Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)

What this episode is about

Steve Crawford, a versatile entertainer with a rich background in acting, magic, and daredevil stunts, shares his journey from childhood fascination with Houdini to a 30-40 year career in stunt performance, highlighting the thrill and risks involved in his craft. The conversation also touches upon the challenges of his career, including recent injuries sustained while performing.

Key takeaways

• Even a daredevil like Crawford learned the hard way: not every magic act ends happily.
• In a world full of 'entertainers,' true talent takes 40 years of blood, sweat, and Houdini tricks.
• Magic isn't just about illusion; it's a surprisingly effective strategy for dating—even with some awkward twists.
• Houdini inspired a lifetime of stunts, but it took a locksmith to unlock Crawford's daredevil dreams.
• When entertainers abound on social media, real artistry gets lost—perhaps even under a watery tank!

Who speaks in this episode?

• Matt (Guest) · 33 min speaking
• Steve Crawford (Guest) · 33 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Steve Crawford, Harry Houdini, Alex Cooper, Dude Wipes
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Dude Wipes
3. 20:00 – 30:00: MacGyver 101
4. 40:00 – 50:00: Dude Wipes
5. 50:00 – 1:00:00: World's Worst Cooks, Eli Roth
6. 1:00:00 – 1:05:12: Steve Crawford

Notable quotes from "Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)"

• There are a lot of parts to make up Steve Crawford. Steve and his team of experienced professionals would like an opportunity to tailor a program to meet your needs.

  about Steve Crawford · at 0:07

• Childhood hobby of magic. My mother told me about the movie Houdini with Tony Curtis and I watched this thing and I watched him get locked in the water tank and his appendix…

  about Tony Curtis · at 1:03

• Had a fatal attraction and it was this that in ' 81 I opened for Alice Cooper. I was his opening act.

  about Alex Cooper · at 4:07

• So, we had that going. Then I book a secondary act which was the Daredevil stunts. And one of those was Locked Upside Down in the water torture cell that Houdini inspired strapped to roller coaster tracks and a straight jacket.

  about Harry Houdini · at 6:56

• This episode of Matt and Shane Secret podcast is brought to you by Dude Wipes.

  about Dude Wipes · at 9:47

• Connected put up with an organization that was with the criminal justice system and it was called the MacGyver 101 and it was a three-day weekend. They had a guy that was a…

  about MacGyver 101 · at 25:25

• Before? I lose track of time. I'm doing my acting thing and there's a strike going on and I was on a series at Eli Roth Scary series which was still on Max playing an Exorcist…

  about Eli Roth · at 53:18

• Season 27. and 27. That's crazy. Chef Ann and Burell, I think I'm saying it right. Yeah. she died here just two weeks ago. That's nuts, man.

  about World's Worst Cooks · at 54:21

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Steve Crawford — Person · Main guest · 5 mentions · first at 0:07
  Primary interview subject; discusses his career as a magician/escape artist/stunt performer, his Houdini inspiration, touring fairs, hypnosis work, and later TV/acting work.
• Harry Houdini — Person · Referenced inspiration / historical figure · 3 mentions · first at 1:03
  Central reference point for Crawford’s origin story and branding: he cites the Houdini film as formative and describes Houdini-inspired water torture cell escapes and even using 'Houdini' as a stage name.
• Alex Cooper — Person · Referenced collaborator (tour headliner) · 2 mentions · first at 4:09
  Used as a notable career credential and story anchor: Crawford says he opened for Alice Cooper in 1981 as an illusion opening act, leading into a backstage anecdote.
• Tony Curtis — Person · Referenced actor (film lead) · 1 mention · first at 1:05
  Mentioned as the star of the film 'Houdini' that Crawford watched as a child, which he credits as a key influence on his interest in escapes.
• Eli Roth — Person · Referenced industry figure (showrunner/creator context) · 1 mention · first at 53:21
  Crawford cites appearing on an 'Eli Roth scary series' (on Max) as part of his acting work during/around the strike, motivating him to do reality TV.
• Barbara Bush — Person · Incidental reference (visual comparison) · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  Mentioned briefly as a humorous comparison while Crawford demonstrates a dollar-bill magic trick (the portrait ‘kind of looks like Barbara Bush’).
  Picture of Barbara Bush. I don't know if you can see that or kind of looks like Barbara up there. I always thought as a kid. Anyway, no, we fold the dollar up in this trick. What we want to do is.

Places & events

• MacGyver 101 — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions · first at 25:29
  Mentioned as part of the guest's involvement in teaching law enforcement about escapes and security.

Media & podcasts

• World's Worst Cooks — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 53:40
  Mentioned as a show the guest appeared on, contributing to his entertainment career narrative.

Sponsors

• Dude Wipes — Product · Sponsor · 6 mentions · first at 9:49
  Promoted product during the podcast, mentioned in ad reads with clear call to action.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Wow. Wow. Wow. Wes. Actor, magician, hypnotist, escape artist, television personality. There are a lot of parts to make up Steve Crawford. Steve and his team of experienced professionals would like an opportunity to tailor a program to meet your needs. Hey guys, welcome to Matt and Shane Secret podcast. We're doing a little road episode. I'm in uh Ontario, California recording a comedy special. But we are we recording an intro for my newest special that'll come out eventually. And uh I met you, Steve. Steve Crawford, dude. Great to be here.

0:33 Lifetime entertainer. You That was a crazy day we had. Well, I mean, yeah, it was mostly you. You were doing stunts and [ __ ] dude. So this guy, don't let him fool you. He Wow. Wow. You got actually got hurt um a little bit, injured. Your ribs are messed up. Well, that should be nothing to you. You're a stunt. How long you doing stunts for? Exactly. That's the problem. So now I'm all broken down and sword. So I did a daredevil stunts on the road for 30 40 years and that was uh for ferris festivals. How did you get into that?

1:01 You know I was a kid. Uh I had a childhood hobby of magic. My mother told me about the movie Houdini with Tony Curtis and I watched this thing and I watched him get locked in the water tank and his appendix burst and he dies and but something it affected me differently than it did the other people watching and it grabbed me. You watched the Houdini. So, you saw him die in the tank and you're like, I did. Oh my gosh, I want to do what this guy's doing. That is so cool. I mean, if you're going to die, let's die in a water tank in front of an audience. You know, we're all going to die. True. U but didn't plan to die and didn't die, but uh I I was lucky. I had a locksmith that lived next door. He taught me how to pick locks and I really became a big Houdini fan. Uh and your name your stage name was Houdini, right? As a child, I I went all the way in those days actually all the way to college Houdini names, you know,

1:48 with a somebody in everybody enie. So, I went with Houdini. Uh, can you hold my beautiful assistant is here. Would you hold the microphone? I I'll show you one of the first tricks I learned. This is a quick one. Uh, do you ever use male? It's always women. I never like sexy boys for the assistant. I think you got to hold it closer. Somebody tell me that. That was you. All right. Here we go. Little dollar bill trick. Here we go. So, a lot of kids start with this stuff, which I did at the library. Picture of Barbara Bush. I don't know if you can see that or kind of looks like Barbara up there. I always thought as a kid. Anyway, no, we we fold the dollar up in this trick. What we want to do is make it come out backwards or different or upside down, but in this case, it actually changes.

2:30 Yeah. $99 difference. As you can see, you get a $100 bill. So, uh, money didn't really become the motivation to do it, but it kept me doing it. You got the philosopher stone. You could do alchemy, transfer the lead into gold. We could do that. It's true. Uh, I will say I picked up many, many dates as a child pretending to be a real wizard and I could do real magic and read her mind and you wouldn't believe it. Is magic is a great way to meet girls. Don't let I was I wanted to ask you about that. That seems I watched the real of you that that was the Oklahoma what's what what was that the hockey team right? Oh you saw one of my sports events during illusions. Um what's my question is so when you're a magician because you you're a magician actor stunt man you do it all. You're a genu you're a general entertainer. A real entertainer.

