Crazy Man or Just an Escape Artist? Mario Manzini Risks Life for FameInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Mario Manzini

Hi, I’m a normal person. I’ve decided to take up a
profession where to get ahead, I will allow folks to tie me up, bury me
under six feet of dirt, or hang me from a burning rope. It seems like
it will be more exciting than my current boring job, defusing bombs and
stuff.

Who thinks that? What drives Mark Cannon, Dean Gunnarson, or anyone
to risk their life for an audience who thinks it?s fixed anyway?

Well, we don’t know. We do know that a kind young man is about to
attempt his escape from a Plexiglas coffin in October. Mario Manzini
knows the history of this particular variant of the buried-alive
effect. We’ve never spoken to a single escape artist who desired to do
the buried-alive escape a second time. Read about Banachek’s recollection of the event. Many don’t make it. Houdini himself thought it was too dangerous.

We recall seeing the horrible footage of another young man
attempting to escape from a buried Plexiglas coffin and failing. We ask
again, therefore, why anyone would choose this type of business?

It’s been a year since Mr. Manzini risked his life performing an
aerial strait-jacket escape suspended 100 feet in the warm air over
Columbia, Missouri. Because no one would think it sufficient to hang
upside down in a straight jacket whilst dangling from a burning rope
without more, Mr. Manzini asked the local police to lock his arms with
handcuffs. Sure. That makes sense. Yikes!

The mayor, police officials, local television, and the crowds
watched as he struggled against the odds and time permitted by the
rapid burn of the rope. Mr. Manzini tells Inside Magic, “Luckily, I
escaped from the cuffs and hinge cuffs and was able to escape from the
strait-jacket and on the way down to the ground as the rope was almost
burned in two I pulled out the American Flag to show it as a symbol of
Freedom (Escape) for America.”

Our first career choice was taste tester for Saddam Hussein but it got boring.

So Mr. Manzini does the logical thing. He has decided to return with
a new escape that has already taken the life of one young artist.

Winston Churchill wrote “[t]here is no greater exhilaration than to be
shot at . . . and missed.” He did not say, however, “[t]here is no
great exhilaration than to be shot at . . . and missed, and then going
back to the same place to be shot at again.”

Mr. Manzini is working to make the casket stronger to prevent a
similar cave-in. He also hopes to, “be placed inside a strait-jacket
and chains first instead of just handcuffs. I may be adding more
restraints to make it more dangerous.”

We admire those willing to risk their lives for us. Please take care Mr. Manzini and keep us informed.