Magician/illusionist/endurance artist David Blaine will bring his live show to the Louisville Palace July 12. Here, he answers our questions about Louisville and Kentucky. If Blaine owned a Kentucky Derby horse, he would name it Thunder. Why? “When I was 11 I got struck by lightning,” he says.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Kentucky?
“I have lots of friends from there. One of my favorite musicians, Will Oldham — you know, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy — lives in Louisville. I’ve known Will for about 20 years; we met through (the filmmaker) Harmony Korine. The close of my show is actually one of Will’s songs that hasn’t been released yet; he made it special for me. The song is kind of about the point of everything that I do. You’ve gotta come to the show to hear it because you can’t hear it anywhere else.
“Do you know the playing card company in Erlanger, Kentucky, near Cincinnati? It’s called the United States Playing Card Company. I’ve been there a bunch of times. It’s the best one in the world. I just did a run of like 100,000 decks of cards there. They used to be in this amazing building in Cincinnati.
“By the way, there’s also a place in (eastern) Kentucky called Blaine, Kentucky.”
Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby?
“I have not been to the Kentucky Derby, but I made a predication once while I was in the water tank at Lincoln Center in New York.” (For a “Drowned Alive” stunt in 2006, Blaine was submerged in an eight-foot-diameter sphere of water for a week.) “I predicted the winner. I think it was the New York Post that got excited about that and published it before it happened.”
Which horse was it?
“I can’t remember. I made the prediction in the water tank and it was ten years ago.” (Barbaro won the 2006 Derby.)
Do you know how old Derby horses are? They’re all the same age.
“Oh, really? Um, how old is a horse in the Kentucky Derby? I would guess very young. They probably age at a higher rate. My guess is like 10.”
They’re all three years old.
“Isn’t each year for them considered like seven years or something like that? I’m sure that they don’t age at the same rate as humans.”
Do you know what a gelding is?
“What a what?”
Gelding. G-E-L-D-I-N-G.
“I have no idea.”
Want to take a guess?
“What a gelding is? No clue. A gelding?”
A gelding is a horse that’s been castrated.
“To get rid of their hormones or something like that?”
Something like that. And on that note, let’s do some food questions. Do you know what a Hot Brown is?
“Sounds like a drink.”
It’s this mess of an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon, tomatoes, cheese and Mornay sauce. This place in town called the Brown Hotel made it famous.
“I’m eating broccoli rabe as you tell me about that.”
So that’s not something you would eat?
“I would but not during a tour.”
Are you on a strict diet while you tour?
“I can only eat one day a week because I can’t eat on the day of a show. There’s no way to have food in my stomach because of the acts that I do.” (Watch the YouTube videos of Blaine regurgitating live frogs.) “Today is my day off so I’m actually eating while I’m on the phone with you.”
This has nothing to do with Louisville, but I just have to ask you: Do you know that Jay Z song “Threat”?
“Yeah, I know, I’m in it. I love it.”
Yeah, the lyric is, “Like David Blaine let the audience watch.” I’m wondering if Jay Z clued you in to that lyric before releasing the song or if you discovered it like the rest of us.
“I was surprised when I heard it and was happy. I’ve known him a long time, but he didn’t tell me.”
Let me ask you one more food thing: Do you know what the KFC Double Down is?
“Is it related to KFC?”
Yeah. I’ll just tell you: It’s a sandwich with bacon and cheese, with fried chicken patties as the bun.
“I grew up in Brooklyn with a single mother — it wasn’t a good part of Brooklyn — and one vivid memory from when I was like five is she walked me past a KFC and she said, ‘Breathe in.’ And it smelled like vomit because I guess somebody that was drunk that was eating Kentucky Fried Chicken had vomited all over. I never had any interest in fast food my whole life.”
And now, here's Blaine playing a card trick on J-Law:
