Magician David Blaine readies for million-volt stunt in New York

NEW YORK, Oct 3: Magician David Blaine climbed atop a wobbling platform above a high-voltage Tesla coil in a tent on a Manhattan pier on Tuesday, dressed in a 20-pound chain-mail suit, and proceeded to shoot purplish arcs of lightning out of his hands and the top of his head. The event – an unusual sort of press conference at which journalists were asked to stop their ears with foam plugs – was a preview of a stunt he will undertake starting on Friday, when he plans to stand on a 20-foot-high platform for 72 hours without food amid an artificial lightning storm crackling between low-current, million-volt Tesla coils. (agencies)