Wine Barrel Escape Upgraded
Thursday, August 14 2008 | Comments (0)
In this week’s episode of Mindfreak, Criss escapes from a metal barrel 100 feet in the air, performs a demonstration with a girl’s belly button ring, and does some mystifying mentalism with a cell phone.
Replicating the wine barrel escape from the first season of Mindfreak, this week Criss Angel tempts fate again. Skeptics said that it was too easy to escape from a wooden wine barrel, so this time Criss is going to up the ante: this time, the barrel is an 85 gallon steel drum.
“There is a law: if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. And one of these days, it’s going to go wrong for Criss, I just hope today isn’t that day,” says Criss’ friend and Mindfreak consultant, Doug Malloy.
To warm up, Criss roams around sunset park in Las Vegas, looking for some exposed belly button jewelry. He meets a lovely young woman named Ryan; Ryan’s midriff is exposed, and dangling from her belly button is the silver outline of a heart. “My camera crew picked you because of this,” Criss tells her pointing at her jewelry, “I asked them to look for someone with a belly button ring that’s exposed…so this is perfect.”
Taking a ring off one of Ryan’s friends’ hands, apparently Criss’ rings don’t come off, the Mindfreak says, “Watch this.” Angel places the ring on his tongue, secures it between his teeth, and spits it towards the heart hanging from Ryan’s belly button. When the camera zooms in, you can see the ring interlocked with the heart-shaped jewelry like two links on a chain.
“Criss Angel just took my ring that my grandma gave to me for my birthday, and he put it in his mouth,” began one participant. “I didn’t know if he was going to swallow it or what he was going to do with it, and then he just spit it and you could see it go through the air,” continued another of Ryan’s friends. “And he spit it out and it’s now attached to me.” Ryan tells the camera. “It was crazy man…it was re-dic-u-lous!” concluded a final on-looker.
Next we find out more about the barrel escape. Criss will be wearing a harness, he will be handcuffed to the inside of the steel drum, and the drum will be placed on a trap door inside a wooden crate. The crate will then be raised slowly 100 feet in the air on a crane until a trip line releases the trap door, dropping the drum and sending it crashing to the asphalt. Criss must free himself of the handcuffs, get the lid of the drum open, and attach himself via the harness to the crane before the trap door opens and sends him to his death.
Ever the ladies man, Criss brings in both Miss USA and Miss Universe to inspect the barrel. Banging on the sides and the bottom, the ladies are convinced there are no secret doors or ways to escape from the steel barrel.
“I have nightmares about this stuff, I think about this stuff. Is this the one that’s going to kill me?” Criss wonders.
But before Criss puts his life on the line, we get treated to a demonstration of mentalism. “How many people here have had an experience where your phone rings, and you know who’s going to be on the other line…? It’s kind of like intuition right? Well, I believe with a lot of positive energy, and a lot of people, you can will people to do things unbeknownst to them.” Getting a fan to throw his wristband into the crowd to randomize the selection, Criss tells the selected loyal to stop him as he walks along the edge of the crowd. When she stops him, he asks the girl he’s standing in front of, Jen, to step forward.
Criss asks for Jen’s phone and gives it to a nearby fan. “Now, I want you to think about a person, somebody you haven’t spoke to in a time that you’d like to hear from.” “Sloan.” Jen tells him. “Okay, what does Sloan look like?” Criss asks her. “She very beautiful… black hair, about 5-8… very thin and very voluptuous.” Criss asks everyone present to get a mental image of Sloan. “I’m completely serious, if you don’t help me with this, it will not work. Just suspend your disbelief and really try this with me right now. I want you to think about, right now, Sloan… and I want you to will her to actually go to her cell phone and pick it up to send a text message to you right now….I want you to really focus, really concentrate, in your mind say, ‘ring’!...Come on Sloan! Ring! Feel the energy! Ring! …Scream it in your mind! Ring!”
The phone begins to go off in the fan’s hand, ringing and vibrating. Criss gets the fan to open the flip phone and read the text message. “Hey Jen, haven’t talked to you in while, call me sometime, Sloan Shepard.”
Jen is overwhelmed. “Criss had my former best friend call me, who I haven’t spoken to in…seven years?” Jen said. “You could see her (Jen) start shaking, it was unbelievable… she’s still in shock,” said some nearby loyals. Again, Criss blurs the lines between possible and impossible, just standard operating procedure for the Mindfreak.
Finally, Criss tempts fate again with a death defying escape. “Being there in season one, with Lance Burton, and seeing what can go very wrong…he (Criss) could not remove himself from these handcuffs…yes, I’m very concerned,” Criss’ brother J.D. tells the camera.
“I think because I’ve done almost 900 demonstrations; that one of them is going to come and bite me in the ass. Is this the one that you’re going to see me actually fall to my death?” Criss asks nervously.
Attached to the lid of the steel drum, Criss is locked into the handcuffs. The crew then closes the lid of the steel drum, and locks the two padlocks to seal Criss inside, and then lifts the barrel into the wooden crate, which is in turn lifted into the air. The crowd gives some applause as the crate rises slowly to 50 feet, 75 feet, 90 feet. Finally, when the crate reaches 100 feet, the trap door opens, sending the barrel plummeting to the asphalt with a crash and a gasp from the crowd. A moment later the wooden crate is also released, which splinters upon impact, but the camera pans back up to see Criss dangling from the crane; the escape went perfectly.
The crowd was amazed, and the stream of reactions came: “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” “It was amazing.” “Criss got shackled; he was in a barrel, handcuffed, sealed.” “Completely solid, nothing could get in or out.” “We saw it with our own eyes.”… “All of a sudden the barrel came crashing down.” “My heart stopped.” “I thought he was going to die.”
“That blew my mind.” A fan yells. Criss gives Miss USA a smooch on the cheek and calls it a day. Of course it blew your mind; he’s the Mindfreak.
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