Hi guys and gals, here I am at Mario's computer, in Columbia Missouri, while he's inside napping. We had a very, very, long weekend. I got here Wednesday afternoon and we rented a truck and loaded it with all of Mario's props for his big Houdini Tribute show in Muncie, Indiana. We hit the road about 6PM Thursday evening and got to the hotel in Muncie at about 4AM as it is about a 450 mile drive. Mario had a double stunt to promote the show at 8AM friday morning. The first stunt was a handcuff escape from the local sheriff who double locked a pair of Peerless cuffs onto Mario who was then tied into a sack by the sheriff and the Mayor of Muncie. Mario emerged a few minutes later with the cuffs still firmly on his wrists asking the sheriff to unlock them with the key. As the sheriff stepped forward smiling Mario spun around, and freed himself from the cuffs in less than a second while everyone's jaws just dropped. Mario then handed the cuffs back to the sheriff pointing out to everyone's amazment thet they were still double locked.
For the next stunt Mario was handcuffed with eight pairs of different type handcuffs, leg irons, and a set of thumb cuffs, and then jumped into the pool at the local YMCA with the mayor, the sheriff, two scuba divers, several TV news stations, a radio station and droves of on lookers in attendance. He emerged approximately 34 seconds later, free from his feters, to thunderous applause.
All this promotion for his Houdini tribute show paid off as he got excellent coverage on TV, Radio and in the newspaper and played to a packed house on Saturday night.
I MC'd the show and performed some comedy magic during scene and costume changing.
Mario opened with Norm Bigelow's Trial by Fire which was fantastic for me to watch live. He then produced his assistant using the Crystal Casket and then went into the sword basket illusion. He followed this up with two comedy rope ties and a few silk effects that he did with three younger volunteers.
Next was a 100 foot rope tie challenge followed by a SJ escape with handcuffs added. Mario ended the first half of the show with a double sack escape wearing 10 pairs of handcuffs, a set of thumb cuffs, a neck collar, 2 sets of leg irons and 20 feet of heavy duty tractor towing chain with several padlocks.
A brief intermission and then Mario opened the second half of the show with his Phantom of the Opera levitation routine which he followed up with a cage production and the Metamorphosis. Mario closed the show in his traditional fashion with his milk can routine, that just brought the house down. He then went out into the audience to sign autographs to hordes of delighted fans.
We packed up the show, loaded the truck and went back to the hotel at about 2AM to get sume much needed sleep before hitting the road early Sunday afternoon. WE got back home after another 450 mile road trip, unloaded the truck, returned it to the rental place and got home in the wee hours of the morning. So now you can see why he's inside napping. I'm going to try to get him to post here personally when he gets time but he has a lot of things in the works right now...like sleep. Meanwhile I'll try to get some pictures and links posted as soon as I get back home on April 9th. Oh!! and of course...having a wonderful time ...wish you all were here!
Best regards, Tony Parisi

Brilliant post.

A day in the life of a star! thank you for keeping up late (early?) to write all of that. As Escapemaster says. Brilliant post!

Ian

Thanks for the update, Tony! Congrats to the two of you!

Clyde

Bravo, Tony! Sounds like a great show.

Yours,

Paul

The lightning fast handcuff release sounds particularly striking (no pun intended).

Steve

Clap! Clap! Thunderous applause!

Sweet

Perry

Again, my apologies for the delay but here's some links to article's and pictures of Manzini's recent stunt in Muncie, Indiana.
http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/6/037309-8756-004.html (the chubby guy cuffing Manzini is non other that your's truly)
http://www.newslinkindiana.com/news/00000007773.html
Enjoy folks!
Best regards, Tony Parisi

Nice reports Tony,,,I love the off the cuff style of reporting. Hey that`s a great looking Poster in there, hint,hint,I collect Poster`s !!!

Very nice publicity! Good reports and photo's. I agree with Kondini about the poster. Does Mario sell them?

My question is the same. Are there any posters left for sale?

-Matt (TK)

Great report. Seems like we were really there!

Mick

As a matter of fact the posters are available from Mario. Contact him at Marmanzini@aol.com. He'd be more that happy to personalize them for anyone interested.
Best regards, Tony Parisi

Update: April 19 2005

OK I just got some more pictures of Mario's pool stunt so here they are. I hope you guys aren't getting tired of them.
Best regards, Tony Parisi
http://maxrocks.net/gallery/view_album.p......=manzini

Very cool Tony

Perry

Nice series of photos! I always lilke watching a true pro at work! Keep them coming!

It's amazing how some are perpetually(sp?) 25 years old.... WAY to go Mario!

Tony, I thought there was a time that Mario had released a video of his lecture, is that still available and where can I get a copy, thanks bud.

Yeah, they're still available. You can get them from Mario himself for $35 plus shipping.

Cheers,
-Matt (TK)

Hi Tony,
Great report! It brings back many memories. The 450 mile drive, unloading the truck, thrilling the crowd, loading the truck, the 450 mile drive and at last some sleep. Unfortunately, I have come to a point where I don't want to do four of those, so I don't get the fifth as often as I would like.

Keep up the good work and I will live vicariously through you.

Rich

Come on Rich, you and Don are still in your prime! Get out on the road and go to work. Like we were talking about at H Days, Don is still in prime form and could still do the Torture Cell (don't tell him I said that or he'll have you breaking the thing out )