Tightrope walker sets sights on Egypt, France

US daredevil Nik Wallenda is already thinking about how to top this weekend's tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon - with Egypt's pyramids and the Eiffel Tower high on his wish list.

The 34-year-old, who broke a seventh world record by walking across the Niagara Falls last year, says he is driven to perform death-defying feats by passion and his family heritage, but admits it is also highly lucrative.

In an interview with AFP, he said he was not always sure about joining the seven-generation-old family circus business, and could have been a pediatrician if high-wire walking hadn't worked out.

"My parents really pushed me to go elsewhere because our family ... had struggled financially to make ends meet. The business seemed to be dying," said Wallenda, who first walked the high wire when he was two years old.

Recalling his late teens, he said: "I wanted to have a wife and kids, and I thought, I have to support my wife and kids, how am I going to do it? ... I'd been accepted at a college. My dream was to become a pediatrician."

But then in 1998, the family made huge headlines with a seven-person pyramid tightrope stunt, which made him realize that "there was definitely a career here. It's not dying, it's just changing".

Technological progress, which has made it possible to beam performances around the world live, has clearly made a difference.

On Sunday, he will be wearing multiple cameras and microphones as he steps into the void at the US tourist landmark, with nothing but a five-centimeter thick wire between him and the rocks 450 meters below.

Online viewers will be able to choose from 16 different camera angles, including one pointing straight downward from his chest, while reporters will be able to ask him questions as he inches across the wire.

Wallenda hasn't revealed his paycheck from the Discovery Channel, which will beam the feat live in 219 countries, but the father of three said the daredevil business has given him a comfortable life financially.

"It ... is extremely lucrative, more lucrative than I would have ever dreamed of. My kids' college is paid for, and I'm saving for retirement," he said.

He plans to retire at age 50 - learning a lesson from his great-grandfather Karl, who was 73 when he died falling off a tightrope in 1978, unable to save himself by grabbing the wire.

In the meantime, however, he has a big "bucket list" of stunts he would like to perform.

"The pyramids in Egypt, the Eiffel Tower. And there's just places all over the world that I want to do walks. We'll see where my life path takes me ... but those are big goals and ambitions that I'm definitely reaching for," Wallenda said.

Wallenda is particularly proud that he managed to walk across the Niagara Falls, after becoming the first person to obtain permission by getting changes to local law that banned stunts at the landmark on the US-Canadian border.

He compares himself to Frenchman Philippe Petit, star of the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire about his 1974 non-authorized tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in New York.

"I think he was amazing at what he did," Wallenda said, adding that he "looks up" to Petit. "The film is awesome, I absolutely loved every minute of it. He did a lot of really cool walks."

The Florida-based adventurer also paid tribute to his family for supporting his high-risk life choice. His three children, aged 15, 12 and 10, all walk the high wire, but at the moment have other career plans.

"If they choose to do wire-walking that's great, but if they choose to do something else, that's just as good," he said.

(China Daily 06/22/2013 page6)