3:17 Everyone thinks they're an entertainer now but you are the real deal. Um 40 years of locking in what? Getting locked underwater acting. You know, it was a funny thing when I when I was growing up. I was the only entertainer that I knew. And I I I mean, I met people who helped me in the business, but uh you I did my shows and and now I look at social media and everybody's an entertainer. I'm like, I'm the only one on. They're not entertaining anymore. It's blood, sweat, and tears. It's in the world. The world has changed.

3:45 Everybody's entertaining. Well, here's here's the question. So, with with the magic, you're saying it's a good way to meet girls. When's the first time you converted magic skills into just some I don't I don't know how graphic you want to get. So so often. Well, I've got one true story. Uh and it's it's it's a no joke. There's a victim's protection order on file in Oklahoma. Hold up, bro. Uh on you or the person on the girl who had a fatal attraction and and it was it was it was this that uh in ' 81 I opened for Alice Cooper. I was his opening act.

4:14 We did some illusions and I was a good guy. uh backstage I met with the people who run won the radio passes to come backstage you know and friendly and the band members were sleeping with people and all the I didn't get any of that and one of the rules I had How old were you how old were you back then uh that well I was very young I was 18 19 years old so yeah u but yeah I went to my earlier gigs uh back in college days I was still in college when we hooked up for that but uh I had been meeting girls in clubs and telling them I was psychic so I felt bad about that this even in high and would read their mind. And of course, it worked. You know, they're just, "Oh, we got this connection." But I had a rule. I would never go out with a girl that I met at a show because what they see in the show is not who you are.

4:58 I mean, you're a dare you're playing a role. You're a daredevil stunt guy with security around you and I mean, you're playing this image, right? Or you're a funny guy in a show, whatever it is. Uh, so those people don't know you. So, and uh, I made I broke the rule one time and boy, it it was crazy. uh a young lady you can look up it's still on the file court case but yeah she uh tried to come on hard to me to marry me all of a sudden I'm like what in the world we just met you gave her one taste she lost her mind and exactly and I told her words to me were you know what she said I should have killed you when I saw you at the state fair in September I'm like what and she grabbed the wheel of my little convertible and it was icy out and crashed it and then broke in my house later stole stuff there were gas stoves in those days I a single guy and turned on all the gas, blew out the pilot lights and uh and then and

5:49 attacked me through the back door. So, everybody on our city block there went to court and we won. And bro, but I I learned my lesson. How many times you pipe her down? One time. Just once. It was once. She got a tasty amazing world. And I I just don't know. Uh I don't know what to say about it except, you know, I don't think it's a good idea to co-ingle. You know, that makes kind of smart. You you were that smart that young to keep it separate cuz that's kind of that's a good uh that's a good insight to know like dude this is all glitz and glam.

6:18 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true and learned the lesson. So that I I really wanted to ask you about that cuz doing the county fairs must have been crazy. Like what were some of the stunts you what was like the craziest stunt you did at like a county fair? You know everybody had a favorite. Um and so I at state fairs were primarily we did about 25 state fairs starting in September through November. West Palm Springs, Florida kicks off early February and Shreport, Louisiana. Not my favorite fair, but that's that was ran right into Thanksgiving. So, uh there was a ton of fairs and uh so we had ground acts, family shows, animal circus, kids circus. I did circus sideshow illusion.

6:56 So, we had that going. Then I book a secondary act which was the Daredevil stunts. And one of those was Locked Upside Down in the water torture cell that Houdini inspired strapped to roller coaster tracks and a straight jacket. had to dive out of the way right before it crashes through, you know, from a screen. And uh yeah, hanging from burning rope, straight jackets into air. But there were other markets for swimming pool events and let people, anybody with a backyard pool could hire me, bring their padlocks and chain me up to weights and throw me in the pool and for five if you had $5,000, I was available to do it. And uh some close calls, but we did made it through that.

7:33 What was a close call? Well, there were a lot of close calls. Uh, I I wouldn't even know where to begin. You I don't know which was that. So, what's here's the question. There was some accidents. Someone hired you at like their pool to escape and you died in their pool. What's the deal with that? I would sue myself. So, I had a $2 million liability policy that if myself or anyone else was ever injured at one of my shows that it would pay off. So, my first step would be sue myself because I was injured at my show. It's kind of my plan anyway.

8:01 Get rich off the accident. So, what were the babes like at the county fair? Because I know Alice Cooper, obviously you're probably crawling, but like at the county fair, what's that like? Well, um, exactly. Use your imagination, you know, and smaller the fair, the smaller the town. Yeah, I love small town. I'm from a small town, so um, but people are to be honest, you know, we joke about that and there was a lot of flirty, you know, horror types, I guess you could say, but there was a lot of very, very sweet people and I mean it sincerely. the uh my favorite guests. They came every year. Every year just really good people honestly these communities. That's cool because I always wonder about that because that's like and you kept it to the code that whole time. You just only broke once for that one lady.

8:43 Absolutely. You know I think my fingers always practice with my fingers. You want to see a finger trick? You want to do something? We're talking about it's another magic trick. Um All right. I'm lovely assistant. I'm going to have you lay your mic down. You got to do this one with me. Would you hold this for? So actually magicians, we do use our hands to exercise a little bit to get our magic going. If you do this with hold your hands like this, clasp your fingers together. Now wiggle your first finger. Wiggle your little finger. Good. You're very good. Talented yourself. Okay. Now separate. Now we're going to go down.

9:17 Now can you keep turning to go all the way out? It's a little bit of a stretch. If you're watching this, try it at home to all the way out. Now reverse your arms and lock them like that. Except kind of hold them up high. There you go. Now wiggle the first finger and the little and go. Oh, Linda Blair taught me that one actually. What the What' you do? Twist your arms around, right? Oh, I didn't do I couldn't do that. I didn't either. Anyway, you tried. You're never going to believe it, guys. This episode of Matt and Shane Secret podcast is brought to you by Dude Wipes.

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10:34 They're good for cleaning up. Come dude wipes. Best clean pants down. Available on Amazon and major retailers nationwide. You want to hear a county fair story? Yeah, please. You got time? Would you come back? Are you so good at this? I love it. Trick with a couple of jokers and uh hold on. We're missing one. We're used to uh standing standing up. What kind of comedian sits down? You like I told you I would stand. I have no problem standing. So, I've got a story how I lost some money from a guy running a a little scam, a little gambling game at at a fair. And uh it went like this. I thought being a magician, I'm going to win all these carnival games, right?

11:13 Yeah. This guy has had three cards at his game. One of those was a joker that he was using. He had a second card and it was a joker. And then he had a third card which was actually uh an ace. He said, "This is the money card." Now, what you got to do is keep your eye on this ace. All right, here we go. I noticed he made a shifty move. I thought he put the ace on the bottom when I guessed the bottom. Uh well, actually, um I lost my first dollar. Now, then he said this. He said, "Look, I'm not going to mix the three cards. I'm going to leave them in the same sequence. uh the three in right now and give you a second guess. Now I said it was the top card which cost me a dollar. I said I knew if it wasn't the bottom it had to be the middle and well that one cost me a dollar. I said okay now you're using more than three cards. He said that'll cost you a dollar. I said you've taken the ace out of the game. He he said well

12:01 he said that'll cost you a dollar anyway. He I owed him five bucks. Here's where he got me. He said look there's an ace. Would you hold that one? Yep. He said here's a joker. He said, "If you could still tell me the name of the last card, if you hadn't forgotten it and all this, you win your five, but double or nothing. You get double your money." I said it was a joker. He said, "I would have $10." So, dang. I did learn, watch the games that you play at the carnivals while you're on that subject. Yeah. Yes. Do you ever beef with any caries?

12:28 Because that seems like you have a beef with any of the carnival folks. No. Uh, in fact, we there was a little What was the code? Uh, if you ever got in trouble with a guest, you call her out. Was it Rufus? I can't remember now. It's been a while since I've been to that market, but all the caries jump in and help you. Really? They do. They watch each other. They watch your back. The entertainers back. That was one of the first things I learned. Uh that's kind of a family. That's kind of cool. Absolutely. Yeah. So, what would you do then? So, if you were you were on the road like that and you know, you weren't like, you know, taking advantage of the babes. Not in like a bad way, but I'm saying they're all they're plentiful, I would imagine.

