Foxwoods hosts escape act for outdoor audience
Mashantucket — Criss Angel, the Las Vegas headliner who’s fast becoming the house magician at Foxwoods Resort Casino, took to the lawn outside Foxwoods’ Grand Pequot Hotel Monday to host fellow performer Spencer Horsman’s latest attempt to free himself from a water-filled “torture cell” suspended 30 feet in the air.
The trick is to do it before it’s, well, too late.
Back in June, Angel sprung into action to rescue Horsman in a much-publicized incident in which the stunt went awry during a rehearsal at Foxwoods. Angel was quick to recall the drama should any of the hundreds of people gathered on the lawn for Monday’s free performance have missed it.
Horsman, in fact, has flirted with disaster multiple times, Angel told the crowd, noting that he had had to pull Horsman out of a tank one time in Las Vegas.
“He was completely purple,” Angel said. “Houdini would never do this.”
Handcuffed and wrapped in 50 pounds' worth of chains and a dozen padlocks, Horsman stepped into the tank, which was entirely transparent. He took a final breath, and the lid was secured in place with steel bars and more padlocks. Then a crane lifted the tank off the stage.
Before Horsman took the plunge, Angel had called for Felix Rappaport, the Foxwoods president, to choose an audience member to check things out.
“It’s real water, right, not a hologram or something?” Angel asked. “There are no air hoses. Is that what you’re telling us?”
Shianne Edwards, a 16-year-old from Coventry, R.I., certified that it was all on the up-and-up.
“That’s what I’m telling you all,” she said.
Shackled, submerged, suspended, Horsman got busy.
The crowd got quiet.
Finally, more than 3 minutes later, Horsman threw off the last of the padlocks holding the steel bars in place and popped up out of the tank.
Rappaport, who brought Angel to the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 2008, when Rappaport was the president there, said Monday’s event was meant to promote Angel’s return to Foxwoods next month.
“The Supernaturalists,” the show Angel debuted at Foxwoods, featuring Horsman and eight other magicians, will return with Angel in a starring role Nov. 11-15 and Dec. 16-20. Angel first appeared at Foxwoods last November.
“He had not performed anywhere but Vegas for seven years before he came here," Rappaport said. “For him to do it here is an honor.”
Angel said he’s found Foxwoods audiences to be especially appreciative.
“For crowds here, it’s an event,” he said. “People will drive hours to get here, whereas in Las Vegas, they’re in Vegas anyway.
“I’m excited to be at Foxwoods.”
b.hallenbeck@theday.com
Twitter: @bjhallenbeck
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.