Do Go On - 92 - Harry Houdini

Episode Date: July 26, 2017

Well we always said this podcast was a little bit of magic! Now even more so, as we discover the man famous for blowing peoples minds with his tricks! It's the one and only Harry Houdini! And as per usual, there's a lot of nonsense as well. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amana, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

Hello and welcome to episode 92 of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hi guys. Hi Dave. How are you going, Jess? Very well, thank you. Playing my favourite game of trying to mout along with Dave's introduction. So that's why I said episode 92.

I know. Because you were not expecting that. It was not. It's very fun. Because it's episode 90. Oh, it is episode 90. But Jess can't count that well. No.

Can you believe we made it this father? No. With Jess's poor numeracy skills. No, I can't. How do you get through a podcast for so long with that? With one of the three being not the best ever counter. Because I am the best ever counter. Right.

Yeah, he balances out. And I'm the most average. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's why this podcast works. That's why we're going to make it all the way to 99 and then it starts again, right? Yep, Millennium Bug. Oh, no.

Bloody Lipsen who we upload through is going to crash when we get to 100. No podcast has ever made 100 episodes, right? No. Not that I'm aware of. That is an alternative fact. We can't prove it, so therefore it must be true. Yeah. It must.

It's simply must. Oh, it must. Oh, it's simply must. Oh, you must and it must. But in the meantime, I'd like to tell you. tell you a story. Yes. Oh, let's pod.

Yeah, I'm really excited about this one, actually. For the podcast. Yeah, great. That works out really well. But also just in general as well, actually. I'm really excited about this one because I think this is going to be fun. But then again, maybe then it won't be fun, you know? It's hard to tell.

It's hard to know. Well, let's find out together. This is the show, of course, what we do a report. On a topic, it is Jess's turn to do such a thing. And as per usual, gentlemen, I have not written a question. I bet you go on, though. I said to you ten minutes ago, I said, fuck, haven't written a question. And Dave, you kindly said, well, you could write one now.

And I didn't. So I will say to you, who's... Good start. That's a real strong question start. Got it. Because if you said, I'm... It would have been difficult to change your question. Unless you're just upward inflection at the end, that's the key.

Yeah. I'm really good. I'm... That's good. What emotion right now. See, Dave, that's a question. Perterbed? I'm perturbed.

No. Whose name is... is synonymous with magic. Merlin. Merlin's good. Harry Potter. Also a good answer, no. I'm thinking of the guy

who falls under the water in the box with the chains. Harry Houdini. Correct. Sigmund Freud. Fuck. You're thinking of Sigmund Freud. Ziphrid and Roy, that's it.

Who, when I was young, Aphalonist, when I many holidays, including to Las Vegas when I was eight years old. I went to lay Vega. We went to lay Vega. Me too. When you were eight, that's right.

Same thing. Did you see Siegfried and Roy? No. Who at the time it was not frowned upon that they performed with white tigers. And then one of them, for you later, attacked either Siegfried or Roy. Around the time it was frowned upon. Yeah, I think that's when people started frowning, to be honest. You're like, oh, hang on, it's a wild animal.

Huh. And, yeah, like quite endangered. Yeah, and this is quite cruel. You know, all that sort of stuff. Anyway, I was part of that cruelty when I was eight, so no biggie. Pretty cool. I said it's circus circus. That was pretty sick.

Oh, I said the Hilton. You did not your business. We stayed at the Hilton. You piece of shit. It had a Star Trek exhibition at the bottom. My parents aren't on a Star Trek, neither were we, but we had an amazing ride. Wow.

Hilton's the chain that Donald Trump owns, right? The Hilton. Oh, I don't think so. The Hilton. He's the one, you know, they're the ones that Donald Trump? That's why he's got his... He's a Hilton, isn't he? He's one of the famous Hilton's?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Trump is Paris Hilton's dad. Yeah. He's got that famous. The famous tower. Hilton Tower. On Mount Hilton.

Yeah. Is that... Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Tafer looked at me like it was saying something weird. That's Dave for you. Classic Dave. Jeez Louise Louise.

Curve-call. Anyway, are we talking about Harry Houdini? We're talking about Harry Houdini. Very cool. Very cool. I didn't know a lot, to be honest. It's actually a really cool story. This was suggested by Brett Burris.

I'm sorry if I said that wrong. On Twitter. So, thank you, Brett. Oh, my God. Is he like Hungarian, which is... I believe. Is he Hungarian? Houdini?

He was born in 1874 in Budapest. That's in Hungary. Yeah. I'm just wondering if this guy, maybe, is it like a big Hungarian guy? We've just mispronounced the Twitter name, but anyway. Or I nailed the pronunciation, and he may or may not be Hungarian. Or he could have just thought, Harry Houdini would be an interesting topic.

I shall suggest it to my friends that do go on. I've seen it in the hat, and I've thought, kind of that it'll be a good one. That'll be a good one. And we're about to find out if it is. Okay, here we go. Let's roll the dice. So 1874, born in Budapest. His parents were Rabbi Maya Samuel Wise and Cecilia Steiner.

His dad arrived in the United States on the... No, sorry. So Eric, his name was Eric Wise. That's Harry Houdini's real name. Eric Wise. Eric was a good name. He... Not as magical, is it?

Not as magical. He arrived in the US. on the 3rd of July in 1978, so he was about four years old, with his mother, who was pregnant at the time, and his four brothers. The family changed their name to the German spelling. It was W-E-I-S-Z, but now they just went double-s, classic German spelling. I thought, yeah, I was picturing W-I-S-E, like Penny-W-E-I-S. No, E-I-S-S.

I reckon that would even be pronounced something like, VACE. Yeah, it's not like Rachel V-V-E-E-R-E. Vice. Vice. Do they people say that? You would, would you know, because you're a German, sort of? Dissently German. About as German as Harry Houdini.

I'm about as German as a bloody German piece of Germany. Oh, that's pretty German, Dave. Sorry to cut you off and finish your sentence there. He just took the words right out of my mouth. Yeah, that's really German. I didn't realize you were as German as you are. There you go. Live and learn.

I thought we were here to learn about Harry Houdini. little bit about David Vornikai Vornikini Varnikoni Wow, I didn't even know how to pronounce my own name Yeah, you've been saying it wrong this whole time

We were very embarrassed for you Anyway, so they've changed the name of They've changed the spelling of their surname And Eric also changed from E-R-I-K to E-H-R-C-H Oh, the classic German Errik

So they've decided to blend in with the American community Exactly The family lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father was a rabbi. Houdini was one of seven children. Do they know what's causing it? Oh, what's the threshold for that?

What, you don't think seven's a lot? I think seven's teetering. Back then, probably not even wild at all. Yeah, you're right. It's still a lot of kids, though. Like, I'm not pushing out seven. Do you know what's causing it? Is there a reason you're not pushing out seven?

Yeah. I know what's causing it. causing it and it's not happening. Right. Because I'm lonely. Loneliness is causing it. Yeah. Four years after moving to the US, so in 1882,

his father, the rabbi, became an American citizen. And later they moved, Eric and his father moved to New York City where they lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street. Once they found a permanent house, like somewhere for them to live more permanently, the rest of the family joined them. At 12, Eric hopped a freight car and ran away from home. A year later... It's got a big jump.

What's that from? Hoping a freight car. One swift movement. Stop winking at us. I won't. A year later, he returned to New York and continued to help support his family by working as a messenger. Hey guys, I'm back.

Just hopped a freight card. Well, that's the thing. Nothing... We don't know much about his year away. He was just gone for a year, came back. Like when she said. Shakespeare disappeared. Did Shakespeare disappear?

Do you not remember the episode? There's a few unaccounted years. Absolutely not. We've discussed this before. I retain very little. Yeah, I'm the same. We did a quiz about it, remember? So, William Shakespeare was this very famous playwright.

Uh-huh. Playwright. Shackaspare. That's the one thing you always say. I don't know. I always wasn't going to and I was like, oh, don't let them down. So anyway, so he's come back and he's helping support the family. He's working a few little jobs like he's a messenger.

He's a necktie cutter. I don't know what that is, but I love it. And a photography assistant. Nectie cutter being my favourite of those jobs. Nectie cutter. Necktie cutter. It's a real specific fabric guy. That's what the broader industry is called, the fabric guys.

And he specifically... What is the... What would... Taylor? Okay. Maybe. What would Taylor? What would Taylor?

That's the question I'm going to do a topic inside the show So What would Taylor Have a ponder that Well Jess can keep going for now But come back to I'm going to do a mini topic inside this show

But the question is What would Taylor Okay Thank you May I? Yeah please Thank you My guess is four

Interesting My guess is a giraffe Oh Somewhere between the two Four giraffes As a child Eric took several jobs, making his public debut as a nine-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself Eric, the Prince of Air. Missing out only on Bell.

