Browsed by
Tag: escape artist

Magician’s water-filled tank escape trick goes awry for second time at New Jersey show (VIDEO)

Magician’s water-filled tank escape trick goes awry for second time at New Jersey show (VIDEO)

A magician who was handcuffed, chained and locked inside a water-filled tank reportedly needed help to get out of the box alive Tuesday.

Spotters freed Spencer Horsman, who calls himself “The escape artist,” when he couldn’t undo one of the last bars holding him inside the tank after around three minutes, as seen in video of the performance posted by New Jersey Advance Media.

He was conscious when he emerged in front of a cheering midday audience outside New Brunswick’s State Theatre, but paramedics took him to a nearby hospital as a precaution, the news outlet reported. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the rescue was a planned promotional stunt or a near-death experience. read more and watch video…

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/magician-underwater-escape-trick-awry-article-1.2362268

A Movie on the Life of the Amazing Randi, a Magician, Escape Artist and Skeptic

A Movie on the Life of the Amazing Randi, a Magician, Escape Artist and Skeptic

    A Movie on the Life of the Amazing Randi, a Magician, Escape Artist and Skeptic – Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly   

     “The public really doesn’t listen when they’re being told straightforward facts,” says the Amazing Randi. The magician, escape artist and tiny lion of principled skepticism, now north of 80, leans forward in a black chair, all knees and elbows and Old Testament beard. If it weren’t for that sharpie’s suit he’s wearing, the kind that looks like it has face cards slipped between its every seam, he could be some wise-wizard marionette rigged up by the Henson Workshop.  

     Randi is dismayed, thinking of frauds he’s exposed, truths he’s fought for, and the fact that America still hasn’t run its psychics and UFO abductees and flim-flam preachers out of the country on a rail. “They would rather accept what some charismatic character tells them than really think about what the truth might be,” Randi says. “They’d rather have the romance and the lies.”

http://www.laweekly.com/film/a-movie-on-the-life-of-the-amazing-randi-a-magician-escape-artist-and-skeptic-5422399

Inside the Houdini-Industrial Complex: The surprising, secret influence of the great escape artist

Inside the Houdini-Industrial Complex: The surprising, secret influence of the great escape artist

  By Rachel Shteir for SALON

There are two take-aways from the largest auction of Harry Houdini memorabilia in a decade—it netted over $500,000— that happened recently at Potter and Potter auction house in Chicago. The first is that in our decidedly unmagical age, Americans are more fascinated than ever by the great twentieth-century escape artist. There is plenty of evidence for my theory besides the auction, including, beginning this past Monday, the History Channel miniseries starring Adrien Brody as Houdini. (Other high-profile projects near launch date include a Broadway musical supposedly starring Hugh Jackman as Houdini and a book about the escape artist’s relationship with the psychic Margery by the screenwriter David Jaher.)

The allure of Houdini should not be surprising. Since his death in 1926, the escape artist has never been out of fashion. As Adrien Brody put it in a TV interview, Houdini resonated with immigrants trying to achieve the American Dream. His achievements touch nearly every important domain of the twentieth century, including aviation and cinema.

But there is one irritating thing about Houdiniana today that also dates back to his life: the code of secrecy mystifying his tricks…

Read more