Original subtitles

What you're about to witness can be dangerous.

Attempting resulting death.

Don't try this at home.

On this episode of Believe.

Oh, my God.

Is that right? Oh, you nailed it. I want to pay homage to Houdini by attempting

an escape with two straight jackets while suspended high in the air with

around my neck.

That's putting pressure in your carotid artery.

The more you struggle, the more oxygen you're going to lose.

That thing chokes you. It torques you. It mentally puts you.

Oh, no, no.

Should have probably gone with less weight.

This is my childhood right here.

You're going to come Wednesday, right? I worry about you, my friend.

Don't bring that thing.

I don't know if I'm going to be successful as I attempt to be the first

to escape two seconds and there'll be 50 pounds around my neck.

What are you... Oh,

Chris. You can't just...

Okay,

what... Chris... Ew!

Ew!

Oh my... Are you...

Hey,

man, how are you? How are you?

Houdini performed his signature straightjacket escape in New York City's

Square. It gets so quiet right before this moment.

As an artist.

I'm always thinking about what Houdini would have done if he were alive today.

Who's one of my biggest inspirations?

Harry Houdini. Houdini. Exactly.

Houdini made the straitjacket a signature piece.

He's actually the first guy to ever take a straitjacket and perform it upside

down to guarantee that he would sell out his show.

Getting out of a straitjacket is incredibly difficult.

We really have to make sure that shoulders, elbows are limber.

Because basically you're kind of coming through, coming around and trying to

escape without being able to let go of your hand.

Urban legend has it that Houdini used to dislocate his shoulder.

Urban legend. Who started that urban legend? Houdini. I want to take what

Houdini did and try to one up Houdini.

I want to be the first person to ever attempt to escape.

Two straight jackets.

You're going to do this upside down? Upside down. And I want to add one other

factor. What is that X factor that you add?

I want to have some type of restraint around my neck with weight.

I'm fighting against my own clock so I don't go unconscious.

If we had to decide what the biggest risk factor is, I would say what's...

around his neck because first of all that's restricting your your airflow and

your oxygen flow and you're getting into the area of like aneurysms or bursting

vessels how is that put around your neck though i mean how are you i think what

we could do is just get some type of restraint that's putting pressure in

carotid artery The more you struggle, the more oxygen you're going to lose.

There are high stakes with this. The more he moves around, the more energy he

spends, the more he's losing oxygen.

And he could pass out. He could die.

How much weight?

I don't know.

Anywhere between 25 and 50 pounds.

I have a couple of concerns.

You've got this weight around your neck.

It seems to me like the first thing you want to do is get that thing off of your

neck. Then you're upside down 50, 60 feet in the air.

How do we know how you're doing up there?

I mean, there's a lot of inherent dangers with a demonstration like this.

hanging there and you're not responding.

It's over. We got to call him.

When we do this, Pharaoh, I want to do this in an iconic location for the world

to see.

We all understand what the mandate is.

There's a lot of due diligence that needs to go into this one. The space has

accommodate thousands and thousands of people.

It's got to be tall enough to bring in trucks and all kinds of heavy equipment.

And this is something that's going to be really challenging for me.

All right, guys. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Chris. Take care. Thank you. This demonstration features two medical

straitjackets. Chris will be suspended by his feet in an iconic location.

Weight will be tied around Chris's neck.

Category of magic, escape.

The double straight jacket escape is no illusion. What you see is what you get.

But even when I'm doing an illusion, it still requires an intense amount of

rehearsal and focus.

All right, you want to see something?

I don't know. I'm just going to go with this. I'm going to go with your

tablecloth over here. Can I just take this off? We can put it right over here.

And I take your tablecloth and then.

When I ask you to come over, you need to come over and wave your hands like

this, okay?

Underneath the tablecloth. All right. And actually, what's your name?

Zadara. Come over here, Zadara.

I want everybody to see at home, so I want to just open this up so people can

see that it's just a tablecloth, right? Fair?

And you can see there's nothing in it whatsoever.

We're going to fold it in half just like so. Can you fold it up top like that?

Good. Right? And then you're going to bring this end over just like that.

And yeah, just like that. Good.

And what I want you to do is, what's your name, buddy? Ben. Ben, come over

man. Nice to meet you. I want you to put your hand, you're going to put your

hands on there. You're going to put it on the actual cloth, all right? We're

just going to put it like this.

