Blaine was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of a single mother,[2] Patrice White, a teacher who was of Russian Jewish ancestry, and father William Perez, who is a Vietnam War veteran of Puerto Rican and Italian descent.

[16] On April 5, 1999, Blaine was entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days, across from Trump Place on 68th St. and Riverside Boulevard, as part of a stunt titled "Buried Alive".

A team of construction workers removed a portion of the 75 cubic feet (2.1 m3) of gravel surrounding the 6-foot (1.8-metre) deep coffin before a crane lifted the water tank.

[18] Blaine emerged and told the crowd, "I saw something very prophetic ... a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made all this worthwhile.

"[19] BBC News stated, "The 26-year-old magician has outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it.

[22] The New York Times reported, "The magician who emerged from the increasingly unstable ice box seemed a shadow of the confident, robust, shirtless fellow who entered two days before.

He ended the feat by jumping down onto a landing platform made out of a 12 ft (3.7 m) high pile of cardboard boxes and sustained a mild concussion.

[29] The stunt was the subject of public interest and media attention, The Times reported that "1,614 articles in the British press have made reference to the exploit.

"[31] A number of spectators threw food and other items towards the box, including eggs, paint-filled balloons and golf balls, according to The Times.

[32] The Evening Standard reported that one man was arrested for attempting to cut the cable supplying water to Blaine's box.

[33][34] On September 25, BBC News reported that "if his endurance test is real rather than an elaborate illusion", then Blaine's claim of tasting pear drops indicates he is advancing through the first stage of starvation.

"[37] On May 1, 2006, Blaine began his Drowned Alive stunt, which lasted seven days and involved a submersion in an 8 feet (2.4 m) diameter, water-filled sphere containing isotonic saline in front of the Lincoln Center in New York City.

[39] After the stunt, Blaine entered into an agreement with researchers at Yale University to monitor him in order to study the human physiological reaction to prolonged submersion.

[40] On November 21, 2006, Blaine began his Revolution stunt, where he was shackled to a rotating gyroscope without food or water, intending to escape within 16 hours.

On September 22, Blaine began his stunt Dive of Death, hanging over Wollman Rink in Central Park and interacting with fans by lowering himself upside down.

[49] In this 42-minute television special that aired on April 18, 2010, Blaine performed an illusion of catching a .22 caliber bullet fired from a rifle into a small metal cup in his mouth.

[50] On October 5, 2012, Blaine began performing a 72-hour endurance stunt called Electrified: One Million Volts Always On atop a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) pillar on Pier 54 in New York City, which was streamed live on YouTube.

[51] During the stunt, Blaine stood on the pillar surrounded by seven Tesla coils producing an electric discharge of one million volts or more continuously.

He wore 34 pounds (15 kilograms) of gear, including a chainmail Faraday suit, designed to prevent electric current from traveling through the body.

[59] Real or Magic achieved a 2.5 rating in the 18–49 age bracket, and posted the best numbers in the 9:30–11:00 pm time slot for ABC's 2013 season.

Among the featured stunts is one in which Blaine seemingly catches a .22 caliber bullet in a small metal cup held between a gum shield in his mouth.

[66][67] In 2014, Blaine embarked on his first ever live tour, in which he took his tricks and stunts on the road to audiences in the Middle East and North America.

Blaine had planned to take the bullet catch trick on tour, although, after the successful/unsuccessful live attempt, in the MGM Grand Arena, in 2015, he shelved this idea and went with the main stunt of the underwater breath hold for these shows.

This was the stunt he carried out in his 2006 'Drowned Alive' TV special and of which he also performed again, in a live world record attempt, in 2009, on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

[71] Blaine also donated two $1 million Tesla coils to Liberty Science Center after performing a massive electricity stunt.

[73] He dated Fiona Apple in 1997 and had relationships with Madonna, Bijou Phillips, Josie Maran, Daryl Hannah and Lonneke Engel.