Eric, the Prince of Air, which I love. The Fresh Prince of Air. Please call him that. The Fresh Prince of Air. When he became a professional magician, he began calling himself Harry Houdini, after the French magician Jean-Eugène, Jean-Ugene-Robit. after reading Robert Houdin's autobiography in 1890. Harry incorrectly believed that an eye at the end of a name meant like in French. So it's like, I'm Houdini like.

I'm Houdini like. Oh, like Jessica-esque. Exactly. He's Houdinish. So that's what he should have been. He should have been Houdinish. Harry Houdinish. Harry Houdainish.

Come kind of. Sounds delicious. In later life, Houdini claimed that the first part of his new name, Harry was an homage to Harry Keller, whom he also admired. No, I think he really liked a guy called hair, and he thought if I had the E at the end, that's Harry Hair-like. Am I right in saying that? I am a linguist.

You are a linguist. I've always said that about you. Hudee began his magic career the next year in 1891, but had little success. He appeared in a tent act with a strong man, Emil Jarrow. He performed in dime museums and side shows and even doubled as the wild man at a circus. Don't know what a wild man is, but I love it. He's been a professional tie neck cutter. He's been a professional wild man.

What next? What can't he do? Well, it sounds like a lot of things because he has to have so many jobs. Yeah, he's not, he's not successful. He's not successful. He's not successful. He initially focused on a traditional card trick. At one point he'd build himself as the King of Cards.

Ah. The King of Cards, the Prince of Air. He's part of two kingdoms. Yeah. I started as a prince and then I got promoted to King. But I kept my old title as I chose. I'm the King of Cards of Air. In 1893, while performing with his brother Dash, whose name was actually Theodore.

Ah, because Dash is great. Dash is a cool name. That's a great nickname. I'm regretting Bob. But, no, Bob can stay, it's fine. So this is around, like, he's... Dash, it sounds on... It would have been cool a few years ago,

but now it sounds a bit like, that's what many people in Europe call ISIS. Dash. Dash. Daesh. Yeah, right. It's like a disparity name for, uh, for IS. So...

Okay, not so cool. Lost a little bit of shine there for me. Sure. Just for me. Sure. On a personal level. You could... People with hyphinated surnames,

maybe would get a nickname like that as well. Oh, that's cute. Yeah, I understand that. There was a guy at high school who had a hyphen-ated surname, and some people called him hyphen. It's no good. Don't like that. Hyphen.

No good at all. Don't like that at all. Bit of gentle ribbing, hey? Check out bloody two names over here. We call him hyphen. Because he's a fuckhead. He's not, though, but he does have two surnames. Okay.

So the King of Cards is experimenting with a skateback. now, right? And he's performing with his brother, Dash, at Coney Island. What are you singing just before? Goodbye, my Coney Island, baby. The B-sharves. You see that just before.

There you go. So they're performing at Coney Island as the brothers Houdini. Do you get why? Because they're like brothers. They are brothers. Oh. And I get it. The brothers-easy.

Houdini. Houdini met a fellow performer. Wilhelmina Beatrice Bess, Reina, she went by Bess. Bess was initially quartered by Dash, but she and Houdini married in 1894. She dated his brother and then married Harry. That seemed to happen more in the olden days. You get a lot of that these days. You don't get that a lot these days.

That's weird. That's why. Yeah, right, okay. That's uncomfortable. Imagine that Christmas dinner. Yeah. It's weird my exes here. I was going to say, like, olden days is in the 1800s or whatever, but even like,

I reckon a generation or so back that happened a bit. Yeah, probably. When their world was still very small. So, okay. Now people can go out and meet, you know, a second and third person. Yeah. I know two males now. I've got a choice.

I didn't used to have a choice. Yeah, it wasn't a choice back in the day. Hopefully one of them's got a sibling so I can switch across one. And that's just what Best did. So now she starts. to perform with Harry, replacing Dash in the act. And so they... Oh, so he's stolen his girlfriend and she's replaced him.

Yeah. Oh, that's sad. Yeah, it's real sad. Now the brother's lonely on both fronts. So now Bess and Harry are performing together and they're known as the Houdini's. Not bad. For the rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess worked as his stage assistant. She worked with him in their entire lives.

Houdini's big break came in 1899. when he met manager Martin Beck in St. Paul, Minnesota. Impressed by Houdini's Handcuffs Act, Beck advised him to concentrate on a skate-backs and booked him on a vaudeville circuit, so he's performing all over the place. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudable houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.

I was really thinking you'd be more impressed by that. That's cool. I mean, he is from there. He's from Europe, so sort of like, popping back over. He moved to the years from his four. Like, I dad even remembers. Imagine when we do it, Europe. Imagine.

I'll be a bit more impressed than I was just then. Yeah, probably to us, yeah. I think, yeah. Yeah. Where would you go? I'm thinking UK. Yeah, UK. The big names.

The big, you go to the big three, obviously. The UK. Russia. Russia. Oh, yeah. Okay, yep. The Ukraine. The Ukraine.

The big three of Europe. The big three, yeah. Kentucky style. Ukraine and Russia. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll just check the podcast stats. Yep, I can confirm we're huge in the Ukraine. Yeah, chicken Kiev. They love us down there. Yeah, they love it. Chicken Kiev. Anyway, so he's touring Europe

and after some days of unsuccessful interviews in London, who did his British agent, Harry Day, great name, helped him to get an interview with the manager of the Alambra Theatre. He's introduced to all these different people. Oh, I'm impressed. by that. You've heard of it? I know, I've been to the Alumbra

and that's a thing in Spain though. Cool. Maybe connected. It's probably named after it. It's a quite a famous thing in South Spain. It's definitely connected. So, remember at this stage he's been encouraged to focus more on escape acts

rather than the other sort of magic tricks he was trying to do because he's really good at escaping. So he was introduced to a guy called William Melville and gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs. at Scotland Yard. He succeeded in baffling the police so effectively that he was booked at the Alumbra for six months. His show was an immediate hit and his salary rose to $300 a week.

This is in the early 1900s. He's on good coin. Good coin because the police put him in handcuffs and he got out of it and they're like, what? Give him some money. Okay, Houdini became... Crime does pay. Houdini then became known by a different name. Now going by the last few nicknames he's had, Prince of Air, King of Cards.

What's above king? President of the United States? No, so... Emperor of disappearing. This is to do with his escape acts. He's particularly good at handcuffs. Queen Handy. The Handy Queen.

The Handy Queen. Sorry, fuck, I always get that wrong. The only one good at porn titles. The Handy Queen's a great one. The Handy Queen, yeah. No, he's now widely known, apparently, as the Handcuff King. Oh, say to King. Stuck at King.

Yeah, I think you sort of peeked too early. Handcuff King. It's a bit It's a bit beige He toured England Scotland The Netherlands Germany

France and Russia The Big Six He's got two of the Big Three there as well Two of the big three And then you can clear it off What's the seventh? Ukraine

Oh yeah sorry of course Might have been still annexed by Russia back then Was it Anyway Did you even say Russia then? Yes he did Yeah In each city

Houdini challenged local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. I like the idea that sometimes they're like, mate, we're not doing that. We are very respectable people. He's like, fine, I'll just throw a rock through this car's windscreen, huh? Try and hold me now. Oh, you're not going to arrest me? Hmm?

I'm looking up that lady's skirt. I saw Dallas Bires Club last week, and at the start of it, Matthew McConaise trying to get, arrested by his mate, a cop, to get away from these guys or after him. And he goes, he wouldn't. He's like, no, just get a deal with it yourself. So he turns her and punches the cop in the face. And the cop's like, ah, fuck.

That's right at the start of the movie. Hopefully, I haven't spoiled that for anyone. There's someone who's going, all right, I'm just going to listen to this one podcast. Then obviously finally get around to watching the movie that I cannot wait to watch. I mean, I can. Because I have. One more podcast, podcast. Podcasts.

Popcast. And I have already waited several years since the film came out. But after this... Actually, to be honest, I'm only going to... I'll listen the first half an hour of it, and then I'll listen the rest of it after. So hopefully that first half hour... finishes buffering.

Yeah. I don't want to have to wait right at the crux of the movie, which I don't know what that will be. Yeah, and I hope the first five or ten minutes aren't sport from the movie, because that is the bit I enjoyed the most. Look, if it doesn't hook me straight away, to be honest, I probably won't bother. And I've already paid seven.

