Illusionist tries 24 hours in tank

NEW YORK -- Shackled and submerged in a phone-booth-sized tank of water in Times Square, Criss Angel meditated to pass the time Monday -- and probably to calm his nerves.

The illusionist was to spend the next 24 hours in the "Water Torture Cell."

While training in a backyard swimming pool next to his mother's house in suburban East Meadow, N.Y., Angel had only managed 12 hours underwater. And he blacked out during one trial run last week, said his underwater coach, Ed Tiedemann.

"I think that the episode showed him the whole point of this, which is to show what human endurance can do," said Tiedemann, who runs a Long Island dive shop and was in charge of monitoring Angel's 16 oxygen tanks.

On Monday, Angel looked like a heavy metal singer trapped in an aquarium, with black nail polish on his fingers and toes, hoops and studs in his ears, and long brown hair in skinny braids swirling in the water. His arms and legs were shackled to his waist and neck, and he wore a scuba-like breathing regulator and mask.

The sight elicited puzzled looks and disapproving murmurs from tourists.

"Strange, real strange," said one man, as he passed the gaggle of onlookers outside the World Wrestling Entertainment gift shop. The illusionist performs at the nearby World Underground Theatre, part of the WWE's empire.

Angel occasionally waved at gawkers by pressing his hands flat against the glass, revealing fingers that were already pruney an hour into his escapade.

Tiedemann said Angel fasted to cleanse his system of solid food. He urinates behind a curtain, into a bag.

"He's a bit of a freak, isn't he?" said onlooker Keith Richardson, a 27-year-old mechanic from New Zealand.

The stunt was to end this morning, when the breathing tube is to be removed and Angel must escape from the chains and the tank on his last breath -- a nod to a classic Harry Houdini routine.