David Blaine Real Or Magic - Street Magician Almost Died In 44 Day Stunt; Reveals How NFL Linebacker Almost 'Busted' His Trick

The street magic legend David Blaine has taken six years to make another TV special. While some street magicians in the world have weekly shows, Blaine's standards are lofty beyond reason.

His dedication to produce shocking stunts and inventive tricks are all dedicated to getting the priceless reaction from his audience. In his own words (from Collider): "Yeah, that's basically the best part, for me (audience reaction).  Even though I look like I'm pretty stone-faced, I'm usually reacting really hard, on the inside."

Blaine has performed to heads of State and celebrities at every level but he reveals his favorite audience. He claims that performing for kids who have terminal illness gives him a special feeling:

"That's always the most moving.  When I leave the room, that's when I end up crying.  Not crying from sadness, but crying because it was so amazing and touching and poetic.  That is definitely one of the greatest pleasures I get out of doing magic, that's for sure.  It's nice when there's an emotion connected to the magic, as well."

Blaine also confesses that his stunts are literally death-defying. His internal organs were about to give way when he made the stunt wherein he will survive on water alone for 44 days (doctors say we can do that for three weeks only). Still from Collider:  "I think the closest I've come to death was probably the 44 days, living just on water.  The organs start to shut down, and that was a borderline where I couldn't go any further than that."

Was there ever a time when a member of his audience 'busted' his trick?

"It's interesting, one time I was doing magic for the two teams from the Super Bowl in 2002.  I remember that one of the microphones followed one of the linebackers.  I had just done magic for the whole team, and they all ran away screaming.  I stayed back and the camera stayed back, but the sound guy was shadowing one of the linebackers, and the way he explained the technique to my magic was almost like reading it in a magic book.  It was so specific.  And I've never had anybody do that.  I was like, 'Oh, this is why the guy is a pro linebacker in the Super Bowl.  He can read behavior and patterns and make estimations, and it's not just restricted to what he's doing.' That was a really cool learning experience for me."

"David Blaine: Real Or Magic" airs on November 19 on ABC.