KATHMANDU: American illusionist David Blaine ascended nearly 25,000 feet into the Arizona sky while hanging from a cluster of jumbo-sized balloons before parachuting safely back to earth, and the stunt he called 'Ascension' was livestremed on YouTube.

"It's like magic, it feels like I'm floating in the air," Reuters quoted Blaine as saying on a radio to his team of aides back on the ground after gently lifting off from a desert airstrip in Page, Arizona, connected to dozens of balloons in the event.

According to YouTube the nearly 30-minute long stunt set a new record as the most-watched YouTube Originals live event ever with over 770,000 viewers.

Blaine gradually dropped small weights to speed his ascent, donned a parachute mid-flight and strapped on an oxygen mask as he neared 24,900 feet, an altitude where most commercial airliners travel, informed Reuters.

Other stunts of Blaine, 47 include locking himself in a fish bowl, trapping himself in a block of ice for two days in Times Square, and standing freely atop a thin, tall pillar for 35 hours in New York City.