... kicked off E4's Mental Magic Week.
This is Jonathan Goodwin's new escape special where we get treated to him escaping from some pretty stupid things.

If you thought the stuff he did on Dirty Tricks was a little crazy this was nothing compared to him escaping from the front of a car as it goes through a car wash, being restrained inside a box full of bees or becoming a human recking ball complete with broken foot (if you didn't watch the show he was practicing a stunt that went a bit wrong and he ended up breaking his ankle).

Personnally I like it. Although I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea. But whether you like his style or not, what he is doing is great for the escape art as a whole. People were asking me about the stuff he did on DT when they came up to talk to me after my various WEAR escapes. One guy even thought I was him!! For those that don't know Jonathan he's a tall slim chap WITH NO HAIR. How you could mistaken him for me is rediculous at the best of times, but at least they knew what escapes were.

Anyway, thought I should post something on the show as it was all about escapes.

Take care all,

Ros

I thought it was a comedy show!

The pier escape looked interesting - I have done underwater escapes, but wouldn't like to try plunging into the sea from that height. ( I know some of us have, and all power to your elbow, but I don't think it's for me)

The dog and string escape was just stupid - no way you'd get me trying that.

Now I really enjoyed watching the carwash escape

The lift escape - I mean why?? And the same could be said for the bees.

Not a good idea to jump off a zip wire, and I actually quite enjoyed the human swingball. You won't find me doing that, though.


If you didn't see it, it's repeated on E4 and E4+1 tonight, and, I believe, repeated on channel 4 sometime in December.

"now press play on the stereo" haha qualtity entertainment, the man is a nutter

Jonathan's the MAN! He's one of the only creative EAs I've ever seen, f***ing brilliant, and a nice guy too. I wish we could get that show in the US.

Can`t agree with you on this one Harley,,,,if creativety is putting bulldog clips on your pubes,picking drawing pins out of your bum,completely exposing yourself to friends,family and the viewing public in a lift,wearing a sock over your John Henry to protect it from bee stings,covering yourself with human s**t etc etc, then I fail to see the value.

Unless of course it was for the comedy angle,,,,in which case you can give me Tommy Cooper or even Chubby Brown any day of the week.

I remember Sadowitze (Spelling) Doing the same "Shock" tactics as a finale to his show at a central London Theatre years ago now,,,it did him no favours,and for such a performer with so much natural skill and talent to think he had to stoop to such a level for success,,,amazed me.
I feel the same about the said show,,,I feel the artist has wasted his natural talent on a farce. Sure its heading Stupid Things to Escape from,,,could validate the content,but even so, I could come up with seven more equaly stupid things to escape from,so could anyone else,,,so what.

As TV goes,,,its been done before in other viens,,,cheap to produce and proberly has a following of half baked 13 year olds who will go out and attempt their own stupid stunts,,,mind you, they would also proberly get arrested.

Regarding the escape content,,,,I must admit that this show has a unique honesty about it in as much that a good percentage of the escapes fail!
So who can claim the right to call themselves an ea if they fail so often (In public!).

I do think that a performance such as this would go extremly well at an ea Convention,,,,as a send up.
Would proberly get rave reviews!!!
Not too sure that the nudity would play well though.

Well as I retire from full escape shows in a few weeks I think my time is right,,,not only that,,if this is to be the way forward for escapology then I will be well out of it cos there is no way I am going to a Hospital for a strapadictomy!!!!

Ken.

Hmmm. I had no idea of the things you discussed, Kondini. And I haven't seen the special.

I met Jonathan at the DT studio. I liked him. We had some great conversation, and I saw two of his escapes, both of which impressed me a lot. I heard of one which had failed, which was also impressive. They were highly creative, and I'm always relieved to meet an EA who isn't trying to be "the next Houdini".

Some people forget, Houdini died a long time ago. I, for one, feel that he tried so hard to stifle his competitors, that he overdefined the artform to himself. And it's taken almost ever since, for EAs to try to do something different.

Let's forget about what we do, and see the show from the viewpoint of the audience.

Programs which have only escapes...I've thought for a long time, that they're a mistake. Once you establish to an audience that you can escape, you've made your point. You may change the restraints, and the decorations, but you've established that you WILL be free. So what else is there to say?

