World-renowned magician David Blaine had to get his heart rate down before climbing through a window into a glass enclosure in Durban with six black mambas inside.
He needed to reach a state of Zen-like calm, mimicking that of black mamba rescuer Neville Wolmarans, who was inside the enclosure, to reduce the risk of being bitten by Africa’s deadliest snake.
His heart was racing watching the mambas slither across Wolmarans’ one leg — he has an above-knee amputation after a snake bite — and flashing their black mouths and fangs. In time its beating slowed and he slid into a chair next to Wolmarans and sat still, with the cameras running and an ambulance on standby outside Ndlondlo Reptile Park.
David Blaine Do Not Attempt is a six-part National Geographic series featuring the magician as he travels the world finding people who make their own magic doing death-defying and wondrous feats. They share their secrets with the magician, who then attempts them himself.
Our four-year-old daughter Stormy asked us to build her a rainbow-coloured car
— Top SA spinner Kayla Oliphant
Kayla Oliphant’s magic couldn’t be more different from the snake charmer’s. Hers is boisterous and wild, drawing the roars of hundreds of fans in a Soweto arena as she slides upside down out of the window of a spinning car with its rubber tyres burning.
She's one of South Africa’s best “spinners”, a motorsport which involves spinning a car on its axis while performing stunts.
She is from Kimberley but flaunts her spinner skills across provinces and oceans, all the way to the Caribbean islands.
Blaine connected with Oliphant and her partner, fellow spinner Jabu 'Jade' Sheomangal, in Soweto, where they spent a day training the endurance artist in Oliphant’s signature “suicide slide” until he was good enough to join her and Samkeliso 'Samsam' Thuane in a unique act. They performed the choreographed stunt in front of a huge crowd under spotlights.
In Do Not Attempt, Blaine describes the magic he feels when crowds react in disbelief to the illusions and tricks of which he is a master.
Musician Muzi ( Muziwakhe Mazibuko) was Blaine’s guide, taking him to a carnival in Soweto and around the muthi market in Durban among other experiences, and his songs give the episode an African feel.
His third feat in the South African episode of Do Not Attempt (episode 5) took place with yet another feared predator: underwater in the ocean at Aliwal Shoal, with man-size sharks.
Following the lead of shark whisperer Walter Bernadis, he learnt from him how to put sharks into a state of tonic immobility.
Bernadis describes this as “a natural state of temporary paralysis that helps sharks chill out and conserve energy”, which he uses to rescue sharks from entanglement in fishing line and nets, and to remove hooks from their mouths. He guided Blaine on how to flip them smoothly upside down with the dorsal fin to induce this state.
The sharks of Aliwal Shoal — which on any day include sharks such as blacktips, bull sharks, Zambezi sharks and raggies — glided around the men, seemingly unperturbed by their efforts. The wonder of diving with the marine predators is captivating, though the water on their day was not crystal clear. Safety teams were on standby as Blaine pushed the boundaries.
Do Not Attempt is about “exploring the world through the lens of magic”, National Geographic says of its new documentary series, which lives up to the promise that Blaine “seeks out kindred spirits, finds inspiration, and learns some truly exceptional skills” in the series.
Journalists attending the launch in Joburg this month, hosted by The Walt Disney Company Africa, got to engage with installations — walking across Lego barefoot is not the same as hot coals but still conjures up the spirit of the trial —. while optical illusions were also on display.
The question that lingered long after the screening was: which of Blaine’s astounding feats would you wish to try, noting that National Geographic has strict warnings about not attempting any of them.
Watch and decide for yourself: would it be sitting with mambas, flipping sharks or spinning upside down from a car?
- David Blaine Do Not Attempt premieres on March 28 on DStv 181 and Startimes 220, and is on Disney+ in SA.
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