escape acts
Staged captivity departures
Escape acts are performances in which someone frees themselves from restraints—handcuffs, straitjackets, locked containers, or elaborate bondage.
The entertainment lies in apparent impossibility and implied danger.
Houdini popularized the form.
The term extends to any dramatic or improbable getaway: His political survival has been a series of escape acts.
- HoudiniFamous escape artist
- straitjacketGarment restricting arm movement
- chainsLinked metal restraints
- handcuffsLocking wrist restraints
- padlocksPortable keyed fasteners
water tank · Chinese water torture · illusion · magician · wriggle · contortion · suspense · audience · gasp · split second · locked · milk can · bound · underwater · holding breath · breathless · buried alive · death trap
- circus actsacrobat, acrobats, trapeze artist, juggling, jugglers
- performance skillsmagic, illusions, sleight of hand, juggling, mime
- Stuntsstunt, stuntman, stunt double, daredevil, stunt performer
- variety actsacrobat, juggling, aerialist, magic, clown
- vaudevillevaudeville, variety show, music hall, headliner, music halls
- bizarre magic
escape actsimprisonment
Legal detention in jail
confinement · captivity · incarceration · entrapment · detention
escape actsprison sentences
Court-ordered confinement periods
solitary confinement · kidnapping · hostage situations · detention
escape, acts, escapes, escaped, escaping, escapee, escapees, escapism, escapist