I think it's often a mistake to include an escape within the contest of a magic show. With magic, the underlieing assumption of the performance, is "it's a trick". No matter what the escape, it's still a trick. That removes most of the potential theatrical power from the material. No matter the level of difficulty or danger, the escape becomes somewhat sterile emotionally.

Some magicians can pull it off. Most that I've seen, fail miserably.

Failing is not a bad thing, unless your life is on the line. You can fail miserably, need assistance in all the most obvious ways, and still make the piece into a successful theatrical experience. If the audience feels that you overcame seemingly impossible odds anyway, they're still going to be on your side. And if you fail magnificently, it's still magnificent.

Escapes as showpieces, have a couple of choices in direction. They are either a puzzle, or something which can reach out and grab the audience by the guts, and twist. I like the idea of using one of each in a performance.

I include escapes within an overall context of stunt performance, so the underlieing assumption of my show is "it's real". And I promise the audience that if I do a trick, I'll let them know.

I realize that more than a few folks who post here, will differ in opinion. That's fine with me. We all find our own solutions.

My opinion is also subject to change. And there are show structures that I've not explored, from which I may learn other lessons.

Yes, I am sure Jonathan is a great guy,,,,none of this is a reflection upon him as a person.
Just that I feel his efforts in this direction are futile, tarring him with a soft porn,soft option shock,very weak comedy presentation,he has done himself no favours.
Its in line with the Bad A** approach alternative style which appeals to a very small cross section of the crowd.
Now if it had been thought out properly then the overall result could have scored.
For example, look at Archaos and the Circus of Horrors (I will be seeing them tonight).
Both very alternative, both very entertaining,with the skill of each performer not hiding in the shadow of cheap weak laughs or pointless nudity which added nothing to the performance.

Regarding your views in your last post,,,I agree %100, but Jonathans route will never make any grade anywhere,,,Houdini is safe on his perch,,,still no contest here.

Ken.

BTW another thought put to me,is could this type of exposure make escapes look stupid? If so, then what does that make escapologists.

Personally I thought this show was genius.

Certainly it had a sense of the Jackass style about it, but this gave a very genuine sense of danger. More importantly a sense of danger that I could relate to.

I found myself watching, genuinely concerned for the performer's safety; not to mention laughing myself hoarse when the lift doors opened.

Easily the most accessible escapology I've seen.

I don't know Jonathan and haven't seen Dirty Tricks, but I watched his show out of curiosity as we have a mutal friend who mentioned it to me. I have to say that the concept of the show was so simple it was boarding on genius. His activities are mindless, childish, studpid and lavitorial which is exactly what they were meant to be and they were perfect for the target audience he was aiming for, which I am sure wasn't escapologists or magicians. He and his ideas will soon get a cult following I'm sure. Good luck to him and if he ever reads this .... well done! A bit concerned though that my girlfriend suddenly took an interest when he was doing the lift escape! ;-)

Don't want to go down the road of how good or not Jonathan's performance is but the one thing I will add is the style of the programme was just so so cheap, a few cameras, Jonathan and his mate and a bit of post editing and you have a TV show. The production company must be rubbing their hands together making lots of money!

Why do'nt they give him some money and spend some money and let him do a BIG SHOW!

If any of you have a few hours to spend, a video camera and a few pounds you could be on E4 shortly.

Good luck to Jonathan! But me thinks he likes to get naked on TV!

JA

The credits say "Goodwin Productions" so I guess it was Jonathan's company. Dirty Tricks was produced by Objective Productions,the same company that made "Monkey Magic" also with Jonathan.

This may have been the first production for the company, but you can bet it won't be the last.

Obviously the concept of keeping it "Cheap and Cheerful" was to avoid the thought of camera trickery and expensive post production tricks. I think that worked.

I know that Jonathan's ideas for the escapes on Dirty Tricks was to keep it simple and real. Everthing had to be natural with no proppy escape items.

The fact that he didn't get out every time also made it real.

This was a show for people of a certain age and mentality. Not everyone will like it. Some will love it. One thing's for sure.It got us all talking, so it's done something!

Mick