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Blaine pelted with eggs
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 08.09.03
Living in a box: David Blaine
David Blaine thought he was ready for anything. The US illusionist suspended in a glass box over London had prepared himself for 44 days of starvation, loneliness and boredom.
But there was one thing he had not planned for - Londoners.
So far the man in the box has been pelted with eggs and come under fire from golf balls, as well as being subjected to just about every form of verbal abuse.
And as if that were not enough, when the exhausted magician tried to get some sleep, they woke him by banging on a drum.
His troubles began less than six hours after he started his ordeal when teenagers peppered his Plexiglass box with eggs before they were chased away by security guards.
Two blondes had a marginally more refined technique: they bared their breasts and threw fish and chips to try to entice him down.
But the prize for invention went to golfers who teed up with clubs on Tower Bridge and tried hitting the box with golf balls.
Security guards gave chase and confiscated their clubs and balls, although it was not clear whether they were returned.
Shiraz Azam, 21, managed to wake up Blaine in the small hours when he turned up from Tooting with an Indian bhangra drum.
"We were watching him at home on TV and it was really dull so we thought we would come down and liven things up. I wanted to wake him up," he said.
It was not just Blaine they succeeded in disturbing. A short while later a team from Southwark council's noise department turned up. "We got complaints from residents who live on both sides of the river," said supervisor Linda Villar. "They complained about people shouting, screaming and swearing, along with someone banging a drum."
Another barrage of eggs, bottles and bananas meant that by 5.50am - at least half an hour before first light - the crowd had got their way and woken up a grim-faced Blaine. "Wake up Dave," yelled Joe O'Brien, 34, from Brixton. "You'll be late for work."
Mr O'Brien, who admitted throwing eggs, said he had one aim: "To break him and get him down."
By the end of the night it was clear security needed beefing up. A two-metre-high wire fence was put up and the guards doubled to eight.
The next night clubbers on their way home were even more determined to disrupt the magician's sleep. "Watching a man sleep is pretty boring," said Sarah Lewis, 23, from Lewisham. "We are making an effort to try and wake him up."
Today Blaine, who takes water through a tube and has a supply of nappies and wetwipes, was sleeping soundly at six o'clock as the sun rose.
He was kept company overnight by two fans who have vowed to sleep out beside his box for his entire stay.
Blaine awoke at 6.24am and waved to an audience of about 10 people. A few moments later girlfriend Manon von Gerkan arrived and chatted briefly with the illusionist.
Amid the crowds already determined to make his ordeal tougher, there was at least one voice of sympathy. Peckham teacher Siobhan Duvigneau, 33, had an idea of what Blaine might be going through, having once fasted for eight days at a Buddhist retreat.
"You drift between consciousness and semi-consciousness and your emotions are all over the place," she said. "You feel really heavy and agitated, but by day six you feel great and want to run a marathon.
"That will be especially hard for Blaine, being in the box."
