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Joe Rogan Experience #2056 - David Blaine

David Blaine is an illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer. His new residency, "Impossible," is scheduled to begin at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on New Years Eve weekend.  www.davidblaine.com

Joe RoganhostDavid BlaineguestMike TysonguestAndrew Frostguest
Jun 27, 20242h 24mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 1:08

    Blaine’s new NatGeo series and why it’s his most dangerous project yet

    1. NA

      (drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. NA

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. NA

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays)

    4. JR

      Hello, David. (laughs)

    5. DB

      How are you, Joe?

    6. JR

      What's happening? Good to see you.

    7. DB

      Good to see you.

    8. JR

      How you been? Good to see you're still alive.

    9. DB

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      You're not full of visible holes.

    11. DB

      Dot com forward.

    12. JR

      (laughs)

    13. DB

      (laughs)

    14. JR

      What have you been up to, man?

    15. DB

      Um, spending a lot of time with my daughter, uh, number one. And then number two, I've been working on this series for National Geographic. So, I've been traveling around the world searching for these people that do incredible feats that they've passed down through generations. And I'm trying to learn, but it's a qu- fast learning curve. So, it is the most dangerous thing that I've ever done in my life, but I have the best of the best helping, so...

    16. JR

      That says a lot, 'cause you've done-

    17. DB

      By far the most-

    18. JR

      Really?

    19. DB

      Yes. (laughs)

    20. JR

      Whoa.

    21. DB

      Uh-

    22. JR

      Well, you showed me some things off-camera that we can't talk about, but...

    23. DB

      Well, you can talk about them, I just can't show them, okay?

    24. JR

      (laughs) Okay. Well, um...

  2. 1:08 – 6:04

    Kissing a wild king cobra: training, behavior, and what happens if you’re bitten

    1. DB

      So, the scariest thing was, like, three days ago. I, I kissed-

    2. JR

      A cobra?

    3. DB

      A king cobra.

    4. JR

      Yeah. I saw it.

    5. DB

      In the wild.

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. DB

      (laughs)

    8. JR

      What is, is there a trick to that? Does their, um, uh... Is it a movement thing? Do you move slowly so you don't...

    9. DB

      I studied for weeks and just tried to understand their behavior and worked with different cobras and, and was... I had a team around me that, that taught me how to move quickly and get out of the way.

    10. JR

      What happens if you get bit?

    11. DB

      Well, they have enough venom to kill a full-grown elephant in 30 minutes, so... We had antivenom-

    12. JR

      Is there anti-venom?

    13. DB

      We had that there, but-

    14. JR

      But still.

    15. DB

      ... in my case, I don't trust that.

    16. JR

      And even if you get anti-venom, it's still a rough ride, even if you live.

    17. DB

      Yeah. (laughs)

    18. JR

      Right?

    19. DB

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      Is it similar to-

    21. DB

      But it was amazing. It was incredible. Like-

    22. JR

      Is it similar to rattlesnake venom? 'Cause rattlesnake venom essentially is like-

    23. DB

      It's a neuro... Yeah, I mean, it's, it's-

    24. JR

      ... digests your body.

    25. DB

      Well, this, this one, uh, shuts everything down. So, your heart, your lungs, everything just start to...

    26. JR

      So, were they, like, ready s- on standby with a needle?

    27. DB

      Well, they don't... They put it in a serum. You have to go to a hospital.

    28. JR

      Oh, you gotta go to a hospital?

    29. DB

      We had an... Yeah.

    30. JR

      So, you have to travel?

  3. 6:04 – 8:49

    Vegas stunt injury: dislocated shoulder, performing anyway, and fear of surgery

    1. DB

      And I feel like in my, I did it in my show in Vegas. I was jumping from, uh, like, the height of a nine-story building, landing in boxes, and I dislocated my shoulder. It came down to my armpit.

    2. JR

      (sucks teeth)

    3. DB

      Eh, but in retrospect, I think I was lucky because that could've been really bad. It could've been the neck. It could've been something else.

    4. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    5. DB

      So.

    6. JR

      Did you get surgery?

    7. DB

      No, I didn't get the surgery.

    8. JR

      What'd they do? Just pop it back in place?

    9. DB

      There was an orthopedic surgeon's convention in Vegas at that time, so I had five orthopedic surgeons in the offi- in the audience, and one was a shoulder specialist, and he, they all came on stage, and they, and he popped it right back in.

    10. JR

      (laughs) .

