David Blaine began a 72 hour stunt at Manhattan Pier 54 Friday night that calls for 1 million volts of electricity to flow around his specially configured chain-mail suit and metal headgear.
He is situated on a small platform twenty feet above the pier as purple arcs of current are conducted through his suit.
According to Columbia University physicist William Allen Zajc, the stunt is basically safe unless the suit would malfunction.
Zajc joked, “To me, the amazing thing is that he plans to stand there for 72 hours, not that there’s a million volts of these impressive lightning bolts passing through his suit.”
Blaine will be able to sip fluid through a tube and urinate through a catheter. He has reportedly been fasting so that he won’t need to move his bowels.
Lest anyone think he might fall asleep and tumble off the platform … no worries. He is secured with a harness and will likely let it hold him up for catnaps throughout the duration of the three day stunt.
Check out the YouTube video below. Warning … after about 30 seconds it ceases to be entertaining:
Photo: Stefan Jeremiah-WENN