$17 to buy it from iTunes. Because I assume that I will love the first 10 minutes. I assume, and I nearly always assume, right. On to the podcast, play. Actually, you know what? I'm going to skip the first 15 to 20 minutes of the podcast. Listen to this, just this little patch here. And, yeah, after that, we'll get into the movie that I believe will be my favorite of all time.

At least, you know, the first 10 minutes of, which, here we go. and... No! And seen. That was beautiful. Good job. Wow. So, he's getting local police to lock him up.

They gave Jared Leto an Academy Award, but that was... That was something else. In many of these challenge escapes, he was first stripped nude and searched. He's like, guys, this was not part of the deal. Guys? In Moscow, he escaped from a Siberian prison transport. van, claiming that had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to

travel to Siberia where the only key was kept. But he got out. It's a big claim. In Cologne, he sued a police officer Werner Graf, who alleged that he made his escapes via bribery. Houdini won the case

when he opened the judge as safe. He later said that the judge had forgotten to lock it, but he broke into the judge as safe to be like, see? See? I can break into shit. How lucky. And the judge had just forgotten to lock it. Yeah.

Very good. But his live shows would be pretty bad if he was just using bribery to get out of anger. Yeah, it would be unconvincing to watch. Lock my hands behind my back. And then you just see him whisper into someone's ear and sort of throw cash at someone. And I'm free. Yay! And people are just sitting there so confused.

They're like, what just happened? So, things are going pretty well for Harry. with his newfound wealth Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria He then arranged a grand reception where he presented his mother in the dress To all of their relatives

That's a weird trick Look, mum's as old as the queen Who dine said it was the happiest day of his life For my next trick, mum in a dress Wait a boy All right I've seen her in dresses before you I mean it's a nice dress

Well done Harry Preserve a very He's loosening. In 1904, Houdini returned to the US and purchased a house for $25,000. Equivalent now of about $66,000. My mum will now wear the dress. I mean, house. How much is it worth in today's money?

$600,000. Wouldn't get much in Melbourne these days. Wouldn't get much in Melbourne. Now, whilst he was on tour in Europe in 1902, Houdini visited Blois with the aim of meeting the widow of a... Mille Houdin, the son of Jean-Ugene Robert Houdin for an interview. So it's the son of his idol and his namesake. The widow of the son of his idol.

Wow. Very confusing. A man she'd never even met. Wow. So he wanted an interview and permission to visit his grave. He did not receive permission, but he still visited the grave. I seek permission. Just go for it.

Houdini believed that he'd been treated unfairly, and later, a negative account of the incident in his magazine. Oh. Claiming... Heardney weekly. Ironically, he comes out monthly. Claiming he was treated most discourteously. Also, in 1906, he sent a letter to the French magazine.

Le, Lusiness. It's like illusionist, but with an L. Oh, the illusionist? Yeah. I've heard of it. No, I have not. Lillusionist. Le Lusinaste.

My French is. Very good. We. Bommel. That's so good I could understand it. No, thank you. Yeah, I'll translate this one. What did she say?

What she said was actually gibberish, to be honest. I do speak French very well. A bon more. So he wrote a letter to the French magazine that I mentioned earlier. And he said, You will certainly enjoy the article on Robert Houdine. I'm about to publish in my magazine. Yes, my dear friend, I think I can finally deploy.

Demolish your idol, who has so long been placed on a pedestal that he did not deserve. He's just got on a rampage. Hold on. He's demolishing whose idol? This is Robert's son of his idol. No. No. Now he's taking down his idol. Wait, Houdine is taking down the idol.

Houdine. What a weird. It's weird. But I just find that kind of funny. So, and is he saying that everyone else has put this guy on a pedestal? Or Houdini himself has put him. He's like, you guys are bloody put this guy on the pedestal, but I see right through him,

even though I named myself after him. And most people are like, I've never heard of that guy. Who's that? You fools. So weird. I'll take him down. Finally. Who?

Who? Who did? Who did what? I just don't understand. Who, Dean. Also, the illusionist is publishing a letter that he's claims. how good his article is going to be in another magazine. Imagine that now.

You're writing to the Harold's son being like, check out the age next week. It's going to be real good. It's like, what? Okay. Thanks, Matt. In 1906, Houdini created his own publication, The Conjurers Monthly Magazine.

It was a competitor to... Which, ironically, was weekly. Is that ironic? Yeah. It was a competitor to the Sphinx, which was an independent magazine for magicians. And The Sphinx was a magic-related U.S. periodical. It was published for 50 years.

It started in 1902. Which, ironically, it didn't come out periodically. Misleadingly, I think, is what you mean. But here's the thing. The Condra's Monthly magazine. That's ironic. It's... Yeah, no, it is. Please go on. So Houdini's magazine. No, let's argue about this dumb thing.

Sorry, Jess. Houdini's magazine... The ironic one. ...was short-lived, and only two volumes released over two years. It was called The Condor's Month. magazine. He did it once a year. There it is. That's all right. I know. I was trying to get there, you fucks.

Well, the irony there is that I... Jump the gun. Oh God, I didn't even know anymore. He did... Wow. There's a magic historian by the name of Jim Steinmayer, and he noted that Houdini couldn't resist using the journal for his own crusades, attacking his rivals, praising his own appearances, and subtly rewriting history. favour his view of magic. And taking down his own idols.

But then again, he still only wrote two. So it's like, he didn't really do that much, did you? Anyway, I thought I would talk about some of his famous escapes. I love you too. He's had quite an amazing career, actually. He's done lots of different things, but there's a few escapes that I want to talk about that are so fucked and cool. Okay, ready?

Yes. From 1907 and throughout the 1910s, Houdini performed with great success in the United States. He freed himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes and straight jackets, often while hanging from a rope in sight of street audiences. Because of imitators Houdini put his handcuff act behind him on January 25th, 1908, and began escaping from other traps. He put his handcuff act behind him and then escaped from him.

Around 1912, the vast number of immigrants, The facilitators prompted Houdini to replace his milk can act with a Chinese water torture cell. So what he was doing was escaping from a giant milk can. The stakes just sound so much higher from a milk can to a Chinese water torture act. Yeah, correct. So in this escape, Houdini's feet were locked in stocks and he was lowered upside down into a tank filled with water. the mahogany and metal cell featured a glass front so the audience could clearly see him

and the stocks were locked at the top of the cell and a curtain concealed his escape. So they'd like put him in and then put a curtain down and then they'd lift the curtain back up and he'd be like, ta-da! It was really fucking weird. And behind the curtain he's quietly writing a check for $100,000 so they let him out.

Please let me out. A waterproof check, obviously. This is my final offer. I don't know why I'm gritting my teeth, but I am. Oh, for God's sake. All right, fine. 200 grand to let me live. So, but the curtain comes down.

Because I always imagine, because I can imagine this Chinese water torture cell thing. I think I've seen modern magicians do it, their take on it. But do they always put the curtain so you can't see what they're doing? No. No, but this is the 1910s, you know. We've advanced a little bit now, hopefully. I mean, we've got Facebook. So we've got, you know.

But I suppose that if you saw him do it, maybe, you know, gives away the trick. Yeah, exactly. I think, and I read something later that, I think they used to do it because it didn't look good, like him writhing around trying to get out. They were like, oh, it doesn't look that great. But then his brother sort of realized later that people liked to watch how he actually did it. So I think what they're actually thinking here is that, you know, that people will be going, that's impossible.

And they just, to pull down the curtain, put it back up. Oh, he's alive. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's something to do with it. Because as soon as I see the curtain, I start getting suspicious. Totally. I was like, okay, so they just raise him back up. Yeah. He's got a key.

Oh, yeah. Why not a key? Why not a key? Straight to bolt cutters. He smashes the glass. Now, the original cell was built in England where Houdini first performed the escape for an audience of one person. As part of a one-act play, he called Houdini upside down. And the reason he did this, he put it on as a play, and he just performed it to one person.

person was so that he could copyright the effect and have grounds to sue imitators. That's actually very clever. It's very clever. So he was like, oh, I did it in my play. He probably just made his wife sit there while he did it. And he's like, ta-da, I've done my play. Now I can copyright it, which is very clever. He had to go to the effort of like printing a program.

Oh, yeah, they had to hire a theatre. They had an interval. Yeah, there was an usher. Madam, can I show you to your seat? Any of these 6,000 seats? That's luxury. When you're one-to-one, usher to patron or. ratio. That is luxury.

Luxury. Absolutely luxury. So Houdini continued to perform this escape for the rest of his life, all the way up until the 20s. It took him that long to get out. He held his breath for ages. Very impressive. Or the rest of his life, which was about a minute 30.

