It was the closest 'Mindfreak' Criss Angel has come to death. He claims he was less than ten seconds away from certain drowning during the filming a Houdini escape challenge with bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman at the Luxor's pool over the weekend in Vegas. "I let my ego get in the way of safety," Criss told me. "I've done this escape since I was fourteen-years-old, but I'd never before done it underwater, and I almost drowned to death"
Chapman had bet Criss it would be impossible for him to escape from being tied up and manacled with 100 feet of rope. Criss took the challenge and let Dog tie his hands, his feet and his waist to a chair and then, in full view of rolling cameras for his top-rated A&E show, Dog put a lead weight on the chair and threw him into the deep end!
"I'd forgotten that water swells rope and thus tightens the knots even tighter than he had already tied them," Criss told LUXE LIFE in an exclusive interview. "I've practiced holding my breath underwater and can comfortably do three to four minutes, but that's without thrashing around trying to escape from something that tight. I got rope burns on my legs but managed to undo them. Then I managed to free my hands, but I couldn't free my waist."
"I've regularly practiced expanding my lungs holding my breath underwater, so I can take giant breaths before I go into the water, but now I'd used up all my air. I was now fighting to survive. I had no choice. It was drown or make one last desperate break for the surface. I used my last ounce of energy to get up and only then did my safety guys come in for me. They thought I was going to succeed with the escape and couldn't see me struggling underwater. I was completely out of it."
"I thought I'd died. I thought I'd failed the escape, but Dog told me he was absolutely astounded that I'd succeeded in getting my hands and feet loose. I have skin burns to prove the battle. Dog said not one of his fugitives he'd captured had ever broken free from the rope ties. I'd have done it on dry land but came mighty close to buying it in the water. Dog says I broke free and thus was successful. I say I failed because I couldn't get the rope around my waist undone. So now I'm going to his home in Hawaii and we'll film the escape twice more so it's a best of three and then I'll know I repeated Houdini's master escapes."
Criss's life and death struggle was filmed in its entirety and he plans to run it without editing on the TV series. "It's still a miracle I got out in the nick of time," he said. "But now I've got to show the bounty hunter I'm the only person in the world to fully escape his restraints. Next time I'll do it faster and get my waist untied, and be safe doing it. I'm not ready to die yet." Criss's brother, who flew into Vegas immediately after he heard about the brush with death, told me: "I'd have gone in much quicker to save him, and he's not going to do that again without proper safety observers in place. It's way too dangerous a trick."
A week earlier, as LUXE LIFE previously reported, Criss performed another dangerous illusion while lying on a sheet of glass so cameras could see the entire sequence he let a steamroller move on top of him all the way up to his chin! "That was way less life-threatening than this one," laughed Criss. "We're not going to let this near disaster stop us. I'm working on something twice as large and twice as amazing within the next two weeks for the TV series that will really baffle everybody."
LUXE LIFE has reported that it's expected within a month the Cirque du Soleil entertainment organization will announce its sixth Vegas spectacular, a new $110-million magic show they will produce at the Luxor which will star Criss.
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1. Man you guys are crazy! Well, I guess that's why I love you guys. I have to say that your two shows are the only shows I watch anymore between work and school, I don't have much time to watch T.V. So keep up the good work and try not to die next time. lol. Have fun and be safe, both Dog and Criss. That also goes to both of your families.
Amber at 5:35PM on Feb 27th 2007