    11. DB

      So then I walked out to do the show, Joe, with, but, but I, that, my arm was all numb. It stayed numb for, like, two months, but I was going like this to get, like, to see if I could get feeling back, and it fell back out.

    12. JR

      Oh, God.

    13. DB

      So I had to go back onstage. They popped it back in, and then I did the whole show with one arm.

    14. JR

      (exhales)

    15. DB

      (laughs) Yeah, that's it. Yeah. That's the bad one. I think that's when I got injured.

    16. JR

      Oh.

    17. DB

      Yeah. And my friend Doug, who's with the hat right there, he, when I jumped, he knew that something was gonna go wrong. He bent over and took a heavy breath 'cause he knew that was the one. (exhales)

    18. JR

      There's a, a gentleman named Jiri Prochazka. He's, was the UFC light heavyweight champion, and his shoulder dislocated during training, and his trainers tried to pop it back into place, and they were yanking on it, and they just destroyed his shoulder. They tore everything apart just kind of pulling on it, and it ripped apart. They, the UFC doctor said it was the worst shoulder injury that he'd ever seen.

    19. DB

      That's crazy.

    20. JR

      And he's fighting again next weekend.

    21. DB

      (laughs)

    22. JR

      Got it repaired.

    23. DB

      He got surgery?

    24. JR

      Yep, got surgery. Vacated his title, and now he's back fighting for the title next weekend.

    25. DB

      Hmm. Yeah, mine is still messed up.

    26. JR

      Really?

    27. DB

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      Like, in what way?

    29. DB

      Well, I haven't, I can't really work out or do anything the same way.

    30. JR

      How long ago?

  4. 8:49 – 12:41

    Stem cells, inflammation, and why diet changes pain and recovery

    1. JR

      Have you ever gotten stem cells?

    2. DB

      No.

    3. JR

      You should get stem cell therapy on it. It could help a lot. I avoided surgery completely with stem cells.

    4. DB

      Really?

    5. JR

      Yeah, I had a full-length rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder. It went away. The doctor said it was extraordinary. He went to look at it six months later, and the, the tear was completely gone. He said, "This is insane." And this is just-

    6. DB

      Wow.

    7. JR

      Yeah, they can do wild stuff.

    8. DB

      How did you rip your rotator cuff?

    9. JR

      Training. Just jujitsu.

    10. DB

      Like, too hard?

    11. JR

      I don't know.

    12. DB

      But it was a slow, or it was a one-time you ripped it?

    13. JR

      Uh, it was, you know, jujitsu's, it's very addictive, and a lot of times, you get injured, and you're like, "Ah, I still can roll. I'm gonna go back in."

    14. DB

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      And then you go back in with, like, fucked-up disks and a tweaked knee and a fucked-up shoulder, and I know a lot of guys that have some pretty significant injuries, and they just can't stop training. They just enjoy it so much.

    16. DB

      Right, right.

    17. JR

      Um, y- stem cells could help you a lot, specifically if you go out of the country because they can do some wild shit that they can't do in America because of the FDA. I have some good friends that run a clinic in Tijuana. It's called, uh, CPI, and a bunch of my friends have gone down there, a bunch of UFC fighters. It could help you a lot.

    18. DB

      I'd be so afraid, though.

    19. JR

      Why?

    20. DB

      I don't know. (laughs)

    21. JR

      Why are you talking about being afraid of that?

    22. DB

      I don't know.

    23. JR

      That's ridiculous.

    24. DB

      Maybe 'cause when I was young and my mother was sick, and you know, that, that whole thing maybe.

    25. JR

      Hmm. Well, this, this is, uh... What they can do with modern stem cells is pretty extraordinary.

    26. DB

      Hm.

    27. JR

      But unfortunately, the United States is very limited in what you can get away with here.

    28. DB

      Right.

    29. JR

      Yeah. They, they're constantly putting restrictions on it, unfortunately, for no reason, you know.

    30. DB

      Hm.

  5. 12:41 – 33:19

    Ice endurance and hallucinations: 63 hours standing in ice

    1. JR

      Yeah, some crazy things. But all for entertainment and not... I mean, it's interesting 'cause it's, it is entertainment, but it's also entertainment in sort of educating people the, the boundaries of what the mind can force the body to do. You know, like the one where you did where you're frozen in ice?

    2. DB

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      Like, that's basically just you-

    4. DB

      Standing.

    5. JR

      ... standing, and using breathing techniques-

    6. DB

      (laughs)

    7. JR

      ... and your mind to, to deal with that situation. How long was that for?

    8. DB

      I think 63 hours.