So that's the Chinese water torture cell. Now I move on to suspended straight jacket escape. One of Houdini's most popular publicity stunts was to have himself strapped to a regulation straight jacket and suspended by his ankles from a tall building or a crane. Houdini would make his escapes in full view of the assembled crowd. In many cases, Houdini drew tens of thousands of onlookers and brought city traffic to a halt.

He just stopped traffic. He would sometimes ensure press coverage by performing the escape from the office building of a local newspaper. That's smart. That's smart. In New York City, he performed the suspended straight jacket escape from a crane being used to build the New York subway. After flinging his body in the air, he escaped from the strait jacket.

Starting from when he was hoisted up in the air by the crane to when the straight jacket was completely off, it took him two minutes and 37 seconds. Great, but when he gets out of the jacket, does he fall to his death? No, he's still strapped by... Oh, fuck! The real cool part of the trick. Do you think the straight jacket includes his ankles? Oh yeah, sorry, I'm just imagining.

Yep, fair cool. I'm imagining it right now. Yeah, you got it. It was not before. Well, you imagine that the straight jacket was suspended. He was in it. And once he's free from the jacket, he just falls. It's like watching someone jump out of an airplane and then try and take their parachute off.

Sure. I'm free. Oh, dear. Oh, what have I done? Free this restrictive parachute. So two minutes 30 seconds. Now I can dance. He's sky dancing?

Yeah. What would be your preferred dance style to die? To die to. Kongo, I'm taking you with me. Well played. Well played. Yeah, no, not me. Lindy hop for me, I reckon. You'd square dance. Don't kid yourself.

Charleston. Charleston, yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Is that that one? You can't take one that you don't know what it is. Okay. Well, I was hoping to get lessons on the way down. For the listener, Matt nailed the Charleston.

Yeah, he did it real good. Okay. Hugh Jackman's also there, and I thought he could, as he fell, he could teach me. I assume he knows out of Charleston. Of course. Hugh would know. Hugh would know. He just knows.

He gets it. He does. I love him. Yeah. Two minutes 37 though. He's very quick to get a straight jacket. Upso down. Another one of Houdini's most famous puzzler city stunts was to escape from a crate that had been nailed shut after it had been lowered into water.

He first performed to escape in New York's East River on July 7th, 1912. Police forbade him from using one of the pier. so he hired a tugboat and invited press on board. Houdini was locked in handcuffs and leg irons, then nailed into the crate, which was roped and weighed down with 200 pounds of lead. The crate was then lowered into the water. He escaped in 57 seconds.

What? The crate was pulled to the service and found still to be intact, but he got out in 57 seconds. So how is that happening? Just do you know? Dave, that's, I don't know. That's crazy. It's crazy.

Isn't that insane? Or magic. Or both. Yeah. He was saying he was an illusionist. Like he wasn't saying he was a magic man, was he? That's it. Yeah.

So other acts around the time were sort of publicised the fact that they had, like, powers or were spiritually guided, where he sort of said the opposite. He's pretty skeptical, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, but at the same time, a lot of his acts kind of promoting. like he would get out using teleportation. Right. That sort of thing.

And it's like, what? Yeah, right. But yeah, he never really claimed to be. He wasn't like, I'm magical. Yeah, but a magical person would want you think they weren't. I was thinking exact same thing. He probably was magic. He's the only one saying he's not magic.

Maybe he's just humble. Maybe you two could learn a thing or two. I am magic. As if I could learn anything about humbleness. I'm the best at everything. I'm the most humbled person here. I couldn't be more humble. I'm the second best humblest.

Second best humblest. I can't argue with you there. Houdini performed at least three variations on a buried alive stunt during his career. I hope you didn't have to go through the ass back. He's a method performer. He's a really commits to it. Had to put the plastic underwear on him and everything. Oh, for the seepage.

They had to pack him tight. All right. Check out the cremation episode if you haven't. Otherwise, that makes sense. So the first time he did this was in California in 1915, and it almost cost Houdini his life. He was buried without a casket in a pit of earth six feet deep. Six feet of earth.

He became exhausted and panicked while trying to... Sorry, it's not funny. It's a little bit funny. He became exhausted and panicked while trying to dig his way to the surface and called for help. When his hand finally broke the surface, He fell unconscious and had to be pulled from the grave by his assistance. Houdini wrote in his diary that the escape was very dangerous and that the weight of the earth is killing.

Oh, how creepy is. Which, I know, that was funny. No, I just that, I don't know, that he got involved in and panicked. I also... You're a sick fuck. I don't know. You know, when you... No, but, like, because in my head, it was kind of like,

you know, when you're panicking, it's like when there's a kid, like, holding onto some sort of floaty device, and they're like, ah, I'm drowning, I'm drowning, I'm drowning, I'm drowning. And then their mum shows them they can just stand up in the water. That's kind of what was happening in my head. And he's like, ah, ah, they're like, you're out, you're already out. What are you, you know, that was, that was not the case in real life, and therefore it's not actually funny.

I also love the discovery, like being buried under six tons of earth, that could kill you. Guys. That was very dangerous. Why would you let me do that? That was really silly. Mate. I shouldn't have done that. Of course.

One of his skills must be just having a great lung capacity, right? All these things mean that he must have... Yeah, he must hold his breath for like three minutes or something. Well, actually, the second variation of this buried alive escape that he did was an endurance test designed to expose mystical Egyptian performer Raman Bay who would claim to use supernatural powers to remain in a sealed casket for an hour. So Houdini was like, you're not supernatural. I can do that.

So he's a fun spoiler. Yeah, he's super fun. But I saw someone say, you can't do that. I mean, I can do that too. I would just say, yeah, you're both magical. Yeah, you're spiritual as well. Yeah, great. Now, there's two of you.

Okay. But he's gone, and I'm not spiritual. Nah, I think yeah, man. Yeah, the other guy's like, great, you can do it. We're both from the same religion, I guess. Yeah, for some reason he wants to renounce us. And he's, but he's, yeah, him and me are brothers from same God guy. Brothers from same God guy.

Yeah. To paraphrase. It was a paraphrase. It was 19, it was a different time. Language was very efficient back then. So Houdini wanted to beat Bay. His name's Bay, that's good. And on August 5th, 1926, he remained in a sealed casket or coffin, submerged in a swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for,

one and a half hours. Hotel Shelter. So he's in a sealed. Was that where Trump's? I believe so, yes. Where Trump was born was what you were going to say. He was born in Hotel Shelton in New York. So he claimed he did not use any trickery or supernatural powers to accomplish his

fate, which is what someone supernatural would want you to think. And he just used controlled breathing. That's what he said. He's like, just breathing. No big deal. Not that hard as a bay. Yeah. Okay.

This is my absolute favorite, my absolute favorite of his escapes, right? So this was, just in it like a quick passing sentence when I was doing a quick read of like Wikipedia, it just said, and one time he escaped from the stomach of a whale. Anyway, and I was like, sorry, what? So I did a lot more research, and I found that in Boston's BF Keith's Theatre in 1911,

Houdini took on one of his most famous and bizarre challenges. The freak sea monster was news in New England even before Houdini became involved. The carcass had either washed up on the shore or was caught by a local fisherman depending on the newspaper account. So some giant sea creature has washed up on shore. The press claimed it weighed 1,500 pounds and was estimated to be about 500 years old. Wow. Papers struggled to describe it. One called it a turtle tortoise fish or whatever it is.

To quote? That is quality journalism. Turtle tortoise fish. Or whatever it is. That's what they taught me in journalism school. Like if you don't know what animal it is, don't look it up. Just make a few guesses. Or whatever.

Or whatever it is. That covers you. Quite genuinely, the press simply dubbed it the what is it. So they're all calling it the what is it. So good. What it is is still a mystery today. Houdini called it a mongrel bridge. of whale and octopus.

What? Others suggested that it could have been an elephant seal or a gna whale. An author called Patrick Colleton in Houdini, the Key, says it was actually a giant leatherback turtle. From the existing photo, it does appear to look a bit more like a turtle. Oh, so there is a photo of it? Like a very poor quality photo. It's just some giant sea creature.

Right. Now Houdini was playing the BFK season. theatre in Boston when the What Is It was discovered and soon it was announced that ten prominent Boston businessmen had devised a challenge in which Houdini would be shackled in extra strong handcuffs and leg irons

from police headquarters and sewn up inside the belly of the beast. Wow, it really was a different time. A different time. They saw an opportunity. Yeah, they're like... When others saw a monster.

They saw an opportunity. So when they're like, this is an animal that no one's ever seen before. We won't keep it. We won't put it in a museum. What we'll do is we'll get a magic man and we'll sew him inside it. That'll show him.

