#546: Master Magician David Blaine — Fear{less} with Tim Ferriss

This episode is brought to you by Five Bullet Friday. My very own email newsletter. It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world with millions of subscribers. And it's super, super simple. It does not clog up your inbox. Every Friday I send out five bullet points, super short. Of the coolest things I've found that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, new self experiments, hacks, tricks. and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from around the world. You guys, podcast listeners and book readers have asked me for something short and action packed for a very long time. Because after all the podcasts, the books, they can be quite long. And that's why I created Five Bullet Friday. It's become one of my favorite things I do every week. It's free, it's always gonna be free, and you can learn more at Tim.blog forward slash Friday. That's Tim.blog forward slash Friday. I get asked a lot how I meet

guests for the podcast, some of the most amazing people I've ever interacted with. And little known fact, I've met probably twenty five percent of them because they first subscribe to Fible Friday. So you'll be in good company. It's a lot of fun. Five Bullet Friday is only available if you subscribe via email. I do not publish the content on the blog or anywhere else. Also, if I'm doing small in-person meetups, offering early access to startups, beta testing, special deals, or anything else that's very limited, I share it first with Five Bullet Friday subscribers. So check it out. Tim.blog forward slash Friday. If you listen to this podcast, it's very likely that you'd dig it a lot. And you can, of course, easily subscribe anytime. So easy peasy. Again, that's Tim.blog forward slash Friday. And thanks for checking it out, if the spirit moves ya.

Optimal minimal. At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. And then I'll save the personal question. No se My cybernetic organism living tissue over metal mental skeleton.

Hello, boys and girls, this is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris show, where it is my job to deconstruct world class performers to tease out the routines, habits, et cetera, that you can apply to your own life. You will get plenty of all of that in this special episode, which features an interview from my 2017 TV show, Fearless. The less is in parentheses because the objective is to teach you to fear less. Not to be fearless. Fearless features in-depth long form conversations with top performers focusing on how they've overcome fears and made hard decisions, embracing discomfort and thinking big along the way. It was produced by Wild West Productions, and I worked with them to make both the video and audio available to you for free. My dear listeners, so thank you, Wild West. You can find the video of this episode, which is gorgeous. I think they did an incredible job on youtube dot com slash Tim Ferris. Remember two R's two S, youtube.com slash Tim Ferris, and eventually you'll be able to see all of the episodes for free at youtube dot com slash Tim Ferris. So You can swing over there and see what is currently up. Before we get started, just a little bit more on Wild West. Spearheaded by actor, producer, and past podcast guest Vin Vaughn, Wild West has produced a string of hit movies, including the internship,

Couple's retreat, four Christmases, and the breakup in twenty twenty, Wild West produced the comedy The Opening Act. Starring Jimmy O'Yang and Cedric the Entertainer. In addition to Fearless, their television credits include Undeniable with Joe Buck, ESPN's thirty for thirty episode about the eighty-five bears, and the Netflix animated show F Is for Family. Wild West has also produced the documentaries Give Us This Day, Game Changers. Subtitle Dreams of BlizzCon and Wild West. Comedy show. And now, without further ado.

Please enjoy. This wide ranging conversation from fearless. I'm Tim Ferris, author, entrepreneur, angel investor, and now TV host. I've spent my entire adult life asking questions, then scouring the globe to find the answers. On this show, I'll share the secrets of pioneers who have faced their own fears. We'll dig into the hard times, big mistakes,

tough decisions and how they got through it all. The goal isn't to be fearless. The goal is to learn to fear less. Welcome to Fearless, I'm your host Tim Ferris. And on this stage we'll be deconstructing world class performers of all different types to uncover the specific tactics and strategies they've used to overcome doubt. Tackle their hardest decisions and ultimately succeed on their own terms. So let's take a look at my guess by the numbers.

17 minutes, four seconds. His world record setting breath hold. If you can believe that, it's true. 44 days, how long you survive without food in a plexiglass box. 63 hours, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds, the amount of time he spent encased in a block of ice. For nearly twenty years, he has risked his life for your entertainment. Please welcome to the stage world-renowned illusionist and endurance artist David Blaine.

David, I have wanted... to have this conversation for years now. And I know we're we're gonna have fun tonight. And I thought one way we could start is with a video that Maybe does not represent the most fun, but I think is a good video nonetheless. This is as close as I come to doing a magic trick. Yeah.

Doing good. Here we go. Working the next set of cuffs. From behind. Little bit of air.

Guys get ready. Yeah, some buttons. Go. Go! Go.

Divers are in. Relax, we got ya David. You're all right. You're right. Divers are in the sphere. Okay, Dave, just relax, we've got you.

Okay. Okay. David out of the bubble. So that is a terrifying video. What happened in that particular

situation. Why didn't things go sideways? In training when I'd worked on that. I I never the the record was I believe at the time was nine minutes. And I've never gotten up to nine minutes, I got to seven minutes and forty seven seconds.