13:04 What would you do? Like you just chill all day and like do magic? Like you're talking about I'm sorry. at the after the shows. Yeah. Yeah. What would you do? There was no break. Uh at a fair, you're we you know, you open up in the afternoon, you do some shows, you run them into the night and and then you go back and you're just wore out. You know, you've been outdoors all day typically, you know, a lot of indoor events, but yeah. And go back to your room and hide. Really, get some rest because you got to do it again the next day. When the fair ends on a Sunday night, you got to pack your tear down, hire help, big tear down, load your trailers, head on down to the next one. So, what about the one one thing I wanted to ask you when we started is like what's the relationship like between a magician and a magician's assistant? That seems like it's an erotic I I don't want to keep like hammering on this, but that seems like

13:47 an erotic situation like how do you handle that? Yes, it could be. It's all you keep it in the back of your head. So, uh unfortunately, um see they never knew they never knew my thoughts. No, I actually very respectful. Yeah, we'd hire dancers. We would hire people that, you know, were there for the art and did a good job. And honestly, we became good friends. I I never never made a move on an assistant. Uh but there were some I certainly liked, you know, I think they liked me, but we just left it at that. You're a professional as hell. I guess that's how you do it for 40 years, man.

14:17 Otherwise, 40 years. It was that long till I could get out of it. And I did comedy clubs in the 80s. Did I say about that? No. Um so I had three comedy club acts and it was an agent that convinced me to do this. Keeping in mind I'm an actor. I wanted to be a comedian, but I never really was that funny. I mean, honestly, I I I So, um I didn't think but so we developed three acts that we booked into the comedy clubs and one was a pickpocket comedy thing and one was a monologue with some magic and the third one is the reason I got out of doing comedy clubs.

14:51 I had a problem uh with myself doing this with anybody. I went right in as a headliner. I think a comedy club, you need people to start in the beginning, an opener, a middle, you know, and then you work your way up and you got real talented comedians out there. But I had an act that one that just booked the year up like that as a as right off the bat ran it right in as as a uh a headliner because there was no choice but to put it there. And what why it booked was the ticket sales and it's the hypnosis show. So I became a certified clinical hypnotist. Oh, that you majored in psychology. I major it was actually an acting theater major with a minor in psychology. Uh but then I became a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and I went into these sessions where we learned how to hypnotize people and I screwed them up.

15:40 I messed with them. You had to work with real people, right? And tell them that their watch is gone. Well, I would really steal their watch. And then I I would touch their eyes and then put my fingers here and say, "You're going to feel something touch you. Touch you." And then I would touch with my other hand. And I was doing magic on these people, right? And then when we came out all the guests are sharing the stories of what happened and the certifiers are like what what happened he did what and you know even with kids we hypnotized kids make but honestly people are crying they're talking about their problems I thought I would never be a doctor I could never be a clinical hypnotist at the shows people would get hypnotiz it was a different animal so uh so yes a comedian to me is is not a hypnotist or vice versa that uh a comedian is a comedian and so here We were in there booked as the headliner because you got

16:27 to do a lengthy show. You got to bring people up an hour and and it's got to be that in that spot and it was a very popular act. So there was a change at the end of the 80s where there were less comedy clubs. So I got in for commercial reasons again. We and I like to switch things up cuz I get bored, you know, change the market some. Uh, and we'd the clubs are going down and so I had an opportunity to stay on and I think I heard that Joker was one of the clubs we were working with wanted now their people to go with them full-time or something. There were some changes going on and I thought, you know what, there's some great comedians that I met while I was out there and those guys, they deserve the comedy club. So, I left them alone. So, I left it. I got out of there. Principled man, you know. So, what were the show? So, you used to what you would hypnotize people and steal their stuff. Uh, so pickpocketing was

17:13 actually a separate thing, but in the when I was referring to when we were practicing with real people and real problems, we would go into a room with them alone as part of your training to get certified as a clinical hypnotist. Yeah. To help people with problems. And I just couldn't resist. I'm like, "Oh my gosh." You tell them their watch is gone and now they don't see it. And you show them a coin and you tell them it's a different coin and they believe it's a different coin in these tests. Well, this is all through mental program. You relax a person. Hypnosis works this way.

17:44 You get someone in a very relaxed state of mind. They go to an alpha pattern and now you can speak to the subconscious mind. You don't have to go to a clinical hypnotist to try some tricks at home. For example, uh if you're worried about remembering something tomorrow, a better word is recall because it's always in there. But you want to be able to recall. Uh so you relax into this like you're falling asleep, right? Very relaxed. And then you look and you picture the shower curtain and tell yourself when I see this shower curtain this thought will pop in my mind so you won't forget it. Yeah. And watch the trick to this is the fun thing about it is this. The next day a year later 20 years later when you see the shower curtain it will pop this trigger in this thought and you go wow. Then you begin to realize oh this stuff really works.

18:30 It's not all just a show. I mean a lot of it is a show but uh that you can really do that or uh the subconscious mind is so amazing most of us have an internal clock in the subconscious mind you tell yourself I need to wake up at a certain time as you fall asleep watch if you don't wake up either at that time sometimes on the minute but usually just a little before because you know you got to be up at that time your brain will wake you up uh so it's it's about relaxing and getting into the subconscious. Gotcha. What was like some of the crazier things you did hypnotizing people in the shows? Uh, well, making people rigid, laying them on two chairs and standing on their body in it was not a it was not it was not a uh magic trick. It looked like one, but they're so rigid. And then a friend of mine, Dr. Roy Bellows, who's hit with his next, he's in court where somebody came back later and said that

19:21 they had some back injuries. I'm stand out. Well, you stand on the front. You put their feet on one chair and their head here and their and you walk on their body. Um what? It's a classic. It's been around men and women or just men. Well, that depends on your fetish. I mean, I don't know. Um but um uh I might try that tonight. I might try to jump on a lady during my hours. Jump right on her belly. It's squisher hypnosis. Uh but yeah, it's a lot of fun. They become space aliens. They, you know, race fun acts the in the shows. In the show.

19:55 Yeah. Were you ever tempted to use the hypnosis for like evil purposes? Not not a women, I mean guys, whatever. Just like tricking people, getting like a clone army going. And you know what's really weird about that is people ask you too, have you ever used your lockpicking skills? True. You know, to haven't you ever attempted to break in? No. I mean, you could take a brick and throw it through the window tomorrow if you really want to break in. It doesn't change you at all. You still are who you are. Yeah. Well, every locksmith knows how to kind of pick locks. Sure. But they're like, "Well, no, I don't want to break it anywhere." You don't need to pick locks to break in. somewhere if you want to break in, but we don't want to break in anywhere. You know, you really don't change it. And hopefully the people that are that do take advantage of their skills like pickpocketing. I'll admit as a kid, we used to go down the

20:37 street and take people's wallets and practice and stuff. Uh and I'm like, "Oh, I'm not going to steal from anybody." You know, I got to get their money back. But, uh, we wanted to practice on strangers and we did. I'm like, I can't do this. How do you pick pocket? That's the Well, it you don't have a If you ever watch a Do you ever watch on Do you have a buckle straw with a strap on it over there? I can't see what Nobody got. So, you know, like give me your hand. And so, somebody got a watch on. You grab here and you would literally pull back. Oh, you pop the shank and Yeah. And you squeeze it and when you pull it away, they don't feel it. So, you look for that style watch as a first choice. Yeah. And it was in my comedy club act. I'd bring the person up and then I would wave it in front of their face. I say, "Okay, I'm going to hypnotize you. You're getting sleepy."

21:16 And then we'll try a post technology suggestion. The watch is looking familiar to you and they're like, "Oh, that's my watch." You know, so it was inherently funny. Um, and then I would have them tie my hands behind my back. Um, and it's an old routine Harry Keller, I think, the magician invented where you pull your hand out and back in over com. So I'm flashing the guy's wallet behind his back and show it. You're flashing this and flashing that. Uh, so take it and then return their keys or something at the end as a finale. We had an occasion in a comedy club once which caused a real issue is I added a new bit. So I walked into the audience and I grabbed the proper watch and started to pick actually let me go with you. Would you mind help me? And took a different guy but I had this guy's watch. So the finale the new ch the new change in this act was at the end after returning this guy stuff.

