Me too. There is no way ANYONE should be suspended for ANY length of time with a noose around their neck.

If it can't be achieved by ILLUSION, without risk, then it shouldn't be attempted at all.

Riley

I agree as well. Among other things, the pressure on the vagus and phrenic nerves can quickly paralyze and render the arms and legs useless, preventing you from being able to stand or reach up in any attempt to correct matters. Leave even the 'illusionary' versions to the motion picture stuntmen. There have been too many accidents and fatalities with experiments of this type.

Steve

Hi there: I just checked in from our shows here (3 performances a day including underwater and a new challenge called 3 tried- 3 died. I will attest to the mark tripp comment that yes the pressure on the neck is extremely fast and my experience left me light headed very quickly some may argue that I'm still a little light in the head but...

Yes, Mike you are still light headed...LOL. Hope the shows are going well. How much longer is the run there. We would like to catch up with you when we get back home.

Kevin & Kristen

I thankyou allfor your concern. I would like to point out that what I am working on doesn't actually involve me hanging fo real! And anyone wishing to really try hanging themselves I'd just like to wish you a Good Bye and RIP.

If you think of the shower scene in Psyco where you see the girl get stabbed, yet you don't actually see anything more than coloured (being a black and white film I guess it should read black) liquid being washed down a plug hole. Yet in your own mind you have made the image of a murder. Hitchcock was a master at this and it is this kind of thing (hanging, not murder) that I am wishing to recreate on stage.

Roslyn

Just a quick thought. I've seen fall control harnesses in the Granger catalog. You could attach a quick release latch to it.

I saw a fellow get hanged once. He did a wonderful piece of performance artstarting with a judge sentencing him to death. He was handcuffed, and led up the steps to the gallows. He was hooded and the noose placed over his head. He was never out of site as a huge man dressed as an executioner pulled the lever, and the trap door opened. There was no flash of light or other distration. What we saw was an empty noose hanging, and seconds later the condemed magician ran out from the wings. It was very well done. I am pretty sure I understnad how he did it, and I don't think he was ever in real danger.

Didn't Copperfield do something like this to or am I Mistaken.

That was invented by The Great Murray (Murray Walters) in the mid-1930s, and was originally called "Escape from the Gestapo." In Murray's version, the Gestapo officer who pulls the gallows switch removes his hat, bushy moustache and monocle...and it's MURRAY!
The "Hanging Illusion" was also featured by other illusionists, including Sorcar.
The explanation is found in the book "Murray" by Val Andrews (?), which is the definitive biography of the Australian-born escape artist and magician.
I'm sure many dealers also have plans for the illusion.

Steve

I have seen Siegfried and Roy do someting like this. They walk up stairs onto a platform and bags placed over their heads down to their feet. A noose is placed around each persons neck. The trap door is opened and the bags with the bodies in them drop to the floor empty! they re appeared from the back of the theater. Awsome. I have ideas on that.
I have also been hung in a spook alley. I was a plant in the audience and at one point said from the crowed that everything looked so phoney and unrealistic. I was being quite the heckler. Then two people in black came out of the dark and took me into an empty elevator shaft. Everyone watched as a noose was placed around my neck and then I started to be serious. Saying things like "come on you guys, enough kidding around". then all of a sudden a trap door opened and I droped a good 2 feet and hung there in the elevator shaft. Once a funny thing happened. Since we were at the bottom of the shaft, the actual floor was open earth with bricks, glass etc... The drop to the bottom was about 5 feet. Well, one time they escorted me onto the platform and the trap door was not shut tightly. When I stepped on to it, it opened and I fell to the bottom. I did not get hurt but the funniest thing was that I heard someone say," Man, that looked real!" I couldn't help but lay there and laugh at what he said.