    9. JR

      Yeah. That's a long time.

    10. DB

      But my brain tweaked at 55 hours.

    11. JR

      Yeah?

    12. DB

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      Were you... Well, you probably weren't sleeping, right?

    14. DB

      No, you can't.

    15. JR

      Right, so there, probably a lot of the brain tweaking is just from that.

    16. DB

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      Wouldn't you imagine?

    18. DB

      I, I think that plus the extreme conditions.

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. DB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      E- extreme cold and lack of sleep, and you're standing up.

    22. DB

      Standing, and I had edema. My ankles blown up.

    23. JR

      Oh, I could imagine.

    24. DB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      Yeah. How long did it take you to recover from that?

    26. DB

      Uh, a while. Yeah.

    27. JR

      (laughs)

    28. DB

      I'm like, I couldn't even walk for a while. (laughs)

    29. JR

      (laughs) Oh, David. (laughs)

    30. DB

      And I was lucky 'cause it was a 68-degree November, so the air pumping through was 68 degrees. So, it created that drip that was awful from the ice, but that, that helped significantly, I think.

  6. 33:19 – 37:32

    Breath-holding records and the physiology of shutting the body down

    1. DB

      So when I'm holding my breath, everybody thinks, like, I have tubes or something. (laughs)

    2. JR

      Right. Right, right, right. What did you do when you held your breath? Like, how long did you hold it for? It was something insane. Like, I wanna say, like-

    3. DB

      My actual-

    4. JR

      ... 13 minutes or something like that?

    5. DB

      I did 17:04 on Op-

    6. JR

      Seven?

    7. DB

      ... on Oprah. But my actual record with doctors and pulmonary experts and all that was 20 minutes and two seconds, breathing pure O2. And my heart rate dropped to eight beats per minute. So they pulled me up because they thought I was gonna go into cardiac arrest. And I actually ... That one felt pretty good. But now I think the record is, like, 24:03.

    8. JR

      Whoa.

    9. DB

      Unbelie- Yeah.

    10. JR

      And what do you ... You're, you're breathing pure oxygen-

    11. DB

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... before you do it?

    13. DB

      (laughs) Yeah, without the pure O2, I was up to, like, 7:47.

    14. JR

      Which is still insane. I know free divers can do stuff like that.

    15. DB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. DB

      But they're also ... The ones that are really good are really thin, really tall. They have a, a, a total lung capacity that's much greater than mine. Mine is less than average, so ...

    18. JR

      Your lung capacity-

    19. DB

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      ... is less than average?

    21. DB

      Yeah, 80% of the average person my height and size.

    22. JR

      Why is that?

    23. DB

      I don't know.

    24. JR

      That doesn't even make sense if you can hold your breath that long.

    25. DB

      Yeah, like TLC is 80% of the ...

    26. JR

      Hmm. That's crazy.

    27. DB

      But I think that's where i- a lot of it has to do with accepting the pain, like mind over matter, you know?

    28. JR

      So generally, like, taller, longer people-

    29. DB

      It makes it easier, yes.

    30. JR

      ... have longer lungs. Is that the-

  7. 37:32 – 45:54

    On-air body stunt: thread through the mouth and out the chin (learned in India)

    1. DB

      Do you wanna see this trick?

    2. JR

      I would love to see this trick.

    3. DB

      (laughs)

    4. JR

      What do you got?

    5. DB

      Well, it's a simple one, but it's a new one.

    6. JR

      Okay.

    7. DB

      So, I just used some thread, but I might need your help.

    8. JR

      Okay.

    9. DB

      Um, do you wanna come closer?

    10. JR

      Okay. I'll come over there.

    11. DB

      Yeah? Should I... I can move... Should I move over? Or you can come here?

    12. JR

      I'll come over there.

    13. DB

      Should I slide to the left or something? So, first I'll show you the trick version.

    14. JR

      Okay.

    15. DB

      Wait, can I take this off?

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. DB

      So, first I'll show you the trick version of it.

    18. JR

      Okay.

    19. DB

      Which is just like this.

    20. JR

      For the people just listening at home, uh, he folded over a little loop-

    21. DB

      This thread.

    22. JR

      ... in a piece of thread.

    23. DB

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      And he's putting it in his mouth and swallowing it. He's chewing on the thread. Now he's drinking water.

    25. DB

      Yeah, I think it's... Here, wait. Hold on. So this is the trick version. You see, you get, um... See, you can pull. Here, I don't know if you can see. Can you? Do you wanna just pull it?

