Synopses & Reviews
For 30 years people have been calling Bill Shirk "crazy."
He has been buried alive ten times, hung 1,600 feet in the air from a helicopter by an ice skate (while in a straitjacket), run with the bulls in Pamplona (also in a straitjacket), and jumped off numerous bridges and cliffs (again in straitjackets).
Why did he do it? To be on national TV, to garner eight escape world records (including fastest time to get out of a straitjacket; highest escape from a straitjacket; and fastest jail escape), and ultimately to lay claim to the title: World's Number One Escape Artist. Why else?
How did he do that? Now, for the first time, Bill Shirk reveals how he performed some of his most celebrated escapes, each more spectacular and heart-pounding than the last. Read how he survived being buried alive for three days with a python and a timber rattlesnake; learn how he escaped from a jail while chained and handcuffed; see what happened when ten tons of wet cement broke his coffin; and experience the feeling when the burning rope he was hanging upside down from dropped him into a shark-infested pool.
Of course, just because Shirk tells you how to get out of a straitjacket in four seconds doesn't mean you'll be able to do it. Likewise, once you know how to put your head in a bag with a rattlesnake, you'd still be certifiable to try it. Leave it to the experts. As Shirk says, "If I was really crazy, I'd be dead."
Review
"After 30 years in television, I thought I had seen or heard every outrageous story and interviewed every off-the-wall person. Then I read Modern Day Houdini. If you doubt that a story can spine-tingling and funny at the same time, put down your TV remote and pick up Bill Shirk's book."--Burt Dubrow former Executive Producer The Jerry Springer Show
Review
"What a treat to be taken "backstage" into a profession that has fascinated people since Harry Houdini. A behind the scenes of the world's greatest escape artist. An incredible read about the planning, pain, motivation, endurance and fear that go into an escape."-- Carl Andrews
International Award-Winning Magician
Synopsis
The world's number one escape artist, Bill Shirk, divulges the secrets behind 25 of his most spectacular escapes.
About the Author
In between buying and selling radio and TV stations,
Bill Shirk has broken many escape world records. In between writing books,
Dick Wolfsie appears each morning on CBS-affiliate WISH-TV Indianapolis, often with his beagle, Barney.