Blaine in giant stunt - again
24 Nov 2006 by Paul Woburn
Illusionist David Blaine has begun his next stunt, eating molten lava whilst suspended by his nipples above the streets of New York. Blaine will dangle near Times Square for almost three days before attempting to escape from some shackles, then stumbling about and muttering about 'higher beings' communicating with him via microwaves.
"This is more difficult than anything I've ever done," Blaine said, before he went into a meeting with his corporate lawyers to plan the next big stunt, which is said to be more difficult than anything he has ever done.
Molten lava is being flown in direct from Hawaii in Blaine's fleet of Lear jets, and ferried from the airport in his gold-plated Rolls Royce.
Live piranha fish will be added to Blaine on Thursday, giving him 16 hours to free himself, do some interviews and write a book, whilst filming it all for a cable station pay-per-view documentary special where everyone will already know if he succeeded or not.
The illusionist said his biggest concern, besides the lava and the flesh eating fish, was people not particularly caring.
Shopping spree
After the stunt, Blaine will lead 100 underprivileged children chosen by The Salvation Army charity on a shopping spree, dressed as the Pied Piper, playing a ukulele with his teeth - for a cable station pay-per-view documentary special where everyone will already know if he succeeded or not.
Blaine said the stunt was important to him since The Salvation Army had provided him with clothing when he was a child. Rumours that these were Tommy Cooper's cast-offs have yet to be confirmed.
Blaine's previous stunts have included tricking FOX into paying him to do the street magic that he was doing for spare change anyway, fasting for 44 days in a box over London's River Thames while people jeered at him and threw tomatoes, and making Eamon Holmes speechless.
Earlier this year, he spent a week in a water-filled globe in New York. He failed to break the world record for looking like a goldfish, and was later charged with breaking the hose-pipe ban.
