Electrified

On october 5, 2012, David Blaine began performing a 73-hour endurance stunt, during which he stood atop a 22-foot high pillar at pier 54 in new york city, surrounded by a system of seven tesla coils. The coils directed an electric discharge of one million volts at him for the entire duration of the performance. The event was live streamed, engaging over 400 million users worldwide.

overly-ambitious

For 72 hours David had to wear a 27-pound chain mail suit and wire helmet, standing 22 feet up in the air in the middle of seven Tesla coils. “I had wanted to do this for years. It was an overly-ambitious idea, and I’m literally shocked that it came together.” For 3 days David was unable to eat and he had to drink water through a tube attached to his helmet.

The Real Challenge

Although the lightning bolts look incredibly dangerous, the real challenge is standing still, in a heavy suit, for three days. “The hardest part was to stay awake, standing the whole time, wearing armor and not being able to move very much.” If David would get absent-mindedly and by accident touch his face, he would receive a shock equivalent to about seven Tasers. Next to that, nobody really knew what Seventy-two hours or more in an electromagnetic field could do anything to the brain. “There where a lot of unknowns here.”

“I had wanted to do this for years. It was an overly-ambitious idea, and I’m literally shocked that it came together.”

Interactive

The event was broadcasted live on YouTube, with help from Intel. Screens located in London, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney enabled “fans” to control the electricity. They could shoot currents at him, turn it down, or playing music.

Pier 54

While lightning bolts of electricity course from his fingertips, David is once again drew major the crowds in New York at the historic Pier 54. The iconic pier where o.a. the ship that saved 705 of the Titanic’s survivors docked after the heroic rescue.