A playing card can be used as a knife. A chopstick can be a weapon. And teeth can be tools to perform jaw-dropping acrobatics with heavy objects. Celebrated American magician David Blaine learns to push past the limits of reality in National Geographic’s new six-part show, David Blaine Do Not Attempt (DBDNA). It sees the famous endurance artist explore the world through the lens of magic by travelling to Brazil, Southeast Asia, India, the Arctic Circle, South Africa, and Japan to unlock ancient secrets, and learn unbelievable magical tricks. He experiences bone-chilling sensations — from hundreds of venomous scorpions crawling over him, kissing a king cobra on the forehead, to walking with flames, and sword swallowing — more than magic; the show is about human potential unlocked. In each episode, Blaine meets a local magician who helps him execute daredevil stunts and perform tricks.
In the first episode dedicated to India, Blaine meets Delhi-based magician Karan Singh. The latter is a remarkable mentalist known for guessing Shah Rukh Khan’s ATM pin, the name of Virat Kohli’s childhood friend, and blowing Aamir Khan’s mind with his card tricks. Known as a psychological illusionist, a mind-reader, he and Blaine bond over magic tricks to keep the audience engaged in the first episode. “Blaine was one of the reasons I got into magic,” Singh tells TMS adding, “When I got an email from Nat Geo saying that Blaine is shooting in India and they would love for me to be a part of it, I took it as a prank! The magic community is fairly small around the world. Since I uploaded a lot of content online, Blaine had seen some of my work,” says the 33-year-old magician on being roped into the show.
Daredevilry awaits
There are many television shows on magic including The Magic Of David Copperfield, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Magic For Humans and Penn and Teller: Fool Us, amongst others. However, Indian magic has often been left in the shadows with barely-there TV shows and little to no Indian representation in TV shows worldwide. With DBDNA, Indian magic is put on the world map as Singh and Blaine discover the streets of Delhi, Jaipur, Kurukshetra, and other parts of North India to spot bizzarists and learn tricks from them.
“We went to the Urs Festival in Rajasthan where we saw people putting their bodies through incredible things which you can see in the show. There’s a sadhu in the show who can bury his head under the ground for three weeks straight and performs a headstand. Blaine is always willing to push the boundaries. For instance, if he breaks a bottle on his head, he’s actually doing it. So, the risk factor is real,” Singh tells TMS, adding, “In another trick, Blaine will be seen eating a piece of thread and pulling it out of his neck. He first performed its version in 1997 when he took the thread out of his stomach. It’s based on a trick from a book, Swami Mantra, written in India based on Indian magic. Blaine improvised the trick in his own way. It’s one of the most beautiful moments of the show. The expression of the people when he performs it is phenomenal,” he says.
The magical calling
Singh’s journey in magic started off in 2002 when, at 11, he saw a street magician Ishamuddin Khan perform live during a summer camp in Kullu Manali. “I learnt my first trick from him, but it was when I reached 14 that I stumbled upon David Blaine on TV. I was blown away by his endurance stunts and took up magic. Later, I saw English mentalist Derren Brown do tricks and flew around the world to see his shows,” he says, talking of his biggest influences.
Singh gained expertise in mentalism. It involves hypnosis, reading the mind, body language, micro-expressions, and picking up on it to successfully perform tricks. However, as an emerging magician in the 2000s, his career choice was seen as frivolous. “When I started, nobody knew what mentalism was. Whenever I used to tell people that I want to perform magic, their first thought was ‘oh you want to perform for children at kids' birthday parties’,” says Singh. Singh did start off performing at kids’ parties, but his perseverance made him a master of mentalism and got him many corporate shows as well as invitations to celebrity homes for his entertaining acts.
Since the last two decades, Singh feels that magicians are finally getting due recognition. “When global magicians like Blaine come to India to shoot, it’s a testament to how magic is seen with a renewed interest as an art form in our country as people look for new forms of entertainment. When Blaine was in India, he and I uploaded a story on Instagram. Seeing it, at least 500 magicians messaged me that they wanted to come and meet Blaine. To see the outpouring of love from hundreds of magicians was an unknown thing when I started off! It’s incredible that people are willing to explore magic as a career.”
David Blaine Do Not Attempt is set to premiere on April 6, Sundays at 8 PM on National Geographic Channel.