Blaine's risky business

A month ago magician David Blaine took a fateful decision that could affect the rest of his life.

Blaine, famous for such feats of endurance as being enclosed in a block of ice and standing on top of a 90ft pole for 35 hours, is about to embark on his latest stunt - suspending himself in a glass case over the Thames for 44 days.

Until recently he was going to allow himself to drink water mixed with glucose so that he would not starve. But then the man who began his endurance career by being buried in a glass coffin under four tons of water for seven days decided that it would be too easy.

Now all he is going to drink is water. "I just think it is more interesting and more pure with just water," he said. "I don't know anybody who has gone with just water and nothing else."

Assuming there is no trickery involved, the 30-year-old New Yorker's latest stunt is one that could have serious effects on his health.

"I think 44 days is as far as I could go," he said. "If I did 65 days I assume I would die for sure - 44 days I think it is possible to survive with just water and no nutrients."

IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands died after 61 days.

Blaine has done his research and knows what happens to the body when it is starved of nourishment. "It will convert my muscle tissue and my fat into glycogen, which my body will use to keep my brain functioning. And obviously you get really, really skinny.

"I anticipate the loss of 50lb. I could suffer brain damage. I think Bobby Sands went into a coma on day 17 but I'm not sure. I'm very curious about this. I don't think you slip into a coma from starvation after just 17 days."

He has tried asking doctors "but any doctor I speak to says, 'Hey, you need 1,800 calories a day.' "

If he does slip into a coma, his team will be able to get him out. Otherwise, he says, the show must go on. "If there is a risk of death, if I'm lying there and not drinking any water for a couple of days, I am sure they will pull it. Otherwise they cannot pull it under any circumstances."

Blaine's Plexiglass container will be suspended above the Thames near Tower Bridge.

Afterwards his body will be in a seriously weakened state and Blaine will have to go to hospital to recover. "I am losing money to do this," he said. "The money they are paying me is basically enough to cover the hospital bills, which I would estimate is realistically a month in hospital."

Blaine is, of course, not literally losing money on the deal. Although he is not getting as much from the British television companies as he would in the US - the stunt is being televised live by Sky, and will also appear on Channel 4 - he anticipates he will be more than adequately compensated when the TV rights are sold abroad.

Despite the ordeal that faces him when, on 5 September, he steps into his new glass home - 7ft high by 7ft long and 3ft wide - Blaine says he is looking forward to the experience. "I think the first two weeks of this is going to be pleasurable," he said.

"It will be like heaven. It will be pure. It will be like being in the womb. No distractions, no bulls**t. The next four and a half weeks will be hell."

He will go into the box with one set of clothes, some blankets, a mat to lie down on, and a backpack containing a journal, pens, lip balm, nappies and wet wipes.

Although this stunt is much more extreme than anything he has done before, he says he is not frightened. "Once ideas come that strongly into my mind, I don't run from them. I like to explore them.

"We are all going to die anyway," he said. "I would rather die my way. I would rather die doing what I like than not doing what I like and living 80 years of pure misery."