Blaine to Go Hang

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday May 18, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

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Illusionist David Blaine, no stranger to tight situations, will reportedly announce his latest trick Friday on ABC's "20/20." And that is, he will be tied up -- with ropes and handcuffs, to be attached by New York firefighters -- and pushed off the ledge of a Manhattan skyscraper so he's left dangling by a rope. He will then have to wiggle out of his constraints and climb back up the rope without slipping and going splat on the pavement. Apparently there's some tradition to this: Harry Houdini, an idol of Blaine's, reputedly performed a similar feat 85 years ago in a straitjacket. Blaine's last daredevil stunt was to seal himself in a block of ice for 62 hours last year in Times Square. So far, Blaine has yet to select the precise building for his new exercise, but he does consider this to be his most dangerous trick to date. "I love that place where you blur what's dangerous, what's not, what's life, what's death," Blaine tells the feature news program.