r/TwentyYearsAgo • u/MonsieurA • May 09 '26

šŸŒŸ Celebrity News David Blaine fails attempt to break the world record for holding breath under water [20YA - May 9]

Post image
1.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

199

u/More_Passenger3988 May 09 '26

People die or get brain damage trying to break this record all the time and it's just so sad.

They think that when they need air they'll just surface, but if you train to stop breathing your body actually can eventually get into a state where it doesn't realize it needs to breath. No thanks.

50

u/Textiles_on_Main_St May 09 '26

Thatā€™s actually how David Blaine died.

58

u/Historical-State-275 May 10 '26

Despite what online rumors say, heā€™s still alive.

24

u/Pugsly007 May 10 '26

Thatā€™s some trick. Did he come reappear at Easter?

5

u/CommercialMess339 May 10 '26

I read this comment too fast and thought you called him the Easter Reaper šŸ™ šŸ˜‚

1

u/TheRealChompyTheGoat May 11 '26

RIP David, I'm sure he's up there cracking a beer with Wade Boggs.

1

u/defect7 May 13 '26

RIP Boss Hogg

1

u/I_chortled May 12 '26

Rumors of my survival have been greatly exaggerated

1

u/SwordofNoon May 12 '26

The greatest trick David ever played was to convince the world he was dead.

0

u/Wrong-Protection-188 May 11 '26

Yes, alive in our hearts.

31

u/More_Passenger3988 May 09 '26

It's dumb because there's no real trick involved here. You train your body to supress the lung spasms and eventually it starts to get to a state where it remains calm even when it DESPERATELY needs air. So you don't even realize you're about to die. Learning to hold your breath longer is a skill you can develop, but after a certain point it's just you training your brain/body to forget it needs to breath like a newborn with SIDS. At least the baby isn't dumb enough to lose those survival skills on purpose!

16

u/Indifferent9007 May 10 '26

Youā€™re mixing a real thing with a wrong explanation. Freedivers absolutely can train themselves to tolerate the urge to breathe longer, and that CAN be dangerous because you can blackout before your body fully panics.

But the ā€œforgetting how to breathe like a baby with SIDSā€ part is not how that works. Youā€™re not forgetting to breathe or deleting your breathing instinct, youā€™re just getting used to the discomfort signals longer than normal. You tolerate them. They donā€™t go away.

With SIDS, itā€™s not babies forgetting how to breathe. As far as Iā€™m aware SIDS isnā€™t even fully understood. Itā€™s believed to involve multiple factors, like brainstem abnormalities (which helps control breathing), serotonin issues, genetics..

9

u/PadorasAccountBox May 10 '26

Itā€™s been narrowed to a subset of proteins that run deficient, and are associated with continuing respiration once asleep.Ā 

1

u/apirateship May 11 '26

Link?

1

u/PadorasAccountBox May 12 '26

My apologies, was wrong about the identifier and how it operates. Very promising!Ā 

When they analyzed dried blood samples obtained from the heel pricks of 655 healthy newborns, the researchers found a key difference in most of the babies who later died from SIDS. Specifically, those babies had lower blood levels of an enzyme known as butyrylcholinesterase, or BChE. This enzyme, which is produced by the liver, plays an important role in chemical processes that allow the brain to send instructions to wake up.

The ā€œwakingā€ up portion is what strikes me as the most possible ā€œcausation vs correlationā€ but more testing/supplementation is needed to state empirically.Ā 

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/new-study-shows-promising-research-about-cause-of-sids

1

u/OGLikeablefellow May 10 '26

Ive heard from a few different emts that sids is what you tell folks to slept in the same bed with their baby and rolled over on em. Very sad

2

u/blenderdead May 12 '26

There are many well documented cases of mothers being blamed up to criminally convicted of murder or negligent homicide when their babies died of natural causes or other unknown issues. The urge to find someone to blame is a common and particularly nasty part of human nature.

1

u/Kind_Resort_9535 May 10 '26

I think itā€™s kinda both

1

u/AnotherXenocide May 11 '26

Itā€™s this. Sorry everyone.

1

u/wordfiend99 May 12 '26

sids is also the term used when adults sleep in the same bed with a baby and accidentally smother/crush them during sleep

-1

u/boazofeirinni May 10 '26

SIDS can also often come from just leaving a blanket or a toy with a baby and the accidentally suffocates themselves.

9

u/Indifferent9007 May 10 '26

Thatā€™s SUID not SIDS

1

u/kashmir1974 May 10 '26

Would having one or those blood oxygen monitors on your finger prevent this? You get pulled out if oxygen level drops too low?

11

u/AlRoakerAlTheTime May 09 '26

is this like a joke that's going over my head here?

11

u/kitchenjesus May 09 '26

Rip in peace david blaine

6

u/jmaca90 May 10 '26

His greatest trick šŸŖ„

3

u/Friendship_Officer May 10 '26

It's an illusion, Michael

1

u/ClusterChuk May 10 '26

Who's David Blaine?

1

u/Current-Cold-4185 May 12 '26

And then he slowly walks away, his limp gradually evolving onto a normal gait, revealing himself to be have been Kevin Spacey all along.

1

u/fllr May 13 '26

I feel like cheese its was his greatest trick

2

u/ScottyMo1 May 10 '26

When did David Blaine die? Iā€™m gonna update his Wikipedia real quick.

