David Blaine somehow offends and bores me at the same time. I find his stunts offensive because I have a chronic health problem and he puts his health at grave risk to get attention. At the same time, his stunts are formulaic and predictable. He brings his body to the limit and either that’s the stunt or he ads a twist by including some cap off that further challenges those limits. It’s not like the stuff he does is easy and he deserves credit for being willing to go through with it. It’s just dissapointing to me how much he hurts himself when he could be doing more entertaining magic.

His last trick of living in a human fishbowl in New York City’s Lincoln center was said to have given him liver damage and to have resulted in rashes and a loss of sensation throughout his body. When he failed to hold his breath for long enough to break the world record it wasn’t surprising and came off as rather pitiful.

Now he’s set to live in a spinning top in the air for two days that will leave him vulnerable to cold, rain and snow, and to top it off by trying to escape.

On Tuesday, Blaine will be locked spread eagle into the gyroscope, which will then be hoisted 15 metres (50 feet) into the air and spun at up to eight revolutions a minute until Thursday, when he will try to escape…

Blaine said one of his biggest concerns in the challenge, besides not eating or drinking, would be dizziness.

“Just to make it more difficult on myself, I added a motor (to the gyroscope), so even when I’m sleeping there’ll be continuous movement. … I think I’m going to have to stay awake the whole time,” he said.

“This one’s exciting for me. This one’s a fun one,” he said.

The gyroscope will also leave Blaine exposed to the elements, with the performer saying that he only hoped it wouldn’t rain or snow while he dangles above a vacant lot near Manhattan’s Times Square.

The event is being sponsored by Target in conjunction with The Salvation Army, which will give 100 needy children a shopping spree when the stunt is finished regardless of whether Blaine is successful or not.

Blaine announced in mid May after his failed underwater stunt that he was going to live in the Tanzanian jungle with just a film crew to document his idiocy. Focus groups must have rejected that idea since we never heard another word about it.