David Blaine stuns Mike Tyson with quarantine magic trick on boxing legend's online talk show
With all the depressing headlines inundating our respective newsfeeds, maybe what we all need is a touch of magic to lighten things up amid this disconcerting pandemic.
Renowned magician David Blaine is now proving that his magic is quarantine-proof.
The 47-year-old illusionist was the most recent guest on boxing legend Mike Tyson's new online talk show titled 'Safe Distance with Mike Tyson.'
Produced by Tyson Ranch, the program sees the former heavyweight champion talk one-on-one with prominent celebrities as they share their life experiences while being hunkered down amid the global pandemic. Since its inception, the show has featured notable stars like Dana White and Fat Joe.
Tyson and Blaine began the episode discussing the status quo and how long the world could withstand a lockdown without crumbling underneath its own pressure.
Tyson, who holds the record as the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title at 20 years and four months, asked Blaine when, according to him, the world would go back to a state of normalcy.
"It's hard to predict something like that," Blaine responded, adding that he has been "following other cases like Wuhan and Italy, seems like it's going to be a very long and intense battle until we figure out better solutions."
The magician and extreme performer also revealed that his daughter Dessa, 9, is stranded in France with her mother while he is in Los Angeles. He said he didn't want to risk going to France and exposing any family members to the pathogen considering Dessa's elderly grandmother is also staying with her.
Tyson then asked Blaine what he thought about living in such uncertain times, a moment no one had previously anticipated. In his response, the record-holding endurance artist had some really cogent and positive insights to offer.
"The world is uniting together," Blaine said, noting it's "rare" that practically everyone is facing the same threat at the same time.
"We are all facing the exact same virus," he continued, saying a medical or scientific "revolution" is imminent "when there's a collaborative thought process with people from different parts of the world put their brain to solve one problem."
Blaine cited the bubonic plague of the 1600s and how people came together to find a solution and beat the deadly contagion, which had a mortality rate of 50-70% among untreated cases.
"Thousands of people were dropping dead on the streets of London every week," he explained. "But following that, there was a very serious scientific and medical revolution."
"So sometimes it does take something as catastrophic to unite people. And people are amazing when they collectively put their thoughts on one thing — the way ideas flourish when that happens is always unprecedented," he added.
Blaine urged people to look at the ongoing crisis from his perspective.
"This is a horrible and atrocious time that people have to live through, but on the tail end we might become better as a race, as humans," he concluded.
The famed illusionist then told Tyson how "you changed my life" after a chance encounter they had back when he was still making his bones.
"I met you because your crew accidentally took my suitcase and put it in one of your crews'. They told me to knock on the window, and it was you," Blaine explained to Tyson, before revealing the sage advice the heavyweight champ imparted to him.
"I was never meant to be the heavyweight champ, I don't have the arm reach, I'm short, I am not right ... but I had nothing to lose and therefore I had everything to gain," Iron Mike told the budding magician at the time.
And according to Blaine, those words "entirely changed my focus" and inspired him to "give every single thing into what you believe in."
The Brooklyn-born artist then put on a show for his childhood hero, which was impressive to say the least considering he and Tyson weren't even in the same room.
Blaine had Tyson pick out a specific card as he shuffled through his deck on camera. After the boxing legend picked a card without Blaine's knowledge, the crafty magician wasted no time and produced his card, a 6 of diamonds, with a mere flick of the wrist.
Tyson was left speechless and immediately wanted to know how Blaine pulled it off. But the talented magician knew better than to reveal a trade secret, especially since the boxing heavyweight couldn't intimidate him through the camera and from a "safe distance."