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American Morning

Magician Standing on Pole in New York 35 Hours

Aired May 22, 2002 - 08:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to go back to midtown Manhattan now, where life goes on. We're going to check in on a man who has put himself up on a pedestal 80 feet high, which translates to about 10 stories. Lots of people are watching in amazement as magician David Blaine tries to fight the leg cramps and I guess what else is he dealing with?

He's scared of heights, isn't he, Brian Palmer?

Good morning.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Yes, he's dealing with a lot of stuff. But we reporters use that phrase "this is a fluid situation." That doesn't apply in this case. This is kind of a stable, static kind of glacial situation. David Blaine has been up there for about 20 hours now. Passersby are, there's really a mix of reactions. We've had people who would just sort of stop and stare kind of slack-jawed, double, triple, quadruple takes. There was one woman who walked by before who just with that sort of too cool for words New York attitude refused to look. She left her companion in the dust and she just kept walking because she was just too -- she couldn't look because this is a stunt, whatever.

But Blaine is known for doing this kind of wacky P.T. Barnumesque stuff. In 1999, he had himself buried in a Plexiglas coffin. He stayed there for about a week. The year after that, he had himself encased into two blocks of ice. He was in this little compartment in between those blocks of ice and he stayed there for about 60 hours.

Back to you.

ZAHN: So what do you do for an encore? You climb a 10 foot pillar and then stay up there for 35 hours and dive into a bunch of cardboard boxes. Wow. And you're going to try to catch up with him eye to eye on a cherry picker in the next hour?

PALMER: Yes, we're hoping to do that. We're hoping to ask him about some of the specific bodily issues that he has up there and also why he would want to do something like this, other than money.

ZAHN: I hadn't thought about those extraneous body issues, but it may be a little more information than we need at this hour. But, Brian, you can ask him whatever you want. PALMER: Fair enough. OK.

ZAHN: Have fun.

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