and another guy's holding the other wrist, and he still does the card trick. And we still can't figure out what happened. (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:03

       When did you get started? How old were you?

   28. DBDavid Blaine1:05

       Um, si- uh, I was about five years old when I started playing with cards, but I didn't know what, what they w- were for, really, so I just had a deck of cards that I carried everywhere. But I liked the way it felt, you know? Just like it felt like something cool.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:20

       Mm.

   30. DBDavid Blaine1:20

       So eventually, a librarian was like, "Oh, we got this, like, magic self-working card trick book, and do you wanna learn something?" And I was like, "Yeah," (laughs) "Of course." And she shows me the mo- this, th- that silly self-working mathematical trick that's a long process to do, but it's still a cool outcome. Like, "Oh, I found your card," right?
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. DBDavid Blaine15:00

      As I go, I go to the Museum of Broadcasting 'cause there was no-

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      Mm-hmm.

   3. DBDavid Blaine15:03

      ... YouTube or whatever. So I'd look at like, these magic, you search magic, and I'd find like guys that would like, drink a gallon of water, drink a liter of kerosene. He would float all the kerosene on top of the water, and then he would spit out kerosene out of his mouth, look like a human dragon, and then put the fire out with a gallon of water. So it's that... It is magic, but it's am- it's art. It's-

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:26

      Yes.

   5. DBDavid Blaine15:26

      ... mind-blowing.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:27

      Yes.

   7. DBDavid Blaine15:27

      It's an ar- it's a performance pie- it's not like... It's incredible. Now look, there's guys that are card guys that are like that also. Like lots, lots of people I love and respect, they do the cards in a way that's like, w- but, but that act to me was what pressed a button. It was like, whoa. Like, how is he converting his body to do a trick? And there's a guy today performing called Stevie Starr who's called The Human Regurgitator, but he swallows crazy things, like... So he, he combines magic with his abilities. So he... Like, he went on Jay Leno one- yeah, I think it was Leno or Carson, one of the... He takes a, you know the little film canisters that you use to drink?

   8. JRJoe Rogan16:06

      Mm-hmm.

   9. DBDavid Blaine16:06

      Uh, so he puts, uh, a film canister, empty, right? Closes it for the... You know, you get the 35mm. And then he goes and then he swallows it. So it's in, it's... Yeah, it's gone. Uh, uh, he goes like that, it's gone. Then he would take a bunch of water, drink that, and then there'd be a cup with a goldfish in it. Drinks the cup and the goldfish. And then he'd have Jay Leno sign the cap, the, the lid thing to the thing with a piece of tape and sign it. Right? Then he'd take that and go, now everything is gone. Then he does these weird sounds and movements, which is part of his show, right? And then he brings it up, spits it out, and (laughs) the film canister is sealed and in it is the water and the fish, and it's sealed with the signature. So to me that's like the coolest magic 'cause you're take... Because when you see a trick, you know like, oh, that's cool, but it's a trick. So it's like you're being removed from being able to like, absorb. But when you see something where somebody's doing something crazy and it seems like a trick, but it's also like, wait, this is real because he's really doing this. It- it's just way more exciting, you know?

   10. JRJoe Rogan17:14

       I understand.

   11. DBDavid Blaine17:15

       (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan17:15

       I, I understand. It's just, do you know how he did that one? Obviously you don't tell-

   13. DBDavid Blaine17:20

       Yeah, yeah. I talk to-

   14. JRJoe Rogan17:21

       Okay.

   15. DBDavid Blaine17:21

       Yeah, I talk to him all the time. Yeah. I love Stevie, Stevie Starr.

   16. JRJoe Rogan17:24

       You know how it, it was done, but you can't reveal that, right?

   17. DBDavid Blaine17:27

       Yeah, he... And, and, okay, there's another guy, Tom Mollica, who h- he passed away and he was this guy. He's the first magician I ever saw, he did a simple card trick and I was crying. I was like, in tears. I was like, "Oh my God." But he, and he passed away and I filmed that. And, and he's, uh, I'm gonna do a really amazing piece about him 'cause he is incredible. But he also was on like, uh, Johnny Carson shows. What he would do-... is he would take a pack of cigarettes, throw them into his mouth one at a time, light them on fire-

   18. JRJoe Rogan17:58

       (laughs) .

   19. DBDavid Blaine17:58

       ... bring them back out, and then throw them into his mouth one at a time, eat all the cigare-

   20. JRJoe Rogan18:04

       There he is.

   21. DBDavid Blaine18:05

       Yes. (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan18:05

       There he is.

   23. DBDavid Blaine18:05

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan18:05

       So, he lights the cigarettes-

   25. DBDavid Blaine18:06

       And watch, he eats the cigarettes. Wow, that's great, how fast they pulled that up.

   26. JRJoe Rogan18:11

       It's not they, it's young Jamie.

   27. DBDavid Blaine18:12

       Oh, it was you?

