As I stated in a post yesterday I had a story that I thought amusing and that I wanted to share with all of you.

I am very strict about keeping The X-treem – the entertainer and Shawn – the husband and father of two, separate. This explanation saves me from having to comply with challenges off the stage. There was only one time that I broke the rule…

A friend and fellow magician was going through a bad divorce and phoned me from a bar and asked if I would be his designated driver (I rarely drink) agreeing I arrived at the bar and we just sat and talked about life and eventually we got into a discussion on escapes. As I was telling my friend about my progress on the latest escape I am working on the gent sitting behind us turns around and in a WC Fields slur says, “You guys are escape artists?” (actually more like, Yoush goys ared eshcap arshtists? But I digress) after replying that I was, he challenged me then and there to escape from a pair of handcuffs. I politely refused giving my separate person speech. “Wuss,” was the reply. I ignored him.

Then his drunk friend joined in about a handcuff that they had just bought hours earlier at a flea market (first thought in my mind was a Takeda style child’s toy) it was used by a “great magician” and came with his poster which claimed that, “Claudaine The Great was the ONLY magician able to escape from this pair of handcuffs”, and that it cost them $500USD to get the cuffs and poster. Both of which where sitting in their car waiting for me to break down and accept the challenge. “Tell me about the cuffs,” I said. “Well, they don’t have a key and look like Mickey Mouse ears (I prayed it wasn’t a McColl Russian Manacle) and the only way to open them with out a key is to fold them in half and the cuff popped open (Hamburg 8’s, Heck I can do this with just about anything for a pick.)”

I accepted the challenge. As the two went out to their car, the bartender played bookie and people started making bets about my ability, most odds were against me. The men returned and handed the cuff to me (for inspection) I stated that I had never seen a cuff such as that one and that escaping would take a long time (all bull of course). As I was inspecting the cuff right in front of me I saw the gimmick!!! Now it was time to have some fun (which Claudaine obviously had with his audience) I told everyone that I would escape on one condition, if I escaped in less than ten minutes all the bets would be turned over to me and go towards the Downs Syndrome Charity that I give to. If I failed to escape all bets could stay with the winners.

After being locked in, I sneezed, jerking my hands at the same time and the cuffs fell to the floor. $327 dollars went to my charity and the drunk bums where literally on the floor with astonishment, thanks Claudaine wherever you are.

ROFLMAO!!!

That was good. No, really really GOOD!

I wish I could have been there.

Duncan

Cool story! And fortunate for the charity!

(I didn't think this was good enough for a stand alone post so I'll put the story here)My son who loves watching me practice and does "magic" of his own (He is three and will grab a silk and say, "gone" and stuff it in his pocket and then says, "back" and pulls it out). He was watching me break in a new straight jacket. My wife put me in and he walked out of the room. As I was working my way out we heard, "HELP,HELP, I'M STUCK!" We went rushing into the next room and there he was, He had pulled both arms inside his shirt crossed them and stuck them out the opposite holes (his R arm was out the hole on the L side and the L thru the R.) and could not get his arms out. I turned to my wife and said, "Well if I had known it was that hard to get out of a shirt I could have saved us $150."

LOL. Hanes maker of the 2002's escape of the year.