Like stuff on a Christmas turkey. It's a to duckin. The drama of the challenge was teased out for days. Newspapers reported that Houdini concedes that it will be the most difficult test he has ever attempted. One paper noted that Houdini had received a telegram from his family in New York telling him not to enter the monster. Houdini's only condition was that he be provided.

ventilation inside the creature. In turn, he signed a waiver releasing the 10 challenges of any responsibility. So he's like, yeah, no, that's fine. You guys are off. Scott Free, something happens to me. On the day of the challenge, several thousand people lined the streets of Boston to watch the what is it carried through the streets.

The journey took it from Long Wharf to the Keith's stage entrance on Mason Street. Originally, the challenge was to have taken place in the evening performance, but it was changed to the matinee because of certain conditions which have presented themselves, which people now think that the carcass was not going to keep until the evening because it was quite warm. So gross.

So they're like, we better do it on the Madna show. Is he already sewed up in it? It's been never six hours. Showtime. Houdini was shackled, hand and foot, and then climbed with much difficulty into the creature. Yeah, because it's not designed for you to climb into it. How big...

It must be... It's huge. It's huge. If it is a tortoise, I've never seen a tortoise. No, but it's like, it's like whale size. Like, it's enormous. Huh. Well, that's the thing.

They don't know what it is. It's just this giant. To me, that is the biggest story here. What kind of animal is this? I know, and I had to really dig to find information on this story. I'm like, no, no, no, this should be all, this should be his entire Wikipedia page. There's one dodgy photo of it. How much press was there?

Quite a lot. Well, thousands of people turned up. The theatre was packed. The theatre was absolutely packed. Chuck a block, I reckon it was. Feels that they've missed an opportunity here. Is it a possibility that this is the lockdown this monster? Ah, yes.

It sounds more like it than anything I've ever heard. No one bothered to check. No one thought to check. They didn't think, like, is it wearing a kilt? Check it's kilt. Check it's kilt. If it has one. Play a bagpipe. See if it wakes it up.

If it's real Scottish. Was that the bagpipe where the monster waking up? No, we'll never know. because they didn't fucking do it. That is, that's disappointing. Where was science at the time? Well, we're busy promoting magic. To be honest, they did promote magic for many thousands of years before science came along.

So he's climbed into the creature. Apparently he sprinkled perfume where his head would lay. Smart. Oh, he would smell awful. You know that mix? You ever in high school when people would mix, like, Lynx Africa with their B.O. After a gym class? Yeah.

That's not deodorant. It's deodorant. It's deodorant. Yeah, it's body spray. It's not helping you at all. You're just mixing a couple of pretty awful things. Yeah, don't worry, I know what will cover this smell. Oh, it's so good.

Now I will lie inside of it. So the carcass was then laced up tightly and had chains run through steel islets three inches apart. It was then wrapped entirely with chains and concealed inside a curtain cabinet. I'm not sure what that means, but it was like concealed, right? After 15 minutes, Houdini stepped forward, greasy but grinning. He just covered in his shit. Yuck! Could you get that as your tattoo, Jess?

Greasy but grinning. Oh, that works. That's not bad. Actually, you know what, we'll get matching ones. You get greasy. I'll get gritty. Yeah, good. I'll get butt.

Two T's. So, to be honest, did he escape through the poop? No, the sea monster was then revealed to be still laced and chained exactly as it had been. So it makes no sense. That's the thing. He was always kind of like, ta-da, just popped out here. I'm teleporting. Magic man.

Surely he could have just punched through it, right? But how do you sew it back up? Sew it back up? Needle and thread. So you reckon he's got one minute of punching and 14 minutes of sewing? Yeah, he's got to get it right? right, he's a craftman. He apparently,

he asked for a window to be open so he could have some fresh air. What the audience didn't know was that Houdini had almost been suffocated by fumes from the arsenic used to embalm the carcass. I'm glad you said arsenic. From the ass. Oh, it's awful in here.

He nearly suffocated. Oh, from arsenic. Oh, God. Because that's what they used to embalm the carcass. Arsenic. They packed that carcass good. So there you go. So those are,

some of his most famous. That is awesome. That should be the most famous thing about it. I know, right? It's pretty incredible. And you know what? He's not done. He also branched out a little bit into film.

In 1906, he started showing films of his outside escapes as part of his vaudeville act. In Boston, he presented a short film called Houdini defeats Hackenshmit. George Hackenschmidt was a famous wrestler of the day. But the nature of their contest is unknown as the film is lost. So, that's all the footage. Oh, I wonder what he'd be in at. Houdini defends Chess. Houdini defeats Haken Schmidt at...

At escaping. So off. So off. Just some two-on-two basketball. Crochet. Love-making. Oh, beats him at love-making. It's not a competition, Jess.

Oh, it is the way I do it. Oh, wow. You keep score. Mm-hmm. God. A little pat over to the side. Yeah. One, like boxing match.

Like a pro boxing match. match is good. Each round. Each round. Round by round. Three judges. One by unanimous verdict. Yeah.

That's on how you guys do it? Not for quite a while. I am the opposite of undefeated. I'm defeated. I've never won a match. The Grim game was Houdini's first full-length movie and the name of Dave's porn film. Because everyone's real sad in them.

The Grim game. Now mine's the RIM game. How do you play? No, okay. Invitation only. So Grim Game, his first full-length movie. Apparently it's reputed to be his best. But because of the flammable nature of nitrate films

and the inherent chemical instability, only 10% of old silent movies exist. Film historians consider this film completely lost. One copy did exist, hidden in the collection of a private collector, only known to a tiny group of magicians that saw it. Dick Brooks and Dorothy Dietrich of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had seen it twice on the invitation of the collector.

After many years of trying, they finally got him to agree to sell the film to Turner Classic Movies, who restored the complete 71-minute film. The film, not seen by the general public for 96 years, was shown by TCM on March 29, 2015. That's awesome. How cool is that? It was a highlight of their yearly four-day festival in Hollywood. It hadn't been seen for 96 years.

That's amazing. I bet it sucked, but that is amazing. It would have sucked so bad. They should have held out four years for the 100th anniversary. I was seeing the same thing. I would have thought that would have pissed you right off. You know what? I didn't think of that and then you brought it to my attention and now I'm real mad.

It's funny because when you're saying it, I was thinking that to him. Why don't wait four more years? Four more years. Why not wait four more years? Wow. And then Dave said it. And now here we are. Now we're having this conversation.

I'm pissed off again. Why is the museum in Scranton? Why not? That's where they do the office is set. I don't know if there's a connection. So the office is in Pennsylvania as well. What a state. What else is in Pennsylvania?

What else is in Pennsylvania? The penguins. But you said as well. Pittsburgh. Sorry. Philly. Sorry. That's what you established.

Yeah. West Philadelphia, born and raised. Jeez, Louise. You know I'm not good at math or geography. Go pans. What am I good at? No, don't answer that. Well, apparently love making. Oh, yeah.

Competitive. You've won every man. I win every time. Following Houdini's two picture stint in Hollywood, he returned to New York and started... Hang on, going to stop you right there, because a moment ago you said this film is considered his best, and now you're telling us you only ever did two films. Correct.

The other one's lost. Yeah. Widly considered his best. The only film exists. Yeah. Well, no, he's about to do a couple more. Okay, sorry, sorry. But yeah, he's like, he's so great.

He tries things and he's like, meh. I love him. He starts his own production company called the Houdini Picture Corporation. He produced and starred in two films, The Man from Beyond, and Haldane of the Secret Service. They were both made a couple years apart. He also founded his own film lab.

They were both made. They were made a couple of years apart. Sorry, they sound like James Bond titles, don't you think? The Man from Beyond is good. I like that one. So he also founded his own film lab business called the Film Development Corporation, gambling on the new process for developing motion picture films.

Houdini's brother, Theodore, Dash, who we had before, left his own career as a magician and escape artist to run the company. Neither Houdini's acting career nor FDC found success. and he gave up on the movie business in 1923, complaining that the profits were too meager. Wow. He's the best. He's like,

I make more money as an escape on it. He should hang around because movies are going to take off pretty soon. Yeah, movies got pretty big, I reckon. They're a pretty big industry. Sorry for that hot take. Yeah, man, if you're stuck around, you would have been in Transformers 7 or something. Easily.

We'll never know. Fucked it. I fucked it. Okay. that's the film side of his life. Now I'd like to talk about a different part of his life and his adventures as well. That links back to maybe a more local, local area. Is that a...

Local to... Us? Just a bit of sizzle. Australia? Sizzle for a sentence that's coming up very shortly. Oh, it's a killer fact. I think I know it. Do you? Oh, but do you?

Oh, she's doubled. I double-dudu. Oh, is it a misconception? I doubled it, yeah. It is a misconception. Well, it's a disputed conception. Conception. Much like my own.