    26. JR

      Pull the thread?

    27. DB

      See it?

    28. JR

      So you have a thread that you have stuck in your body?

    29. DB

      Yeah. Pull it. See?

    30. JR

      Uh-huh.

  8. 45:54 – 51:11

    Mirin Dajo and the hard line between spectacle and lethal overconfidence

    1. JR

      Who was the guy who would s- take thin swords and shove them through his lungs?

    2. DB

      Yeah, Mirin Dajo. I- I have not done that, and I don't ... I'm never gonna do that one, I be-

    3. JR

      Don't do that.

    4. DB

      Yeah, no.

    5. JR

      He died doing that, didn't he?

    6. DB

      No. So what happened-

    7. JR

      No?

    8. DB

      ... uh, well, normally he would have a rapier push through by a doctor. And, um, he- he start ... And he would go f- ... He would jog with these rapiers through his body, through his lungs, right through the middle. And I think what happened was he became very overconfident and thought he could do anything.

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. DB

      And he swallowed a needle, like an ice pick-sized needle. He swallowed it and thought he was gonna like push it through. And when he went to sleep, it was still inside of him, and it ruptured his heart, and then he bled out and died.

    11. JR

      Oh, God.

    12. DB

      Yeah. Yeah, I think he started to get so cocky with what his body could do. Yeah.

    13. JR

      Wow. So this is the guy?

    14. DB

      Yeah. Yeah. But-

    15. JR

      Now how does one do that? I mean, if he's got a- a rap-

    16. DB

      They said he had tuberculosis, and so hi- the- the way his body recovered it ... I- I ... It doesn't ... Nobody really knows, but I know scientists and doctors, they all thought it wasn't real. They thought it was a trick, so it took forever for them to even think it was real.

    17. JR

      Oh, it goes sideways. Oh, that's right. I forgot this one. So he's going through his fucking intestines.

    18. DB

      Yeah. He's-

    19. JR

      Oh my god.

    20. DB

      He was- He was the human- the human pin cushion. (laughs)

    21. JR

      And that's a doctor? Boy, that doctor ...

    22. DB

      (laughs)

    23. JR

      What about do no harm, fella?

    24. NA

      Look at this guy.

    25. JR

      That is so insane. So he's got-

    26. DB

      I mean, it's insane that he could control-

    27. JR

      ... bandages over his forearm.

    28. DB

      It's in-

    29. JR

      So did it go through his arms as well? Is that why he has bandages?

    30. DB

      (laughs) I don't know. But it's insane that he could control it because, you know, obviously when people get stabbed, you know, they couldn't move.

  9. 51:11 – 1:09:59

    Combat sports detour: Mike Tyson’s aura, fear, and the ‘I’m a god’ mindset

    1. DB

      I used to always print T-shirts when I was a kid of Mike Tyson (laughs) and wear them every day.

    2. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    3. DB

      (laughs) Yeah. He's, he's a- ... Well, he looks like, to me, the scariest guy to ever get up against.

    4. JR

      He's so scary that when, uh, he was in my studio, we had a, a, a desk. Um, the... So, Mike Tyson, the first time he came to the studio, Mike was not fighting. He was completely retired. He, he... And he said he wouldn't train because he didn't want to reignite his ego. And then, the second time he was in the studio, he had decided to take a fight with Roy Jones Jr. And so, uh, he was in his 50s and started training again and got in- f- fucking insanely dedicated. And the way... I think he... The way he described it, he said, "The gods of war reignited his ego and brought him back to do combat again." And he was so terrifying that when he was sitting across from me, he was so different-

    5. DB

      (laughs)

    6. JR

      ... between th- the first podcast and the second podcast, I decided to make the table wider. I was gonna make a more narrow table so I was closer to the people, but I was like, his energy-

    7. DB

      (laughs)

    8. JR

      ... when I was this close to him, was so dis-

    9. DB

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      It was so, like, confusing.

    11. DB

      Man, he is unbelievable.

    12. JR

      Yeah. That, that's number two. That's when he was back.

    13. DB

      Yeah, he's my favorite that ever lived.

    14. JR

      Oh, my God. In his prime-

    15. DB

      He's... Oh.

    16. JR

      ... in the late '80s, he was a fucking force of nature.

    17. DB

      He'd walk out with the black shorts, and just the way he would look-

    18. JR

      Yep, no socks.

    19. DB

      Ah, man, the way he would-

    20. JR

      Just look right through people. Yeah.

    21. DB

      (laughs)

    22. JR

      He's the scariest heavyweight of all time.

