I was mildy curious what David Blaine: What is Magic?, a video on Netflix, would have in terms of magic tricks. If you recall, David Blaine has made himself popular performing magic on the street as well as performing endurance challenges such as being encased in ice for 63 hours, buried alive, standing on 100 foot pillar for 35 hours and other ridiculous spectacles.

While the two hour long program on Netflix did have some intriguing tricks it was the end of the show that caught my attention. David Blaine stood in a gun range and had a .22LR bolt action rifle shot at his mouth where he catches the bullet with a special steel shot glass.

There is a bit going on with the set up and to kill time they show the gun shooting an apple and film it all in high speed. They have a guy shoot an H&K USC past Blaine’s head.

I have circled the .45acp bullet in flight.

Then to warm up to being shot in the mouth, Blaine holds the cup in his hand and has the shooter shoot the cup with the .22lr rifle.

Here is the rifle that was used. Can anyone ID this rifle make and model?

And here is a screen cap of the .22LR bullet flying toward his mouth cup. It appears the cup has a slanted bottom. So rather than hitting a 90 degree wall, it slams into an incline thus dissipating energy a bit more.

I am not sure why he did this. This does not seem like a very challenging endeavor. Not that I want to do it myself and nor should you. It is just that there is very little to gain from this stupid trick and too much risk. Also this does not seem as challenging as his other endurance performances. Standing atop a 22″ wide platform 100 feet in the air for 35 hours is challenging. Here, you just stand still and have an accurate .22LR shoot into a small cup that you are holding. Standing still for that brief amount of time does not seem all that impressive. Also he wore glasses when he held the shot glass in his hands but didn’t wear any when he was shot in the mouth Very dumb. Especially since you can see fragments flying as the bullet shatters in the cup.

Here is a video clip I found online.