David Blaine Impales Himself with an Icepick has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

Ricky Gervais is to Karl Pilkington as David Blaine is to Ricky Gervais.

This has got to be some sort of very well made prosthetic for these impaling illusions.

I won't reveal it in a comment, but if anyone's curious how it's done watch:

http://videosift.com/video/Man-Stabbed-With-a-Sword-Extraordinary-footage

You learn a lot here.

twah.

HA!!! i was saying this during the whole video!!!!

My little brother is a magic consultant for TV shows. He's a behind the scenes magician who designs tricks for performers and helps them with the performance aspects.

I don't ask him how stuff is done as it rather spoils things and there's no point. What he has told be though is that most people would be absolutely amazed at the lengths a magician will go to to get a trick to work. Also the simpler a trick is the more likely it is to work.

So, there's probably very little in the way of trick here.

There used to be a magician at Knott's Berry Farm that demonstrated this trick pretty close to the audience and then explained that he had trained for years to create the pathway through his body for the sword to pass through.

The arm is particularly easy because of how the muscles are arranged around the bone. It passes right below the biceps. Not much going on in this particular, dare I say "easy" to pull off location of bloodless stabbiness.
I don't know if the Knott's magician is still there or not, but it was a "magic" show that explained the science behind older, more simplistic tricks like this.

Also included were lots of different types of electricity stunts (static electricity, powering light bulbs through people, etc.), which have fallen to the wayside with magicians because most people nowadays understand electricity and it's not as gut wrenching as this scar tissue build up dealio.

I upvoted for Ricky's reactions and David'd ridiculous goading, but the trick itself is le sigh.

The magician at Knott's had a fairly visible scar on both sides of his arm, as he likely performed the trick A LOT. Serious needle mark action. lol. Blaine probably rarely performs this trick and perhaps used other material, like make up, latex or some such material, glue, creams, etc.

The background music sounds suspiciously like some of the counter-melodies in Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"...

The physical skill of weaving foreign objects between his important inside bits is impressive, but why imply it's some kind of illusion? He is, as Ricky concisely points out, sticking a fucking needle through his arm.

I think he would much rather have you think it's an illusion you can't figure out. I personally would be much more impressed if it was. Just not as exciting when you know how it's done.

I have a lot of respect for Blaine since i saw his TED talk. I don't like the stuff he used to do that was on british TV, where he'd basically look googly eyed at people the entire time. This was really enjoyable though.