NEW YORK : Having starved himself and been frozen in ice, US
magician David Blaine now plans to spend seven days submerged in a
water-filled container in New York.
The latest stunt by the renowned illusionist will seem him enter an
eight-foot (2.5-meter) high acrylic sphere on May 1 and remain
submerged for a week.
A mask and air line will keep him alive, while food will be
provided in the form of liquid nutrition through a tube.
At the end of the seven days, Blaine, 33, will remove his air
supply and attempt to hold his breath longer than the current world
record of eight minutes and 58 seconds, before finally climbing out
of the human aquarium.
During the stunt, fans will be encouraged to touch the sphere and
offer words of support, Blaine spokesman Pat Smith told AFP.
The magician will be hoping for a better public reaction than he
received for his last major "performance" -- a 44-day fast during
which he was suspended above London's River Thames in a glass
box.
Detractors came up with increasingly inventive ways to taunt or
unsettle Blaine such as using a remote-control model helicopter to
dangle a cheeseburger in front of the starving magician.
Others drove golf balls off Tower Bridge, threw eggs, used a
home-made catapult to shoot paint bombs at the box, banged drums to
keep him awake at night or merely shouted abuse.
Smith insisted there would be no similar scenes at New York's
Lincoln Center.
"This is his home town. Anytime he's done anything in New York, the
reaction has been overwhelmingly positive," Smith said. "New
Yorkers are cool about this kind of thing."
Previous stunts have included being encased in ice for nearly 62
hours and spending 35 hours on a 100-foot (30-meter) high pillar
that was only 22 inches (56 centimeters) wide.