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I guess since there isnt an escape forum, i will start a post (if nobody minds) If you have any questions or concerns or jsut need help, ask them here and i will do my best to answer them. If i cant right away, i will ask a few good friends of mine.

I hope i can be of some service..

I have a question -

How difficult is it to get out of a straight jacket or handcuffs?

how do you get any good at escapology as it isnt really taught is it do you just buy a straight jacket and wriggle about till you have the technique down?

the answer to that can vary from person to person and from jacket to jacket. If you get a regulation posey jacket, with the side loops and the front loops and its the correct size for the performer, it can be difficult, one might break a sweat escaping from it.
It will take practice no matter what, and with practice it will become easier. It also helps if your limber. There are many ways to increase difficulty and visa versa.
If you still need help or still have more questions about the sj, feel free to ask.


Handcuffs:

Now to liberate one self from a pair of regulation handcuffs too can vary. There are many different ways to liberate from cuffs, shims, keys, paper clips, hidden keys, etc. Its really not hard to free ones self, there are many good books out on this subject.

and if you still need help or still have questions, just ask.

hope i helped.

rvoice100 wrote:how do you get any good at escapology as it isnt really taught is it do you just buy a straight jacket and wriggle about till you have the technique down?

how do you get good...

well for one practice. if possible a teacher is a great help. there are many aspects to escapes; ropes, chains, restraints, cuffs, crates, etc.
You can learn many of these aspects in books, luckly i have to oppurtunity to learn from pros, but i also get alot of help from my site. What i learn the most from though is going out there and jsut trying. In the last couple of weeks i bought a lot of locks to learn how to gimmick and pick. Cannons escapes is a good place to buy escape material from.

Like there ae books that teach how to escape from a jacket, but i feel they are not needed.

Trying, expericence, some books, and once again just trying.

But be careful, you can get hurt in, and badly.
Practice many times before you plan on performing for people, make sure you feel comforatable as well before performing. never attempt an escape alone.

If you still have any questions, feel free to ask.

how would you rate the sas or swift action sysytem over regular shim / pick methods.

do you have a favourate restraint / lock.

in a trunk escape submerged would you favour a short screw or a pop lock method.

magicdiscoman wrote:how would you rate the sas or swift action sysytem over regular shim / pick methods.

do you have a favourate restraint / lock.

in a trunk escape submerged would you favour a short screw or a pop lock method.

for the first question: I only use a shim or a key. if you like i can ask a friend of mine that has used them all, and see what his impressions are.
i like the shim method, but it doesnt work for all kinds. And if your talking about picking locks, well thats a whole nother ball game. I have jsut recently, past year, started learning to pick locks, and i do it with a 28 pick set and a lock smith book i bought. and trial and error.

my favorite restraint: probably the strait jacket with 20ft of chain. but that could always change since i am always buying new items.

I dont do to many truck escapes, and the ones i do are my own creation about 80% of the time. But i have always liked the short screw method, as long as its examable, in some fashion.

hope i help.

I have jsut recently, past year, started learning to pick locks, and i do it with a 28 pick set and a lock smith book i bought. and trial and error.

a usefull tip hear is a towel rail populated with padlocks you start at one end and proceed along the line from easy to hard or if your feeling particularly lazy use a wizard pick and bypass the whole pin and plug combo and just pop the lock.
you will probably find your 28 set will dwindle down to 4 or 5 regular use picks as you progress.
i belive david deval do some nice books on the subject.

Then you may be interested in this site

http://www.toool.nl/

well i am not really in to lock picking. i dont use it in my acts, it takes to long for the audience now and days, i might say i have picked the lock for the end stunt but thats another story. I see no need for it now and days when i can gimmick just about everything, and thats the fun part. i use the locks picks jsut for fun, to learn the insides of a lock, so i can say "yeah i know how", and when i am bored. Its a lost art i am afraid, but sadly i wont be the one to revive it any time soon. And i just like escapes that, well, are ligit and/or enduring as possible. i hope you get what i am saying.

plus locks are getting more difficult every day.

for a jacket escape and such, does one have to be double jointed? or is that just a advantage one can have, but not needed?

RekwiamDream wrote:for a jacket escape and such, does one have to be double jointed? or is that just a advantage one can have, but not needed?

I get this alot, it is not needed, but it can help when your desperate to get out. I have the ability but only do it on dire need to basis. IT hurts Like HELL. (sorry is that offends any one, but it does.)

The furthest ive ever got towards escapology is breaking into my ex-girlfriends sisters bedroom! Its a long story, and i was quite drunk, so i probably cant remember most of it. I did it with a hair clip only. Thats about all i can contribute to this thread, as boring and as pointless as my point was! But escaping does interest me.

Unfortunately, i dont think im built for escapism. Being 6'8" with even longer arms i don think helps when your in a straight jacket thats stupidly too small for you! Ah well, im just going to continue to escape from my sister boyfriends mom who thinks i sold my soul to the devil in exchange for how to do the tricks from Street Magic! She's scary!

I started 'studying' Escaplology a while back, got my hands on a couple of interesting books and the DVD collection from Dixie Dooley.

When i first started i was actualy quite disapointed too see how gimmicked all of the effects were... some of the more clever techniques such as clever rope ties and lock picks interest me quite alot, but some of the larger or more gimmicked effects just left me feeling a little empty.

I'm not a big fan of gimmicked effects on the whole in magi, whilst i appreciate that you can achieve some excelent effects do you not just find it all a little dull?

I appreciate that from a spectators point of view a gimicked somthing or other doesn matter as they are none the wiser, but i think that if i were to leap into somthing like this on any level of a professional basis then i would'nt feel satisfied with my own performance if i'd sat there and just pressed the 'magic button' on a load of different gimicks to work myself out off them.

I dont want to start another verbal war over the whole gimmicked vs. skill stuff again, its all been done before ... just wanted to add my 2 Pence.

Rob

I have found that the hardest thing when I started escapology not the technical aspects of it, but building it up into a decent routine. Escapology is fantastic on its own accord, but I always felt that something was missing.

After a few varations I now have a one person nightclub escapology act which I'm doing again at a club tonight. If you are into things like escapology, seriously consider alternative places to get bookings because I have found the merry nightclub audiences to be the best reactions I've had in a long time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/content/artic ... ture.shtml