    23. DB

      Uh, he was amazing.

    24. JR

      Yeah. Yeah.

    25. DB

      (laughs)

    26. JR

      Did you see the Francis Ngannou-Tyson Fury fight?

    27. DB

      Mm-mm.

    28. JR

      Francis Ngannou, who is the UFC heavyweight champion, he, uh, vacated the throne and had a, uh, boxing match with Tyson Fury, who is the lineal heavyweight champion. Dropped him in the third round, and won on one judge's scorecard and lost on the other two. So, so he l- lost a majority decision in his first-ever boxing match against arguably the best heavyweight boxer-

    29. DB

      Wow.

    30. JR

      ... absolutely alive, but maybe of all time. You know? It was pretty-

  10. 1:09:59 – 1:26:32

    Meditation, sensory deprivation, cold plunge + sauna: ‘voluntary adversity’ as a drug

    1. NA

      (laughs)

    2. JR

      ... but he was 225 pounds of fury. I hate to break up this party, but I have to pee so bad. So, uh, let's take a little break. We'll be right back. So- ... I have had legitimate sty- psychedelic states from meditation and from yoga, and, and the big one for me is the sensory deprivation tank. I- I've, I've had them... I've had, like, full-blown experiences in the sensory deprivation tank while sober, where if I could give you-

    3. NA

      Yeah.

    4. JR

      ... a pill that would y-

    5. NA

      That-

    6. JR

      ... get you to that place, you'd be like-

    7. NA

      It's amazing.

    8. JR

      ... "Oh my God, I'm on a drug." And I've come-

    9. NA

      Yep.

    10. JR

      ... out of that, those psychedelic states, which I, I call psychode-... They're... You know, I could tell someone, "I had a psychedelic experience," and I didn't take a drug. I had a psychedelic-

    11. NA

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... experience in the sensory deprivation tank, meditating and going through these deep-breathing exercises. It's not a psychedelic experience like mushrooms or like dimethyltryptamine or m-... A lot of these others, full-blown-

    13. NA

      No, it's like you connect to something that's more beautiful and spiritual and a, and a heightened sense of awareness.

    14. JR

      Very heightened sense of awareness, but alto-... Also a completely altered state of consciousness that I don't think you would ever imagine is being... Is, is available to you w-... Just naturally. But what I've had in these psychedelic experiences naturally is nothing in compared to what these Kundalini masters have. Kundalini masters, and I have a friend who has done this, who trained Kundalini yoga for many, many years-

    15. NA

      Right.

    16. JR

      ... and learned how to get to a full-blown, like, hallucinatory, psychedelic experience where there's geometric patterns and you're connected-

    17. NA

      Yep.

    18. JR

      ... to entities. And the way he described it, he's done psychedelics and he's done Kundalini. He said it's...

    19. NA

      Much better.

    20. JR

      It's... No. No, no, no. He said they're indiscernible. They're the same experience. Exact same experience. Like, you can get there. You can get there naturally.

    21. NA

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      Which makes sense because the human mind, the brain produces psychedelic chemicals.

    23. NA

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      They're endogenously produced, particularly dimethyltryptamine. It is a naturally produced psychedelic substance that your brain and your whole body creates. Your brain makes it. So, whatever you're doing when you're getting hypnotized, there is something going on. And I mean, I think you could measure it in the brain as far as, like, an fMRI or EEG or some sort of methodology where they would use equipment to measure your brain waves, and they would find a difference in frequency. But I think more importantly than that, I believe there's an endogenous release of certain chemicals, whether it's... Like, here... Here's another example. We just did... Uh, I've got, uh, a bunch of comics that are out of shape, and one of the things...... that I told them, I said, "Listen. Come in with me, I'll take you to the gym. I'm not going to g- make you do anything that's gonna brutalize you. I'm gonna slowly get you guys in shape." And we've been doing it for the fa- past few weeks now. But one of the things we do afterwards is the cold plunge. And so-

    25. DB

      That's the best.

    26. JR

      It's amazing.

    27. DB

      The cold plunge is amazing.

    28. JR

      So my friend, Shane Gillis, who did it, we did it yesterday.

    29. DB

      That's amazing.

    30. JR

      He got out of it, he's like, "Dude, I feel like I'm on molly." I go, "Right. Do you know why? Because your brain ramps up dopamine outs- when you get out of the cold plunge, you do three minutes, your dopamine gets increased by 200% and it lasts for hours, hours and hours." So you feel like you're on a drug.

Episode duration: 2:24:47

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