Disputed misconception. People don't know. Why do that? People don't know. Okay, in 1909, Houdini became fascinated with aviation. All right. I'm on the right track so far. He purchased a French voice and buy plane for $5,000 and hired a full-time mechanic.

That was my fact. So he had a full-time mechanic. After crashing once, he made his first successful flight on November 26 in Hamburg, Germany. The following year, Houdini toured Australia. Really? Do you know he came here? I did not know that. That's pretty cool.

He brought along his plane because you do. Welcome to plane. With the intention to be the first person to fly in Australia. When was... Oh, right. Yeah. Is anyone tried at this point? Well, that's where it gets contested

Great, so that's the fact that I know I've heard that he was the first person To ever fly a plane in Australia And where are we in terms of Wright Brothers? Remind me? When were they? Who did Wright Brothers again? One of you two?

I did. I think that was 19... Well, he's... Like 1912 was the first one. Yeah, so it's still early-ish. Yeah. So in 1910, he made three flights at Diggers Rest in Victoria. That must have been...

I thought of that then. I mean, 1912, it must be wait earlier. Crap, can't remember. Don't you remember anything, Dave? Like, me and Jess. Buddy, Siv. Dave, Siv Warnocky over there.

I had something here about a right plane. Yeah, here you go. Okay, here we go. I've got it. It was reported at the time that this was the first aerial flight in Australia, and a century later,

some major news outlets still credit him with his feet. That's why you think that. That's why you would think that. Because I'm brainwashed by news called. Yeah. Fuck. Now, a guy called Harry

Cobby wrote in aircraft in 1938 that the first airplane flight in the Southern Hemisphere was made on December 9th, 1909 by Colin DeFries, a Londoner at Victoria Park Racecourse in Sydney, in a Wilbur Wright aeroplane. So the year before Houdini had done it. Colin was a trained pilot having learnt to fly in France. By modern standards, his flight time was minimal, but in 1909 he'd accumulated enough to become an instructor. on his first flight he took off, maintained straight and level flight, albeit briefly, and landed quite safely.

On the second flight, he had a crash landing when he tried to retrieve his hat, which had blown off. It's the main reason I left that in there. He's like, ah, and he crashed landed. Oh, my hat. Wow, that is a real nice hat. That's a very dangerous. Now Australian historians and the Aviation Historical Society of Australia give Colin DeFries credit as a first. to make an aeroplane flight in Australia and in the Southern Hemisphere.

However, aviation pioneer Richard Pierce is believed by many New Zealand historians to have undertaken his first flight as early as 1902, which would give him not only the Southern Hemisphere, but the world record. That's before the Wright brothers. Yeah. But that's quite, that's heavily disputed. Because remember I said, for some reason I thought the Wright brothers were from New Zealand, and then someone tweeted in later, they're like, you were getting confused

because of this New Zealander who, yeah, Richard Pierce. Right, there's also this Brazilian dude that people claim beat them. But to be honest, most people think it's the right brothers. Yeah. That's the popular consensus, so we'll say, and I'm sure that I'll be hearing from you. American history. Some Brazilians. And it's quite a popular conception as well that Houdini was the first person to fly in Australia.

So in a way, you're right for thinking that too, because people still believe that. It's still all fairly heavily contested. Yeah. After completing his Australian tour, Houdini put the plane into storage in England. He announced he'd use it to fly from city to city. during his next musical tour and even promised to leap from it handcuffed but he never flew again.

Sorry. It sounds like it spells disaster. I know, but I think he's just all talk and no action, to be honest. Right, except for the time that he sort of was handcuffed underwater or... Inside of a mystery animal. Or buried alive. All talk. He never performs.

A couple other things he did. So during his career, Houdini explains. some of his tricks in books written for the Magic Brotherhood. In Handcuff Secrets, which was published in 1909, he revealed how many locks and handcuffs could be opened with properly applied force, others with shoe strings. Other times, he carried concealed lockpicks or keys. When tied down in ropes or straight jackets,

he gained wiggle room by enlarging his shoulders and chest, moving his arms slightly away from his body. So he just sort of stretch it out. I mean, they're all impressive except for concealed keys. that one's mate okay good one

okay you did it depends on where they were concealed it was like a right right down his throat or something like that I find that pretty impressive still

but still cheating yeah it's still definitely cheating unless they were like keys that he didn't know what kind of lock it would be

and he just had a key for every possible lock that's impressive that's impressive what if he had the key to the city well yes

I mean that's a great feat did he just win a rugby premiership or saved a kid from a fire. Right. And the mayor gave him for that even. He's a hero.

Yeah, but not a sporting one. The only ones that matter to you. Well, they're the ones that seem to get the keys of the city usually. For most of his career, Houdini was a headline act in Vortaville. For many years, he was the highest paid performer in American Vortaville. One of his most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed at the New York Hippodrome when he vanished a full grown elephant from the stage. Wow.

He had purchased this trick from the magician Charles Morritt. I love purchasing tricks. He bought a trick. Yeah. How good would it be if we could buy jokes? I think you can. Yeah, people have writers all the time. Oh, good point.

But I think they also, people do buy tricks. I caught an airplane, like in the story. Oh. With a magician guy when I was in America and he was on his way. I just, when I was cleaning up my house, I found this diary that I was writing while I was traveling around America, and I wrote this thing about this magician I caught a plane with, and he was on his way to a convention, and he was like, yeah, people buy tricks off each other, there. People go, they show their tricks, they'll invent a trick and then sell them.

I wonder what a trick's worth. So it's like the secret of the trick, that's why they're really protective of them. Wow. The bigger the trick, the more cash. That's amazing. I'd never sell out. Your tricks. Anything.

That's why you're so bad at retail. I'd never sell anything. Yeah, I was not good at my retail jobs. Have you ever seen that show Penn and Teller, fool us or fool me? I can't remember which one it is. You know Penn and Teller, the famous Las Vegas magic duo? You said it wrong again.

Oh, sorry, Levege duo. Oh, yes, yep. Penn Gillette and I can't remember Teller's first name. Anyway, yeah, they've got a whole show where magicians come on and they sit in the audience, and if you can do a trick and they can't work out what you've done, you get a prize. And so what happens is, it's kind of frustrating for people at home

because they do an amazing trick, Penn and Teller walk up to them, whisper in their ear, and most of the time they go, yeah, that's how I do it. But they don't tell you at home. But couldn't you just lie? Couldn't you be like, nah? That's not how I do it. Can you just do that? But I can't remember if you're like, that's not how I do it,

if you're contractually obligated to tell Penantella how you do it, because otherwise it could be a sweet way. for them to get new tricks without having to pay. Just write down how you did that, mate. And we'll see you guys next year. That does sound very frustrating. Yeah, I don't like that show at all. It's amazing. It's amazing to watch because I don't know how any of them it's done.

But yeah. Do they get tricked much or stumped? I can't remember a time I've ever seen them get tricked. Most of the time they go, that was amazing, really well done. But I'm pretty sure I know how you did it. Whisper, whisper, whisper. And the person goes, oh, shit. What they're actually whispering is, you better say yes.

Motherfucker, you're dead in this industry. You're gone. I am. We're the fucking top dogs. Yep. Yep. Yep. They got it.

They're the best magicians ever. If you look at that monitor over there, that's actually a vision of your mother tied up in the back room. Wearing Queen Victoria's dress for some reason. We're weird magicians. All of us are weird. Tell us fucked. Yeah, that's what happens.

It's a great show. So check it out. Penetella, full us or fool me. I can't remember. I don't know if I want to. watch that now. I just want to say a couple more things about our mate Harry Houdini.

I'm waiting for him to do something because he hasn't done it. He's all talk. He's all bloody talk. All right. He's all, like, all ideas, no follow through. You know, a lot of this. Not a lot of this. Not a lot of, that's

an international time for a waiter handing out hors d'oeuvres. Yeah. A lot of this, what's this, the international simple for fucko. Chin wagging. No, it's for... Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-ha. Oh, man, I did the wrong movie.

You did... You clapped and I did it. I'm an angel. Anyway, Houdini became the president of the world... No, of... New title. President of the world. President of Martinka and Co.

America's oldest magic company. The business is still operating today. It was founded in 1902 in the back room of Matinkas Magic Shop in New York, and the society expanded under the leadership of Harry Houdini during his term as a national president, which was from 1917 to 1926. Houdini was Magic's greatest visionary. He sought to create a large, unified national network of professional and amateur magicians. Wherever he traveled, he gave a lengthy formal address to the local magic club.

