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.