After a full week in his water-filled acrylic sphere, David Blaine may not be able to pull off his escape stunt this evening. The 33-year-old illusionist, shirtless and with an oxygen tube in his mouth, slid into his "human aquarium" last Monday at Lincoln Center.
He is scheduled to try to escape from 150 pounds of chains and handcuffs during the breath-holding finale, which will air live in a two-hour ABC special, "David Blaine: Drowned Alive," tonight (8 p.m. EDT).
Blaine says he's in "pretty bad shape" as he nears the end of his latest feat but vowed to go through with his finale of holding his breath underwater for nearly 9 minutes.
"As a kid, I always was obsessed with Houdini," Blaine explained.
"I don't think about death, but I am prepared for it," he said, adding that his only fear is "the fear of the unknown."
Blaine has been treated by doctors inside his water-filled acrylic sphere, after complaining of various skin related problems. His hands have aged 70 years and turned the approximate pigment of Michael Jackson.
According to Blaine's spokesman Pat Smith, the doctors worked with him through the weekend, trying to stabilize both his diet and his training regimen.
"Everything is still on as planned, and I'm going to give it my best shot," Blaine said Sunday.
He told AP Television News he "will do his best" to complete the feat despite peeling skin, sharp pains in his joints and a severe earache.
Blaine has gained world-wide fame by creating marathon, death-defying stunts. In 1999, he buried himself alive in a see-through coffin for seven days. A year later, he was frozen in a block of ice for 63 hours. And, in 2002, he perched himself 90 feet above the ground for 36 hours.
He has trained harder for this underwater exploit than for any of those previous endeavors. He worked out with Navy Seals, and dropped 50 pounds off his 6-foot-1 frame so his body would require less oxygen. During his ordeal he is being given liquid nourishment through a tube.
Surviving submersion in the 2,000-gallon tank is only part of the challenge for Blaine. In the beginning of the week, Blaine was practicing to break the record for holding his breath. Now, however, he thinks he is too weak to pull it off.
"I was basically doing breath holds on my own up 'til recently but now my long, everything, feels weaker than normal," he said.
"Frankly, right now the angle of the finale is uncertain," a source tells the New York Daily News. "They're still wrestling with how the finale will end."
"If I don't get out of the chains and I black out in 9 minutes, which is about the length of time it would take these guys here (who) have been preparing a stretcher to pull my body out and do what they have to do, so I have to have faith that they know what they are doing," Blaine proclaimed.
-- Compiled from wire reports
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