You know when you were a kid on a school field trip and during lunch Timmy Leaf discovered an electric fence and dared everyone to hold hands while he touched it so you all got an electric shock? Well, that’s what David Blaine’s planning to do for three days. Sort of. Only he won’t wet his pants like Timmy Leaf did.

Rather than simply touch an electric fence, Blaine’s going the whole hog. From Friday, he’ll spend 72 hours stood inside seven Tesla Coils. We were surprised to learn ‘Tesla Coil’ isn’t a character from Ballykissangel but electrical columns that shoot out small bolts of lightning.

To avoid turning crispier than a sunburned crisp eating crisps on a crisp summer morning, Blaine will wear a chain-mail suit and helmet throughout. Let’s hope no-one turns up in the same outfit. That would be embarrassing.

This is certainly a brave thing to attempt. Electricity’s not cheap these days. In fact, money-saving rules here in the Daily Slap office include: if there’s less than three people in a room, you’re not allowed to turn on the light; the lifts only stop on alternate floors and you're only allowed 4 sheets of toilet paper regardless of the purpose of your visit. And that last one's not even anything to do with the cost of electricity.

Rather wisely, Blaine will be performing the feat in New York. We say ‘wisely’ as when he spent 44 days living in a perspex box in London, a variety of local cockneys, ASBOs and people who looked like they belonged in a Guy Ritchie movie passed the time by pelting him with food, rubbish and golf balls. Let’s hope his fellow New Yorkers are a bit more lenient.

Of course, Blaine's not the first American to electrify an audience with a static stunt. Way back in 1752, one of the founding fathers (we don't know what that means, we just read it on Wikipedia), Benjamin Franklin, felt the need to prove lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm. We're not sure why.

Meanwhile, rival magician Pandora the Passionate, will be offering an alternative piece of performance art for 72 hours from Friday, doing that stupid trick where you keep pulling different coloured hankies from your jacket pocket. Disclaimer: ok, so the rival magician is actually our security guard's 12-year-old daughter. We don't think there's any chance she'll steal Blaine's thunder. Get it? Thunder...lightning?! No? Oh, why do we bother…

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