/ 20 April 2005

David Blaine to perform ‘easy’ high wire stunt

For his next stunt, American magician David Blaine says he’ll perform an ”easy and fun” high wire act in Manhattan on Halloween.

”Basically, it’s something that’s been done in the circuses, based on the old high-wire acts,” Blaine said on Tuesday.

”It’s like family entertainment, this one.”

For his last stunt, in the autumn of 2003, Blaine sat in a plastic cubicle near the River Thames in London for 44 days with only small amounts of water for nourishment. He emerged 23kg lighter.

The New York magician expects his next stunt will be less demanding.

”It’s my easiest one”, he said, adding that the logistics aren’t completed. ”I want it to be simplistic and reachable for everybody. I was even going to call this one ‘Easy and Fun.”’

Blaine (32) said he recently reached a deal with ABC for four more shows, beginning with the Halloween stunt. The programmes include ”David Blaine’s Vertigo”, when he stood on a small platform atop a 30m-high pillar for 35 hours in midtown Manhattan, and ”David Blaine: Frozen in Time”, when he suspended himself inside a 6-tonne block of ice for 62 hours in New York’s Times Square.

While some have said his tricks no longer constitute magic in the traditional sense, Blaine said that’s too narrow a view.

”I think magic is whatever the individual defines it to be. I say it’s all magic.” – Sapa-AP