22:05 Everybody laughed. I point the guy in the audience. Hey don't laugh. I got yours too. And you get an extra round of applause. Right. I forgot I had taken it. It was a brand new act. It was in my pocket and I left the place with this guy's nice watch. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I got somebody." So, I actually had to call the manager of the comedy club and he put out an announcement and somehow he got a call from the right guy. We the guy I was at that show and my watch disappeared and I Yeah, he got your watch. What? And we gave him his watch back. So, everybody thought it was funny and quite amusing. I don't think they knew if it was part of the act or not, though. It is nice to know if if you know if you ever need to, you could be a master thief. Obviously, you wouldn't do that, but it's very true. Absolutely true. Uh there's nothing. And there really is nothing no lock that can't be opened or there's no item you can't

22:54 escape from. Handcuffs. I know you can escape. You said you set the record for escaping from handcuffs. Yes, sir. I wasn't going to mention it. Uh but I have a world record. Well, that's boastful. So, less than two seconds came front page news as Steve broke a world record with the escape. We're ready. I've got the stopwatch. Okay go. Whoa. Yeah. Let me see these. All right. Very good. Look at the stopwatch, Steve. 1.47 seconds. And that is less than two seconds is a record. Congrat. And I only sent you one picture of And I just want to share this. I I when I was stepping away from escapes getting older just a few years back uh I started doing something unusual for law enforcement groups. I actually got a phone call from uh former chief of police and um he he was in in Oklahoma and he calls me and he says, "Steve, we've got a problem. People are getting out of the handcuffs. They're getting

23:54 out of their jails and they're escaping these things and they're turning their stuff on the cops. They're leaving them for dead or, you know, or killing them. we need your help. And they had a budget, so they would have to pay me to come in and teach them. I said, "Well, I'll teach you how to get out of things." Not with just to show you how how uh easy it is to to do this stuff once you know. Um is I will show you how to escape from padlocks, handcuffs, and things with items around you, and then I'll do it after a search and then I'll do it without touching anything, which is a matter. Well, so, uh, we went with two things on the cop car, and I've got some photos I can send you is, uh, the, uh, a piece of wire from the windshield wiper. Sometimes I put a person up by the windshield wiper, and you take this flat piece of metal, you can shim the cuffs open right through the notches.

24:43 You're not really picking the locks. Wait, so, how do you get the piece of metal again? Where is it at? Uh, off of a windshield wiper. Um, so you'll see some photos. I'll send you this later today of me holding a windshield wiper out in front of a police station and then in in actually with it in front of the cops showing them how to use that and then a piece of metal that I found in the backseat of a spring of a car if you could dig in to get it. But um and then another one was picking uh padlocks with the stem from reading glasses or glasses which is actually two pieces.

25:14 you get a shim, you get a uh and then there's something completely different which is going through the shank of a padlock. So anyway, I'm doing this stuff and we go from local police to I was connected put up with an organization uh that was with the criminal justice system and it was called the uh MacGyver 101 and it was a three-day weekend. They had a guy that was a narcotics off federal bureau narcotics there another guy in weapons three I was the only one that was a non officer so I don't know if you can actually Google on YouTube somebody put it on there once the handcuff escape and a prison escape how do you escape from the prison there's several ways so I was I gave him one of the methods that with certain cells you can use uh that people would take shampoo bottle toilet paper things around you and block the bolt hole. And when you slam some of the cells, it seemed like shot. That's

26:09 not the I'm I don't give away my best secrets, believe it or not. I really don't. So, this is the one I gave them. And cops, oh, we had that happen. We actually had a guy get out of the cell that way. You know, this stuff's really going on. And that's why I'm not afraid to share it. I think the best uh but we were shut down. And I will tell you this, too. So, we're doing these federal things. I know we got to go quick probably, but I uh I actually um Oh, we're good. uh uh told him I had a second hobby and it was sneaking into places, testing security at places. So, I was hire trying to make I always wanted to do that. I always wanted to go to stores just like show them how much I could steal from them and then go here, here's how I did. So, if you really want to see this stuff, I'll send it to you. I I was making this part of my business. We had some customers that I would show them how I could get through their security

26:55 and and get past the bomb squads. And some of these things were so easy. Uh you get onto a plane, you think? That's what I was leading up through. Big time. Big time story. This is the story. So, I've got the photographs to show. I told him in my observation, the TSA at the airport is the absolute weakest security in the world. And I can get and I I got an arsenal of stuff through it. Uh, and I will show you. I kid you not. Started with things like metal signs from, you know, about this large uh surfboard. Uh, and finally a big metal sword, which I've got a picture of my wife's angry looking at me, and it's not not a fake picture. She didn't know I did it. And uh, I put it under my jacket. And so what was going on? There's a And I here's gosh, I'm going to share this right now cuz I'm was I'm not supposed to share this. This is what ended my career with the law enforcement. It I love this story and I I'm sharing it

27:51 publicly for the first time and it could get me in some serious trouble. I kid you not. Yeah. So, here's what was going on. I said, 'I can I I said, ' Okay, first is I called it the magic trick. We'd go to the airport. I've got all this on video pictures and you've got all these TSA standing around, right? An abundance of them watching. I want to get that number down. When I say the magic words, abracadabra, all the a big group of them, they all leave, leaving a skeleton crew for me to work with. And I it works every time. Abracadabra. And they how this is what they were asking me at uh the uh the said, "How do you do? Is it hypnosis?" No. So, I would hide a bottle of water in a backpack or drop it in somebody's purse while in line. Yeah. In one of my demonstrations, I use my nephew uh which because he's was in on it, but you can stick it anybody. They get flagged. These extra bodies are here just for that reason.

28:44 You got a bottle of water. They're going to take you off and they're going to so you can control get these people out of there. Right now, they're over there. No harm, no no foul. The lady or person gets to leave. There's a bottle of water, right? But you get rid of them. Now, the next step was this. There's this uh tray, this table where you roll all your stuff around and you put your your stuff in, right? And underneath there's nothing there. Runs right up to I guess what's designed to be a portable X-ray machine. It's got wheels on it. There's a gap underneath this thing, right? So, this is blocking the view. You got the people in the computer looking straight down. You got this guy over here telling you, "You got to take your shoes off."

29:20 You got over here making sure nobody needs help. And you got people crawling all over the floor putting shoes on on the other side. So I would drop the item in the floor and kick it underneath the machine, right? And I take and I'm snapping photos which is illegal. I found out I snap and I've got a ton of these from like 20 airports. Kick it and we were showing them on the screen showing how I got this, that, and no, and try to get something done. So the uh uh MacGyver 101 team, the people I work for, they wrote a letter to uh uh the White House. I guess the criminal justice system did and we got a nice letter and I got a big certificate.

29:56 Wonderful. All you stuff you've done. This is we're this is going to cause some changes. You we want to fly you to Washington at a certain month for this roundt thing they do once a year. And our my my stuff would go right to the government. Suddenly, my sister who lives in Hawaii at the time gets a call. I don't know why the guy couldn't find me. And uh cuz I didn't answer my phone, but and says, "We need to find your brother right this minute. Where's your brother?" She she and she said, "What's going on?" She said, "Well, they're coming to arrest him and go to jail."

30:27 She's like, "What?" She said, "If you know how to get a hold of him, you must find him right now." So, I I said, "What's the matter with you guys I was talking about? You told me to call this number if I ever got arrested." Yeah. Going through the airport and you would tell they said, "Well, that's the thing. you know, we we normally they work with us. We tell them you're testing it. Uh or we would um we would, you know, talk to the judge and you're working for us. You're helping. Yeah. And he said, "No." He said, "The TSA are pissed." He said, "These guys, they say they're going to make an example out of you, but you you're guilty of several felonies. Not only did you not work really you're not a lot in law enforcement that you uh took pictures, you manipulated officers and bragged about it out of the area and endangered lives by showing people how to how to do this. Who'd you show though? I put it all over social media.

