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I'm Mario Manzini. I'm the Guinness world champion escapologist, which is an escape artist -- that's the technical name – escapologist. Like a mentalist, I guess. Or whatever, a psychologist. I'm an escapologist.

I do a lot of daredevil escapes and perform just about every escape the late Harry Houdini did. He was my idol. When I was a little kid, I was maybe four years old, and we were watching TV. I remember my father was sitting there with me and my mother, and for some reason -- I don't know what it is -- but they showed the real Harry Houdini. And they showed him getting out of a straight jacket, suspended from a building, hanging upside-down from a rope tied around his feet or his ankles, and to me -- I don't know -- I was only a kid, but it just made such an impression one me. I kept asking my father who that was, and I remember he kept saying "Well, his name is Houdini and he was an escape artist. He could get out of anything." And I was only four years old, but certain words he said, and what I saw on TV just blew me away. I mean, to me, it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen in my life, and that's all I wanted to do, as be like him, like Houdini.

So, I used to go around to all my friends and say, "Tie me up." I'd give them a piece of rope and they would tie me up. And no matter how tight they did it, I was always able to get out. I had my father tie me up, my uncles, my cousins, friends, kids in school. I just sort of worked out my own methods. I found out I just had a natural ability to get out of things and, you know, it's weird.

And then when we were kids, we used to play cowboys and Indians. We'd tie each other up and nobody could tie me up where I couldn't get out. I always got out.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I was almost seventeen and I was walking down Broadway with a friend of mine and we passed this place called Yupets Museum and Flea Circus. 25 cents, you know, and it had the bearded lady and it had Esteline the sword swallower, and we just went down there and we saw all the acts. And my friend who I did escapes to, he said, "You ought to be performing down here. Let me talk to the manager." I said, "No, no, don't say anything." I was scared, you know. But, he went over. He said "My friend is a great escape artist. He gets out of everything."

So Charlie Lucas, that was his name, he came over and he started talking to me. He asked me what I did. I said "Well, I get out of ropes. I can get out of handcuffs, I can get out of chains." So you know, he said, "Where have you worked before?" I said, "Well, I've never done this professionally." So he said, "I'll tell you what, I have an opening for an act starting next week, would you want to start here?" So I said "Wow, yeah, I would love to."

So anyhow, he put the act together for me. He said, "Well, I'll tell you what, do you have any equipment"? I said "No". He said "If you go down two blocks down 42^nd Street, there is a Kaufmanns's Army and Navy Store. They sell handcuffs and leg irons and chains and locks." So I went down and I bought a whole bunch of handcuffs and leg irons, and he told me to get a big sac -- you know, big enough to get into -- a piece of rope, and then he put the act together. He said "This is how we'll do it: I'll introduce you, you'll come out, we'll get volunteers from the audience to come up and handcuff you, chain you up, put you in the bag and tie you, then you get out. Can you do that"? I said "Sure." So that's what we did, and that's how I started.

I've had different variations over the years. I've been sealed in a plastic bag. I was locked and chained inside of a refrigerator one time, and I got out. They had me locked inside of a trunk of a car, and I got out. You know, different variations of the basic stuff, which is the straightjacket, the handcuffs, the chains, and the mailbag, I guess.

You know, I don't mind giving away my secrets: when they put a straightjacket on me, no matter how tight it is, what I have to do is concentrate on an object or a light or something, or just try to keep all my attention focused on one thing while I start to get out. I also have to dislocate my right shoulder, sometimes my left also. But by sort of self-hypnosis, by doing that, I don't feel pain or discomfort of doing that, and once I get my arms out of the sleeve, then it's just a question of wiggling out of it. You know, I've done it so many times I can do it without even thinking about it.

I was arrested for trying to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge with handcuffs and escape underwater. Actually, they thought I was trying to commit suicide. They didn't know I was a professional escape artist. I don't know, I was dressed like one: I had a cape on and a hat -- you know -- it looked almost like an Elvis costume. It was all black with studs and chains and a huge belt. I had on a big cape and we walked up on the Brooklyn Bridge and that's when I was arrested. They brought me to Bellevue and they released me because they said I was really not crazy.

And then the police rearrested me and took me down to the precinct and I figured I'd play some games. So, I took the handcuffs off, and I laid them on the table so the one that arrested me turned around and he looked at me and he said "Hey, who let you out?" I said "Well, that officer there unlocked me," and I pointed to some other police officer. He really didn't, you know. So he ran over to him and said "Why did you unlock this guy? He might be dangerous." And he said "I didn't unlock him." He said, "Well he told me you unlocked the handcuffs". He said "No." So they re-locked me in the handcuffs again. I waited until they turned their backs to me and I took them off again and put them on the table. Then the officer again turned around and he said "Who, who took those handcuffs?" I said "That same officer unlocked me." So he went over to him and they started fighting with each other, and finally they said "Look, lets put this guy in a cell." So they locked me in a cell and then they walked out of the room and I got myself out of the cell and walked back. I sat down in the same chair and boy, I mean, I had the place going crazy.

A lot of people say "This guy is crazy," you know, but I'm not really crazy. I know exactly what I'm doing. I just happen to be a daredevil escape artist just like Houdini was. I mean, that's my profession. A lot of people say, "Boy, I'd like to do this, I'd like to do that," but they don't pursue it, you know, they just talk about it. It boils down to one thing: you want to do something, you dream about doing something or being somebody, do it.

Producer: Stacy Abramson / Production assistance: Dave Isay / Recording engineer: Roger Kherwoski of KBIA in Columbia, MO / Music: "Minuet in Jazz" by Raymond Scott / Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the New York State Council on the Arts and the Corporation. "Mario Manzini, Escape Artist" is a co-production with City Lore.

"Mario Manzini, Escapologist" premiered June 13, 1999, on Weekend Edition Sunday. Copyright © 1999 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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