David Blaine refused to let a stab wound hinder his live show.
The 49-year-old magician mistakenly injured himself while performing his famous ice pick trick in Las Vegas. The stunt is relatively straight-forward: Blaine calls on two audience members to analyze a row of three styrofoam cups and guess which one of them has an ice pick hidden underneath. Once the selection is made, Blaine places his hands over the two other cups and smashes them; however, this time around, the audience members picked the wrong cup, causing Blaine to stab his own hand.
Blaine told People magazine he had performed the trick “one thousand times” without sustaining any injuries. But he ignored his gut instincts during this specific show, as he didn’t want to cause any delays.
“I felt like this was the one,” he told the outlet. “I wanted to keep it exciting, so I just figured I’ll go for it even though I didn’t feel it was right.”
He continued: “The show must go on, so I just cleaned up the blood and started again a minute later.”
Blaine has performed variations of the ice pick trick throughout his career, but admitted it was never his favorite.
“I wasn’t a big fan of the trick until now,” he said, suggesting the recent mishap made the stunt more exciting.
Blaine is expected to perform the trick this weekend, when his show returns to Resorts World Theater in Vegas. His residency kicked off back in September and will conclude on March 11. The show is packed with jaw-dropping illusions and death-defying feats, including a nine-story jump from the top of the venue.
“It’s intimate,” Blaine said about the show. “It’ll be interactive and I’ll be able to do things with the audience and bring them up … And then there’s the stunt element of it where I can bring all the crazy things I’ve spent most of my adult life and magic thinking about and put them all in this room.”
You can learn more about Blaine’s residency at the Resorts World Theatre website.