Dry. No oxygen, just Breath holding. And I figured If Starve myself, I'm in the spier, my метаболізm, everything slows down.

I would be able to Miraculously hold my breath much longer. And it did the opposite effect. So when it came time to do the stunt, I had handcuffs on, I was strapped at the bottom, and I just started to convulse. They jumped in to get me and you can't see in the video and I was like no like I held my finger up to stop them because I I thought I could keep going, but I'm blacking out and Luckily they did jump in because he had to take these things off to pull my head above the water.

Any type of breath hold training is you feel fine until you're not. And I mean some of it was But when you black out see I learned that Navy SEALs is part of the training what they do is They make the seals comfortable with blacking out under water. So what they do is they strap them to forty five pound plates and make them walk the bottom of a pool. And they walk until they black out underwater. And then they get pulled to the top and they're brought back and they're fine. But that makes everybody

Not afraid of Drowning. You have no fear because you've already blacked out underwater. You've already experienced the worst case. At TedMed, where you gave a great presentation. It's been a hugely popular talk. But what I remember personally was with a small group sitting in the audience and having you held your breath train people. So check this out, guys. There may be I'm making this number up. Maybe fifteen people in the audience. You got up to almost five minutes. I got to three thirty three. I remember very specific. But there was There were people in the audience who got past five. And these were people completely untrained. My breath hold record for me was around 45 seconds. I have lung issues.

And I got to three minutes and thirty-three seconds and there were other people who just kept trucking. And that was maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of exercises? Yeah, twenty minutes total. That was scarier than any of the stunts that I've ever done. Talking at the at that conference. Oh talking at the conference. Yeah. The stunts are easy. But I was in front of like five hundred of my favorite people, you being one of them. And I had never given a public talk where I wasn't doing magic, so just to stand there.

And have to talk in front of Everybody that I respect so much. I was like three days, three nights, no sleep. So that was its own stunt. So I mean it's all relative, right, guys? I mean he's not afraid of that, but he's afraid to talk in front of five hundred people. So whatever your fears might be. How would you describe your your childhood, early childhood. I grew up in Brooklyn with a single mother and We didn't have much. She worked multiple jobs.

But she was so incredible because she allowed me to Dream, imagine Yeah, there's you see? And also do you see I have leg braces on? Oh yeah. So I was born I was born with my feet turned in. And

So I couldn't run fast and I couldn't swim fast. So at the age of five I was on the YMCA swim team and that's where I started to learn to hold my breath because in order to keep up or even be faster than the other kids, I learned how to swim without breathing. So all the other kids had to learn how to do this and I would just swim straight across. And that's why that's where I started to develop an ability to hold my breath. Wow. Um but so back to my mom, yeah. So She was just The I could ask for nothing more amazing.

She was best gift that I could have had as a child. And She'd walk me through the park all the time and Even if I was late for school.

Like One time I was walking through the park. And I was late so and she was walking me before she had to go to work. I was like

Mom, look, there's King Kong. And instead of her saying, No no, we're late, let's go. She said, Where? You know, she engaged, right? So we walked all the way over and it was just a log, you know, tree that that was Down.

But the the idea that she let me imagine and believe and didn't want to stifle that. That's that's what made her so incredible. How were you introduced to magic or magic tricks? When I was about five years old, my mother gave me a deck of cards and I would carry it everywhere that I went. It just it was like a treasure to me. And I would go to the library and wait for my mother to finish work and pick me up. And one of the librarians one day walked me through a simple book of magic, self-working stuff.

And when my mother came and I did it to her and she went crazy. I became obsessed with with doing magic and getting her reaction and then getting her friends reaction. So I never did it for the other kids. Because they would have been Really difficult. Brutal. Yeah. So I was lucky and just did it to my own. Did you want to be A magician from that point onward? Or what did you think you were gonna be when you're little? What did your mom think you were being? When I was five, I said to my mom I'm gonna be a magician one day. And she went, that's amazing.

So I believe. Stuck to it. How is she affected how you live your life today. I mean I think part of she was so brave, you know, when I was she got sick when I was a teenager and fought cancer and she fought without a complaint. She was very tough. But the way she approached suffering and death was was almost like She was so graceful about it.

That I was curious, you know, uh the suffering that she endured and and how she found so much Beauty out of it. Sort of

To You know, w what is there on this other side of enduring things that are And not viewing it as just a bad thing. And were you uh you were with her when she passed? Yeah, she died in my arm. I can't even imagine. Uh that was uh I I remember at that moment I felt like

My body was like one big Twig and it was like Snapped. And I became really afraid to uh Connect like that to anybody else.

How did besides the you know putting the armor on or or not wanting to necessarily connect in that way. Did anything else change? But I think also at that point that's when I became fearless because at that point I felt like I had nothing to lose. So when I was nineteen or twenty or something like that. I was I was at the airport. And my bag was missing and I saw a whole bunch of identical bags coming out. And there was all these guys dressed in identical

Jumpers. And I was like I think you guys have one of my bags. 'Cause I have the exact same bag. It was a Tumi bag. They said go go ask him, knock on the window, and it was a limousine, a white limo parked out front with tinted windows, and I knock on the window. And the thing rolls down.

