One Way Out

[Tom Frame]

One Way Out, a new weekly series featuring Escapologist Jonathan Goodwin premieres on The Discovery Channel on January 26th.

9:00 pm Jonathan Goodwin tests his theory of minimal movement with a scorpion trapped inside his mouth and with his body covered in 200,000 agitated bees. He must endure excruciating pain as he attempts to set himself free.

9:30 pm Jonathan experiences cold temperatures while testing his ability to hold his breath under water. He is restrained upside down with his head trapped in a container of cold water, tests himself in an icehouse, and gets trapped inside an ice tank.

I hadnt heard of Mr. Goodwin before, so I tracked down this autobiographical blurb:

Hello, I am Jonathan Goodwin and this is a brief biography of me.

I should warn you that it is entirely un-British to write this kind of thing and try to make yourself sound awesome, there is something I find hugely embarrassing about it, so bear with me. Also, most people write this kind of thing in the third person, and pretend that it is someone else writing it when everyone knows they wrote it themselves that is rubbish and Im not going to do that.

Ok, so I was born in Pembrokeshire in South West Wales (the bottom left part of the UK) in 1980. This was an amazing place to grow up because it is packed full of mountains and forests and beautiful coastline. I spent most of my childhood either up a cliff, or jumping off of one into the ocean.

When I was seven years old I read a book about Harry Houdini. I thought he was an extraordinary character, and was truly inspired by the things he did. I decided I would try and be an escape artist, but beyond the desire, I had nobody to learn from. I started to teach myself the mechanics of locks and types of rope that are best to escape from. I practiced holding my breath in the bathtub, (something I advise you never to do, as its dangerous) and basically put all of my efforts into emulating Harry Houdini.

Despite the initial love affair with escapology (as it is called in the UK), I gave up escapes by the time I was fifteen years old; I felt like I had kind of mastered the techniques and besides, by that time I had discovered girls, which were far more mysterious to me than handcuffs and padlocks.

I moved to London when I was 18 and acquired a degree in Drama and Theatre at Middlesex University. Once I was a BA hons, I went to work in television, primarily as a producer. It was during this time that the production company I worked for made a one-hour special with an Escape Artist.

This reawakened the desire in me to perform, and I started to devise and film my own escapes and post them on YouTube and other similar websites. I ended up filming many more of them for broadcast on British and currently American Television.

Since becoming a full-time Escape Artist, I have had the opportunity to attempt lots and lots of different escapes. I have been hanged (not fun), buried alive (wicked!), and locked in a box with 200,000 bees (painful).

I do everything for real and without trickery; sometimes I succeed and sometimes I dont. That said, I never risk death that would be stupid.

So how do I spend my time when Im not busy escaping? I enjoy reading books while riding trains. Going to the movies by myself is always fun. I love learning things from new people I meet. Im partial to blowing bubbles underwater (scuba diving) and looking at fish. I have to scratch my itch to travel as often as I can. When Im not somewhere else, I live in Santa Monica, California with a large collection of handcuffs.

[Doug Thornton]

Here, from the New York Times, is an article about how the Discovery Channel is advertising the show in Esquire magazine:

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/business/med ... &st=Search

Pretty cool.

[Magic Newswire]

Thanks for reminding me of this. We received a press release several days ago and it had almost slipped my ind. We've got a trailer for the show posted as well at The Magic Newswire

[nicepaul]

If you'd like more info about Jonathan and the show, his website's at http://www.jonathanescapes.com/

:)

[Don Hendrix]

Jonathan will be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live this Thursday, Jan 22. I will be in the audience and will give my impressions here after the taping.

[Magic Newswire]

Just a reminder that the show premiers at 9PM tonight.

[Tom Frame]

I enjoyed the first two episodes. Jonathan comes across a pleasant, quirky man. I like the fact that he keeps his ego in check and presents himself as a fallible human being. Cudos to him for showing us that his escape attempts sometimes fail.

The premises of the escapes were novel. His dedication to his art is apparent, as he is obviously willing to endure a lot of discomfort during the preparation and performance of the escapes. A bee sting to the nipple? Yikes!

I like the home-made feel of the series, which spares us from being bludgeoned and distracted with mega budget bells and whistles. The episodes have a real feel to them. There isnt any sneaky editing/camera work, stooges or cloying, annoying loyals. Its just Jonathan and his trusty, bemused assistants.

The series is off to a good start. Ill definitely tune in for future episodes.

[Don Hendrix]

I was in the audience for Jonathan's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last Thursday and he came across as a totally "real", non-pretentious person. He did an escape from a straight jacket while hanging by his feet from a child's swing set frame while his head was enclosed in a tupper-ware type container full of water. He seemed to hold his breath for a very long time. As he was preparing to swing his legs up and hang from the bar, he noticed that he had forgotten to put on the shoes with the hooks necessary for him to hang upside down and quickly ran backstage, leaving Jimmy Kimmel and Brendan Fraiser standing there with nothing to say, which was mildly amusing and seemed "real". He successfully got out of the straight jacket and removed his head from the water and managed to create some tension in the audience while he did. It seemed like a really long time for him to not be able to breathe. He appeared to really hold his breath without any trickery. Kimmel gave him a lot of time and plugged One Way Out by showing a clip of Jonathan having his mouth duct taped shut with a live scorpion in it. This made me want to watch the show. I found him much more appealing than Mr. Believe, whose show I have difficulty watching all the way through. He has been around for a while and has developed a lot of material. I hope my high school students will soon be talking about Jonathan instead of DB and CA. I predict that they will. His show should appeal to teenagers as well as old farts like me.
I wish him much success.