Local magic club! Gather around kids. They've been weird, right? It's like a local footy club, but the local magic club. He made speeches. He usually threw banquets for his members at his own expense. For most of 1916, while he was on tour, he'd been recruiting, again, at his own expense, he was recruiting local magic clubs to join the society in an effort to revitalise what he felt was a weak organization.

He persuaded groups in Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Kansas. all to join. This was the biggest movement ever in the history of magic. History of magic is a great phrase also. In places where no clubs existed, he rounded up individual magicians, introduced them to each other and urged them into the fold. You, come over here, you, in. But I don't even do magic.

Yes, you do. I think you do, because what's this? Is that a coin behind your ear, mate? How do I get that? Because you're magic, mate. Okay. Oh, mean. A magic.

So that's kind of cool. By the end of 1916, magicians clubs in San Francisco and other cities that Houdini had not visited were offering to become assemblies. He'd created the richest and longest surviving organisation of magicians in the world. It now embraces almost 6,000 members and almost 300 assemblies worldwide. If I'm right, the Great War has broken out and is going on right now. He's wandering around recruiting magicians. Yeah, Matt, because the world still needs magic. If anything, it needs it more now.

Oh, yeah. Okay? Yeah, no, it's good. Yeah. So I just would, he'd be a real asset in your army, I reckon. Mm-hmm. Do anything? He could, you know.

Disappear him. Al-a-cazam. Wow. Yeah. I didn't consider that. I just thought he could be captured, get away, maybe get shot. Oh. Oh, okay.

Have you ever, did, did you? ever use the phrase do a Houdini like leaving a party without saying goodbye? No. I'd smoke bomb. I'd say a ghost. A ghost. A ghost or a smoke bomb.

I wouldn't Houdini. I've heard all those. Oh, Phantom, I've heard. Yeah, Phantom. Never heard smoke bomb. But do you say Houdini? Or an Irish goodbye? Yeah, I've heard Houdini.

He did a bloody Houdini. Yeah, but I mean, this was a different time when Matt was going to parties. Houdini was there. We were normally talking about the man himself. He did a him. That was at one of these magic clubs being forced to meet other magicians. He loved it. I was trying to bloody sign up for the war.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Now, what you want to do is do some car tricks. Alika Zan. All right, I mean, all right, fine. All right, I'm in. Okay, so just to finish up, on the afternoon of October 22nd, 1926, two McGill University students visited Houdini's dressing room.

According to reports, Houdini was looking through his mail, when one of the students, Jay Gordon Whitehead, asked Harry if he could indeed withstand any blow to the abdomen, as the magician had previously proclaimed. Harry responded that he could, if given time to brace himself, at which point Whitehead hit Houdini four times in the abdomen. What the fuck? Under the impression that Houdini had indeed braced himself.

Why are these people in these dressing room? I don't know. Yeah. That's mean. It is mean. What a meanie. What a meanie. Whitehead.

This isn't how he dies, is it? Throughout the evening. I'm so sorry, Matt. Oh my God, is this how he dies? Throughout the evening, Houdini performed in great pain. He was unable to sleep and remained in constant pain for the next two days, though he did not seek medical help. When he finally saw a doctor, Harry was found to have a fever of 102 degrees in acute appendicitis.

He was advised to go to the hospital for immediate surgery. However, Harry decided to complete his show as planned that night. The show must go on. When Houdini arrived at the theatre in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 1926. Rock City. Two days later. For what would be his last performance. Because he retired.

He's going to retire. He had a fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit, so 40 degrees Celsius. That's fucked up. That's way too hot. That's way too hot. Despite the diagnosis, Harry took to the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show but was revived and continued. He finished.

show. He finished the show because he's a fucking professional. If he passes out at the wrong point, you know, say underwater or something, that's no good. I'd say that's pretty unprofessional. Unprofessional is what I was thinking too. It's dangerous for him and those around him. When the curtain closed, Harry collapsed where he was standing and had to be carried back to his dressing room.

He continued to refuse medical care until the next morning when Best insisted he go to the hospital. Harry relented and had his appendix removed. However, it had already ruptured and doctors did not have much hope his survival. On the 31st of October 1926, surrounded by his wife and brother, Harry Houdini died.

Sorry to end on a downer, but also reports say that, like, his punches in the stomach aren't going to cause appendicitis. But four of them are? No, it's not going to, how is that going to cause appendicitis? He probably already had appendicitis.

Right. Had done anything with it, maybe hadn't noticed until he'd been punched. Yeah, right. Oh, I was so much, because I've heard that story before, but I thought it was the guy punched him so hard that the appendix

would rupture or something that's one theory but others say that he probably was already probably already had appendicitis so if he'd already

had it and had left it even longer therefore because appendicitis needs to be treated fairly quickly otherwise it can be

really dangerous right so this guy was doing him a favour by punching him in the stomach almost just should have

gone to the hospital sooner and did that guy get in trouble like we know who he is should we go to his house

yeah how do we know who he is did he talk? Or did Houdini write it in a book? Do you know what's funny? I did read about it, but I can't actually remember if there was any repercussions for that guy. I suppose he could have just told his wife, oh, I'm feeling,

don't worry about it. My stomach's sore, but that's because some fucking college kids punched me for him. No, I think he is. He asked if I could. I said yes. Give me a sec. He did not give me a sec. His wife's going, yep, yep, yep. Look, I just asked how your day was, man.

Didn't ask you a life story. Spare me. Yeah, you get punched by college kids every day. Yeahby, yabby, abe, abe, abe. Is that why the guy on the Simpsons episode where they had Lollapalooza, not the guy, Homer, Homer being that guy. Taking the cannonball. He used to take the cannonball to his chest, yeah.

Is that why? Was that based on Houdini? No, I don't. You could take large blows to the chest. Did he used to get smashed in the chest or something? No. No, I think it's just impressive that a man gets hit by a cannonball. That is impressive.

Is that both something? Anyway, that's... I don't know if anyone ever has, but if they have. I don't want to know. The manager of Lulapaloo takes him to the finest vet rather than a doctor. That is very good. So, yeah, that is my report on Harry Houdini. That was an incredible report.

Very good report. Thank you. You're in a bit of a phase of doing some old-timey entertainers. You did chaplain a little while ago? I was also thinking chaplain throughout that. And it's funny, we've done a few around that era lately. Right. others,

Chaplin. True, yeah. It just sort of happens, I guess, by coincidence, isn't it? That is fun. And I would like to say

that I'm more of a fan of Houdini at the end of that episode than I was Chaplin at the other. I was totally waiting for the chat. I think of them similarly, for some reason, because they both look, you know,

they both look black and white and whatever. Yeah, and I suppose, and, you know, well, they both started on like circuits like that, Vort of all, just that Chaplin became like a Hollywood superstar.

But, and Houdini, obviously very, you said he was the most highly paid Vort of a lack. Yeah. So he would have been super wealthy. Yeah, he was doing very well for himself.

I mean, he bought a plane and just brought it everywhere he went and stuff. Also still iconic. Yeah. If you say Houdin, when your name means leaving a party without saying goodbye, you know you've made it. I can name two magicians. One's David Copperfield and the other is Harry Houdin. What about Zigg, Fried and Roy?

Okay, and also Penn and Teller, we mentioned earlier. But the two most famous ones in his... What about Dynamo? He's good. Oh, he lost me at Dynom. What about Constantino? Oh, is that... Dinah, is that who you were thinking when he said Dynamo?

No. Dynamo is also one. They're two different people. Really? Yeah, dynamo's pretty cool. Anyway. Oh, David Blaine, I know that one too. You know that guy?

Yeah, I've heard of an English guy in a box above the, above London, above the Thames or something. Anyway. Anyway, but I would say that Houdini is the most famous of all time. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, that's my report. That was really, really good stuff, Jess. Thank you. Did you say who suggested that one?

Yeah, Brett. The Hungarian. Oh, yes. Pardon me. I've had so much information coming my ears, and I appreciate it. I only the one suggestion as well. Yeah, because you think these iconic people like Charlie Chaplin had a few. Yeah.

Just Brett. That looks at it. Well, we'd like to thank Brett. We'd also like to thank some people that support the show through Patreon, or everyone that supports the show over at patreon.com slash do go on pod. We totally appreciate any little thing that you can chip into the show. If you listen every week and you feel like you want to, you know, give back to the show somehow, you can do that.

And we give back to you again with the rewards throughout the show, including bonus episodes, updates, and also a shout out on the show. We'd like to thank a few people now. Jess, would you like to do the honours and kick us off this week. I would absolutely love to you. Matt's looking a bit annoyed. He's always annoyed. No worry, he'll find a way to interrupt me. Yeah, Jess.

