Word: houdini
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...comedy, clowning, juggling and various other stunts, a magician who is nothing short of amazing and The Amazing Fantasy Jugglers, who are truly fantastic. These acts get started around 5 p.m. and keep it up almost all night. The magician does jaw-opening sleight of hand and his Houdini finale is incredible, even after the third time...
...went ahead anyway. "I just ate Cream of Wheat beforehand, and took some extra precautions," he relates. The feat caught the eyes of several skin diving magazines, who noted that it was the first time anyone has swum under ice without scuba gear. (Historians now dispute the legend that Houdini pulled the same stunt in 1906. Sommers is obviously not eager to repeat the feat...
...other end of the spectrum there are young escape artists. Sixteen-year-old Mark Nelson performs escapes in the St. Paul area, including the strait jacket and the Houdini water can. Nelson is obviously enthusiastic about adopting a life in the escape business. He should be. He has reportedly dropped out of high school to devote full time to escapes...
Outsiders find the escape artist's life difficult to understand. To some, they may appear a strange bunch, seeking the masochistic pleasure of being tied up with ropes and chains. In that vein, psychologist Bernard C. Meyer, author of Houdini A Mind in Chains, claims Houdini's behavior was the product of a "tortured and neurotic mind," preoccupied with images of its own death. And certainly, there would appear to be some truth to the idea that only a certain type of person will seek, among other pastimes, to have himself tied up and thrown into a river...
...daring, more brazen; he seems to face death nobly, even to embrace it openly. Surely there is something of human dignity in the art. At its most metaphoric level, an escape act is near-death, followed by miraculous salvation--the archetype of damnation and resurrection. Its practitioners agree; for Houdini, Bigelow and the rest, escaping from reality is the only way to live...