And Mike Tyson's there with his fist up. He's like, You got a problem? And I was like and I was like, Holy shit. No, Mike, you're like my favorite person and I grew up uh da da da, you know. So um he says, Jump in. So I jump So I jump in the limo with him and we drive to the hotel he's staying at. And in and I'm doing magic to him and it's it's amazing. And Along the way he says to me, he says, You know, I wasn't supposed to be the heavyweight champ. He's like I didn't have I wasn't tall enough and have long arms, he's like, but I had nothing to lose. And when you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain. And I was kinda like that was like another like Great piece of information from Mike Tyson.

So you it's I mean these these types of encounters Just blew my mind because if I look at like your chronology. So at eighteen I think it was. Uh and I I don't know if this was a milestone or not, but you

I believe this is when you jump to turn style. Got in some trouble for that? Yeah. Can you tell people? I was doing I was doing magic in restaurants. Um It started as a waiter where I would do magic and then I people want to come back and just see me doing magic, so I started walking up and down

Park Avenue and trying to get different fancy restaurants to hire m not hire me, let me do magic to the people that were dining and then they would tip me. As I started doing that, I started getting hired by wealthy New Yorkers to do their parties and

Things like that. One night I was I jumped over a Turn style. And that's when Giuliani was sweeping everybody. I got locked up but as I was going there I kept breaking out of the cuffs for the cops. Cops love that, by the way? I'm hate that. They actually do. Pause. So you're like, hey guys, these aren't working. I mean but how do they how do they respond to that? Yeah, no no. They they they they're all good. I don't they they know that I'm not really a threat, but um you know, so it's gonna be they know they just have to go through the motions. Yeah, so I get put in central booking.

And central booking is crazy. It's like everybody's in and out of Riker, so it's like a tough room and you're being moved from one cell to another and there's like forty guys in there. I'm like, Oh man, I'm gonna get my ass kicked. So I there The four biggest guys are sitting on the ground playing spades. So I walk up to them and grab the deck of cards. From them.

I'm like let me show you something. You know they're they're they're Ready to kill me. And I start doing magic. And then what happened?

was they started to go crazy and these are the toughest guys in the cell. So then the whole cell is around me, you know thirty guys or twenty some guys all going crazy and then the guard come in. And th everybody was reacting to me to m like they were all going crazy together and I was like Wow. So These people on Park Avenue, these super

powerful people and then in prison These guys, the reactions are so amazing and so similar. I want to show that. So that became the impetus for the first T V show which was called Street Magic. You know the guys that do three car money, right? Alright, this is that game for you right now. Not for me, Brian. No, no, no, no money. No money, it's to just pretend. Instead of three cards we see. Hold your fingers like this, though. Hold your fingers like this. Look, watch. This card, right? Remember diamonds. Forget ace, just diamonds. Hold the pilot. What card do you have?

What card is that? Can I look at it? Yeah, but name it. Name it. What is it? Diamonds. Diamonds, just diamonds. Look, show it to them, make sure it's all right. Alright, show it to them too. Bingo bango. Bingo bango, cool, man. Hold it like this, look. Lower, lower, lower, watch. This one, same thing, just remember hearts, forget ace, just hearts. Watch this switch, ready? See, I switched it. Look, I'll do it again. See it switch back. Just switch twice so quick you didn't see it.

Go off my shoe, huh? Sorry. Yeah, it switched twice. I'll do it so so you could see it. Look, here's the move. See how the borders line up? I'm putting it on the button. I'm teaching you. That's how I do it. Hold it tight, though it'll make it impossible. Because you know the move. I have diamonds, ready? Without looking at it, what would you bet on? Hearts or diamonds. Alright, but pretend bet. Would you bet hearts here or hearts here? But could I impress you if the heart was on top, diamond was on bottom? The heart's on top because you had. Turn your hand over. Go ahead, turn your hand over.

Yeah. Everybody thinks they're so different, but really there's also generalities among people. So you can really kind of Look at a group and you can estimate Which person's gonna react a certain way. And you get better and better as it the m the more you do it.

No. It's kind of like what psychics do, sorry to interrupt. Like psychics basically when you walk in they profile you right away and they've done it so many times that they can kind of cold read w what you do, where you're from, what you're looking for, whether you're skeptical, whether you're not. So it's like you just learn to read people. Read the cues. Yeah. What's what are some lines or approaches that you use when you just Cold approach somebody. There was there was a magician named Harvey Cohen. That I used to love.

He taught me so much. And he would Approach people. When he would do magic. And he would say he he was very fumbly with the cards. But while he was fumbling cards, he was secretly like loading cards in your pocket and doing all this stuff. So he'd kind of approach with this non-approach. It wasn't like look, I'm a magician, I'm gonna amaze you. It was almost like he couldn't hold the cards, so you'd be like hoping that he was gonna succeed.

