Sunday, March 28, 2010

Project 365 (87/365): The Houdini Rope Tie

.:87/376: The Houdini Rope Tie:.

Similar to the Siberian Chain Escape, the Houdini Rope Tie is one of those escape routines that’s generally one-shot, although half of this procedure is used in the Gypsy Mystery.

In essence, the thing that makes the Houdini Rope Tie really work and convince people is that you actually ask two volunteers to tie the rope around your wrists as tightly as they conceivably can. After all that effort to secure you into the ropes, with just a simple turn, you demonstrate that you are almost immediately liberated from the ropes with little to no effort.

I doubt you’d want to pair this with the Siberian Chain Escape or the Spirit Rope Tie, but this is a nice opener before you get into the Shanghai Shackles, as it certainly establishes how easy it may be to escape from rope, but prove how “difficult” it is to escape from padlocks instead. The contrast and the absurdity of the actual performance makes for a very synergistic pair of routines, to say the least. It’s pretty entertaining to do a lot of escapes and work your way up in terms of difficulty, while at the same time keeping the laughs going by using various methods, whether sarcasm or genuine frustration while attempting various escapes.

If it weren’t for the fact that I do cut and restored rope routines, I’d have gladly included the Houdini Rope Tie in my performances. But then, since I’m fairly well-known for the cut and restored routines, I figured it makes more sense for me to use ropes for only one purpose than do a whole bunch of things with them. Still, I guess a differently-formatted show could feature a rope escape of epic proportions, and this routine is a nice lead-up to that.

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