   28. JRJoe Rogan18:12

       He's a wizard.

   29. DBDavid Blaine18:13

       Yeah. (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan18:14

       He's a wizard of his-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   I don't know how…

   1. DBDavid Blaine30:00

      Y- I hit sevens in between each number, which you can.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:02

      I don't know how craps work.

   3. DBDavid Blaine30:03

      So you have to roll, like, a five, let's say. And then I'm like, "Oh, no. I need to roll another five," which i- i- is statistically much more difficult than a seven, 'cause seven's the most common number to come up. So if you roll a five, you're like, "Uh-oh, that's hard," 'cause you can only get a two-three or three-two on both dice, or a one-four or a four-one. So you have a four out of 36, so it's a one and nine. So you're probably gonna crap out before you get the number. That's why the game is to their favor. So I'm throwing the dice, and it's two and a half hours later, and they stop everything. And they're like, "Your fire bet just hit." Right? (laughs) And the table goes, "What does that mean?" They go, "Well, you all just won, like, 10 grand each." And they all go, "Ha!" Like, everybody's going... They gave me the taste for it. Everybody's going nuts, and we hit the fire bet, which they've now removed from the pals, by the way. But it was, it was a pretty unheard of... Like, the odds of hitting that bet is pretty rare.

   4. JRJoe Rogan31:05

      But it's just luck?

   5. DBDavid Blaine31:07

      Nobody should hit that bet. I mean, statistically, it's unlikely, and I wasn't cheating. So yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan31:15

      So do they... But d- d- the question is-

   7. DBDavid Blaine31:18

      I'm luck... For some reason-

   8. JRJoe Rogan31:20

      ... dice?

   9. DBDavid Blaine31:20

      ... I'm li- I'm lucky with dice.

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       Right.

   11. DBDavid Blaine31:22

       But I'm not... I... But I can tell you I would be if I was great with dice. I'd tell you I was great with dice. By the way, I actually have a die on me for-

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:29

       Why do you walk around with a die on you?

   13. DBDavid Blaine31:30

       I didn't even hear the story for this reason, but I do have a die on me.

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:34

       Do, do you have you practiced with dice?

   15. DBDavid Blaine31:36

       Um, no. Yes, but I'm terrible at it. So, or do I... Did I... Oh, I do have a die.

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:40

       But it does make sense that-

   17. DBDavid Blaine31:42

       Wait, wait. If you look at what that is, that that's a physical thing, and then if you develop a touch, you develop a feel. You do something over and over and over again. Well, this is different, but here, look. Take the die.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:54

       Okay.

   19. DBDavid Blaine31:54

       And, and, uh, can you, like, uh, put it between your hand or whatever.

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:59

       Okay.

   21. DBDavid Blaine31:59

       Like a... And can you mix it like that?

   22. JRJoe Rogan32:02

       Uh-huh.

   23. DBDavid Blaine32:02

       And then squeeze it when you're done? Or, but no, keep it hidden, but put it on the table, but make sure you can't see it and I can't see it. So-

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:08

       Okay.

   25. DBDavid Blaine32:08

       ... you agree, like, no one could see that, right?

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:10

       No one could see it. No one could see it.

   27. DBDavid Blaine32:11

       Are you sure?

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:11

       100%.

   29. DBDavid Blaine32:12

       Do you wanna do it again? Try it again.

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:13

       No.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (laughs) …

   1. DBDavid Blaine45:00

      th- and you wouldn't, you would never anticipate this being the hard part. But if you're not used to, like, peeing while standing in front of lots of people staring at you-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      (laughs)

   3. DBDavid Blaine45:10

      ... it's actually really hard. So, so I'd be buried alive and I had the trucker's tube on and all that stuff, which is like a column with a catheter or whatever.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:16

      Uh-huh.

   5. DBDavid Blaine45:17

      And, um, and people are there the whole time. Like, it suddenly became, like, an event. And so there was never, like ... And I was, they were like, "Oh, we'll cover it so no one can see you." I'm like, "No, then people are gonna think I'm sneaking in and out." So I had to learn ... So I would close my eyes, like when you were a kid sleeping and you'd have those dreams. I'd imagine myself

   6. NANarrator45:35

      (laughs)

   7. DBDavid Blaine45:36

      And it would take me hours, and I'd finally be able to pee, right? But th- And by the way, I didn't eat for a few weeks before, so I had no food, so that was, the other wasn't an issue. But, um, what happened by midway through the stunt, peo- I'd be waving and smiling and (laughs) like peeing, like the-

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:52

      (laughs)

   9. DBDavid Blaine45:52

      And it was like nothing, you know? But these are things that you don't consider when you're practicing in your-

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:57

       Right.

   11. DBDavid Blaine45:57

       ... coffin in your house.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       So you d- you didn't eat for how long? Two weeks beforehand?

   13. DBDavid Blaine46:01

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:01

       Yeah.

