UNITED KINGDOM: US showman David Blaine returns for the first time to Tower Bridge to reflect on his 44 day starvation endurance stunt

Record ID: 190052

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: US showman David Blaine returns for the first time to Tower Bridge to reflect on his 44 day starvation endurance stunt
  • Date: 5th December 2003
  • Summary: (L!3) LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 5, 2003) (REUTERS) DAVID BLAINE WALKING BY THE RIVER THAMES - THE SPOT WHERE HIS BOX USED TO BE/ SAYING TO CAMERA 'It feels strange looking around here.' BLAINE LOOKING AT SAFETY LADDER, SAYING "I think this is new, because some people fell into the river late at night, yeah this is new, for sure and these are new (pointing at life buoy) yeah, so somebody had to jump in and help the guy who was drunk, then the coastguard came, but this is new, that ladder is new, you can climb into the river now." PEOPLE TAKING PICTURE OF BLAINE BLAINE SAYING, "It looks really strange from this point of view because I'm used to seeing it from higher up." GIRLS WAVING AT HIM BLAINE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING, "The press mostly focussed on and mainly exploited anything negative because that was the only interesting thing they could find about someone just sitting in a box, doing nothing, so ...which only happened a couple of times throughout the whole incident that the box was attacked or there was an egg, I think in total there was probably about 14 eggs of the 44 days. Of course kids come and throw eggs, that's an impulse especially when you're a kid. I mean I always used to throw things so it's not that I would take it offensively, and the paintball guy and the guy with the waterhose, and people who would yell all night 'David wake up', they could yell it here and I'd hear it loud and clear up there, like it would echo inside even so that seems to be what drove the press and everybody to think it was like that but for me the experience was completely different because when I was in there I never saw that. I focussed on the things that were amazing like when you came, and that guy waved at me and then right here pulled his clothes off and jumped into the river, things like that I focussed on".
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1A8HELVPSPNF6ZBZO057DU77F
  • Story Text: Exactly one and a half months after his 44-day-starvation endurance, U.S.showman David Blaine returns for the first time to London's Tower Bridge to reflect on a stunt that proved to be his most controversial to date - and, he says, he'd do it all again.
    Exactly one and a half months to the day that he ended his 44 day starvation stunt, U.S. showman David Blaine returned to London's Tower Bridge for the first time to answer some questions about the stunt that caused so much division in public opinion.
    Blaine was suspended in a Plexiglas box by the river Thames for 44 days and firmly maintains that he only consumed water during that time. Reactions to his stunt from people and the media varied, with many unable to understand what the stunt was about or why indeed it had to be performed in public. Blaine drew much criticism for his starvation act and was occasionally bombarded with eggs, paintballs and subjected to endless chanting.
    He remains, however, unperturbed by the depth of negative public reaction saying it simply shows that when there's a man in a box with nothing, doing nothing, people are stuck for explanations and focus on negative things happening.
    "The press mostly focussed on and mainly exploited anything negative because that was the only interesting thing they could find about someone just sitting in a box, doing nothing Blaine says of the reaction to his stunt from the British press.
    "But for me the experience was completely different because when I was in there I never saw that. I focussed on the things that were amazing like when... that guy waved at me and then right here pulled his clothes off and jumped into the river, things like that I focussed on" he says.
    Blaine says the experience in the box made him appreciate the simple things in life. Suspended in his own body odour, he recalls one of the most challenging things to be his very own smell: "I had no toothbrush, nothing to clean with , nothing to bathe with so the whole time it smelled terrible inside of the box, so when I breathe this air, if I would lower my head and breathe from the bottom of the box it felt amazing to have clean air but this is something we all take for granted."
    "Above the Below" was Blaine's first stunt outside of his native New York. Perhaps the British didn't understand him? He disagrees, it's not so much a nationality thing than the fact that people would project their issues of their day on him in his box.
    "If someone is obsessed with money, they'd say he how much you're making, so it's about money, or they're really positive and they understand fasting as a way to cleanse the body they look and give a thumbs up, usually the reli gious types, the guys with the big beards understood that, or young girls who kind of just like the whole thing, like celebrities, they'd come and show their support and be more excited about the fact that there is a guy that they have seen before or if there was a group of kids that were really angry that were made fun of at school would come and give me the finger for an hour - I think people project what they already know from their own lives onto this box."
    Blaine lost around 25 kilos as a result of the stunt.
    Physically he says he's still weak and starvation experts are using this rare opportunity to study effects of starvation on the human body. His worst fear - that he might be brain-damaged didn't come true and on the whole he says he's recovered well physically. E$ven more than that - he says he would even do the whole thing again.
    "I'd probably do it again, but then again at the time in hospital I was thinking no way. But now a month and a half later exactly I feel like I could do it all again."
    "Physically, somewhat , my body ate most of the muscle and it takes longer, so I'm weaker now, and it hurts a little bit when I walk but that'll come back to normal but as far as the emotional adjustment is concerned, that's a big adjustment to get used to. I just try to remain as normal as possible."
    Blaine's next stunt is scheduled for sometime in February, when he will dive out of a helicopter into a river - 'the dive of death' - another normal day in the life of a man who continues to fascinate with his unbelievable endurance tests.
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