U.K.: AMERICAN DAREDEVIL ENTERTAINER DAVID BLAINE SPEAKS ABOUT UPCOMING ENDURANCE STUNT TAKING PLACE OVER LONDONS RIVER THAMES

Record ID: 190196

  • Title: U.K.: AMERICAN DAREDEVIL ENTERTAINER DAVID BLAINE SPEAKS ABOUT UPCOMING ENDURANCE STUNT TAKING PLACE OVER LONDONS RIVER THAMES
  • Date: 30th August 2003
  • Summary: (U1) LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 30, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. DAVID BLAINE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS BY TOWER BRIDGE/TAKING PHOTOS (2 SHOTS) 0.33 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING: "Well in the other ones (stunts) there was some form of communication, they were short, they were practised beforehand, I knew that I could survive those ones, I had no question in my mind that I would live if I did what I had to, but this one I really don't know because I hadn't tested it, I haven't trained for it, there's been no medical records that we can deem as accurate that anybody has done with just water for that length of time." 0.59 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GIRL SAYING: "44 days on Tower Bridge?" ANOTHER WOMAN SAYING: "Are you going to hang from there?" DAVID BLAINE SAYING: "Well it's going to be right over the land, so you can stand under it actually, yeah it'll be right here from a crane just dangling down." MAN SAYING "You are the greatest man, we are from Texas and we watch you and we are looking forward to this." BLAINE THANKING HIM. 1.20 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "I've been putting on weight recently, but it's hard now. I thought in the beginning, I was debating whether I should do it with glucose, and electrolytes of some form and then I decided against it, I thought that that would be too easy almost." 1.37 5. BLAINE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS 1.44 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "The big worry that I have now is the idea that when you're in starvation mode you're body slows down therefore you produce one third the amount of heat that your body would normally produce and this is all thin clear glass wall, so if it's cold at night I'll be freezing in there. That's a real real danger, that would mean death instantly." 2.09 7. BLAINE TALKING TO PEOPLE IN FRONT OF TOWER BRIDGE (2 SHOTS) 2.21 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "The only thing I'm going to bring in there with me is going to be a little backpack that'll serve as a pillow as well and in there I'm going to have a journal, because I want to record everything, I'm going to write about it, and I'm gonna have some diapers because there's no toilet, obviously, I'm gonna have some and then to urinate there'll be like a cup that has a rubber tube that goes out to the bottom that I can pull up, pee and then the only monitoring that there is gonna be is they're gonna test my urine everyday to see how my kidneys are working and my liver." 2.55 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PEOPLE WISHING BLAINE GOOD LUCK; DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "This one I know that I can last at least for 3 weeks, I'm confident about, but I think what'll happen after that point, like I think when we get to 30 days I think that's when I'm hallucinating, the dangers are terrible and I think that's when everybody won't debate. They won't be sceptical anymore because it'll be such a bizarre thing to look at, I think all the people that are doubting that we can do things like this. " 3.34 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VOX POP WOMAN SAYING "We've seen him do these things and we're definitely coming up to see him, everything he does I think is just fantastic." 3.42 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VOX POP SAYING "I don't know I can't even sit still for 2 minutes so to do something like this...." MOTHER SAYING "... for 44 days that's a lot ...." GIRL SAYING... "I can't even comprehend, my mind is hurting..." MOTHER "It's amazing, I wish everyone comes to know about him, he's truly great, we really enjoy him." 3.59 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "This is by far the most dangerous thing that I will probably ever do in my life ... except for have a kid.."(laughs) 4.08 13. BLAINE SIGNING MORE AUTOGRAPHS/ PEOPLE WISHING HIM GOOD LUCK 4.23 14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BLAINE, SAYING "My friends that really care about me they say you know, like my friend called me up and said, failing something is just as great as succeeding, so if you don't make it it's ok you know....but I'm gonna make it." 4.42 15. BLAINE DOING CARD TRICK 5.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAER99SPQLYC364B42TDLQHNKWG
  • Story Text: David Blaine, dubbed "the modern Houdini," is
    to take on his greatest endurance test yet. He will be
    suspended over the river Thames in a clear plexi-glass
    box for more than six weeks without food.


    American daredevil entertainer David Blaine on
    Saturday (August 30) told Reuters Television about his next
    major feat on September 5, when he will be suspended in a
    clear plexi-glass case over the river Thames in London.

    The 30-year-old New Yorker will remain there for 44
    days. Having already been buried alive, frozen in an ice
    block and stood on a pole for hours on end, Blaine says
    this stunt is all different.

    "Well in the other ones (stunts) there was some form of
    communication, they were short, they were practised
    beforehand, I knew that I could survive those ones, I had
    no question in my mind that I would live if I did what I
    had to, but this one I really don't know because I hadn't
    tested it, I haven't trained for it, there's been no
    medical records that we can deem as accurate that anybody
    has done with just water for that length of time."
    The glass container, about seven feet high, seven feet
    long and three feet wide, will be hung from a crane near
    Tower Bridge.

    During his apparent incarceration, Blaine will eat no
    food and will have one tube for water and another for
    urinating. The strict vegetarian has added meat to his diet
    and put on 15 pounds in weight over the past month:
    "I've been putting on weight recently, but it's hard
    now. I thought in the beginning, I was debating whether I
    should do it with glucose, and electrolytes of some form
    and then I decided against it, I thought that that would be
    too easy almost."
    Blaine's worst case scenario is cold. As starvation
    will slow down his body, he won't be able to defend himself
    from freezing - a scenario that could have a bad ending:
    "The big worry that I have now is the idea that when
    you're in starvation mode you're body slows down therefore
    you produce one third the amount of heat that your body
    would normally produce and this is all thin clear glass
    wall, so if it's cold at night I'll be freezing in there.

    That's a real real danger, that would mean death instantly."
    Despite the apparent impossibility of this latest
    endurance stunt, Blaine is confident that he will pull
    through and make it to the end:
    "My friends that really care about me they say you know
    , like my friend called me up and said, failing something
    is just as great as succeeding, so if you don't make it
    it's ok you know....but I'm gonna make it."
    It will be Blaine's first stunt outside the United
    States.

    Previously he has been entombed in a block of ice for
    61 hours, buried in a coffin for a week and spent 35 hours
    standing on top of an 80-foot pillar in Manhattan.


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