Exciting news! Our performance stunt with David Blaine was a complete success!
On October 5th of this year, Blaine began performing a 72-hour endurance stunt called Electrified: One Million Volts Atop 22-foot high pillar on Pier 54 in New York City. During the stunt, David, wearing a 40lb protective chain mail suit, stood on the pillar surrounded by seven Tesla coils producing an electric discharge of one million volts or more continuously.
With barely 3 months lead time, we manage to build this enormous musical Tesla coil system. The design considerations were tough: we needed to design a musical Tesla coil system that could operate for 3 days without interruption. We began the job in Austin texas and managed to complete most of the project before boxing it up and shipping it to New York City. We arrived about 3 weeks before the event, and built the stage inside a rental warehouse.
What a project! Never before has a Tesla coil system had to endure such rigorous conditions. To operate for 3 days straight, outside and exposed to the elements. Our small crew of technicians worked in shifts to keep the installation running around the clock. Two of us worked in shifts, monitoring everything from equipment temperature to O3 concentrations, conditions had to be perfect to meet the safety standards.
But if you think our job was hard, imagine what it must have been like for David, standing up there for so long. Well I can tell you, I had the privilege of testing the setup for a very short amount of time and my legs were stiff after just a few minutes of standing there wearing all that heavy chain mail. It was amazing to watch him endure what must have been a frenzy of lightning and sleep deprived delusion for three straight days and nights!
While we’re excited to have been a part of this project, one thing is for certain.. we are definitely looking forward to a nap!