Robert Gallup Pushes Almost Too Far to EntertainInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Robert Gallup

Don?t ask how I get stories from the Shanghai Daily News. It was a strange moment of weakness when I was confronted by an alleged college student looking to sell subscriptions to pay her way through school. I don?t know how many subscriptions I bought but I figured based on me alone, she?ll get her doctorate ? probably in the psychology of Suckers.

Anyway, the Shanghai Daily News is reporting that Master Illusionist Robert Gallup is getting ready for an attempt to duplicate some Houdini?s most famous escapes. Says Mr. Gallup, ?It’s just not fun if the consequence of error isn’t death.”

That?s my motto too; but I apply it to shaving and flossing.

Mr. Gallup has an amazing presence and an incredible talent. It’s nice to see the good guys getting the props they deserve.

Mr. Gallup?s show is called, ?Extreme Magic, Deadly Escapes.” He?ll do his now famous, ?Challenge of the Death Dive.?

What?s the challenge and what?s the death dive? He gets good and shackled, locked in a mailbag, put into a six foot cell and dropped from a plane about a three miles over the Mojave Desert in California. He had about one minute to escape and open his parachute.

Robert Gallup

That?s my motto too; but I apply it to shaving and flossing.

Mr. Gallup has an amazing presence and an incredible talent. It’s nice to see the good guys getting the props they deserve.

Mr. Gallup?s show is called, ?Extreme Magic, Deadly Escapes.” He?ll do his now famous, ?Challenge of the Death Dive.?

In August 2002, Gallup impressed a Beijing audience with a public charity show. He was shackled and suspended upside down more than 150 feet high above the Great Wall. Big deal, you say, anyone can be shackled and hanging over the Great Wall of China. Yeah, but how about if the whole suspension was set on fire? Now we?re talking danger.

Why do you do it, Mr. Gallup? Huh? ?I get a rush every time,” says the California native. “A real possibility of catastrophe always exists. It’s just luck to keep a clear mind at the very moment.”

Pushing it to the edge.

He?s been pushing the envelope and risking his life in 30 countries and been on more than 200 television shows around the world. If his itinerary sounds like David Copperfield, that?s because he and Mr. Copperfield travel in similar circles. He says they respect each other though they are very different illusionists. ?You know, just like different styles of music, any preference is acceptable,” he says. ?David is an excellent magician.

?People nowadays are more aware of the artistic value of magic,? he says. ?I will not let them down. They will find more fun and creation from my performance.?

He has had to reschedule his shows in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities in China, due to the SARS outbreak.

On January 13^th and 14^th, Mr. Gallup will perform at the Shanghai Grand Stage.

Check out his outstanding website at: www.gallupextreme.com. We’ll put it in the Inside Magic Links of Fame.