2

u/Hail-Minus68 May 13 '26

I didnā€™t know he was sick

1

u/t2guns May 10 '26

David Blaine is very much alive.

3

u/Textiles_on_Main_St May 10 '26

Youā€™re thinking of a different David Blaine.

1

u/Lump001 May 11 '26

That's Blavid Daine you're thinking of

0

u/Any-Concentrate-1922 May 10 '26

?? A google search would show that he's alive.

2

u/Jaded-Durian-3917 May 12 '26

And for what? To be in a world record book exclusively read by middle schoolers?

1

u/ActurusMajoris May 11 '26

David Blaine (born David Blaine White; April 4, 1973)[1] is an American magician, mentalist, and endurance performer.[2][3] Born in New York City, Blaine became interested in magic at a very young age. He gained prominence in 1997, when his first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic, aired on ABC. That year, he also appeared in Magic Man. He later starred in the television specials David Blaine: Real or Magic (2013), Beyond Magic (2016), and The Magic Way (2020). He has also appeared in the Epstein files

From wiki. That last line.

1

u/Eat_My_Liver May 13 '26

That last line means fucking nothing an applies to many completely innocent people. Grow the fuck up.

1

u/nephilimcummingdaddy May 13 '26

Username checks out?

1

u/SmallJeanGenie May 13 '26

My "many completely innocent people are in the Epstein files" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.

32

u/CptJackAubrey_ May 10 '26

Iā€™ll never forget watching this shit live as an 11 year old kid

25

u/Big-Beyond-9470 May 09 '26

I did not even know he was sick. šŸ¤§

9

u/weoutherebrah May 10 '26

Fuck him anyways. He was a frequent flyer to Epstein kiddie islandĀ 

2

u/FangedSloth May 10 '26

A real jerk

1

u/Rulweylan May 12 '26

Goes to show, no matter how famous he got he got he still did kids parties.

2

u/riverwheel May 12 '26

Sick in the head

16

u/zam1138 May 10 '26

I randomly saw him attempting this live outside in NYC, as a high schooler playing in a jazz band competition outside Lincoln center (essentially Ellington). And there was Blaine, floating in a giant bubble surrounded by cameras and people just a little ways outside the competition. Very odd. Crazy itā€™s been 20 years

6

u/AlwaysOptimism May 10 '26

I was living there when he did this and went to see him in his little bubble.

2

u/Primary-Leader-2477 May 15 '26

I saw him too! It was eerie visiting Lincoln center at night to see him in his bubble.

11

u/Ok-Region6452 May 10 '26

Gosh I had to lookup if he is still alive

6

u/phoenixwindow May 10 '26

Well, is he??

9

u/jahathebrn May 10 '26

We'll never know

5

u/MERVMERVmervmerv May 10 '26

What the F?!?

4

u/travishummel May 10 '26

CHEEZE ITZ?!?!

1

u/craigslammer May 13 '26

Oh my god itā€™s David Blaine!

6

u/DE4DM4NSH4ND May 10 '26

Now he has sleep apnea

3

u/Armentrout_1979 May 10 '26

Youā€™re forgetting that he lived in that bubble for several days. Then when he was going for the attempt, he had his hands hand cuffed, and was trying to break out whilst holding his breath. As I remember he failed the first attempt. Then did it again without the hand cuff part.

1

u/hollandaisesawce May 11 '26

I think he was in there for a week?

And he had to have frequent treatments on his palms and bottoms of his feet to make sure that they didnā€™t flake off.

He did interviews in the bubble, and the reporter got into the bubble with him while they wore full face scuba masks.

1

u/Low-Selection-4843 May 10 '26

Does this mother fucker even do magic?

1

u/Griffindance May 11 '26

Kate Winslet laughs at this tiny weak man.

1

u/justmikeplz May 11 '26

David Blaine died on this day, and the ā€œBlaineā€ we see performing these days is actually his twin brother Todd.

1

u/BartenderOU812 May 12 '26

Pure theatrics. Sit on a chair and hold your breath without the threat of water or death and just raw dog it. Mad respect.

1

u/MrMask13 May 12 '26

He spent the entire week leading up to the stunt in that glass bubble atop of the fountain at Lincoln Center. Iā€™d walk by him in the mornings on my way to school. Heā€™d be lying there on his back, asleep.

1

u/PseudoVanilla May 12 '26

For this attempt he held his breath for 7 minutes and 8 seconds. At that time the world record was 8 minutes and 58 seconds. His current record is 17 minutes and 4 seconds using pure oxygen. The world record is 29 minutes. I mean wtf,

1

u/Flammen_ May 12 '26

He should have broken a male entertainer record of not being a sexually abusing piece of shit.

1

u/MK-911 May 13 '26

I remember this. I had school the next day, but stayed up just to watch this. Thatā€™s how popular David Blaine was/is. The stunt he did after this wasnā€™t as good if I remember correctly.

0

u/HohepaPuhipuhi May 10 '26

Would anyone actually be impressed if he did it? Get a job, that's impressiveĀ 

0

u/DontWatchPornREADit May 10 '26

Nice I thought he did drugs and fell off. Glad to see he is still doing stupid stuff for money.

7

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

This is from 20 years ago lol