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American Morning

Talk With Magician David Blaine

Aired May 22, 2002 - 09:34   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: Over 20 hours and counting, that's how long magician David Blaine been standing 80 feet up in the air on a pillar, on a 22-inch platform in the middle of New York City. A long time on his feet. Those legs are cramping.

CNN's Brian Palmer has been on his feet on morning long. He's in a cherry picker, and he gets to chat now with David Blaine.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. We're having a couple of technical problems. Can you hear me OK?

ZAHN: Carry on. We'll do the best we can. We'd love to hear you.

PALMER: I have lost audio so I'm just going to go ahead. I'm looking at a live camera crew, David, which is actually behind us if it jeopardizes your safety.

But, David, tell me can you give us like a status report on your body parts, like your calves?

DAVID BLAINE, MAGICIAN: My legs are held together by nothing but (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and adrenaline. My back is damaged. I have almost nothing left to stand on. I have another 12 hours to go, I think, and then I have to jump from here down to the ground, with just cardboard boxes there. I'm trying to conserve every bit that I have, because if I have no legs and no back, I'm dead.

PALMER: Understood. So at this point, you're really trying to use minimal amount of energy.

BLAINE: Yes.

PALMER: Now, the question I think on my mind and on the mind of several million people who are watching. Why?

ZAHN: You can't make -- we are going to stay on the picture. You can't make out exactly what David is saying there. But we could hear clearly enough to hear him describe that his back is already damaged, that he has nothing left to stand on, that he's trying to conserve his energy as best he can. The dehydration, Jack, is a huge fear out there. We know when you are standing still for 35 hours, you will have not only back spasms, but leg spasms.

Brian, it just got to point where he's asking David, why the heck are you doing this? And David basically said, for the challenge of it. And the fear, this guy is afraid of heights. He's standing up there 10 stories high.

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