Performer is risking glaucoma and circulatory failure in order to prepare for his next act

 I have enjoyed watching David Blaine perform. However, this story about his upcoming trick caught my attention because of the risk to his eyes. 

"He has already spent a week in a glass coffin, 64 hours in a block of ice and fasted for 44 days in a box in London. For his next trick, he'll live on two burning high wires in Central Park for three days, followed by a mysterious 'Dive of Death'. Is there anything this seemingly fearless magician is afraid of? Yes, actually... By Michael Joseph Gross"

In this Central Park high wire trick, David Blaine will be haning upside down a lot. "When he sleeps, he will sleep hanging upside down - 'like a bat,' he says - at the convergence of those wires, which will be on fire, and there will also be a fire pit on the ground beneath him."

While practicing, evidence of the strain on his eyes was quickly apparent. "The magician's face is fat with blood. So much so, that the little scar between his eyes, from a failed attempt to do a flip from a park bench at age five, is momentarily invisible. His eyes are bulging. The whites are pink. 'Are blood vessels popping?' he asks."

The article acknowledges the risk of glaucoma, so I presume David Blaine is well aware of this risk. "The magician, whose idea of magic encompasses natural feats of endurance less redolent of Las Vegas than of Lives of the Saints, is risking glaucoma and circulatory failure in order to prepare for his next trick."

You can read the whole story at the following link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=BVBJPIUH3S0B5QFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/arts/2008/09/14/sv_davidblaine.xml&site=6&page=0