WATCH: David Blaine performs helium-balloon stunt Wednesday in Arizona

Orlando, Fla. — Famed magician David Blaine was up, up and away on Wednesday.

The stunt, “Ascension,” was supposed to launch with 52 helium balloons over a river in New York on Monday, but the 47-year-old says the stunt is so complex it was instead moved to Paige, Arizona.

He calls it the most beautiful backdrop he’s ever seen.

“Ascension is the most ambitious performance of my life,” says Blaine in a promotional video.

The goal was see how high he can fly, making it more than three-and-a-half miles in the air.

“I [had] to get 500 jumps out of an airplane so I have a pro-skydiver rating, I [had] to earn a hot air balloon pilot certificate and then an even rarer certification that would allow me to fly helium-filled balloons, and I even [had] to understand how to read the wind,” Blaine said.

The stunt was live streamed on his YouTube channel HERE.

Cox Media Group