31:11 Every everyone and I told them I was going to do it. I said, "Let me tell you something. I'm not going to be part of a cover up." Yeah. I said, "If if if we show the public what's going on, they'll change it." Yeah. For sure. because I am not so egotistical to believe that I am the only one on earth who's going to see that and could do it. That's pretty smart though to kick it under. They made some major changes. So if you look at my photographs of airports and or you have a good memory, go to the airports now and they're all a little different and you can tell they're experimenting.

31:39 They've changed some things. They've got a wall they're putting now uh that runs further back so you can't control something right up to the to kick it under. They're they've got a machine now to bring the carts back around that they made they they're finding ways to complicate this thing. And I'm very thankful that that happened. Why did they arrest you? How'd you get out of that? So they were coming. They were looking for me and my guy he says I need you to hide. I'm what? He goes I'm dead serious. He said cuz if they if you if you get arrested we may not know where you are. Yeah. It's like federal stuff too. Yeah. He said we it's a TSA. He said these guys are not joking here. He said they are mad. They're never they're never joking. They're always [ __ ] grumpy as hell. He said, "We're going to fight with him." So he came back. He said, "It's been resolved. There's three conditions. One is we can no longer hire

32:24 you. You lost the gig. You know, no more teaching the officers that we got to end this. No more airports. Nothing." Number two, you got to delete all your social media posts, which I did not do. I still see some pop up in memories, but somebody deleted some of them. Um, and they said, "And number three, they want to meet you in person." I'm like, "Why do they want to meet me in person?" He goes, "I don't know. They just want to see." No. I said, "I'm gonna do everything but that." Yeah. Because that sound like a trap. Yeah. Really? Turn yourself. I'm not idiot. But anyway, uh so no, I I I never he they said, "Oh," and he part of the condition. Not only can you not tell anybody what you did, you can't tell them why you can't do it anymore. This thing just has to go away, right? Yeah. Just disappear. So that's why this the first time I've shared it and I'm a little upset. That's why I'm sharing. How how big was a sword you got

33:17 through? How big? What? How big was a sword that you got through? Oh my gosh. I want I should have sent you that picture. It was from the floor to here. What' you do with it once you got through the the security? Well, I carried it around, but it it looked like this. I I uh I took Did you get weird looks with the sword? Well, the photo that I'll send you, we're at the gate where my sister is flying one place, right, from one plane and my wife's there. My wife said, "You can never do this stuff when you're with me." Which I didn't typically on this. And and so I had two versions, right? Some of this stuff I just carried on me and tossed it down. But I usually used a jacket, okay?

33:55 And I would use the jacket to kind of drop it to get whatever it was underneath. And then when I'm down tying my shoes, I would retain. Sometimes something got stuck under there. It wasn't a sword, but I would just crawl over there and get it cuz everybody's on the floor shoes. This is the weakest thing I've ever seen in my life, you know. And uh one of the officers even saw me once and I said I dropped my wallet, you know, underneath the guy sword, but the sword. Uh so we're done through we got it through to the gates and that's that's from there. Ah, it's really no big deal. And but I'm saying goodbye to my sister and I'm holding the sword and the photograph behind my back and you see my wife going and I had somebody take the picture, right? Uh of us leaving saying goodbye to the group, you know, we're hugging and and she's just going.

34:42 So, she's still mad. She knows you got that thing on you. She's very upset about that. So, that's a real photo. I will show you. I wanted to put it back on social media even after. It was so funny. That's when some of this was going down. And you know, like how long ago was this? Seven, six, seven, seven years before I moved here. I don't know why in my head I feel like if a crime happened seven years ago, you're good. So, so and that was one of the reasons I left where I'm from, Oklahoma, was that to move to California. That was a reason. The fact is I had studied acting in college and always wanted to be an actor. I thought you were a great actor. You did great.

35:16 Thank you. I think I I love doing it. It's It's really something I've worked on it since a kid and I wanted to do it as a career and it was one of those things where I was going to come out here right after college, but I couldn't. I got trapped in my career. Once you start booking annual stuff, now they're going to book ahead. You're booked that month this year. they book you the next year and next thing you know 30 40 years has gone by and you're just and so it really took co as well to shut everything down and I said I'm never looking back you know to to go into acting full-time did you get any like uh long-term injuries from doing like stunts and stuff covered with them are you really absolutely um yeah covered with them I did an air show stunt did an escape and I had a bad landing how high up more than 10,000 ft uh but it it's not um It was an escape from a box which was a thing where the

36:06 audience thinks that they're gonna I was actually booked by a man named Zel Ford. He has an air show team and he came to me. He said I know you do stunts. He said can you do something for air shows? He said we need a new act or something to go with us and um he said in air shows in most shows you want people to think you're going to die in a stunt show but in an air show you want them to know you're going to die. And I said h I had the idea. What if the audience thinks they're going to die? He said even better. So in this effect, I drop in the plane in the box and the audience is told it's falling out of control. So they take it up in the plane and the audience can see the shoot open and they go, Steve was open to shoot. He's carrying the box back over the the drop zone. So now I'm holding this box it looks like till I get over the area.

36:49 Wait, so are you release it? You're in the air. I'm I'm with a shoot. I'm holding the box which what it looks like and then I release it and and pull these toggles and land. Well, the truth is you can't hold a box when a shoot opens in the air. So, I'm wearing this harness we had made down in Dan, Florida by a company, real nice uh they make tailor made stuff for stunts and uh and air shows and things and a strap attached me to the box. So, I have the strap and as I get lower, I release the box and would open my shoot. So, the problem is anytime you get two lines, FAA approved stunt is safe. I was angry at them. I said, "You guys weren't honest with me. Anytime you put two lines in the air, you run a risk of danger. You get a line entanglement, which is exactly what happened. The chute came out, wrapped around the strap to the box. So, I've got a shoot there.

37:42 Not the end of the world. You got two shoots cut away. Your left one, pull on your right one. Right. So, now I've got this chute open with a strap and a box, which is what it's supposed to look like, but there's an additional piece there that shouldn't be there. The the first shoot, right? So, it's causing you to go like this. As we as I go down, you can't look down when you're lowering. Skydiving is a weird thing. You can't tell how low you are by looking down. You have to look at the horizon. So, about 50 ft from the ground looking out that way. You can tell where that is.

38:12 You slow your descent normally, right? So, in my act is I cut away and then slow my descent. Right? So, the horizon is just doing this. Uh, I couldn't tell and I was I couldn't cut away because I didn't know who I'm gonna kill, right? This whole thing could go land anywhere. So, I'm trying to focus to see where I am and that's the last thing I remember. I had a concussion. Uh, I I've got the short socks, you know, the nerd socks. You can see the scar right there on my Why are short socks? Nerd socks. I saw you in one of your acts. Some of the audience brought that up and you showed them your socks and you remember that. You don't remember that? It's on YouTube right now. It's on right now. You're having to yell things out of the audience. Oh yeah. And uh one of the guys says something about this short sock. Oh, yeah. They're saying black ankle socks.

