[imagesource: AFP/Getty Images]

Maybe it was cabin fever from lockdown or straight-up boredom, but David Blaine decided to take a break from levitating on the street and producing frogs from his mouth on late-night television to return to his roots.

By roots, I mean the death-defying stunts that made him famous, like the one where he tried to encase himself in ice for 72 hours.

In August, he announced that he planned on embarking on his most risky stunt in over a decade, with plans to livestream it on YouTube.

The stunt, called Ascension, would entail Blaine attaching himself to a variety of helium balloons and floating high above the ground on August 31, weather permitting.

Blaine’s original plan was to fly over New York, but he decided to shift to the Arizona desert because of logistical issues.

Well, ladies and gentleman, following a brief delay, yesterday he finally did it.

Per DEADLINE:

Blaine lifted off shortly before 8 AM PT and within 40 minutes had risen to a height of over 19,000 feet. He eventually reached a height of 24,900 feet and then parachuted to the ground. He completed the entire event with an hour.

Some background on the stunt and the inspiration behind it:

Now, skip through to the 1:55:06 mark to watch him fly:

Nicely done.

The livestream, which featured appearances from Casey Neistat, Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis, and professional surfer Jamie O’Brien drew in a record-breaking number of viewers.

The stunt was the most-watched YouTube Original Live Event to date, according to the video streaming platform, with over 770,000 peak concurrent viewers, besting Dear Class of 2020 (665k peak concurrents), The Creator Games Presented by MrBeast (662k peak concurrent), Will Smith: The Jump (more than 300k peak concurrents) and Taylor Swift: Lover’s Lounge (Live) (more than 185k peak concurrents).

Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content at YouTube, says “David Blaine exceeded expectations once again!”

I’m sure she’s very happy with that online turnout.

While the stunt is undoubtedly cool, maybe hold off on showing this video to your kids until they’re old enough to know better, or the next birthday party they attend could turn ugly.

[source:deadline]