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Where did he come from? Blaine likes to cultivate an air of mystery. In his short life, he has gone by several last names, including his grandmother's and his stepfather's, both of which he declines to disclose. Blaine (it's actually his middle name) was born in Brooklyn and started doing magic at age 4 when his mother Patrice White got him his first effect: a device that allowed a pencil to pass through a card without leaving a hole in it. He says he loved magic early on because "it made people smile. I've always had an ability to communicate with people, and magic was just a device that enhanced that." Blaine studied acting at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse but started doing magic for rich people's private parties, earning, he says, as much as $300 an hour. Through a friend's roommate, he met the man who would become his ICM agent, Jon Podell (who also represents Michael Bolton and the Allman Brothers). When Podell doubted that Blaine's "close-up" magic would work on TV, Blaine hired his own video crew and shot a 10-minute demo to convince him.
But Blaine intends the ABC special to signal the close of his card-trick phase. "It's fun, but I'm starting to get depleted," he says. He has been consulting with more seasoned magicians to bolster his repertoire ("We discuss ways to make things possible," he says) and has begun putting together his theatrical debut, an ambitious show he plans to perform for the first time in a meat locker in Manhattan's meat-packing district. "It's going to be simple and street," he promises. "It will have a story, not just a bunch of assembled tricks."
Despite Blaine's immersion in the worlds of celebrity and illusion, he says his idol remains his mother, who died of cancer in 1994. "She raised me with the attitude you can do anything you want," says Blaine. "She told me, 'There's no logic--just follow your heart.'" Time will tell if that heart is an ace.