38:58 They were saying here's you can see the scar right there. Right. Yeah. I got one on both sides. Uh but I broke I broke my hip. I broke that ankle, too. But this one got crushed and most of the entire parts came out. It took forever to heal from that one. Broke the jaw. I've got scars on my arm still from it. Uh and so this is a long time ago. Uh, so it took forever to to get well, but I had a shootute opener. I'd be dead. You know, it was just what you'd say a hard landing, you know. And I tell you, you know, it amazes me people in the old army, those guys never did have opportunities, you know, they had they always came down hard. I don't know how they did it. Commendable that they would ever put up with that. But, but yeah. Um, so yeah, I had spikes through my body one time. Uh, there was a guy who' hired me before. It was a thing where I used to get chained in a chair and we'd had a martial artist with

39:48 a screen with spikes and he would come running down. I'm gagged and he would kick through this thing after a 10-second countdown and I would roll under him basically and come out. And so this guy hires me and he says, "Can you do this act? I'm going to have people bring stuff to the show." I'm like, "I cra I'm exhausted." And he's got a a pole in the stage, like a flag pole. He goes, "We're going to wrap you around this pole instead." I'm okay. And I said, "We bring a we'll do a pair of handcuffs. Give me 10 seconds to get out, you know." And then he has people bring stuff to the show and brings it up on the stage. What in the world is he doing? Uh he's an EMC. He's had hired me 10 years before. Was it EMC? What's that? You said the EMC. He was the MC of show. MC of the show. I got and the promoter. He had hired several acts. So he brought me back for this finale and people were chaining me up. And I'm

40:36 like, "Okay." I said, "I need I need a full minute to escape from this." He gags my mouth and they get the screen ready and he says, "How many of y'all think Steve can get out of this in the 10 seconds he originally promised?" I'm like, "Whoa, punch line's got to be coming, right? Got to be a punch line." And uh everybody applauds and he says, "Put it in place." And he stands up and he says, "10." I'm like, "Are you kidding me? What?" And I'm like, "Sh I didn't have a chance." Right. So I just turned my back to the spikes and this thing and I've still got here. What the [ __ ] man? crush and the the sad thing and I wish my brain had been in the right place to not move an inch that the audience broke out into applause cuz they thought I disappeared and instead I'm mo I start moaning and moving and I'm stabbed you know but I wish I had not done that now I didn't realize if you didn't move you would have been fine

41:26 they thought I was gone the curtain would have shut you know into the show and everybody thought I disappeared and then this thing starts moving they're like uh oh you know so anyway I'm like dude why did you do that he goes I thought you were kidding And he said, "Man, I've seen you a million times." He goes, "I thought you could just be like and you're out. I've seen you do it." Yeah. It's kind of crazy that Thanks. How big are the spikes? Oh my gosh. One of them. Yeah. I went right by my spinal cord, you know, got in. I've been paralyzed. What? Do we have time to do another magic trick or we don't? I think we have time. Well, the one thing I wanted to ask you about, we we have a half an hour. We're good. This episode of Matt and Shane Secret podcast is brought to you by Dude Wipes.

42:09 Riff prompts. When you wipe, are you sitting or standing? I started out sitting today. And then I actually, actually, I'm not lying. I got saved by dude wipes today. I was in the bathroom taking a dump at Shane's house. And I had, you know, like clings to the side of your butt kind of. I had a large deposit cling to my butt and it like literally, you know, if you ever get it on your hand at all and you wipe, I don't want to gross you guys out. has like accidentally. Have you Have you ever got it on your hand? I did. It literally happened to me today. Like I got it just a tiny bit on my hand. I was like, "Fuck." Well, that's the joy of the dude wipe. XL wipe for a XL man. No, it it was it came in handy. I would have had it gone home. It was such a disaster that Thank God I did that. Guys, whichever way you wipe, it's time to show your beehole some respect and upgrade to dude wipes. Dude wipes tackle

42:58 the mess without any fuss. And the flushable design makes clean up a breeze. They leave no room for dingleberries or stray buttcrumbs that teepee might miss. Plus, they're extra large and designed for adults. So, no more endless rolls or setting for less or sorry. So, no more endless rolls or settling for less than perfect wipes. Dude wipes. Best clean pants down. Available on Amazon and at major retailers nationwide. The one thing I wanted to ask you about, we'll definitely do some more magic. The used to be able to hold your breath for four minutes. Yep. And now you said you can't hold your breath that long anymore. No.

43:31 Uh, and and nor do I know what happened. I've had, uh, you know, a lot of things started to change. Um, I used to be in, you know, very good physical shape. You might remember seeing some of the older photos. I saw the picture for an audience, you know, and I, uh, you know, I was starting to develop some intestinal issues, Crohn's disease, which I kind of hid and uh, continued. Some things were going on, but uh, yeah, I started as a kid. Hold on my breath. And I was on the swim team. Um, and they always hated it. I was horrible swimming on top of the water. So I would always dive in and go all the way to the other side as soon as we come back emerge, you know, to finish it up. So I get whenever I Which stroke were you? Which stroke you do? Oh, that was just the regular bicycle, you know. Oh, dude. But they they, you know, you would just be submerged the whole time. Oh, the first run all the way to the end. And when I

44:19 come back, I'd come up to give them a few a little bit of fairness. But I was fast under that water. Uh there was no rule how long you stayed under, right? So I well then if there's no really rule in the books how long you s but I practiced all the time um and so um yeah I I was comfortable sitting on the bottom of pool shimming locks picking locks manipulating them open that people would bring and and and you know you know honestly you get eight or 10 locks you don't have to open all of them people didn't realize that necessarily you know you open the key locks and uh but I was comfortable and then I would I would spread this pace it out I wouldn't give the audience It's a good show.

44:57 Somebody asked me when I was coming out of one of my water effects was like into the lake and the box and things uh all these. You mean you come out, you're exhausted, you're coughing up water, you you know, are you really suffering or is it all an act? No, I'm really suffering but it's all self-inflicted. I stay would stay down there as long as you stay under water as long as you can until you absolutely can't stay under the come you're going to be really breathing off. You ever pass out under water? Uh actually I did one time. I did once too. It was [ __ ] terrifying.

45:24 Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. How'd you get you get pulled out? I don't know what happened. Uh we were at Ponan Theater in Punk City, Oklahoma, which was supposed to be a haunted theater, and we had some weird stuff happen with the water tank, an older water tank. Um when they were trying to pull me up a double pulley system where I go up easy, started fighting them. They're pulling this thing. They're, you know, we don't know what's going on, right? And and we got this on video. Uh they and they kind of get me up and it's this big A-frame.

45:51 I'm hanging upside down. There's a roller thing. I mean, you got your your feet in these stalks, right? And then you got uh this thing runs up to the top of this uh where they pulled you up and they roll you across. Was I they're having so much trouble. I think, man, this thing's going to break. Something is wrong here. So, the minute we got up there, I said, "Get me over the tank quick." Cuz they're holding your hands. And I mean, the second I was there, it broke. The weird thing on that night, the brake had nothing to do with the pulley system. It was a It was a piece of steel that they would use for mountain climbing, right? that they held the stocks in one spot. That thing just broke. It shouldn't have broken. And another place had nothing to do with the tension. So, there was two issues, really three, because the water was boiling after we put a little bucket heater in hours before cuz it was ice

46:38 cold water. Should have taken a day to heat it, but the water was like boiling hot when I almost went in it. And I'm I'm glad I tested it. So, this was like a haunted theater and everybody's telling me all this haunted stuff's going on. I'm like, you know, I just couldn't believe it. And then all of a sudden, everything's going downhill from my act. So when I hit this thing, I didn't get any air because I wasn't prepared. Right? It's just it's a one, two, three, four, fifth one, hold it, go in, and I'm good for a while, right? Uh in this case, I was probably on the exhale and I went down. So when the stocks came down, they couldn't get the lid on cuz it fell so fast. You got to hit it just right, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

47:15 And the guys are fighting with it. And I've got a guy sitting right over here who's a spotter who does nothing but watch me. And if he sees me make a signal something's wrong. Cut it. Yeah. I'm like, cut it. I'm looking. Where is he? He's not there. First rule in Daredevil stunts. Just keep don't change anything. Don't improvise. Nothing. This guy left his post to run. Help these guys get the lid on. Right. So, I'm trying to get my part to get out of this thing and I blacked out. Uh, the next thing I know, I'm in the floor. So, I I had fallen. But I don't know what happened. I literally don't remember.

47:50 Jesus Christ. Very peculiar experience for very very terrifying. Uh for sure. Yeah. I was just swimming with my friends and we were like drinking and I think my I was using my kids goggles so they were super tight and they were just I think cutting off like blood in my brain and I tried to go back and forth in the pool and I was coming back and I just I don't I like remember coming out of the water just lungs full of breath. I somehow just propelled myself out like kind of blacked out and then I fell forward again just hit my chin on the edge of the pool. I was water is so dangerous and and even for an escape artist and I you know I don't like to tell all my secrets but I would do everything I can you know I could do to make these things safe uh like chain up thrown in a pool is that uh I would have a signal you know uh to that something's wrong and we would tell the audience well they'll have to jump in pull these

48:38 heavy weights all the way to the shallow end to get me out. Well, the fact is we had a rope with a hook on it. But then I'm like suffering later and I'm asked my guys cuz you see me and you know I really couldn't see that well. You know the water was chlorinated. Uh I just couldn't see it. Or we're in a lake. I almost died in a lake. I showed you a picture of this I think yesterday coming out of the lake. Um that was totally unexpected. Uh wooden box was in a lake and I did what I had to do to open it but the wood had sealed and I mean it was a tough sucker to get out of there.