Don't worry, I'm going to mute... I already did. You hardly got a word out and I already interrupted you with a hand gesture. I was going to say I'll mute Matt's mic, but he's still just going to gesture at you. He can always gesture at me. Oh, bloody hell. Just getting the favouritism again. Here we go, hey.

The first one that I would like to thank is from my favourite city in the whole wide world. I wonder where this is going to... Any guests this day? We've talked about this, haven't we? I'm sure we have. Oh, actually, I think I know. Is it the home of the dance of rivers? Correct.

Dublin. Dublin. Dublin. Yeah, it is Dublin. And I would really like to thank a good friend of ours and supporter of the show, Jordan Walsh. Could have been a more Classically Irish name.

John Walsh is a good name. But anyway, I mean, we still really appreciate it. Good on you, Jordan Walsh. Thank you so much. Jordan Walsh. And what, you know what, while I'm here as well. He sounds like he's probably rich, don't you reckon? Jordan Walsh?

Yeah. That is very wealthy. Let's guess everyone's net worth. Okay. Jordan Walsh, 12 million pounds. Pounds. Pounds, yeah. Even though he lives in Dublin where they have the Euro.

You've converted it to it. is a neighbouring country. As I will for everyone. Every country, I'll convert to a neighbouring country. So, it's just how I work. Okay. I reckon only Dave needs the guest, to be honest. I was going to also say a random number.

Well, okay, well, I would also like to thank a Canadian friend of ours. Okay. You're jumping all over the bloody earth. I'm all over the place. From Ontario. Oh, Ontario. Our friend, Drew, Sugar. Oh, my God.

Bid name. Drew Shuga. That is so good. So good. If you weren't born with that, congratulations on creating at the best name I've ever heard. Drew Shoo. You did it. Drew Shoe.

Net worth? 11 million US dollars. 11 million? Okay, not bad. That's a little less than Jordan. Still pretty good. Still a fine amount of money, you know. Oh, I'm not complaining about 11 million US dollars.

Yeah, you did really well. Hopefully my guys are as rich. I'd love to thank a couple. If not rich money-wise, it's certainly rich name-wise. How's this guy's name? Johnny Dawson from Leicestershire. Johnny Dawson. He sounds like...

He sounds like he did a sick rock and roll band. Rock and roll band, or he jumps over ravines on his motorbike or something. Johnny Dawson. Oh my God, I'm swooning. Me too. And you should, because he's got a net worth of 330 million Swiss francs. Whoa. Which I actually think it's worth...

That's actually worth so much. That's a lot of money. That's so much. Yeah, Johnny Dawson. So I think, yeah, Leicester. I'm pretty sure Lester's the one to the underdogs who won the EPL last year, aren't they? Oh, yeah, Lester City. Lester City.

The, what's their name? The Wolves. I'd also love to thank a Londoner. Oh, London. Guarav Kumar, which is another sick name. Very good name. Gurav Kumar. Grave Kumar from London.

I'm from London. How much is... Net worth. Processing. London, and that's where Arsenal are from, from London. I'm pretty sure they won the FA Cup. So we had a couple of... What a silverware.

Speaking of silverware, net worth 850,000 Icelandic crona. Wow. That could be anything. Wow. I'm pretty sure that's not very much. at all. Hey, that's okay. Grave could, you know.

I'm confident it's more than what I got. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. He's doing well. I'm just saying he's just not on the scale of a Jordan. Sure, sure, sure. And he's also very name rich. Grove.

Grav. That's a great name. That's a good name. Well, I'd like to stay in GB if I could. Yes, please do. From Lancashire. You've got any footy facts about Lancashire? No, I think they've got a county, a cricket team in the county.

The Lancashire lads. Well, speaking... What's about Charlie Chaplin's? Clog dancing? Oh, clog dancing. Strong on the clogs. It was the Lancashire lads. And speaking of cricket,

shares his name with the extremely complicated method when they work out... Duckworth. He is Ben Duckworth. Wow. I wonder if he's actually related. To the Duckworth. To the great man himself.

Maybe he is the great man himself. I hope you are Ben Duckworth. I reckon he is. All right. And he was... I always thought Duckworth was probably the stronger in the Duckworth Lewis, who I assumed the Duckworth Lewis combo, unless it was just the one guy. A net worth of 900,000 roubles.

Rubles? Where are rubles from? Russia. Russia. Russia. You're calling that... Your neighbouring is getting a little less neighbouring, to be honest. I know.

The thing with GB is that they don't have anything. Yeah. Well, I got the euro all around them, I guess. Which you haven't used once. Yeah, because he's creative. Yeah, I'm trying to name-check some bloody currencies here, mate. And I would also, thank you so much, Ben Duckworth. Appreciate all you work in the cricket world.

Even if it is bloody confusing. Rubber. I'd also like to thank all the way... Getting a big shake of head from... Jess, I'm trying to manufacture a nickname for Duckie, and she's not enjoying it. Rubber. Rubber. Rubber. Yeah, it's not the good.

Ernie? Ernie? Yeah. You like rubber ducky? Erbony and Bert, yeah. Robber ducky. Anyway. Final person to thank.

And save the best for last, if I may. You may, please do. From Illinois and the United States of America, I would like to thank Alex Pearson. Alex Pearson. Alex Pearson. Net worth one million, no, one billion Mexican pesos. Again, don't know.

I don't know. That's a lot. Probably still. A billion of anything is a lot. To me, Alex Pearson sounds like an impressive, like, startup operator. Well, Alex Pearson actually, his name is Alex Pearson in brackets

AKP Studios. Right. So he must have a startup. He's got his own biz. AKP Studios. Let's look at what AKP Studios is. Do this on your time. Maybe we should collab. Yeah, here's stupid old studios. We're studios too.

Yeah. Look, we're all studios. Everyone's got a studio, Alex. AKP studios. Oh, there's a YouTube channel here for AKP. Oh my God, you're stalking one of our... I'm always working hard on my... Lego stop motion animation. Nice one.

Yeah, that's cool. I like that a lot. Oh, he's got more subscribers than us. He's got nearly 4,000. Oh, go, Alex. How do you know me? Oh, on YouTube, yeah, right? He's on YouTube, yeah.

I'm like, I'm pretty sure we, oh, we don't even know. No, not my part. iTunes are very tight with that kind of information. Oh, some good stuff here in AKP Studios. Awesome. We'll go, check it out. Check it out. You can take you much of 4,000 subscribers.

That'll be awesome. But thank you so much, Alex. We'll tweet out his link, probably. I'm going to have a look and see. his videos don't suck first. But if they don't, then I'll tweet out his link. Now, with 4,000 subscribers,

they're going to be pretty damn good. Good on you, Alex. Thanks so much. And thanks to everyone that supports the show. Even just a little bit, a buck or two per month. If you think it's worth it, that would be so good.

Keep us going. Keep the engine oiled. Eating. Yeah? Keep Matt drinking the beers. Or, he bloody love them. Oh, bloody alcohol.

He's got a problem. The money doesn't go towards beers, always. Often, it's, it is food. What about the first two Patreon on goals were a six pack of beer for Matt and a 24 pack, a slab of beer for Matt. Yeah. Yeah, but from there, we really branched out.

Now we're getting tattoos, which we're going to talk about how we're going to make that vote happen. Hashtag vote for Bob, which I've been starting to get out there on Twitter. So it looks like we will eclipse the total for, so what happens is everyone gets charged on the first of the month, and we're coming up to the first of August. Sometimes people drop off a little bit. We're hoping that we will eclipse that $2,000 total. I'm semi-hoping that we don't, but I, you know, I mean...

I'm hoping we do. I want to get a tattooing. And when we do, it means either Matt or Jess via you guys voting, we'll get a tattoo and we'll film it all. It's going to be so much of it. Maybe we'll do it in 360. Yeah. You can watch me go, ha ha ha ha ha ha.

On the other side of the camera. That sounds fun. Yeah, it'll be fun. That sounds fun. So keep an eye on that because it's going to be happening soon. Hopefully the 1st of August we will get over the $2,000 mark. But thanks to everyone that does that. You can always get in contact with us via Facebook, email, Twitter and Instagram at DoGoOnPod for the social network ones.

And for email I'm trying to say here, that's do go onpod at gmail.com. You can suggest a topic or just say hey. Hey. Hey, bye. Hey, bye. Yeah, just say hi bye. Hi, bye. Cue a million emails saying hey, babe.

It just has to write back to. Oh, no. What have I done? That's good. So we've plugged everything? Yeah, we can go to. Patreon. YouTube.

Twitter. Twitter. Plugged Matt's butt. Anyway. It was all fine. We have waffled too much. Yeah, cheers guys. We'll be back with another report next week.

But until then, stay safe. And we'll say thank you. And I'll say goodbye. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you, want. It's up to you.

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