And then then at the end when you thought everything had gone wrong and there's two cards in your pocket and one on the you know So it was like the the uh the the approach that I always like to do magic is the opposite of what a magician would do, because I always imagined If somebody could really do magic, they wouldn't really have big pattern. They would kind of be fumbling and they'd say, Look at this thing and then just do something. Right. So that was always the approach. Simple. Simple and and understated I think is the best approach. At what point did you go to acting school? You did go to acting school. Yeah, w when I with Brian Callan, who was who was amazing. I learned so much from him. He was incredible. Well, you know, there's a famous quote that Orson Wells said, but it's from Robert Hudem where he says Uh uh magician is just an actor playing the part of a magician. So at that time I was I was a close up magician. There was really no

There was no business in it, there was no way to make a living at it. So I figured I would study acting and take it seriously and maybe apply it to magic and see what happens. And it was a really valuable year because

What you learn in acting school is living truthfully. in a given imaginary circumstance. So it's interesting because when you apply that to magic, it's like instead of these are just tricks, you kind of like almost believe what you're seeing on some level. Not believe it like ah, how'd I do that, but you kind of play into that as opposed to the silly pattern, the silly trick and it I feel like the magic comes to life that way. You know, it makes a performance more interesting.

One of the best things Brian taught me there, he was he was an early mentor to me. One of the quotes his dad gave to him is always surround yourself with people that will inspire you or help you grow. And that was just a great piece of advice from him. I took that very seriously. And pursue people that I looked up to or that I admired and and and tried to learn things from them.

You know, a father figure or anything like that. Did you look for Father figures. adolescent period or was it was it more surrounding yourself with peers? I mean early on I would

Read About all the people I looked up to and You know, that was kind of like my college was finding people that did things that I was really amazed by and then learning as much as I could. And and then what I started doing is I started finding all the books on Nobel Prize winners. And then in literature specifically, and then I would read what books they recommended and then I would read the books that they recommend then on the back of that book it would be what this book was influenced by so I started going through lots of that stuff. The original hyperlinks. When did you start fasting?

Mm-hmm. And why? I've been obsessed with fasting since I was a kid, but I think it started when I my mother gave me Siddhartha to read. The Herman Hass book. And I read it when I was eleven years old and in it he fasts and he stands and he does these things where He sees the world in a different way and and he realizes that he can cr control his his body and with his mind. So that was the beginning of the the seed. Of the curiosity.

And then L loving the way you feel when you fast, how you Like colors change, the blues become vibrant, і notice sky. You become more emotional. So I took everything away and and it was incredible. So the fasting. So Siddhartha is one of my favorite books. And I remember you guys read that? It's amazing. Siddhartha.

I remember at least in two instances. So he's trying to Court this uh noblewoman I think she is and he's also trying to get a job with a merchant at one point. And they ask him because he's effectively a At least.

acting the part of monk at the time. They say Well what can you give, what can you do? And he said I can think. I can wait. And I can fast. Yeah. And he talks about the value of not being beholden to food. And he says for for instance

If you ask me to work for you right now and I needed food I'd have to say yes to whatever you offer me, because since I can fast. I can think about it more rationally. But I've done seven and ten day fasts. I've never gone as far as you have, but Uh it's incredible when you click over from

carbohydrate dependent to pulling on your fat stories. I mean cognitively it everything changes. It's very, very interesting. It's hard to go like you can't go back to how it was before in terms of viewing food and so on. Yeah. It's totally different. Looking back over Your stunts.

All the magic. The endurance feeds. Which ended up being more dangerous? Than you expected. Or scarier than expected.

Probably the forty four days with the water fast in London in a box because uh I think I went into mild organ failure and I Drop the thirty three percent BMI. Which was well documented but it was uh the recovery on that. I think to this day it's it's still screwed up my metabolism and my weight goes up and down really fast and

It did real damage. Vitamin deficiency of the pigment. How we water! I lost sixty pounds in forty four days. The plexiglass diet. Not recommended. Your dietitian will not have this on the multiple choice options.

What did your Refeeding look like? after that. So After I did the forty four days I was Rush to the hospital.

Where I stayed for I think two weeks. W when they started refeeding me, I think my phosphate levels jumped out of control and and I almost went into shock and died, and that was The refeeding syndrome. Yep. We published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine about the refeeding syndrome. Which is because most hunger strikers in the past they do it and they're very anti Government anti

You know, it's it's for a statement whereas I just did it as as a performance piece. And therefore I was willing to give all my blood and all my urine to doctors and let them So it actually became Useful in the sense that there was a real document Study of

The prolonged effects of Fasting. Or starvation technically, yeah. Were there any s any of your performances on the flip side that you thought were gonna be very difficult? or very scary that were easier than expected.

For you for whatever reason. Nope. What does magic mean to you? Because you're you you do so much more Then illusion and magic mean you you really have sort of a full stack performer kit at your disposal. But what does magic mean to you?

