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Interview: Escapology-Online interviews Jay Leslie - Richard Jones (richard@escapology-online.co.uk)
Escapology Online brings you another great interview this time with Jay Leslie. Jay has recently bought out an instructional escape video tape
about the straitjacket. Available from any escape dealer worth their salt the video might be of particular interest as it feaures a performance
of our late friend Mr Steve Quinn.
You are a very talented magician as well as escape artist. How do you mix
these two different disciplines succesfully?
While I would love to perform escapes for a full evening the audiences of today
crave more variety.
They need to look at different
types of props that don't repeat in theme. Honestly, could you sit through a
hundred variations of
the same dancing bear at the
circus?
Even though to myself and the other readers aspects of each handcuff or
restraint seem
completely different the audience
sees you get in and out therefore the show becomes too predictable. The image of
a magician at a
birthday party conjures up rabbits,
doves and cutting a rope in half but weather I am on the big stage performing
one of three
different one hour shows or in someone's
home an escape finds its way onto the agenda. But why is it that an audience,
American mostly, can
not appreciate the art of the
magician?
Why can they attend a concert where they already know the music and
pay big money yet
where magicians and escape
artists are concerned we can not perform the same trick two years in a row
without being verbally
assaulted?
So to answer the question,
I use the escapes in our advertising of the big show i.e.; If Jay Leslie does
not escape from the
rope tie he will give away $1000.00, as
a hook to induce the audience to attend then when they do not only do they see a
great show but they
also see the escape that was advertised.
What has been your proudest escape moment?
No doubt the Jail Escape in Coriopolis Pennsylvania (click here to view details of the escape). Specifically when making my
entrance from the
cell block fully dressed and handing
the chief back his handcuffs linked together, when the chief walked at full
speed as though going
back into the cell block to examine
the damage and I had relocked the cell block door and all three hundred fifty
pounds of him bounced
back off the locked door and I said
"I'm sorry you'll need a key". Now that's show business.
The second best day was a Club Atlantis where I performed an escape an hour for
the "Great escape
weekend" and two events stand out.
One hour I was challenged with a car boot. it was locked around a bag I was in
but when I escaped
the bag the boot was locked around
my waist. A professional wrestler came on the stage without warning and tried to
pull the boot off
me. Then he picked the boot up with me
in it and tried to shake me out of it. There I was three feet off the floor
perpendicular the the
stage with a huge man holding the boot and shaking
it (and me) up and down. I thanked him for trying and sent him to back down to
his seat. The disk
jockey started his next song and I retired
to the green room followed by my two assistants, three promoters, a lieutenant
from the Ben Salem
police department and the general manager.
After a few minutes of them hooting and hollering about how great the escape was
the attention
turned to me where I still had the boot locked
around my waist. One of them asked me if I needed the keys and I replied "Not
really". With that I
let the air out of my stomach and the boot
fell to the floor! Any Questions?
And the third best. At the same club I was challenged with opening a brand new
Kriptonite lock that
was especially made for a well known
motorcycle manufacturer. The local dealer used the opportunity to shamelessly
plug his product and
how the lock was foolproof. He further
announced the $1000.00 insurance forfeit form the manufacturer if you used this
lock and your bike
was stolen. Let us say that he did an excellent
job at promoting his business. One problem however, I returned from the green
room less then one and
a half minutes later calling to the disk
jockey to kill the music. There I presented the man with the opened lock. First
having him once
again tell the audience that it was unpickable.
The audience drooped in dead silence as I waited for a response to the now
opened Kriptonite and the
man said in a loud forceful voice.
"I don't want you in my neighborhood!!!!" To that I calmly retorted "Sir there
is no way you can
keep me out....." I called for the next
song to be played and the man needed to be restrained and eventually evicted
from the establishment.
Moral to the story. Never believe in
a products claims until you've tested them.
You first escaped at age eight...what from, and how did you get started?
At the age of eight I saw a magician on the Ed Sullivan show perform a
mechanical trick that exposed
itself by accident.
I said "I can do that" and that was the spark I needed. My friends would tie me
up with rope and I
would get out. Today it's no different
except that i do it for money. My first exposure to a real escape was in the Cub
Scout magic book
where there are numerous rope tricks
and one escape.
How were you able to get your first television appearences, and do you have
any tips for dealing with the media/gaining media coverage?
At fourteen my father took me to the local television station where a new show
was syndicated called
Bozo's big top. I performed for
the loco Bozo (don't take that too seriously) and they put me on the show on a
consistent basis.
Since the station was non-union I signed
realize papers under different names each time to avoid them having to pay me.
Eventually i traveled
with the local Bozo (watch it) to new
shopping centers and we opened them with a show or should I say Bozo introduced
me and I performed
for forty five minutes while he signed
autographs. There was also a puppeteer named Dave Cornelli who made all of his
own marionettes, he
was fantastic. For a while, when malls
had live shows, I also found myself performing with the Tanners, a whip and gun
show. you would
never see that today. The local Bozo
(stop it) and myself even went to movie theaters and performed a matinee show
before the movie.
Around the early seventies theaters began
adding more seats and less stage until we were at the Forum theater in
Pittsburgh and performed a
show on a stage that was only two feet deep.
Bozo said to me that we were probably the last two people ever that performed
the matinee shows. He
said it was an end to an era.
To answer your second question. Reporters are easy, just tell them what you are
thinking. Newspaper
photographers on the other hand are a pain.
Every one of them takes photos like they are going to win an award. Every one of
them has their own
idea of what you should look like.
One cameraman will tell you "Do NOT look directly in the camera". Another will
tell you the
opposite. One cameraman will have you put a ridiculous
prop over your head because he wants to win the artsy fartsy award this year yet
another wants an
action shot. If you argue with the cameraman
he might leave without taking a picture at all. Deal with the reporter. In the
press quantity is
better then quality.
Have you any original escape concepts which you have finished with that you
would be willing to share with us?
Yes and no. Im trying to promote a half hour TV special and don't want the cat
out of the Bean
Giants yet.
What are the scariest escape moments you have had?
Under water locked in the milk can and the lid is not releasing correctly. That
is why we as a team
rehearse the milk can fifty times the day
before a show. I'm not kidding. Without perfection in rehearsal ease can not be
obtained during
performance.
What is public opinion of the art of escape like at this moment in time?
Once you suck them in with a good escape that involves the audience testing and
convincing
themselves that there is a real challenge afoot
(if you are wearing a Georga boot) then the game is on.
Jay Leslie
Inventor and builder.
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