Magic especially of the death defying sort has never
appealed to me in the least. And while a
story on “All Things Considered” on NPR about Kristen Johnson aka Lady Houdini captured
my attention completely, I will probably never want to see her live. The only times I watched these types acts, I
have always been thinking that this will be the one time something goes wrong
and I will witness an extreme tragedy.
These shows/acts are very much dominated by men. Before learning more about Kristen Johnson, I
would say probably because most women are too smart to put themselves in such
great danger, but Johnson seems like a pretty smart cookie. She graduated from University of North
Carolina and worked for several Fortune 500 companies.
It was Johnson’s mother’s diagnosis with cancer that got her
into this unique industry. She took a
break from her desk job to help her mother run the family entertainment business. From there she met and married her husband
Kevin Ridgeway a fellow magician. He
wanted to start a show with her, but for her to agree it was important that she
not be the “lovely assistant.” Boy did
she ever stick to that! She has performed
many escapes using ropes, handcuffs, and straightjackets, but none seem as
excited to her or viewers as the water escapes.
She has surpassed Harry Houdini’s record of water torture cell escapes
(at 1,001); she is the only woman practicing these escapes, and is the only
person to complete them in full view.
Johnson first performed the water torture chamber escape was
in 2003 and she had trained the year prior.
She practiced picking locks and trained with a dive master to slow her
heart rate and increase the amount of time she could hold her breath. At the top the chamber she takes many deep
breaths, followed by one final gulp and submerges herself into the water. From there she removes a bobby pin from her
hair and her uses her french-manicured fingers to work at the locks. While it is masked in strong determination,
you can see the fear in her eyes. When
she finally rose to the top I expected to see a calm cool reaction (and a
gasp for air), but she raised both fists in the air proudly. While certainly this has entertainment value,
you can see she must do it for the rush of adrenaline that comes from another
successful escape. While she has conquered it many times she has reason to be fearful in remembering the two times she blacked out from a hypoxic seizure in the water, barely making it out alive and third where she could not complete picking the lock on the lid. If that causes anyone to discredit her abilities keep in mind with her current escapes she is performing with an error rate of 0.27%. While they do run
their show as a partnership, with Kevin Ridgeway focusing more on illusions, it
is almost a comical gender role reversal that in her act he does appear to be
the “lovely assistant," until of course there is a problem and he struggles to save her (looks to be as hard to get in that chamber as it is to get out).
While Kristen has a very busy performance schedule, she
takes time out to speak to women and young girls about her story and especially
focus on self-esteem. Hers is a unique
story of plowing past gender norms and I think we can use her feats to inspire
us in our endeavors both in our career and personal lives. At a minimum it should remind us that most of
our problems are not life or death and probably not as strenuous as escaping a
water torture chamber.
Read more about Johnson on "All Things Considered" and her website. And for the braver souls then me check out when this amazing pair come to a city near you!
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