And for me it's just a beautiful performance art. Like it's something where It and it's also like uh y you learn a really difficult skill. it it it defies Logic. And then you have an immediate reaction to it. So it's something you can do almost anywhere, any time. And it's also a constant pursuit.

of information, but information that isn't readily available. So it's like you have to dig up history. You read about a guy that had done something from a hundred years ago. He died, took his secrets to the grave, so you spend years trying to de you know, trying to understand how he did it and it's trial and error, practice, repetition, and then finally all of a sudden. You're you know, able to do these things at You had only read about like one was you know called the human aquarium. Which is about a guy that could convert his body into an aquarium where he could store creatures. Another was

Yeah, I'm not kidding. This is a trick. Yeah. Well anything, yeah. Anything that could live in water and and land. But then then we also find there's another guy that was The human dragon. and he could drink kerosene, it would float on top of a gallon of water in his stomach, and then he would Blow fireballs out of his mouth. Igniting a huge fire, and then just when he thought that was the end.

He'd use a gallon of water that was stored in his stomach and put out the fire. But of course of course one time he did it wrong and died. And took his secrets to the grave. Inadvertently. Yeah, but so I see the footage and I'm like I wanna do that. So I spent like twenty years trying to figure it out. And I couldn't because there was no n nobody would nobody had the secrets. So I was like, oh man, maybe this isn't such a smart idea to change. Yeah. So we uh we're gonna pull up.

This video Involving an ice pick. You can see how complex and how dangerous And especially where David's doing it, there's a whole complex of arteries there.

You wanna pull it out? Yeah. Marley. Uh Nothing. Just the whole.

About. Nothing, just a hole. Just not even any blood on this thing either. Nothing. Matt one back to Ruben. Oh.

Okay. I don't think that deserves applause. I think that deserves like you're out of your mind. Condemnation. But ironically. Before I leave I brought

Another thing similar that I have an x ray of that I'll I'll show you that I recently learned. So I'll show it to you before I go. Which is a little crazier than this one, I think. The only way that I can even begin to approach talking about that is let's assume that It's totally real. Like you actually figured out how to put that through your head. That's the The only place I can go with it.

Вот із сел ток. When you're practicing that. I mean Houdini used to do this thing where he'd push pins through his face and then pull them all out small razor blades plummet threaded, but I'm not going to be able to

There there are Ways to To do things That are real. Uh

You know, you would assume it can't be done because you would assume that you're gonna bleed. But there's a way to and I started with acupuncture needles just Trying to see if it's a little bit more. You could go straight through. I had X rays taken, MRs d you know, the whole thing so I could know where all the blood vessels and everything lie.

And then I found a sweet spot and just started, you know, slowly Figuring out how to go through the The hand. Is there any particular trick or stunt that has obs obsessed you for a long time that you have not yet been able to feel like I've been obsessed with with the idea of sleep deprivation.

Yeah, but no, but when you do sleep depri deprivation like the the Native Americans would do it and they would U you get this really incredible hallucination. Yeah. So it's like Any I've done like five and a half days of no sleep and the for me hallucinations start to really kick in at like fifty-five hours if I'm standing up the whole time and it's a really rough environment. And

It's even though it's scary, it's also like you're having these dreams and these nightmares, but you're awake. But The North Koreans used it as a ultimate form of torture on the Americans when they were Hostages and Many of those hostages came back tweak for life, so it's like there is What is the breaking point?

Right. So I remember at one point So one of my favorite parks in New York City, Bryant Park. Was that where you were on top? Yeah. I was gonna stand on this pillar for a day and a half with no food, no water.

Me if I feel And on my back is now. So I'm gonna jump. I remember reading at one point that Talking about hallucinations, the buildings became like wolves or something like that. Yeah, animal heads. And you look back, they see the shapes of just normal buildings and you suddenly think

Wow, that looks like a lion. I was up there for like thirty six hours, but I started hallucinating at like hour thirty, but just light hallucination. So the buildings that were behind me that were perfectly flat. I started looking at it and I was like, Wow. I didn't know those buildings were lion heads. So the people down below Yeah. Yeah, that's light. So the people below that were working on the thing and and the and the you know, people at A B C suddenly decided that there's no way I was gonna hit my target. So they built this huge thing of boxes. It was enormous, which pissed me off. And I ended up jumping and hitting the mark. But that was during mild hallucinations.

Have you ever learned anything from your hallucinations? Very curious. Not trying to imply that you have to have. J'ai curious, because it I I'm I'm anal I'm in my mind comparing it to, say, some descriptions of the psychedelic experience. No, I it's yeah, also you have that as well, but but one of the things that I did learn Is

out of Anything that I did that was extremely difficult. When your brain starts to go. Like when you start to lose control of your mind. There's nothing.

Is horrific. Imaginable. So it's like I never understood When somebody has mental illness, I never understood how severe that is. But it's like when I go through those things and it's like

Оливасан на волн биком скарі без. You don't have control anymore. And I learned that like now anybody that I meet that has any kind of Mental Illness in any way.

