David Blaine, the US magician, stuntman and all-round daredevil, is going electric -- standing for three days and nights in the middle of a million volts of fiery electric currents.
Blaine, 39, has previously been buried alive, frozen in an ice cube, trapped in a glass box for a week, and submerged underwater.
He says his latest feat, standing on a pillar in New York in what amounts to the middle of a personal lightning storm, will take him to new limits of endurance.
One element of the challenge, which begins Friday on Pier 54 in the Hudson River, will simply be lasting 72 hours.
"No food. Standing -- no sitting. No rest," he told journalists on Tuesday. That would finish most people off. But Blaine will do all this while standing in the middle of the electric storm protected only by a stainless steel suit of chainmail, iron soled boots and a cage-like helmet. The outfit is designed to allow the fierce currents to dance over his body, without ever touching his skin.
The helmet is open so that he can drink water through a tube, but a security team will be watching carefully that he never pokes one of his chainmail-clad fingers onto his face. "If I start to hallucinate, which I will, ... if I go to itch my face, that's it -- it's getting zapped by a lot of electricity," he said.
He will be standing on top of a 20-foot column surrounded by seven metallic orbs called tesla coils that will stream the electricity.
For the first time of his many public stunts, Blaine will have the performance streamed live on the Internet at www.youtube.com/electrified.
