Hello everyone. I was thinking about trying my hand at escapism (spelling?), but I have no idea where to start. This aspect of magic fascinates me and I hope you gentlemen/ladies can be of some assistance on where I could start my handcuffed journey. Thanks in advance.

Nothing beats books as a way to start.

I like the John Novak books (I have several), and the Hades Encyclopedia of Escapes. This is a good place to start on the technical aspects.

The really hard thing is being entertaining. I highly recommend Santini's "Entertaining with Escapes" book for this.

There are many helpful people here and you will no doubt get much good advice. Good luck!

Yours,

Paul

I began my escapology journey with the humble strait jacket. I was doing a lot of street shows (as a juggler, not a magician) at the time and needed something to make me stand out from the other performers. Over time I drifted away from juggling and more towards the escapes.

If it's books and videos you want try Mark Cannons 21st Century Esacape Lecture available from him direct from http://www.cannonsgreatescapes.com. I have it and is very good. It has a nice piece on handcuffs too. You could also try The Earl on http://www.ealib.org which has a lot of great stuff from some of the best in the business.

Hope this helps a little,

Roslyn

Try X-Treems manuscript "your flys down" its great!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

Lesee...I started with Houdini biographies and "Grant's Rope, Chain & Box Escapes." Later I read Abbott's "Escapes" book, "Encyclopedia of Escapes," "33 Rope Ties & Chain Releases," and varied works over the years by Prynce Wheeler, Norman Bigelow, Lee Jacobs, Ian McColl...then there's the school of hard knocks...and...well, you get the idea.

There's no specific place to start.

Good Luck.

Steve

Practice, practice, practice! I worked my way through college in a hardware store with a full repair shop. In addition to learning glass cutting, welding, small engine repair and sheet metal work I had the privelege of working with an elderly professional locksmith for four years. He taught me all of the skills he could; I even cracked a dozen safes with him. Then I joined the Army and was accepted into Army Intelligence School (then at Fort Holabird MD but now moved) where I got into SMOE/DASE training (Surreptitious Methods of Entry/Defense Against Surreptitious Entry) and met the best lockpicks and safecrackers going. When I left the Army, I had no choice but to pursue escapology: I only work with ungimmicked cuffs and padlocks. My two pieces of advice are: 1)spend a few years as an apprentice to a professional and 2)the older the appliances, the easier they are to manipulate yet are more impressive-looking. And practice! When you've done the escape 500 times in private and 100 in front of your friends and family, you're going to be okay in front of a paying audience. And read "Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls" by William Lindsay Gresham. Houdini's challenges to police prior to his performances were a large part of his fame.

Hi Craig, welcome to the Café and to the escape forum. That's quite an impressive background. I hope we see a lot of you on this board.
Best regards, Tony Parisi

My memory is incorrect: it was DAME (Defense Against Methods of Entry). DASE was "Defense Against Surreptitious Electronics" which was the "bugging-debugging" course. Sorry!

Thank you, Tony. A New York cop... cool!