Tag: Straight Jacket

Latest Magic News

Criss Angel to Close Vegas Show for 3 Months

Inside Magic Image of Criss Angel Reports were received from The Las Vegas Sun that magician Criss Angel that will take a break from his rigorous schedule to have surgery on an injured shoulder.

The star of Believe will put the show on hold for three months in 2014 to have surgery on damaged tendons in a shoulder.  He tore the tendons two years ago and put off surgery at the time to film his new series for Spike TV and performing at The Luxor.

The tendons tore a second time whilst performing an upside down straight jacket escape in Times Square.  “There is no alternative. It’s three times as bad now,” Mr. Angel told The Las Vegas Sun. “I have to go under the knife. There is no other choice. I’ve already put it off far too long.”

To do otherwise risked permanent damage that would end his performing career.

The doctors will begin their work in January and he will host a show featuring other magicians in February and March before returning to the stage in April.

Latest Magic News, Magic of Asia, Magician Feature

Magic Babe Ning’s Controversial Escape Stunt Teases World Record Illusion Act

Magic Babe Ning Risks Life in Daring Straight Jacket EscapeInside Magic Favorite ‘Magic Babe’ Ning Cai literally elevated the risk level of her renown straight jacket escape last weekend.

Miss Ning is famous for her signature Straight Jacket Striptease routine.  She describes the act as “Harry Houdini meets the Pussy Cat Dolls.”

Her most recent presentation, however, moved from tease to terrifying. 

Inversion saw her completely restrained by a regulation straight jacket, blindfolded, and held upside down over a very real and very sharp bed of spikes.

Magic Seen calls Miss Ning “the sexiest woman in Magic” but this latest stunt could easily have ended in a decidedly less-than-sexy manner.

Honestly, we don’t know why they (escape artists) do this type of thing (risk their lives).

If our fellow performers risk their lives for our entertainment, they can skip it because we cannot handle it.

While we admire their skill, we tend to worry.

Inside Magic Favorite Dean Gunnarson sent us a video of an insane escape that took us a couple of hours to watch.

We kept stopping the video, visited our “happy place,” recalled that we were watching an event that happened in the past, and because Mr. Gunnarson sent us DVD himself,  there was every reason to think he was not killed in the footage we were viewing.

Like Miss Ning, Mr. Gunnarson performed an inverted straight jacket escape.

Miss Ning was over very sharp and sturdy steel spikes.

Similarly, Mr. Gunnarson was high above The Hoover Dam while hanging from a free-swinging bar using only his feet; no tether, no strap to hold the top of his shoes in place as he contorted his body.

Yes it was an amazing feat, but it also brought us nightmares and an additional five weeks of therapy.  And as many know, most insurance policies refuse to cover so-called “Puppet Psycho Therapy” beyond two weeks of visits.   Our recovery was costly and left emotional scars.

Continue reading “Magic Babe Ning’s Controversial Escape Stunt Teases World Record Illusion Act” →

Latest Magic News, Magic of Canada

Brice Thrills with Escape 40 Feet Up!

Nick Brice Struggles for Freedom High Above CrowdFifteen year-old Nick Brice had an exceptional view of the overflow crowd gathered beneath him on the hot asphalt parking lot of the Swift Current Mall.

The excited, curious, and skeptical over-flow audience had an equally fine vantage point to watch the young man struggle with the canvas straight jacket as he swayed and writhed in the 10 mile-per-hour winds dangling some 40 feet above last Saturday.

No straight jacket escape is automatic or easy.

But Nick Brice was not looking for “easy” when he agreed to perform the dangerous stunt.

If he wanted to be safe, or to perform an “easy” escape, he would have stayed planted on terra firma (likely indoors), donned a heavily gimmicked, unexamined straight jacket, and conducted his escape behind an opaque curtain.

Perhaps it is a tribute to his youthful energy and enthusiasm that he was able to fend off fatigue and vertigo to slowly and painfully work his way free of the weighty garment before he would have certainly collapsed from heat exhaustion and his inverted position.

Like many of us, Mr. Brice was inspired by Houdini – someone who never took the “easy” route.

“Probably the most famous magician, Harry Houdini, is the one that really inspires me. He was the first one to do this one at the turn of the 20 century. He was my inspiration to do the straight jacket escape,” Master Brice told reporters.

His usual performance venues are more stable, less dangerous.

“I have done a couple at the library. Actually I normally do it at schools. I am always entertaining the other kids at high school.”

How does he intend to top his latest public exhibition next year?

Continue reading “Brice Thrills with Escape 40 Feet Up!” →