David Blaine: Drowned Alive? Part III
Posted By Paul Kotik on 4 May 2006
The living dead
I asked Martin whether Michael Jackson had appeared, as had been rumored. No. There had, however, been two appearances by a sister of Usama Bin Laden, a friend, it seems, of David Blaine. Later I considered the possibility that David Blaine is, in fact, Usama Bin Laden: what better place to hide out than in a glass sphere on the plaza at Lincoln Center? Eh ? Who’d think to look for him there ?
But that’s silly, the product of a drowsy and overstimulated brain. Mine’s in that condition, to be sure. The Performance Freediving team members are several weeks farther down that path than I am, and David Blaine is on some other level entirely. I’m wondering how I’m going to last until the Monday, May 8 finale – and I’m sleeping in a proper bed.
The Performance Freediving team is at the sphere 24/7. Kirk covers the 3PM -11PM shift, relieved by Mandy for the graveyard shift 11PM -7AM, and then Martin takes over from 7AM – 3PM. When one’s shift is over, he is designated the backup and can go no farther than the crew trailer a short distance away, on call for another 8-hour shift. That leaves only 8 hours out of each 24 for a retreat to the team hotel.
It’s no wonder Vivianna Karamanis was summoned up the ladder to minister to David Blaine’s hands. She’s been Blaine’s PA for only three months, but is totally dedicated to the man and the project. “I started to cry when he climbed into the sphere”, she admitted. “I was terribly worried for him”. Not any more, she said. Now she feels secure. He’s got great support from the Performance Freediving team, and she knows he’ll be okay. He seems happy and upbeat to her. Still, Vivianna is on site 24/7 for the entire week, catnapping in the trailer. All of Blaine's people are like this:true believers.
A burly, business-suited security guard challenged me. Do I have an ID bracelet? I do not. I’m with the divers, I said, pointing out the Deeper Blue logo on my hooded sweatshirt. No problem, he grinned. Like everyone I encountered at the venue he had a long list of questions about apnea, freediving and physiology. Any doubts I may have had about the positive yield of this event for freediving are rapidly being dispelled.
The mix of spectators varies with the time of day. Martin, oceanman that he is, quickly doped out the rhythm of the human tides. The suits come in the morning, on their way to work. Then the school kids, with their backpacks. The nurses come when the shift changes at a nearby hospital. College students after that. Then more school kids, and another wave of suits. And at night ? Martin grinned. "That’s when it gets interesting. The drunks, all kinds of strange New York wildlife."
Copyright 2006 Paul Kotik/DeeperBlue.net
The buzz is definitely spreading around. The first day had competition from the nationwide immigrant protests, followed by two days of Israeli holidays in the most Jewish of American cities. But the word is out. As I journeyed from an outlying quarter into Manhattan, ambled about the city center, and then trained and bussed out to Queens, there was never a time when I was out of sight of a newspaper with the Blaine event prominently on display, or out of earshot from a conversation about the event. When I left Lincoln Center I cut through Central Park to soothe my country boy’s nerves – to no avail, as the strollers' mobile phones were running at capacity and the talk all seemed to be about the man in the glass ball of water.
There's More!
Read more coverage of the David Blaine event from Paul in our David Blaine: Drowned Alive? Special Feature Series and check out the Photo Gallery and Audio Interviews!
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
