Q&A With David Blaine

By Lev Grossman

So, you're in this box...

What I'm going to be doing is building a small, completely clear glass box. It'll be dangling from a crane near the River Thames. It'll be about 22 1/2 ft. up, about that, and I'll be hovering there for 44 days with absolutely nothing except for water to drink.

This freaks me out. Why are you doing it?

Why wouldn't I attempt it?

Well, I know why I wouldn't attempt it.

The same reason you wouldn't is the same reason I would.

Why 44 days?

I figured that's as far as I could push it. Like, I figure that that is the exact place where the line between life and death is.

44 days.

Right. And it's also my birthday, April 4.

Do you ever think about how you could be in Vegas making snow leopards disappear and probably making a lot more money?

That's never crossed my mind. I think it's gross.

Is this still magic? Or are we in performance-art territory here?

I think of it as art. I'm a framed human being. I'm basically building a glass frame and putting myself there to display what I think is the ultimate work of art, which is human suffering.

No food for 44 days...this is probably a stupid question, but are you sure you're not just going to die?

This one I'm not dying on. It isn't my turn yet. This one I consider my birth.

So this is just your birth. I'm a little worried about what happens after that.

Yeah. Then the fun begins.