Like this. And you're going to put your hand on the floor. And you're going to

go down on your knees and just keep it taut. Just a little bit more on this

side, a little bit more on this side. Keep it taut. Don't let go, all right?

You've got to hold it just like that, okay?

Nice and taut.

Okay? Okay? Everything fair, by the way, so far, yes?

Okay.

Okay, now check it out. I want you to see.

It's completely, you got to make, that's a little springy, just a little bit

tighter. Make sure you don't let go. You have a good back?

Yep. You have a good back? Pretty good back. Okay. I'm going to trust you.

You're not going to have one after I'm done putting all my weight on you right

now. I'm just going to put my foot right over here. All right, buddy? Now check

it out. I'm just going to put my foot in the end of the table like this. Now

this is what I'm going to do.

Watch. I'm going to do it really slowly for you. Watch.

Watch.

It's going to steal.

Now, do me a favor.

Bring this over to here. Keep it taut. Bring it over here. Amber, come take a

look underneath.

Come take a look underneath.

Wave your hand. Wave your hand. Oh, my God. Let me have this. Let me have this.

Check it out.

Bring it back down. Bring it back down. Bring it back down. Oh, my God. I see

that. Just move you.

There you go.

Right there. I want you to see. It's completely there. Keep your hands right

there. Let go. Let go, Amber. Let go. Let go. Look, I want you to see this.

It's completely, completely, completely.

I put my hands underneath, and there was nothing there. I looked, and I couldn't

believe it. I was completely shocked. I was thinking to myself, how the hell did

he do this?

What's up, guys?

Hey, man, we're just getting ready for you. Got my combat boots on, my

straitjacket boots.

Chris wants to do a double straitjacket escape upside down with weights hanging

around his neck. This looks like it's just bullshit that I'm not really

choked, and I want to be really choked. Get me like a rope.

Like, let's do like a noose. Although the collar is real, it doesn't look

believable. It doesn't look like I'm really choking.

So what better way to choke yourself than a noose? The thing is, though, the

more you struggle, the tighter it's going to get. My concern of going with a

noose is a noose designed to kill somebody.

All right, let's go.

The more weight we add, the tighter that noose is going to become.

And in my opinion, this is just nuts.

Stop. This is worse than the first rehearsal because you can actually see

redness and the strain that's around Chris's neck from the noose. It's a lot

weight.

Yeah.

The idea of going from a collar to noose may have been a stupid mistake on my

part, especially with that amount of weight. I don't know how to do it right

now.

You should have probably gone with less weight.

That's what I was wondering.

advertise all this weight. I don't know if I can do that, honestly.

This has the strap that magicians cut off. Exactly. Because they can't deal

this strap because your arms actually go into it. Correct.

So what they do is when they avoid having that strap there, they're just

lift their arms up. Here, you can't lift your arms up. Exactly.

This is a real straightjacket.

I'm always trying to push the limit of what's possible.

And I want to push that line.

just before I kill myself, because that's where I am able to accomplish

that have never been accomplished in the history of the art.

You okay?

Down, down.

This is a monster.

This is crazy.

Coming up.

This is my childhood right here.

Dini never did this, nor did anybody.

Chris is going to be wearing this straight jacket. Go ahead and flip it

right. It's a little small for you. Well, Dougie and I got to go to lunch,

we'll see you in a minute, Jesse. You take care.

Have fun. See, Jesse, you just got to wiggle around.

I'm going to try something.

Keep your arm out like this. Okay. If you get tired, you can take the other

and hold.

Your wrist. Okay. Can I have a phone? Yeah, it's my part.

Do you want me to get it? Yeah, go for it. I trust you.

Now check it out.

I'm just going to try to balance this on your hand, just like so. I'm just going

to try to balance it. Just relax. Keep your breathing normal.

Okay.

Wow.

Now watch.

I need a phone.

The whole time I'm sitting here like, how am I doing this? Because I kind of

feel like I was doing it, but obviously it wasn't. It was all Chris.

Check it out.

What we're going to do.

When he put the second one on top,

it was like, oh, wow.

Is he really doing this?

Unbelievable.

Oh, man.

No. Oh, my gosh.

That's crazy.

Oh, my goodness. Let's go three.