   15. DBDavid Blaine46:02

       But I, I was always into fasting. I read Siddhartha as a kid, and I had done, like, uh, a week with just water and, you know, knew all that, knew the body's really good with that.

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       So you were comfortable with the fact that you were able to fast and that that wouldn't be an issue.

   17. DBDavid Blaine46:17

       Yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:18

       And you were comfortable with the fact that you were getting air.

   19. DBDavid Blaine46:20

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:20

       And where are you drinking water from? How are you getting water?

   21. DBDavid Blaine46:22

       Uh, I had, like, a little bit of water in there that I could suck through a thing (slurps) like that, and that was fine. It was like, it was enough.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:29

       How much water do you think you drank over the week that you were in there?

   23. DBDavid Blaine46:32

       Uh, I, I don't know. They always say it was, like, just a little bit, but it was a good amount. It was like, uh, I don't know, probably, probably three liters a day or something. I don't care.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:43

       Oh, okay.

   25. DBDavid Blaine46:44

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:44

       So it's real water.

   27. DBDavid Blaine46:44

       Yeah, they say you did tablespoons will work, but no, it was, it was, it was like a normal amount.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:49

       So was the real-

   29. DBDavid Blaine46:50

       And then by the way, I did 44 days with nothing but water, and I did nothing but pure H2O, so it's not even like it had minerals in it. And body was full recovery. And my starvation expert, who's like one of the top guys in the world in London, my doctor at the end thought that I was cheating-

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:05

       So you're using distilled water?
5. 1:00:00 – 1:07:30

   Yeah. …

   1. DBDavid Blaine1:00:00

      out. You can't just go do it. It's a, you'll, you, you can't hope for lu-" And that was the first one ever, and last one, that I was like, "Okay, let me just hope that I can do this." As soon as I went upside down, remember I said you could never prepare for certain things?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:13

      Yeah.

   3. DBDavid Blaine1:00:13

      I had that catheter hooked up, and the first time I peed it just went upside down all over me, so this way. And I was like, "I'm done." So the whole stunt went down hill from there. That was, like, (laughs) that was a great learning lesson 'cause I learned you never just dial it in. You have to-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:27

      Did you make it through that one?

   5. DBDavid Blaine1:00:29

      N- yes, but it was terrible. It was a garbage stunt. You know, so, but you were asking me, like, what things, so, so that was one that was like, "Ugh."

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:36

      You, you were-

   7. DBDavid Blaine1:00:36

      But all of the others, th- they were amazing. The team, the working with the best people, all of it. And this one is the most amazing. Like, I have a team that's m-

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:46

      The one you's doing right now?

   9. DBDavid Blaine1:00:48

      I have the most amazing ... I've never been able to ha- have a team like this, ever.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:52

       This is the balloon one?

   11. DBDavid Blaine1:00:53

       Yes.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:54

       Okay, explain this.

   13. DBDavid Blaine1:00:55

       Okay, so I went to YouTube with a crazy idea. Who, by the way, this is YouTube and they've been a blessing beyond, beyond. So I'm like, "Okay, here's what I wanna do." Like, "I wanna f- grab a bunch of balloons and go floating up into the sky and disappear." Like, "Okay, great. (laughs) Okay, sure." Right? But, so now I needed to ascen- This is all hypothetical. I'm not, like, a skydiver, like, that has 1,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 jumps. I'm not a balloon pilot. I have no experience in any of this stuff. I just know that I wanna do this and I've wanted to do it forever. But I, I had drawings of it made 15 years ago. But-... now you have to get for real. So there is a guy that flies balloons and there's a guy like Lawnchair Larry that went up on balloons with, like, a lawn chair and a bunch of beer. That was his ballast. And he, like, popped balloons with a gun. Y- so y- there are examples. So it's not, like, a complete hypothetical. This one has, like, okay, so what if I could take the balloons, that idea, and just have the innocent image of a kid, like we all dream of, just holding the balloons and drifting up and into the sky? Here, I'll show you a picture of it. (laughs) What's that- what's that one from?

   14. Uh, from their website.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:02:04

       From whose website is that, Jamie?

   16. DBDavid Blaine1:02:06

       Balloon... the balloon company. Balloon Company.

   17. Right. So that's- that's my balloons.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02:11

       Is that you up there?

   19. DBDavid Blaine1:02:13

       Yeah. We... Yeah. We did, um, we did short flights, not big in public. We kept it small.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:02:18

       Can I show these to Jamie?

   21. DBDavid Blaine1:02:20

       Uh... (sighs) .

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:02:21

       No?

   23. DBDavid Blaine1:02:22

       I don't know. I... Well, it's... Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:25

       To him and then-

   25. DBDavid Blaine1:02:25

       I can show one.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:02:26

       ... he'll show... Can you show other people?

   27. DBDavid Blaine1:02:28

       Uh, well, I feel like... I'm not sure.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:28

       No? All right, then don't.

   29. DBDavid Blaine1:02:29

       Wait, that's my balloons.

   30. Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:21:51