I I I'm extremely compassionate. So not just compassionate, but I'm like this is the craziest thing ever. When that starts to set in, do y have you developed any strategies to cope with it? Well that's interesting because basically what happens is your brain Is trying to trick you. So the brain knows That you need s So the brain can recover and you can your immune system recover everything is built. So what happens is when you're staying awake.

Even if you have people helping you, your brain is coming at you with your biggest fears. En anytime that is your weakness. Your brain is trying to say this is happening to you, and you need to go to sleep, otherwise this is gonna get worse and worse. So you start seeing like blemishes appearing all the but they're not there. You see your hand changed into spider webs, like everything that would freak you out. So you would decide I can't do this anymore.

Do it often enough and have a very sensitive, careful team around you. That are guiding you almost. Uh the Teach you how to override what your brain is trying to

Tell you to do. That's pretty wild. Also a train skill. Do you have Any fears? I mean what are you afraid of or or what makes you anxious? Anything? I don't I'm not I don't well first I used to be horrified of insects. I would see like a cockroach. But I think I learned that from my mother, because she was really afraid of bugs. But then I went to Botswana.

Africa. Um I was sleeping in this little tent. With these hippo circling the tent all night. Um

You're there by yourself and you're in this little tent filled with spiders and all these bugs and they become like your good friends, you know,'cause you're like these hippos could chomp you in half in one second. See, I mean you're mentioning something that I think is really worth underscoring because it seems to have come up a couple of times, which is If you're afraid of something, you can try to think your way out of it, or you can just expose yourself. Yeah.

These these small doses. If someone for instance Kato is considered the perfect stoic and he cared how people judged him at one point. He was very concerned with how other people felt about him. odd colored clothing and so on so that he would get ridiculed. He did it on purpose, so that he could practice

Not Parrot. about being embarrassed about things unless they were truly important. And uh practicing poverty, similar idea, right? Even uh they say you take Seneca or some of these other famous stoics and they would take a certain period of time and eat

The cheapest of food. Sleep on a hard floor. Exactly. So that they would know, you know, is this Is this the condition I so feared is what they would ask themselves. So I wanna pull up some audience questions. From Twitter. This is

At T Y K O E what are somewhat average things that you can't do despite all attempts? Dance. Yeah.

Karaoke. Uh karaoke. Not much. I always do. I don't know why. It's like my default. I'm like I can't do karaoke, but that's my go to. But it's like wearing the odd clothes. So you can be a stoic. We should just go out with karaoke until we're be hard watching. The next question is somewhat related to what we were just talking about. What is your secret reserve of strength when you feel that your body or mind can't push through?

That's that's a really good question. So what I What I do is uh A lot of it's based on numbers. So I create and and I and I run it across the board. So

It's like if I'm if I'm gonna run a ten K. I make sure that I get not just to the six point two, but I'll go always further, like maybe to seven or I'll pick a number that's important. And then I have these superstitions that if I don't get to this number, something terrible is gonna happen. So By committing to this

The this almost superstition. That's that's Based on numbers. You can use you know, the halfway mark, like okay, I'm gonna get to twenty two days of a fast, but I know I have forty four days. So first I reach the twenty two day mark and then I start counting backwards. I said I already did half. So that half so now I could pretend I'm starting fresh, so I've twenty two days to go, so let me get through another eleven days. Let me get through and and it's just

It's basically just breaking it down. In in little chunks, but making sure that you get to that finish line. D didn't you do something or have a very similar superstition when you were a kid in school, really? Like your school bus? You had to do certain things. Uh pull a leaf off a tree or yeah. Yeah, you can't. Yeah. Yeah, it would stop and

There'd be a leaf that was just out of reach when you jump and I'd I'd just keep jumping and jumping and then I have to put something down until I got that just little thing. So but it's weird because when When I s for me, it was almost like training because I'd set a goal that was very difficult and then I just wouldn't quit until I got it. And part of it was a superstition of doing this ridiculous thing that has no meaning, but just not quitting until it's done. This one's from Facebook. This is Patrick Makuka Zagambo. I like this question. I have 90 days to practice preparing. to perform a close up magic event. What skills should I focus on to maximize my results in such a small time frame?

I mean the way I do it is not the way others do it, but what I like to do is I like to commit to something. And put myself in the hot seat because I already committed to doing something that I'm not ready for. So I know like your thing when you did you know a week to get ready to do something, so you're all in because you have no choice. So I even just when I do certain Big magic stunts or feet. I I announce them before I do them. And then I work diligently to get there. So

I would say Find A few things That that that you really like. Mm-hmm.

Work on them. Research them. lear how to do them and they're gonna be very messy. Keep working until you start to figure out how to Do it among friends and family just

Let me try this. Try it, try it over and over. And then go out. maybe to a friend's party or wherever you are, and try it over and over and over and over and after you fail a couple h you know, a few hundred times. you might start to become okay at it.

