Escapeography

Milestones. Records. History-making escapes. Performing astonishing escapes for two decades is a notable milestone in itself. But for 2-time World Magic Award winning Master of Escape, Michael Griffin, the diverse array of challenges he’s performed over those years are unique, one-of-a-kind, original and adrenaline-rush infused.

He is the ONLY escape artist to ever attempt and survive a thirteen-knot Hangman’s Noose in 52 seconds! He has also escaped from a solid steel hermetically sealed airtight casket with a submarine style hatch locking the outside.

Griffin has also escaped from handcuffs, ropes, locks, leg irons and chains from a maximum-security jail cell, the ice-covered Ohio River and from the silty bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But the spectacular underwater escapes don’t end there! He has been shackled hand and foot with a 65-pound ball and chain wrapped tight around his neck and lowered headfirst by a crane to the bottom of a lagoon.

Griffin is the only escape artist granted permission to reenact Houdini’s 1912 death-defying underwater crate escape. He successfully escaped within 45 seconds after being bound, handcuffed and sealed inside Houdini’s 90 year-old original packing crate lowered into the depths of Florida’s hurricane-kissed Intercoastal waters…just 5 days before the 76th anniversary of Houdini’s death. And of course, Griffin put an additional spin on this by re-entering the crate again returning to the surface clutching the handcuffs taking the escape beyond the level of what Houdini did himself.

Dazzling and breathtaking as a performer, Griffin takes supreme escapes to the extreme challenge in many forms including escaping water-filled sealed oil drums, the most complex police restraints and even mental hospitals. One of his most interesting on-stage challenges is an 1880’s Navy Sea bag, most notably called “the cloth coffin”.

Forget typical straitjackets, handcuffs and ropes – Griffin has taken passé escape concepts to an escalated level - into a new realm of risk in the art of escapology. What ordinarily would be a well-known handcuff escape Griffin adds the suffocating dare of having to escape from them inside a heavy airtight canvas sack, which is the most original escape today. Even the U.S. Government hasn’t been able to hold him in a real Postal Mailbag locked on the outside by a high security Government lock!

Griffin has also added his own twists to dangerous non-escapes, including the East Indian Needle Mystery - a jaw-dropping challenge in which he swallows 100 needles separate of some thread, having his mouth proved empty then, regurgitating the needles threaded along the entire eight-foot length. He’s performed this on national television and as a ‘dessert’ feature to a strait jacket/rope escape entrée during a $10,000 challenge. He now offers $100,000 to anyone who can keep him prisoner.

Escaping hypothermia, blindness, suffocation, fire, human error and death several times over, surviving has been a staple in Griffin’s diet of escape mastery. Spanning the globe, establishing escape records in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, New York, Canada and Singapore has marked the on-going fascination from crowds all over the U.S. and the world.

What’s the secret? It’s Griffin’s strong mind, conviction, heart and belief system setting apart this distinguished performer from all others. “I do not use drugs or alcohol. I never have and I never will. I simply do not believe in their illusion, nor the illusion of negative thinking which is the toughest strait jacket we will ever face; but, if you put your mind to it, and you believe in yourself, you will always escape,” –Michael Griffin.