NEW YORK:

Illusionist and stuntman David Blaine began a nearly three-day stint on September 22 hanging upside down over New York’s Central Park, in what may be his toughest dare yet.

Blaine, 35, was hoisted by his heels over the park’s Wollmann ice rink, and was to stay there, dangling for 60 hours from a wire, until late Wednesday.

The daredevil magician, who has previously spent 72 hours encased in ice and 44 days without food in a plexiglass box, told AFP that being inverted for three days was his hardest stunt.

“This is the most difficult for sure. The others, you could get into them soon after the start, but this one is tough from the get-go,” he said after being lowered to head level for an interview.

Blaine had tried the trick for just six hours during training. “Sixty hours — that will be heading into the unknown,” he said.

The metal frame from which Blaine is suspended is several floors high, but Blaine can be lowered to talk face to face — even if upside down.

Doctors have expressed concern about the effect of the stress on Blaine’s internal organs and blood circulation. He is not eating, but is taking liquid through a straw, and is able to urinate through a catheter.

He will not sleep. He regularly frees one leg, so that he is hanging only by the other, then uses that limb to help rebalance, briefly raising his head a little nearer to a horizontal position. — AFP