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Moonlightshadow New user 94 Posts |
I just saw LauraM 's question about practice and real life situations.
I do wonder if the skills that can be learned here can be used when you lock yourself out (it has happened to me twice and the locksmith opened the door in a heartbeat. But my heart almost stopped beating when I got his bill ) and also : if someone ties you up for real : could you get out ? I don't want to sound pathetic, but I had this happen to me once as a kid. If these things are possible, could you please point me to a source where I could learn it ? I'm not about performing stunts, but these seem to be useful skills. |
Cliffg37 Inner circle Long Beach, CA 2491 Posts |
It sounds like what you want is to find a "spy school". I know the C.I.A. gives some training in the direction you are looking for, and I am sure there are private sources for this, but I don't know any.
Good luck with this.
Magic is like Science,
Both are fun if you do it right! |
Roslyn Inner circle UK 3405 Posts |
Spy school? Only in America
If a locksmith opened your door, then maybe you should try learn locksmithing? Seems to make sense to me. I know we have locksmith classes here in the UK, and I'm sure you'll find something in the US. Maybe contact the locksmith you used before and ask for training. Just remember, you won't get this sort of training cheap. Nor are any of the online correspondence courses worth it. You need physical training with an expert who's going to charge you an expert's fee.
The Magic Cafe account of The Conwy Jester, Erwyd le Fol formerly known as Roslyn Walker.
My home online Join me on Facebook Follow me on twitter |
Kondini Inner circle 3609 Posts |
The finest source of info is via cons in prison.
Will not elaborate here, but the oportunity came my way, I took it and learnt a great deal. Before comments >>>> No I was not an inmate !!! Ken. |
Mick Hanzlik Special user Mick Hanzlik 588 Posts |
You will find Locksmith's training courses here in the UK by looking at the Internet. Problem is, most of them make you think that after less than 1 week's course, you can go out into the big wide world and not only open every lock in existence, but earn post of money doing it. WRONG!!!
There are many reasons I say this....There is no way you can come up with answers to all the possible lockout problems in a short course. I have been doing this for over 40 years and still I get problems I haven't seen before. When you manage to pick a lock on a workbench in a warm training centre, it is totally different in the real world. The training locks have been opened and closed so many times, sometimes they just "fall" open. Now see the same lock on a badly warped door, a few years old, never lubricated since it was fitted, and it's cold and the rain is running down your neck. Will it open as you have learned on the bench. I don't think so! it is all down to experience. Get out there and do it. For a long time. There are no short cuts. I don't mean to be negative, but this is experience speaking. |
T_C_Magic New user 74 Posts |
I agree with Rosyln. I'd take some trainging in lockpicking. I think there are some courses online. I was lucky that I had a Grandfather that taught me at the early age of 7. From then on it just try opening anything you can get your hands on.
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Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
Locks? Practice.
Ropes? Practice. And then practice more. When you think you're ready, you're about to fall on your face. Practice some more.
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
Spellbinder Inner circle The Holy City of East Orange, NJ 6438 Posts |
The best lockpick for keeping yourself from being locked out is a secret extra key hidden someplace where no one is likely to find it by accident and keep the spot a complete secret from everyone. If anyone else lives with you, let them deal with the problem in their own way, or call you for help getting inside and leave you in private to use your "secret lockpicking skills that you learned from Houdini."
The best way to keep from being tied up with ropes in a way you can't get out is to control the person tying you (some of these control methods are in Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki's "Escapes For Teens" book on my site). If all else fails, it helps to have a secret cutting device that doesn't appear to be a cutting device.
Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry http://www.magicnook.com Publisher of The Wizards' Journals |
Roslyn Inner circle UK 3405 Posts |
Been thinking about this and although I get tied up, handcuffed and generally restrained by numerous things on a daily basis for work I've never been bound in any way during every day life. Never have I decided to pop to the shop and suddenly find myself tied up.
If this is something that's likely in your area of the world MOVE! Go, do it now. Sell your house and get the hell outta there!!! Alternatively go running a lot. Run every day until you are able to "leg-it" from whom ever is trying to tie you. As for lock picking just in case you get locked out. What's the point? If you watched the locksmith you hired get you back in you'd have seen his "tools of the trade" and to be honest if you can remember to take a van load of kit then you can remember your own keys. After all you need your keys to drive your locksmithing van. Every time you walk out the door think KWik Pee. Not only will it stop you from being caught short during the day it'll also remind you you need Keys Wallet Phone. Plus you've got a whole 4 extra letters to play with to add other things you need to remember. Just yesterday before dashing off to a gig I did the usual KWik Pee and on my return from the bathroom I managed to remember my Keys, Wallet, Indian Kid, Phone, Eyes and Ears! Cool eh? Good luck
The Magic Cafe account of The Conwy Jester, Erwyd le Fol formerly known as Roslyn Walker.
My home online Join me on Facebook Follow me on twitter |
Steve_Mollett Inner circle Eh, so I've made 3006 Posts |
I've needed to pick locks in 'real-life' situations only a few times in the last 40 years:
Twice my next door neighbor locked his keys in his house and asked my assistance (I might add he was a volunteer deputy sheriff). At an SCA event, I was fishing something out of the trunk of my car and absent-mindedly closed the trunk with my keys laying inside of it. I picked the trunk lock to retrieve my keys. At work, an engineer had gone on location, taking the keys to one of our filing cabinets with him. The head tech writer needed something from that cabinet, and appeared at my office door. "You...you're an escape artist!" He explained the quandary, and I flipped the wafer-tumbler cabinet lock open with one swipe of the pick. My dad, who was a shop foreman at his company, once needed something from a locked cabinet when the person with the key was out sick. I had done a gig the night before, and one of my two-piece pick sets was still in his truck. He borrowed them and solved his problem, doing as he had seen me do with the tools.
Author of: GARROTE ESCAPES
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. - Albert Camus |
Moonlightshadow New user 94 Posts |
This is all very interesting, folks. Thanks for the replies.
Roslyn, the rope tying was a childhood experience. A sort of "cowboy and indian" game gone bad, but now as a magician I would feel more complete if I could do it. As far as the locksmith goes, he opened the door to my previous flat with a flimsy piece of plastic from a water bottle. This seemed so incredibly cool that I wanted to learn some basic skills. Walt : what do you mean with " a cutting device that doesn't look like it" ? several things come to mind, but most would be considered as "forbidden weapons" where I live and they could easily land me in prison. Off the record : this reminds me of Neil Strauss' book "emergency" in which he advises to have a razor blade glued to an old credit card. What do you think of that ? Getting caught with this could ruin your life around here, but perhaps the laws in America are a tad different. Steve, this reminds me of the anecdote I once heard about James Randi being the opening act in Alice Cooper's show. The group was locked in somewhere and they thought, what the heck, we have an escape artist with us. They called "the amazing Randi" to solve the problem, but he failed miserably. Reaction of the rockers : "I guess he doesn't feel so amazing today". |
Steve_Mollett Inner circle Eh, so I've made 3006 Posts |
Randi worked a guillotine illusion for one of Cooper's numbers in the concert show.
A friend of mine took in the concert in Cincinnati and talked to Randi afterward. He asked Randi about handcuff escapes, and Randi had a security guard cuff him, picking the cuffs with a length of wire. That wire is now in my collection.
Author of: GARROTE ESCAPES
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. - Albert Camus |
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