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Angel's Plan To Escape From Motel Implosion Inspires Top 10 List Of Televised Stunts

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

CLEARWATER BEACH - Criss Angel already has walked on water, so escaping from handcuffs and getting out of the Spyglass Resort tonight before it implodes should be a snap.

Well, it's something you shouldn't try at home. And Angel doesn't have supernatural powers - it just looks that way. A video clip of him walking across a swimming pool is legendary on the Internet. His escape tonight - just moments before the beach motel is turned into 4,500 tons of rubble - will be televised live on A&E's "Criss Angel Mindfreak" beginning at 10 p.m.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 40-year-old performer was ready to go.

"I try to visualize how it will happen, and then I am ready to do it," he said. "I would like to do it now, this minute."

Angel calls it one of his biggest challenges because it is going to be done live. "I have done more than 1,000 demonstrations his word for performance, but this one may be the most dangerous. I will only get one chance."

Handcuffed inside the nine-story building, he must escape and make his way to the roof where a helicopter will be waiting. "I have to escape in three minutes and 30 seconds or the helicopter leaves without me because the building is coming down," he says. "If I am one second late, the helicopter leaves without me."

Angel is following a tradition started by the great escape artist Harry Houdini. In the early 1900s, Houdini escaped from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes and straitjackets.

There were no TV cameras back then, but some of Houdini's stunts were recorded on film. As televised stunts go, Angel has done more than anyone else.

Here's my list of the top 10 stunts covered on television.

10. Criss Angel in Cement: The funky magician is shackled and placed in a plexiglass container that is sealed in wet cement and hardened into a block. Dangling over Times Square from several stories, he has 24 hours to escape before the block crashes to the ground. This successful stunt was recorded for last season's "Mindfreak" series.

9. David Copperfield & Lady Liberty: In a 1983 CBS special, Copperfield appeared to make the Statue of Liberty disappear and then reappear. It was one of several grand illusions that made him the most famous magician of the '80s.

8. David Copperfield Flies: How do you top the Statue of Liberty stunt? You levitate over Grand Canyon like Copperfield did in a 1984 TV special.

7. Criss Angel versus a Steamroller: For a 2005 episode, Angel stretched out on broken glass and let a steamroller roll over him.

6. David Copperfield Walled Up: In a memorable 1986 TV special, Copperfield appears to walk through the Great Wall of China.

5. Angel Skyhook: In a stomach-turning stunt, Angel is suspended a thousand feet in the air, held aloft by four fishhooks in his back. He dangles from a helicopter over the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

4. David Blaine Buried Alive: In 1999, Blaine is buried for seven days in a plastic box under a 3-ton water tank across from Trump Tower in New York and lives to tell about it.

3. David Blaine Frozen: Blaine tried to top himself in 2000, when he was encased in a frozen block of ice for nearly 64 hours in Times Square.

2. David Blaine Drowned: In a 2006 stunt, Blaine tried to stay a week in a water-filled sphere and came up just under two minutes short of his goal.

1. Evel Knievel's Jump: In 1974, the late daredevil's attempt to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho was hampered when a parachute accidentally deployed on takeoff. His "skycycle" made it across the canyon, but the chute dragged him to the bottom.

TUNE IN TONIGHT:

America's Greatest Dog,

8 p.m., CBS

Is the skateboarding bulldog still in the competition? And what about that Jack Russell terrorist? We joked that CBS was going to the dogs. But have you seen the ratings?

Jack Benny: Comedy in Bloom, 8 p.m., WEDU, Channel 3

Sadly, there's a younger generation coming along that has no idea who Jack Benny was. Tom Smothers narrates this look back at his life and career.

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