HOUDINI & PILOBOLUS

We are so behind the curve, but luckily our friend Maisie McAdoo is not. She alerted us to an amazing Houdini performance, choreographed by Penn & Teller, now taking place at the Joyce Theater in New York.

Photo by Ruby Washington, The New York Times

It's called [esc], performed by the phenomenal Pilobolus Dance Company. Pilobolus lives in a place we're very fond of - the intersection of dance and acrobatics. And now, magic. You can see some escape artistry at :45:




Here's Maisie's eyewitness report:

     Penn and Teller were characters in the skit. They wrapped one guy in a bag, tied the top and put him in a wooden box that two audience members had made during intermission, padlocked it on four sides and tied with straps. The second guy they trussed up and zipped into a gym bag with a plastic strip tie through the zipper. They duct taped a woman to a chair, arms, legs and chest and tied a plastic bag around her head. And two guys were padlocked to each other and to a vertical pole. All this done with the utmost grace and taste.

     The escapes were magical (of course). The two guys on the pole were able to snake in and out of each others legs and arms, go upside down, slither through the places where their various chains intersected by widening some openings, then widening others. Ta da. The duct tape lady burst her bonds (so it couldn't have been duct tape). The guy not only got himself out of the gym bag but changed into pyjamas while he was trussed up in there. And a lady pulled a red cloth up over the box ever so briefly (like three seconds) when she emerged with him he had not only escaped but they had changed clothes, he in her dress, she in his suit. The audience went crazy. You gotta see it.