Three? Oh, my goodness. Do you have one over there?

Do you have one?

Let me have it. All right. Just turn the camera on. Okay. Turn the camera on.

Turn the camera on. Okay. They were just balancing there. It was crazy.

Oh, come on. No way.

Holy.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my

goodness.

They're going to take one away.

Oh, my gosh. I'm scared.

Yeah, this is going to fall.

I was as close as you could get.

There were no strings.

There was nothing. Just the phones and my hand and magic.

This demonstration was so important to Chris. I've been looking at various

locations around the country.

Hey, Jack. How are you?

How's everything going with Times Square?

Times Square is the ideal location for this demonstration.

This is where Houdini performed his version of it. And this is where Chris

got his start. Thank you so much.

And now I got my location.

The amount of pain around my neck is literally unbearable.

I want to see my friend Randy Couture in MMA Hall of Famer to learn some

techniques that I can employ to avoid losing consciousness.

No way I'm getting him down.

We're trying to do this thing where I'm going to be literally hanging upside

down in a straight jacket. And I want to take a noose and put 45 pounds of

weight so that essentially I have to beat my own clock.

And I basically have to get out before I get passed out.

How does that look, Randy?

Yes.

That looks good.

Choking, guillotine chokes and rear naked chokes are common in our sport.

Physiologically.

you're cutting off the oxygen -rich blood supply to your brain, anything,

kind of pressure, and it doesn't take much pressure here.

And in seven seconds, you're going to... Seven seconds, typically.

There's two types of chokes. There's a blood choke, which is most common

the carotid arteries are easily exposed.

The second is a wind choke, which you can protect your trachea and takes

and is more painful.

You'll go out and you know, I've been choked out and not realized that I woke

up. That can't tap out.

So what kind of advice would you be able to give me? I've been doing a lot of

neck exercises, a lot of shoulder shrugs, traps.

I don't know physiologically if there's anything you can actually train that are

going to protect that carotid so that that blood flow keeps going to your

I'm glad I'm not hanging 10 stories.

In a choke hold, my basically, my bicep is on this carotid. Right. And my

forearm is on that carotid. I lock it in. Right. You can see it doesn't take a

lot of pressure. You start to feel.

Yeah. You want to put me out? I prefer you were sitting.

All right. Let me sit. Sit somewhere. Right here.

I'm going to apply a pretty standard rear naked choke. My bicep is going to

on one of your carotid arteries. My forearm is going to be on the other.

I'm going to lace it.

Now I'm just starting to apply the choke.

That feels like as you go into sleep.

Yeah, that's what it feels like.

It's like, yeah, like tunnel closes.

Wow. Thank you very much for choking me out.

What I've come away with is I need to keep the rope away from my carotid

arteries and the front of my neck.

All of that weight needs to be bared on the back of my neck.

If I don't do that, I will be choked out.

Coming up, there's something wrong with the permits and we cannot continue. I

need that license now, man. If I don't get it, I don't have a show.

This arrived at the New York airport heading for Manhattan, my home state of

York. Very excited to be back.

And how are you doing? Thank you. New York is

my home and it's where everything started for me. Pounding the doors,

get a break.

And here we are.

This is where it all started. This is my childhood right here.

You've been here.

You haven't been here.

Yeah, this is where it all started. When I rehearsed the metamorphosis with

Scott and Tarante, it was right in front of that garage.

Right over here.

I very rarely get the time to go back to New York. So to have the opportunity to

see my family and my friends and have their support when I attempt something

that's so monumental in the middle of Times Square is...

Just the dream that I had since I used to walk through Times Square.

Hey, Mom.

Who's that? How are you?

Where is he?

I brought you some pizza.

When Chris Angel walks through his childhood front door, he becomes

We were right there, Mom. We were coming out the front door. How are you?

I love you.

He is right at home.

And it's just such a loving family environment. And I think that is a lot

reason for Chris's success is he has so much family support.

How are you, Stella?

I'm good. Thank you so much.

Say again. Ma, what would you like? And Stella, what would you like? Are you

going to eat the best pizza there is in the world?

Two brothers.

I told JD, I said, I bet you this is going to go for pizza. Brothers.

I did.

Do I know you or don't I know you? You do. You know me better than us.

Better than he knows himself.

