I have been enjoying the Canadian Outdoor Life Networks (OLN) "Escape or die" series. It's a 30 minute "reality" TV show featuring Dean and his team putting on escape shows. It's a small budget program, but I find it quite entertaining. Is anyone else watching it?

The good thing is that OLN has all the episodes online;

http://www.oln.ca/shows/escape-or-die/

Let me know what you think!

What do I think?

I think you can not watch the show unless your omputer has a Canadian IP address or some such. I have been trying to find ways around that, so far with no success.

BTW I was in Vancouver a few weeks ago. Beautiful city.

Oh. I didn't know it was IP blocked. Usually it's us poor Canadians unable to get content from America or the UK.

Hopefully it will eventually wind up on Netflix or something...

Glad you liked Vancouver!

Cliff, use hidemyass or any of the other proxy servers. Then choose a Canadian ip and now you can watch it. Hope that helps.

I'm a bit surprised no one's commented on the show. As I mentioned, I quite enjoyed it and I just finished watching all the episodes (half on TV and half from the website). I'd recommend viewing at least one episode to everyone here.

Not being a "regular" member of the public on the topic, I find it difficult to properly evaluate the show. Each episode features Dean (and his team) getting a job, manufacturing the equipment, dealing with unexpected problems, and finally performing a great escape. He has a great cast of characters, and its great to see them all working together. Dean has a very competent woman on his team, and I think this neatly balances out some "macho" energy and makes the show more accessible. I think the show's focus on the relationships and challenges really works.

I, however, feel there's some things missing from the show. I think this is because the show is only 30 minutes (lots to cut) and it tries to "hide" any of the methods and theatrics of escapes. I'd like to see dean out there trying to get gigs (while trying to support his family), and a little more from the perspective of the client and audience. I'd like to see them looking at the theatrics of the escape - dean is often escaping just in the nick of time or something "unexpected" happens during the escape. I expect (?) this is planned, and if so, I'd like to see them building this into the escape to put on the best possible show for the audience. I expect they feel this would ruin the mystery and excitement of the escape - and they are likely correct.
I also felt a few of the "problems" dean experienced prior to the escapes were manufactured - if they weren't, then I think the production/editing was "off" because I was left with that impression. An example of this is during dean's suspended cage escape - he is originally given a bird (?) cage incapable of even holding his weight and a proper replacement was made for him overnight. I think they need to sell this to me just a little bit more - perhaps some frantic phone calls or a quick peek into the manufacture. This pulled me out of the magic of the show! Did anyone else feel that way or am I just jaded? I expect all these problems actually occurred, I just think the show needed to tell that story a little bit differently and emphasis difficulties doing shows internationally.

I'd like to see OLN move this to higher budget and to a 60 minute format - I think this would allow the show to really shine and tell the stories. I'd also really love to see dean mentoring a new escape artist - I think that would be pure gold and really allow the show to explore a lot of different territory. For now, I'd be happy if they renewed the show for another season!

TL;DR - watch an episode I think you will really enjoy it. Congrats to Dean, his team, and the production team!

I'm definitely going to have to get my computer to pretend to be in Canada so I can check this out!

I am currently back in China preforming more big escapes and I saw this post.

I am glad you like Escape or Die Not so Wise. It was a lot of work and required nearly 8 months of filming alone. I feel it is very different than any other magic type shows made before. I tried to keep it very real as escapes should be. It was filmed as a documentary style and we had many problems as normally happen when I travel around the world preforming for live audiences with big escapes, like I have been for the last 3 plus decades.

The cage in China was a real problem and shows how plans get lost in translation. We filmed a lot of stuff and many things got cut to fit the half hour format. I wish I had time to watch the editing but I was very busy and you only have so much control. Allot of great people worked on this project and I am very proud of them all.

It was far from low budget though. I can guarantee even my assistants got paid better than any of the other current magic show headliners get. We had a crew of 15 travel around the world and accumulated over a million air miles. Flashy stage lights doesn’t mean big budget ! The show continues to air nationally across Canada every Saturday and Sunday. It has also been sold too many countries globally. The Americans seem to be the ones who can t afford it yet as the like everything cheap Lol

I tried to show a wide variety of escapes on the show and things always kept changing. We could have made a documentary on the documentary. I also tried to feature many great friends I have worked with over my career. My ratings were very good and hopefully there will be a season two. There is always things I would have liked to changed but its a great show. I didn't t do the 12 episode series for anyone here, but for the general public, and the response from them has been amazing.

I am glad you liked the show . Thanks.

I hope that it gets continued into a second season - its a great show and is certainly like no other "magic" show out there. Congrats on bringing something new to the stage, as well as showing off some of your great escapes. I particularly enjoyed getting to know your team and seeing their mutual bonds! I can only imagine how difficult it was to not only do your actual shows (each one different), but also how be doing a documentary! Perhaps you could share a few more thoughts on the process? How did the show get picked up (did they approach you or did you approach them)? What is your strongest take away thought now the first season is finished?

Hopefully one of the american stations will pick up the show...

Thanks Cliff for reviewing my TV series Escape or Die in the recent March Ties Newsletter. I am also proud to say my series won "Best Documentary TV Series " in Canada. I think this is a really great accomplishment for any TV show but especially because we all know how hard it is to sell an escape. Especially on a TV show.

It also continues to air in many countries around the world. We filmed me performing escapes in China, Malaysia, Iceland, India, Bahamas, Columbia, USA and Canada. I also had some great long time magic friends help me with a number of the episodes. I even had James " the Amazing " Randi help out with an episode. I hope you all get a chance to watch it sometime.

I'm so happy that Dean is doing so well! We met in Minneapolis, years ago, at a Magic Weekend sponsored by the local SAM Assembly.

I had bought a "bunch" of cuffs and "come alongs" from a guy in Ohio. I had a lot more "hardware" than I needed, and Dean and I "horse traded" We were both happy when we parted. He had some cuffs, and, I had some cash!

In '95, I was spending a few months each fall, booking programs for Jack West (Mgr. National School Assemblies) and then touring for Jack with my magic program. We had a young man who did escapes, set to do about 20 weeks. Two weeks before the escape program was to start, the young man canceled his tour. A hurried conference with Jack Lythgoe, one of the other bookers, myself, and Jack West was called. I had lined up a young magician friend who had some road experience, but, had never done any escapes. I loaned him a strait jacket, and, a pair of Hamburg "8s", a "chains & loop prop, and, a pair of modern thumb cuffs. He hit the road 10 days later, and, did a fine job.

Jim toured Utah and Idaho but didn't want to do the Tennessee/Kentucky part of the tour. I had him "blue label" the props to Tennessee, when he finished Utah. When I walked in to the Jr. High in Tennessee, the props were in the office. I did about 4 weeks!

I had grown up about a hundred miles north of Appleton, Wisconsin, Houdin's "home town". I talked about Houdini's first tours, did the escapes from the jacket and cuffs, and, between us, we salvaged the tour! ("$how bu$ine$$")

Thanks for the plug Dean!

If you have not read the review, go to the newsletter page at www.tiesociety.info. Deans show is in the latest issue. The review is totally positive due to the high quality of the show.

Break a Chain Dean, good luck in season two!