A huge escape!

The World’s First tandem upside-down double strait jacket escape …

A world’s first was accomplished some 75 feet over the National Museum of Singapore on Saturday. The last night of the Singapore Night Festival saw “Asia’s Most Famous Illusionists”, the pairing of J C Sum and Magic Babe Ning, complete a nerve-wrecking, death-defying, tandem escape stunt that had the two dangling upside down from a burning rope, with each strapped into a double strait-jacket.

Dangling 75 feet over the air in double strait-jackest suspended from a burning rope

The stunt was part of the performances and the highlight of the two-weekend festival.  The spectacular act was performed to a huge crowd (there must have been more than several thousands) which started to gather in anticipation some two hours before when the National Museum of Singapore, which served as a backdrop for the act, entertained making faces. Many had been present for another of Ning’s mega stunts on the previous evening, when they witnessed “the sexiest woman in magic” stage an amazing escape from a locked steel vault which was filled to the brim with water. For that stunt, Ning was completely submerged, chained and shackled with only a pair of paper clips to help her get out, having only the time that it would have taken her to run out of breath to get out – a feat which on its own was remarkable as it was the first time such an escape has been publicly witnessed in Singapore (see my prevous post)!

The second stunt, was of course a lot more spectacular – and terrifying, especially so when all was done in full view of the audience. Both Ning and J C Sum were each tied-up into two strait-jackets, with two members of the audience picked to do the job. Both were then attached to a rig by their ankles one over the other. The rig was in turn was attached to a length of rope set alight as they were being attached which was attached to the hook of a huge telescopic crane. As the rope burned, the two were hoisted up – J C Sum made an announcement before the stunt that they would be hoisted not to 50 feet (15 metres – about five storeys) as was originally intended, but 75 feet (23 metres or 7 1/2 storeys) up in the air.

As a stunt, it must surely count as the most daring ever seen in Singapore. Based on a upside-down escape stunt from a strait-jacket whilst suspended made famous by none other than Harry Houdini himself, the very first tandem inverted strait-jacket escape is much more risky, as it is dependent not just on the actions of one person, but two. There is of course the wind, as well as humidity – which does make the strait-jacket stick to the skin, to contend with. And to top it all, it was done without safety nets!

Working against a clock set by the time it would have taken to burn through the rope, with the time taken to raise and lower the pair, J C Sum seemed to be initially ahead of Ning in getting out of the strait-jackets – his got his hand free as Ning seemed to struggle. But Ning was first to get out of her two strait-jackets, and the close to three-minutes that it took J C Sum to fling off his inner strait-jacket what must have seemed like an eternity to both. There was some drama as the audience could see that Ning seemed to be having some difficulty in attempting to remove J C Sum’s jacket which had got caught at her feet but all could heave that huge collective sigh of relief as she seemed to recover and it wasn’t long before both could be lowered down. The total time taken for the duo to be raise, to escape and be lowered would have been close to five minutes which probably was as much time as they could have used – the rope after the fire was extinguished did look as if it was about to be burned through.

It was a visibly relieved look that Ning wore as she first waved to the crowd on completing the stunt. With fireworks illuminating the stage, the pair was greeted by thunderous applause. The two were then presented with a certificate for their world record feat by the Singapore Book of Records as well an Outstanding Achievement & Contribution to Magic award by the International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 115 – all which certainly was well deserved!