Magician David Blaine will stupefy the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on July 7
From a press release:
Magician and illusionist David Blaine, known worldwide for his high-profile physical endurance stunts, will astonish the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Friday, July 7 at 8 p.m.
Tickets, which are $49.50, $59.50, and $79.50, plus applicable fees, go on sale this Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at sandseventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Sands Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000.
Described by Howard Stern as the greatest magician that ever lived, David Blaine single-handedly redefined magic after producing and directing his original television special “Street Magic” when he was just 23, which Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller called “the best TV magic special ever done.” The New York Times noted that Blaine has “taken a craft that’s been around for hundreds of years and done something unique and fresh with it,” whilst The New Yorker claimed “he saved magic.”
Over the last two decades, Blaine’s nine primetime specials have seen him being buried alive in New York City for a week, encased inside a six-ton block of ice for three days, survived standing atop a 100-foot-tall pillar in Bryant Park for 36 hours without a safety net, endured 44 days inside a transparent box in London on nothing but water, and had over one million volts discharged at him continuously for 72 hours from seven Tesla coils. Blaine also spent one week submerged in a sphere-shaped aquarium at Lincoln Center before breaking the world record for breath holding live on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where he held his breath for over 17 minutes.
As well as performing to audiences of over 20,000 in arenas around the world, he has performed intimately for U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Stephen Hawking, and Muhammad Ali, as well as President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and other international leaders. He also performed alongside Michael Jackson and during the Super Bowl halftime show.
Starting his career as a street magician who appeared to do the impossible with a deck of cards, Blaine was soon following in the footsteps of Houdini, seeking out that which seems physically impossible and doing it for real. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he discovered his passion for magic at the age of four when he saw a magician perform in the subway. His mother encouraged his passion, and he began performing professionally for private parties when he turned 13. At 19, he made his first television appearance and, soon after, he began traveling around the world with his magic. By the age of 23, Blaine had created, directed, and produced the original television program “Street Magic,” which revolutionized the way magic was portrayed on television and garnered rave reviews by critics. Since then, Blaine has produced nine more specials, including “Beautiful Struggle” in 2010.
While he is surely trying to amaze with the creativity and showmanship of his stunts, he is also on a very real and personal path of discovery about the extremes to which the human body can be pushed and the suffering that the human spirit can endure.
