David Blaine is known for his death-defying stunts, but it’s not often that they actually go wrong.
The 43-year-old pulled off his most dangerous stunt yet when he shot himsef in his mouth, but it didn’t go exactly as planned.
Performing a variation of his original ‘bullet catch’, Blaine attempted the stunt with a twist: Instead of having someone shoot the bullet into his mouth, he pulled the trigger himself.
But upon catching the bullet, his mouth guard snapped, with a broken piece hitting and cutting the back of his throat, the Daily Mail reports. In the seconds after the catch, Blaine admitted he mistook the laceration for the bullet going through his head.
He explained to ABC afterwards: “When the bullet struck the cup, there was a high-pitch ringing in my ears, and I felt an impact at the back of my throat. And I was sure that the bullet went right through my head, and that I was dead.”
Blaine, who first attempted and succeeded with the bullet catch in 2009, was checked out immediately by a doctor onset, who determined he had just suffered a cut to the throat and was taken to hospital for minor lacerations. But he insists he will still perform the trick during his upcoming live tour.
As documented for a Rolling Stone behind-the-scenes video, Blaine did a lot of preparation for the death-defying maneuver. The illusionist had a friend shoot him multiple times in the chest with a handgun while Blaine wore a bulletproof vest with the impact plate removed. The purpose of the exercise was to teach him not to flinch when the gun went off.
He says in the video: “In order to catch a bullet, I need to get comfortable with this first. In order to figure out if I have the confidence to do it, I needed to get shot here a bunch of times so I understand, ‘Oh, it’s possible.’”
Blaine performed the trick on Tuesday night for the ABC special Beyond Magic, before a celebrity-packed audience that included Drake, Johnny Depp, Margot Robbie, John Travolta, and Emma Stone.
What an insane human being…
