Shock value: US magician to stand his own electrified trial

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Published time: October 06, 2012 10:41
Edited time: October 06, 2012 14:41

Daredevil David Blaine has begun his high voltage stunt in the motherland of electric chair execution, America. He is set to spend three days and nights standing in the middle of a million volts of electric currents streamed by tesla coils.

­Blaine's stunt at Manhattan's Pier 54 speaks for itself and is entitled "Electrified: One Million Volts Always On."

The 39-year-old illusionist is wearing a chain mail bodysuit as a type of Faraday suit, a barrier between himself and the electric currents. Blaine was quoted as saying he "had wanted to do this for years."

Reuters/Andrew Burton

­The stunt calls for 1 million volts of electricity to flow from one Tesla coil to another while Blaine stands on a 20-foot-high platform on the pier. The magician is challenged to go on without food and sleep, “encouraged” only by streams of lightning shooting out of his hands and the top of his head. 

Reuters/Andrew Burton

­The show is not for the faint-heated and is being streamed on YouTube. Viewing stations are located in London, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney. Viewers at the stations are able to control the coils, AP reports.

Blaine's past stunts include being buried alive; hanging upside down over Central Park, and sitting in a box suspended above the River Thames in London for 44 days with only water available.