Guinness book of records rejects Blaine's stunt
Illusionist David Blaine was rejected by the Guinness Book of Records today for his forthcoming death-defying feat.
The magician will tomorrow begin a 44-day stint of isolation without food and suspended in a clear plastic box.
But compilers of the book say they would not actively endorse fasting records - and the size of his temporary home is not even as small as current record holders.
They say Blaine’s previous stunts are left trailing by other record titles.
Guinness World Records chiefs say they have been contacted by the United States magician asking for his feats to be recognised.
But they say his efforts are not good enough to make it on to their pages, including his new challenge in which his only nourishment for six weeks will be water.
Blaine is to live in a clear 7ft x 7ft x 3ft box without any distractions or food while dangling over the river Thames in London.
But Guinness’s keeper of records Stewart Newport said today: “We have never encouraged actively claims for the longest time to voluntarily go without solid food for very clear and obvious reasons.
“If you beat the ‘record’ and then die is it a successful attempt?” he asked.
“We have from a reportage standpoint noted in past books various political, medical and criminal ‘hunger strikes’ – and all were for durations far in excess of 44 days.”
He pointed out that the longest hunger strike ended in 1973 after 385 days when Dennis Galer Goodwin protested his innocence in Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, of a rape charge. He was fed by tube orally.
The lengthiest period spent without solid food was 382 days when Angus Barbieri lived on tea, coffee, soda water and vitamins in Maryfield Hospital, Dundee in the mid Sixties. He lost more than 20 stone.
Book bosses say his accommodation does not compare well with previous record holders. Vernon Kruger stayed in a barrel in South Africa – about an eighth the size of Blaine’s box – for 67 days in 1997.
A Guinness World Records spokeswoman said: “We do wish him well with his latest challenge, but he has got a long way to go to beat the incredible Guinness record holders.”
Guinness also dismissed his earlier feats, such as being buried alive and living in an ice block, as not measuring up.
Book compilers say they abandoned the burial record a few years ago, but their guidelines were for the box to be at least 2 metres below the surface rather than Blaine’s 1.8 metres. His seven days were 134 short of the record set in Texas in 1981.
And record bosses said his ice challenge – in which he was encased in ice for 60 hours, was little different from living in an igloo or an ice hotel.
If he had wanted to attempt the world record for full body ice contact endurance he would have to be in only a swimsuit. The world record for that was set last year for BBC1’s Tomorrow’s World when Wim Hof stood in an ice-filled tube for one hour and six minutes.
The new edition of the book, Guinness World Record 2004, is out on September 26.
