Escapologists are looking for more and more death defying stunts to attempt so that they can amaze their audiences and gain notoriety for themselves.

Harry Houdini was perhaps the greatest escapologist and carried out escapes that would leave even today’s viewers shocked at his bravery.

One of his most famous escapes was the Chinese Water Torture Cell where his feet were encased in stocks and he was lowered head first into a glass box filled with water where he could be seen easily by the audience. A curtain was then drawn across and, from behind the curtain he made his successful escape many times from when he first performed it in 1912 until his death in 1926.

However one escape attempt beat even the great Harry Houdini and this was the Buried Alive challenge. During this escape attempt Houdini was buried in a pit under 6 feet of Soil whereupon he was supposed to dig his way to the surface. He attempted this once only but became exhausted with the weight of the soil and panicked. As his hands reached the surface he was dug out my helpers, barely conscious. He never attempted this variation of ‘Buried Alive’ again.

In 1949 Alan Alan a 24 year old magician and escapologist tried to recreate this stunt as a homage to his hero Houdini 25 years after his death. Buried under 6 feet of soil with merely a piece of cardboard between him and the soil above him. When he failed to appear at the surface after 38 minutes he was dug out alive and blamed his failure to get out on the fact that the soil had been tamped down too hard.

In 1992 magician Joe Burrus, ‘Amazing Joe’ decided to attempt this feat by being buried in a perspex coffin. However he had made no attempt to discover how strong the coffin was other than a cursory jump on top of it before the event took place. After being chained and handcuffed and placed in the coffin which was lowered into a 7 foot pit, his crew then began pouring dirt and wet concrete onto the coffin. This was broadcast live on radio and to a large crowd of onlookers.  All of a sudden the level of the dirt and concrete dropped by 2 feet, making it immediately obvious that the coffin had broken and Joe was being smothered by what has been estimated to be 7 tons in weight.

Unfortunately it was impossible to dig him out in time and he was later pulled out dead.

Then in 2015  another magician Anthony Britton decided to attempt this escape by going one better than Houdini and escape from under 6 feet of soil while handcuffed as the climax to a Buried Alive festival in Slaithwaite Spa, near Huddersfield, UK. Once again this attempt failed and nearly cost Britton his life when he began to suffocate under the weight of the soil. He said that as he exhaled, the weight of the soil prevented him from being able to reinflate his lungs.

When he failed to emerge after 9 mins his team dug him out, unconscious. Luckily he came round, only suffering from cracked ribs, bruising and scratches.

So far no one has successfully performed this escape and few are willing to try.

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