You know. And it's it's I I find also with a lot of these questions like this I think you made a great point. People are looking for more information or some type of uh particular way of training, but What they really need is just social accountability and the incentive, right? So if you publicly announce it. you will figure out how to make it work. You're committed to it. Uh I I have a buddy, uh A.J. Jacobs. He lives in New York, he's a writer for Esquire, really good guy, and he

he couldn't lose weight despite all of his attempts and he wasn't m obese he described his physique as a python that swallowed a goat. Like just kinda like middle aged paunch. Like in the little prints. Yeah, and he wanted and he wanted to fix it. And he he had all the diet books, he just wasn't doing it. So he he's he's a Jewish guy. He wrote a check, I believe it was to the American Nazi Party for like a thousand dollars. Give it to either one of his best friend or his wife and said if I don't lose like twenty pounds by the end of next month, I want you to mail this in. In which case his name would be on the record, like public records having donated to this organization. Lo and behold he lost the weight. So I think the the accountability is is such a huge part of it. Uh what are you learning right now? Josh Anderson.

On Facebook. What what am I learning currently? So what I'm working on is I'm trying to figure out how to put together a stage show because I've never really conquered that and and h haven't done it in a way that I feel. I've been working, just getting up on like little comedy stages and

and and trying out different things and and and and the idea of being able to do something in in in a in a intimate room and then also In a bigger room. That that's That's That's my goal. So that's that's the thing I'm working on.

Diligently and I'm most consumed with right now. And it's a big learning curve. You know, you need to do Thousands of shows before you really figure out what you're doing. Yeah.

So it's hard to get the time and space necessary. But that's that's my big goal. Yeah, figuring out how to work the yeah. I mean, I remember watching a comedian in the documentary with Jerry Seinfeld and also another up and comer and I was it was it was so sobering And reassuring to watch because you see Seinfeld who's

one of the biggest stars in the world at that point, and then he goes back to work on new material as a standup, and you just see him bomb. You see him bomb in these little venues, and he just forgets his lines, and he just sits there on stage. He's like one minute. trying to remember his lines. It's just excruciating, but it's reassuring in the sense you're like, okay This guy it's not like he just wakes up in the morning with a finished

One hour set. No. You just have to s put in the time to hone it and refine it. So when you think of the word Or hear the word successful, who's the first person who comes to mind for you? My mother. She was a school teacher and she

Came from a very powerful family, left her family, moved to Brooklyn, decided to do Social work and Teach and things like that. Incredible and really cared about. Doing

And helping and giving and so to me that's that's like the greatest thing you can So she was In that regard extremely successful. What's success to you? Personally.

When when you give As much as as you You know, I think like Um Bill Gates is a great example. Okay.

He's made so much. Money but He basically figured out that he knows how he he can figure out how to give it. better than most institutions can so he directs

his money outwards. So it's not like I want to have so much. It's like I want to amass this amount so that I can give it to the right places. I think that's Really important. And um You know, for me personally it's like One of the

My favorite. Stories of Around Thanksgiving. Whenever I can I go to BMC, which is the Brook Army Medical Center.

And I go into the burn unit there. Where all the kids that are burnt from the war and just So every year. That I would go, I'd try to get everybody that I can. And one year

There was a kid uh named Victor who was twenty one. And A really handsome kid. Okay. The

Yeah. Got blown up in a Humvee. And When he was rushed to the hospital He had basically been

burnt exactly on half of his face and the top of his head, but half of his face was completely burnt. The other half was perfect. And He wouldn't go out, he wouldn't interact with the other people, he wouldn't he stayed in his room. He was He was more angry that he was

suddenly burnt on half his face and the actual losing the fingers, losing the ears, all that stuff. And I asked the nurse have I done it? She said, Yeah, but there's one kid, but he won't see anybody. He's not he won't even talk to the nurses, he won't meet with the therap nothing. I said, bring me to him.

She said, No, no, no, he won't see anybody. Bring me to him. So she asked his mother who was standing in the room with him all the time. Dying inside. And the mother's like, Sure, my I mean my son's not gonna talk to him, but sure. I walk in and uh he's like stone faced, won't even look at me. Let me try and I grab his hand.

Which People don't touch them like that. Like like like nothing's wrong. So grab the scene, let me show you something and hold your hand up. And I start doing magic to him. And all of a sudden, because I'm not treating him like he was disfigured, suddenly. I see him

Interested. Then I keep going and and he cracks a little smile. And I I see his mother when when that happens. balling in the corner but holding it in. So I'm like fighting my hardest not to cry.

Anyway, I I I completely finished. Doing magic to the guy, put my hat on his head, which you should not do because it's open rooms. And I leave The hospital content that now I

Done magic to everybody including the guy that didn't want to see me. And then I decide to come back the next morning, the day after Thanksgiving. And the mother comes out and she's bawling. And she she says to me

Венчись мі, сізай районні лефт. My son let the nurses put him in a wheelchair and he went out with the other guys and he started his physical therapy. So it was like just that little bit of like being Can

Treating him like there was nothing to say. And so I came back the next year and uh he had had all this so he looked really good. He had all this reconstructive surgery. And uh and it was in Texas and I took him out. for dinner and then to a strip club. We had the we had the time of our lives. It was amazing. Wow. All right.