This really reminds me of, like, the times when I was a kid and I was growing

and we would hang out with all the relatives at the house and, you know,

doing magic and my Aunt Stella, you know, started me. With magic, when I was

six, she actually showed the trick to me.

michael her son michael and perry her other son and i was the one who drove

crazy to know how it was done and i said she's like all right i'll teach you to

just like read bb okay do you remember the trick well let's try it okay

I don't know if we have a card.

Mom, do you have a card in the house? Do you have my cards? Yeah, of course I

have. Look at my mom. She has all of my products all over the house. My new deck

of cards. I love these cards. They're awesome. The Baroque deck.

And I'm going to shuffle them real quick.

You don't trust me, huh? I don't trust you.

Okay.

You remember how to do this? Yes, I do. I was six. This was a long time ago.

Take a card.

Okay, I'm going to go in the middle. I'm not taking the top one. Is that okay?

I don't care.

Just look at it good and concentrate on that. You got it? Okay.

Put it on top of the deck. Okay.

And cut the deck.

Okay, I'm going to cut the deck. All right, there we go. I'm happy. Turn the

cards all the way.

Okay. And spread them out. Spread them out. Okay.

You're not even touching the deck. I'm just doing all the work here currently.

This is your phone.

Is that right?

Is that right? You nailed it. That was really good.

You absolutely got it. Swear to God. That is absolutely amazing.

Oh, my God. That's crazy. That was great. Wow. You know, magic as a kid

you the ability to do things that adults don't understand. So that's power.

Can I teach it? Is that okay?

All right. So check it out. It's based on a principle, a method called the key

card, which is the key.

to knowing what card the spectator selected. Let me show you how it works.

just remember the bottom card.

So in this case, Kristen will be the jack of hearts. You just get that locked

into your head. You forget about everything else.

Then you ask somebody to take a card. You can either spread them or you can

them down.

Ask them to take a card out.

All right. Now, you ask them to take the card and place it on top of the deck.

They don't tell you what the card is, but for the sake of knowing the

demonstration right now, it's the six of hearts, which is the spectator's card,

and the bottom card, which is the key card, is the jack of hearts.

So you just ask them to cut the deck, complete the cut. They can do this as

as they want. The Jack of Hearts now is on top of their card. Exactly.

All that I have to do is look for the key card, which is the Jack of Hearts.

And to the right of that, let me just spread them out if I could. If I look

the Jack of Hearts over here, you'll see right over here is the Jack of Hearts.

To the right of that card is the spectator's selected card.

Yes, the six of hearts. Now you know what the card is. So you'd go like, hey,

want you to think of the card. It's a red card. It's a black card. It's a

card, picture card. And then you basically come to their card, which is

of hearts. And it's an amazing effect. Very simple to do. And no one's thinking

of it.

And can build a career.

I'm living proof.

I know.

Because it is a great trick. It's all how you build it up. Just don't ask for

any royalties.

Here.

Was a face that I originally used this face here was a couple of things

originally I used to practice my bird act to my magic

Here this is my bedroom over here Which

is now like tiny tiny tiny tiny had magic posters. It had banned posters

and It's kind of crazy because my closet is bigger than my bedroom.

No, your closet is bigger than my apartment.

But it's just crazy how it all starts. And it started with a dream. And it just

shows you that, you know, perseverance, intuitiveness can allow dreams to come

true if you work for them, right? I think that Chris is very passionate

where he has come from and how far he's come.

Check it out, Kristen.

Come on down.

This was my laboratory.

I've seen so many pictures.

And this used to be a recording studio. My brother used to record music, and I

had my drum set set up right over here.

And these were some frustrating times where I smashed the wall.

I used to leave messages for my mom, you know, when I lost my dad. She was so

amazing and always so supportive of me and my mom and my dad. So I always had a

great relationship with my family who really have blessed my life in so many

ways, you know.

And we left my dad's office exactly the way it was.

Brings back a lot of memories. This is my dad over here when he was modeling,

you know, for muscle magazines and all that stuff. But he was probably about

15 there.

He was a Golden Gloves. He had a scholarship to Penn State, but he didn't

because he took care of his family. So he was quite an amazing person.

Yeah, my father not seeing my success is...

It's

very, very sad to me.

Although I know he sees it, but I just wish he could have seen it.

Because he wanted it so bad for me. He believed in me when so many people

didn't.