49:10 Once I get out, I'm exhausted and I'm trying to work my way up. Lo and behold, we've got quicksand or something underneath the water. Um, when I get to shallow enough to walk, it takes me down and I'm like pulling. It's hard to get my wet my head on, you know, wet shoes and they're gone. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I'm fighting to get my feet out of this and my guys are coming out. So, the photo I may or I've got on my phone if you But they're coming out to try to help me and then they're sinking. Okay, five guys, 10 guys are rescue guys and they can't even get to me, you know, and I'm just like and I'm so tired. Uh, so water Yeah. water, it doesn't it didn't scare me, but it water didn't scare me. Like some things like height scared me, but but it's very dangerous.

49:51 Yeah, it is peaceful though underwater. I I have little kids and I we'll go in the pool and every now and again I'll just disappear for my whole family underwater for a good minute and it's just the best. Absolutely. Just the [ __ ] best just to go underwater. I can't hear anything for Yeah. And that was my life, you know, circling back to a question you asked. Uh, I would sit there underwater and comfortably do my thing and enjoyed the peace and quiet until it was time to come up. But then one day it changed. I just lost that ability. That's crazy. So I went to a doctor and I said, "We got a serious problem. I got bookings." I said, "Listen, I can hold my breath a lot longer than this. I I can't hold my breath. I don't know why as much as I practice." And so they even did a heart test, massaged my heart. They said, "This sounds like it's a heart thing."

50:32 No, your heart's fine. And they finally said, "Listen, whatever weirdness it was that you were gifted with to hold your breath for 4 minutes is just gone." Whoa. You know, your body's changing. Just time for acting. You know, it's time to go to become an actor. Like, I got to survive the last. So, the thing that changed was I went from a comfortable performance cuz it's a show. Even if there's danger, even if it's tough, you know, it's still a show. a comfortable performance uh to put on a good show of fighting to against death, struggling, you know, to a real fight against death where I'm like going as fast as I can and suffering every minute. Did you still keep doing them even after? No. Uh I didn't book anymore after that. Uh I had to I but I finished my contract. Uh I mean I had bookings. I you know had a religion about it that once the deal is made, you know, you don't pull out. If once you sign, you're

51:22 going to be there. Um, and I mean I don't recommend this for everybody, but it's the truth. You know, I did a show with a broken leg once. Uh, not that break, another one of her roller coaster. I had to go do a second show. Break your leg on a roller coaster. Well, that was a thing where I'm strapped to the roller coaster. I think I showed you those pictures. The straight jacket and we put a screen up and the roller coaster's coming. I have to dive out before it comes through. And I did this a long time ago. Yeah. Way back. Frontiers, excuse me, Spring Lake Amusement Park in um Oklahoma City was the first one I did and that was in college way back. Some other guys have done it since then, but it was my original act. And um there was a way I knew that the roller coaster was so close, right? So you don't want to jump out too early or it looks boring. So you got to wait till it gets there and then

52:09 jump. It caught your leg. Uh what did the roller coaster caught your leg? You're saying no. No. Um, I thought it was closer than it was. So, it's like with um flying that, you know, you don't trust your eyes, you got to trust the instrument. So, I I had a way in knowing where it was that I didn't trust it. It sounded like it was there. I'm like, I don't have time to jump up and land on this platform. So, I just went under straight down under the tracks and dropped to 15. Broke the ankles again. My poor body. You talk about I had a total hip replacement last November. Uh it got so bad I couldn't walk that you're the pain and uh I'm like no I'm too young for a hip replacement doctor.

52:49 But that's the best surgery you can get. Boy, I'll tell you what. I'm I'm really Yeah, I can't tell I've ever had a problem. I'm not as limber as I was. But I will say that, you know, because you're not allowed to stretch after 6 months or something. But yeah, um we live with it and I think it was all worth it. Nice. And the one thing I wanted to ask you about because I I found this kind of fascinating. The uh you were on what was the TV show you're on the cooking show? America's Worst Chef or something. Ah, that was very recent. Yeah. Um, last year was it year before? I lose track of time. Um, I'm doing my acting thing and there's a strike going on and I uh I was on a series at Eli Roth Scary series which was still on Max uh playing an Exorcist and uh we were going to have additional shows and we got shut down for the strike and I'm like, "Oh man, this sucks." Um, and so I asked the union,

53:39 "Well, what can we They said, "Well, you can do reality shows." So, I am the world's worst cook. I'm really horrible. When I was single, I would throw everything a bowl, turn on the stove, high as it would go, rush, stir it up, didn't care what it tastes like, throw on all the things that you need to eat your for groups and eat them. Yeah. And uh but I was on the road eating out. Yeah. My whole life. So then I marry a girl that was a great cook and she doesn't allow me in the kitchen at all. Period. You know, she I made a mess when she used to see grandkids or something, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I've rent the microwave. I've done this. But um anyhow um so I auditioned and got on World's Worst Cooks. Uh I think is the pronounced that way. It is worst cooks.

54:21 Season 27. Um and 27. That's crazy. Chef Ann and Burell, I think I'm saying it right. Yeah. You know, she died here just two weeks ago. That's nuts, man. And it's just so sad. She was a great lady. Yeah. We had a lot of fun on the show. you know, of course, she's yelling at you and you know, you we're hamming it up. The the bad cooking was all real. People think I made that stuff up. Uh, you know, we hammed up the performance a little, but it was it was um all real. But yeah, we're really shocked and um had a great time though and some great memories and and sadly she was going to take a break from the show, but she told me she wanted me to come back and so did the producers. Uh they occasionally do reunion shows, the worst of the worst, and he's going to have me back cuz we had such a good time. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back. I thought, is this really the image I want with my

55:11 acting? Yeah. But now that we lost her, I'm like, you know what? If I'd known, I would have definitely gone back quicker. And uh very nice lady. Yeah. It's a shame she died. I didn't realize that show had so many seasons. That's crazy. Nor did I. I've heard it once or twice before that, you know. Yeah. I didn't really watch it. Yeah, cuz like Triple D's got to be at what, like 30 seasons. Like Diner Driveins has to be at least like 30 something seasons. Yeah, it's got to be. I haven't seen that in years. Is it still on? I think so. I think it's actually like shot in like [ __ ] 8K now. I think they really stepped up the production on D3. Interesting. But yeah, let's set some tricks, man. Let's uh let's close this thing out strong. All right, you're on. Here he is. Sorry to make you wait so long. Oh, that's okay.

55:54 Happy to. What made me think of this when you're talking about the spikes and cutting and little bit of rope magic today? Okay. But you're going to be my assistant. Oh, nice. Speaking of, I don't know if you can get this. We just stabbed my neighbor over here. Uh, maybe you heard of the famous trick where the rope floats up into the air. Someone climbs the rope. That'll be you. Okay. Disappears and then the rope falls. Have you heard of this? No. The East Indian rope trick. Very famous. Well, that's okay because I don't know that one. But that would have been a good trick. All right. Now, I I really do know some weird things with rope, though. For example, have you ever wondered what happens when you take the ends off the rope? You can actually get a loop of rope when you do that. But to do the trick I want to do today, I'm going to need two ropes. They have to be exactly the same. Now, this is where you

56:39 come into the trick. So, would you hand me Mhm. the center of the rope. Just got to give me the middle right here. All right, Mr. Microphone, would you agree? If you cut it here, that would give us two the same length. All right, that's the spot selected. Very care. Take the scissors. Don't cut the fingers. Just cut the rope. Grab the scissors. I'm going to give you a nice injury right there. Don't cut the mic cord either. Right. All right. Uh, but we're a little off on the length. That's okay. I'm going to have you even these out. Let me line them up straight and ask you to cut this off right here. That should do it.