I it's hard to to follow that up with just about anything, but um what is what is your If you have one, your end goal with magic. What dri what keeps driving you? I think the ultimate. goals just I always wanted to just bring magic to the people. You know, just Bring magic in a good way.

Or in a new way or in a different way, or That's that's the end goal. Yeah, maybe we should try something in here. Yeah, try something in here. You guys wanna try something live? All right. Yeah.

How should we how should we begin? Can I take The uh The X ray?

New things that I've been working on. Might be hard to see, but I'll let you hold this up. So this is an X ray. Can you all make it out somewhat? Can you all see what that is?

Yeah, there's a sword. Та I recently learned how to push all the way inside. Like a sword swallower basically, and I learned it to work on one new trick. So If I can.

Good. So here's my little now you guys are seeing this when it's brand new. So and this is much bigger than the one in the picture. The one in the picture is actually Pretty thin. The esophagus is is very, very thin.

So I'm gonna try to Push this down inside. And lots of people. assume when swords fallers do what they do that it's a trick, but it's really not. I recently learned that. And studying this.

I don't know if I'm gonna succeed, but we'll try. You gotta come closer, though. Okay. Yeah, that's real. I'm not gonna have him try it yet. I'm gonna give Tim a week to learn it.

Okay. Ha Let me give us It might have some food and stuff. Should we try this one other thing? Yeah.

I'll uh I'll let Tim help. So there's something else I've been working on, which is a strength thing. Um Just because you're

The closest do you want to help with this? Do you mind You'll have to jump up on stage. I'll take uh give it a little bit. Yeah. So

One of the things I've been obsessed with is is just feats of strength. But Tim, can you mix the deck? Shuffle it up. Not very good. Let him shuffle too. Like my crew. But you agree that they're they're all shuffled, there's no order, nothing like that. Yes.

Mm-hmm. Let me give you a Uh like a quarter of the deck. Okay. Just

Yeah, like tear it in half. Yeah, tear it in half, exactly. Oh God. Here we go. Uh. That's All together, so it's one neat rip. And make it neat all together.

No, but put'em like uh like this, flat. And then yeah, and then rip it so it's one unit. Otherwise you're ripping one card at a time. That's the only way I can do it. So it's difficult. It's difficult. So I'm gonna teach you the technique right now. So the idea is this.

So See I pinch here. And then

Pretty simple. Very cool. But

Okay, you know what? Wh which half do you want? Yes, I'm going to do it. And now do this for me. Cut.

Pick up a bunch of cards, put'em on bottom. Yep, and put'em on the bottom. Good. And do it again. Pick up a bunch, put them on bottom. Great. Now

Every time you do that, the top and the bottom card and the middle cards everything is gonna change. Understood. So every time you do it. The order changes, yep. This time.

I want you to do it behind your back. So behind your back I want you to cut the deck, complete the cut. And then keep'em behind your back. Good, and they're slippery, don't let them spill. And take either the top piece or the bottom piece and put it in your hide it in your pocket. Either the top or the bottom, it's up to you. And and we don't need the rest of the big pile. Good.

So here's the idea, can I give you these? Yes. So just to show you that they are shuffled, you you did mix everything up, correct? Yes. Yes. I'm gonna have you just choose one from inside. Okay, actually we'll do a few, so here.

You just just reach in and and pull yeah pull one or two. One is fine. Now let me just say something. Most People. would go for the obvious card, like the ace of spades.

Or even the King. You didn't do that. You've shifted. We went to a card that was not obvious.

What card was it? Then The seven of spades. So when you chose you had the choice. And you shifted around and pulled one. But behind your back you didn't know what you chose.

You just Pull the card. without looking and hit it in your pocket. Correct. So you have half of a card in your pocket and there's another half of a card in your hand.

Ha You want me to take it out? Sure. Let everybody say. Put'em together. See if they fit.

David Blaine, everybody. You had a a huge billboard. Could put anything on it, something short. Uh Meaning get a message out.

to the world. What would you put on it? I mean it's the last thing that my mother said to me is God is love. What does that mean to you? Well to me it means like love is the ultimate god. So like loving everything and everybody and not being filled with hate or animosity or fear. And trying to find love to me that's like

That's The ultimate. In life. David Bland, you're amazing. Guys, give it up for David Blaine.

Hey guys, this is Tim again, just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Blood Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. Kinda like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests, and these strange esoteric things end up in my field and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to Tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, Tim.blog slash. Friday, drop in your email and you'll get the very next one.

Thanks for listening.

What you see above is a preview of the first minutes. One unlock costs 3 credits and covers this episode forever: full segment and word-level timestamps on this page, plus .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like.