Be safe. God bless you. God bless you.

Mom,

are you going to come one day? I love you. I love you too.

Take good care of yourself. Thank you for letting us forward you. I worry

you one day.

I don't want you doing that thing.

I'll be fine.

No, that's what you always tell me. But in the meantime, you're going to send me

to the hospital. No, don't come then. I'll be fine. I promise you. I'll be

I'll be fine.

We're already five going into six hours behind.

And it takes five hours to build this?

So believe it or not, this area here used to have a barbecue.

Had a picnic table.

We've seen footage of that. Exactly. And you saw me in hot shorts, which are

very embarrassing.

Just brings back so many memories.

It's going to be interesting when we do our big game at Times Square.

It's electrifying. It's really the heart of the world.

It blows my mind to think that Houdini once performed the upside -down

straitjacket literally a block away from where I'm performing it.

Every time I come here, I go through here, and it brings back so many crazy

memories. I remember walking these streets.

literally for 18 years trying to get a break, trying to make it. And now to

back here and be doing all these television shows and have a brand new

Spike, I got to tell you, it's so exciting. And I see how far I've come

those days.

He's a big fan.

Thank you very much.

So we're up early to do a bunch of press today.

We're heading to Katie Couric right now.

Thank

you

so much. You know,

it's pretty incredible that Spiro actually got us Times Square.

But we've got a big problem.

I've been here since 6 a .m., it's now noon, and... There was a crane accident

few weeks ago, and it's putting a hold on all permits. So we have no idea when

our permit's going to come through, and we're already on a tight schedule.

This is the part that really stresses me out.

A crane accident has put a hold on all permits in New York City.

And while they're trying to clear this up, it is setting us back big time.

We're already five going into six hours behind.

And then it takes five hours to build this. Chris is bouncing around New York

City doing press interviews.

And honestly, I think it's a good thing because if he were here right now and

saw how far behind we are, I think he'd be pretty pissed.

No, no, seriously.

I need to get that. Listen, I need that license now, man. If I don't get it, I

don't have a show. Seriously.

Right now, I'm working my contact.

I'm making phone calls. Because this demonstration is so important to Chris,

it's a tribute to Houdini, I got to do whatever it takes to make this thing

happen now.

And if I don't, Chris is going to have my ass.

Chris's family is just showing up.

You guys want to come in here? We're already on a very tight schedule.

I mean, being this far behind is jeopardizing our ability to even pull

stunt off.

I don't know how it happened, but it happened, and it's a go.

So basically, we've got to take a 12 -hour day and cram it into about six

to get this thing done.

Today has been one thing after another.

Chris just arrived, and this is the first he's hearing of the delay.

So, of course, he's going to be pissed at the state of things.

You know, we're simply not done building the rig yet.

Now everyone's under the gun. We have to rush to finish the rigging, and Chris

has to rush to prepare for the most dangerous stunt of his career.

We have pulled you out of the crowd randomly to verify that this is a 45

weight that's going to be hanging around Chris's neck.

And if you'll grab that.

All right.

Would you say that roughly 50 pounds with all in all the rope, chain, and

weight? It's heavy. Pick it up from the ground.

It's heavy, sir. It is heavy, right? There you go. Don't drop it on my seat.

Okay,

I'm coming out. Bye.

Times Square is electric right now, and we're about to see Criss Angel perform a

stunt that has not been seen in Times Square since the early 1900s.

It's great to be back in my home New York!

So not only will I try to escape one jacket, I will try to escape two

and there'll be 50 pounds on one end of a rope, and the other end will be a

noose around my neck.

point out the gentleman that's going to be putting me in the jackets is a 28

year veteran of the nypd his name is detective schroeder i want you to give

a lot of love where are you detective and i'm going to feed off of your energy

your love so if you go crazy for me i'm going to do my best for you so i want to

hear you

Now we're going to place the second jacket over this one, so I'll have two

jackets on.

This is really real.

You want to bring the hook in? Does that feel okay?

Take him up.

Coming up.

It was really, really real.

Take him up!

tell if he's got his arms i know he looks like i know he's about to go out

cannot tell that

I was upside down.

I don't want to get emotional.

But I thought about all of the times

in 18 years that I walked that street trying to get a

break.

And it wouldn't happen for me. And I just remember.

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