I was looking at the website of Larry King from CNN, and I saw that David Blaine was a guest at his show on May 10th. Here is the transcript:
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KING: We'll meet Mary in a little while. Let's start first in New York with David Blaine, the internationally famed illusionist and performer of feats and endurance, a "New York Times" best-selling author, been on this program previously. In fact, we once did a kind of feat along with him. First, how are you feeling?
DAVID BLAINE: I feel not so bad. I've had better days but I'm OK. I did get...
KING: Why...
BLAINE: I did get...
KING: Why do you do these things David?
BLAINE: Oh, I love doing them. It's what drives me. It's like, it's just a dream that I had and then I go forward with it no matter how ridiculous it is and achieving the goal is the payoff. But, there are certain things I didn't prepare for.
For example, the sphere was like a magnifying glass. It intensified the sun and radiated my body, so the whole time I was in there, of course, I was not aware of it during the time because I was in water but now my whole -- all of my skin is blistered and painful and it's very difficult to move in any direction, things I didn't prepare for.
KING: How did you do normal bodily functions?
BLAINE: Well, I didn't eat for a week before the stunt, so I didn't have to do -- I had no body waste inside of me so I didn't have to use the bathroom that way. And then as far as the number one, I had a catheter that went into a filtration system. KING: Let's watch the scene when they're pulling you out of the sphere. Let's all watch this and then ask David about what happened. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax. We got you David. You're all right. You're all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're backwards. We're in the sphere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, David, just relax. We've got you. Come on out. You're OK. You're OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: What did you prove? David?
BLAINE: Yes.
KING: What did you prove?
BLAINE: Well, I felt like I failed from achieving my goal which was to hold my breath as long as nine minutes but in retrospect I think the only thing that would mean failure would be to stop doing what I love doing. So, the idea of looking at it as a failure instead of something to keep pushing me to drive myself as far as I can, I think that would be the failure.
KING: The person who has the record of holding their breath, eight minutes and 58 seconds, was that set underwater?
BLAINE: Yes, his name was Tom Zitas (ph). He did it in a swimming pool but, of course, he wasn't submerged for any length of time before he did it.
KING: Is he still around?
BLAINE: He's still around. I heard that he actually thought that it was a really intense moment on television and he really liked it, which was surprising for me to hear.
KING: What of the whole thing was the toughest for you?
BLAINE: The toughest part was dealing with being in that water and falling asleep for less than two hours a night and waking up with the water over my nose and over my mouth like a nightmare. I'd have these awful visions that I was drowning and I'd jump up and I'd still be in water. Then I'd remember to clear the mask up by purging it and then I'd be able to breathe and it was horrific.
And every time I would jump up because I was weightless my muscles were atrophied because I wasn't working them out for a week and I wasn't eating so they were really breaking themselves down. So, I would get sharp shooting pains throughout my whole body. So, I'm suffering now from that pretty seriously. KING: There are naysayers who think that you're going to do this just to lead up to doing it again, to break the record, to increase the audience.
BLAINE: No, I'm not going to do this one again. But in the sphere I did dream up something incredible that I really do want to do but...
KING: What?
BLAINE: I'm not going to say it because I don't want to talk it away but this time there will be no safety involved. It will be from point A to point B. Either you make it or you don't.
KING: Wait a minute, come on. You're not going to get -- you will go from a point to another point, no safety involved.
BLAINE: Right.
KING: In other words you could die?
BLAINE: I'm not going to die because I'm going to prepare and train and be as serious as I can and I'm going to enter with the attitude that I need and I'm not going to, you know, do anything ridiculous. But, I'm going to make it so you have to hit your mark perfectly or else there's no safety net.
KING: How much training for that?
BLAINE: I'm going to start right now and figure out how much time I need to make it perfect and then that will be the amount of time that I have.
KING: Do you have any special after care now? Do the doctors have to look at you?
BLAINE: They keep checking me to make sure I'm OK but I've just figured that if I eat slowly and keep on a somewhat reasonable diet and relax a little bit and do the right thing I'll heal pretty fast. And my hands and feet, which were the worst before, were the fastest things to heal themselves.
KING: What was the hardest part, Mary Cheney thinks she could do a minute, I don't think I could do 20 seconds, what was the hardest part about holding your breath?
BLAINE: The hardest part is when -- well, first of all being in such a weak state not knowing if you're going to reach your mark and knowing that there is that possibility of drowning obviously but the hardest part started to come when I got to like the five minute mark and I knew that I wasn't even, you know, three -- I wasn't even near where I needed to be and it was starting to get tough.
The contractions started coming and it starts to overwhelm your body and you feel like -- you feel like you're about to die and it starts to get more and more horrific by the second but I did not want anybody to jump in and I felt that they did the right thing by jumping in when they did to save life but I was disappointed.
KING: Your trainer, Kirk Krack, said that you were unconscious and convulsing at the end of the stunt, true?
BLAINE: That is true but I also think that I could have gone a little bit further because when they first went jumping in I held my finger up saying "Please, just give me a little bit more time."
KING: So you think you could have done longer?
BLAINE: Not much longer maybe a couple, you know, ten more seconds.
KING: When do you -- you start preparing immediately for this next stunt?
BLAINE: I think I'll try to regenerate all of my muscles and heal as fast as I can and start right away.
KING: How far away is it do you think?
BLAINE: I don't want to say anything yet because I don't want to talk it away but it's the only thing I can think about.
KING: Thank you, David, as always. Good luck. Good health.
BLAINE: Thank you, Larry.
KING: David Blaine out and safe and going to try something else.