57:09 Right there. Where you want? Right there. I think that should make them exactly the same length. All right. Now, we have two ropes. Okay. We need two ropes exactly the same length. Would you mind cutting that right there? Just give it a good cut. There we go. Right there. That's a way to do it. Now we have two ropes. Exactly. The Have you ever had something called deja vu? Have you ever had something called deja vu? Have you ever had Yeah, you knew that. You heard that one coming, I bet. Here we go. Just say abracadabra.

57:39 Abracadabra. All right, we're just going to start all over. Here we go. Now, to do the trick I really want to do today, we're going to need two ropes. They have to be the same length. That's where you come into the trick. Grab the middle of the rope and just lift it up. Hand it to me. Uh, and would you agree if we cut the rope here, we'd have two the same length? Like pretty fair. Would you grab the scissors again? Cut it just like you did before. Here we go. And uh, we're a little off on the length. Would you mind cutting the You know what? Rather than go through all of that again, I think if we just do the trick, we can actually correct the length. So, let me give you a good view. You look like a good knot, right? Hold on to the end of the rope real tight. Don't let go. Watch the knot.

58:19 You can let go. out. A lot of people think it's a trick knot. That is why I always like to untie it. Come here. So everybody can see it is indeed a real knot. Yeah. All right. Now, Matt, would you like to put two ropes back together yourself? Yeah, I know you can do it. Big fan of yours. You know, I got a a carpet named after you outside my door at home, too. All right. Get the scissors here for me. Um, always been a big fan, by the way. Thank you for having me. All right. We're going to tie the ends of that one. We'll give it a cut. And I want you to pick a rope. Do you want to use the one I just tied and cut or the rope I'm going to cut right now? I'll take the one you're going to cut right now. Which this one? Yeah. Let me give that a cut. I always give you a chance to change your mind. Would you like to change your mind or keep the mind that you have? Okay. I'll keep the one that you can keep is mine. All

59:05 right. Here we go. So, we're going to tie these together for you. Just like that. All right. Hold it on the end. All right. So, you won't be able to do the magic wave because you got a mic. So, instead say the magic words. Alakazam. Alakazam. Say, "Oh, what a great magician I am." What a great magician. You don't have a hand to take it in your teeth. Mhm. Pull the knot off like a real escape artist. Ah, you did it. There you go. Y. There we go. Good job, man. You can keep that as a souvenir. I will. Might be worth pennies someday, right?

59:43 Yeah. How'd you even do that? That's crazy. You did it. You did it. True. Magic's in me. We can do another trick if you want. I'll show you how one is done. No, I would never I would never reveal. You want me I mean, do you want me to show you how a trick is done today? If you want. I thought magicians get killed for that. This is a special show. It's the secret. True. True. Show me the secret. You show me the secret trick. All right. Can we take a little break and we'll take a break. Take a break. All right. We'll be right back with the secret for the secret broadcast show. Okay. All right.

1:00:23 We're cutting back in. Let me know. All right, we're back. The interview portion. I think the interview portion is concluded, but now we're doing tricks. All right. Good interview. That was a great interview. I had fun. Thank you. I had fun. I was talking in the microphone, but we're going to give it off in a minute. But first, little weren't magic. We promised we're going to be doing some miracles right now. Many as they were done thousands of years ago. Maybe you heard of this one. It's called Walking on Water. Thank you.

1:00:48 No, I I was about to tell you you just got promoted. We do hold both of these things now. Okay. Thank you so much. Oh, he's lovely assistant and Mr. Microphone. So beautiful. Okay. Uh this is definitely one we're not going to have a relationship with our assistant by the way. In case you just I don't know, man. If you put me around all those caries, it could get kind of weird out there. All right. So, what are we going to do? Well, there's a secret podcast. I'm going to reveal a secret today. Oh, here we go. Show you a magic trick. Show you how it's done. For this trick, you need a handkerchief, a scarf, and a left a left hand. You put the handkerchief or scarf all the way in the hand like this. Okay.

1:01:26 You make something called a magic pass. We know what a pass is, right? Mhm. I go up to Mr. Microphone. Go. Hi. Not doing that kind of pass. We already established that. A magic pass. You do this. Now we have an egg and the scarf or handkerchief has jumped into my pocket. Yo, as promised. All right, you ready to see the secret? Let's see the secret. Actually, I bought it by mistake. If you ladies need some out there, this is the secret. You put All right. Different secret. All right. Yes. The secret to the magic trick. And this is a trick egg. It's a plastic egg laid by a very sick bird.

1:02:08 And there is a hole in the back of the egg. Kind of a let down. Let me see how these work. And you need two handkerchiefs to do the trick. All right. Here's what you do. You hide the egg in your hand. Hold both hands the same. You come out in a natural way. So now whatever looks natural for sure. Take the handkerchief, wave it around like this. Actually, that depends on the company that you're want to drop it either. True. Anyway sorry. You're getting paid, right? That's all that matters. Okay, here we go. He's actually really wealthy. Oh, okay.

1:02:42 Really? Yeah. Well, maybe we can renegotiate this relationship after all. You didn't tell me that. Okay, so he's in the top 3%, I would say, in the country. Wow. 3% of what? Earners. Earners. Earners. Really amazing. Congratulations. Apparently, he's a huge dick. I don't want to make it weird, but he pays a lot. He's got huge dick, too. Oh, yes. Money. Big dick. You got I guess you're getting a lot of fans right now. Gosh, I didn't plug my Instagram. You guys follow me on Instagram. Plug it. What is it? Entertainer. Steve Crawford.

1:03:17 Entertainer. You type entertainer, I'll pop up. There you go. Why did I do that? Cuz I'm from Facebook country and I'm trying to get some new friends out here. So, got nice to meet you guys. Okay. So, where were we? Oh, yeah. You hide the egg in your hand. You hold both hands the same. Come out in a natural way. Take the handkerchief and you start placing it in your hand. But we know what's going where. in the egg. In the egg, it actually goes all the way into the egg. Go. You make the pass. You show them the egg and you tell everyone that the scarf or handkerchief has jumped into your pocket. Now, there's a couple of quick rules I got. Why don't you show them the egg? Can't show the egg. Well, you show them that it has turned into an egg. Uh, but there's a few tips. He's got a point. First of all, you know, don't show anybody the back side of the egg.

1:04:00 Right. That's important. Wow. Wow. Wes. and and make sure in the handkerchief in your pockets the same color as that one that's in the egg. If this doesn't match that, you're not going to fool them. But what do you do if they see the back of the egg? I mean, where you guys are standing, you can see the red. Well, you don't tell them it's a handkerchief. You tell them you cut your finger. You're painting it. Chicken banged his head trying to get out. I may be be a magician, but as you probably got a feel for, I'm an honest guy. I try to be honest. So, here's here's what I like to do. Make a real magic pass. Peel the hole off the egg like that.

1:04:32 Crack the egg so everybody can see. Hold on a second, brother. Yo, you tricked us. That is a real egg. This one. Oh, gravity. Gravity over here. Sorry. And that's what I like to do. And that's a magic secret. You tricked us, bro. You didn't give us the secrets. That's awesome. That's a good secret. I'm a magician. What do you mean? I lie a lot. You know, I But you know it's a trick. All right. That was pretty cool. Thank you very much. Hell yeah. Thank you, Steve. It's been fun. Appreciate you. Bye. Goodbye. That was great.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)"?

Matt (Guest), Steve Crawford (Guest).

What is "Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)" about?

Steve Crawford, a versatile entertainer with a rich background in acting, magic, and daredevil stunts, shares his journey from childhood fascination with Houdini to a 30-40 year career in stunt performance, highlighting the thrill and risks involved in his craft. The conversation also touches upon the challenges of his career, including recent injuries sustained while performing.

What is mentioned in this Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Steve Crawford, Harry Houdini, Alex Cooper, World's Worst Cooks, MacGyver 101, Tony Curtis. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)"?

The episode runs 1 h 5 min; the transcript is about 14,536 words in 96 timestamped sections.

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