Kristen Johnson

Kristen Johnson (born in Glens Falls, New York) is an award-winning escape artist that stands out in the male-dominated world of magic. She bills herself as "The World's Premier Female Escape Artist".

Performing on Turkey television show

With her husband magician Kevin Ridgeway, they work under the names Living Illusions, Ridgeway & Johnson and Breathless. The couple have a strong Christian faith and under the Living Illusions name, have performed in connection with many faith based events and organizations, such as the Will Graham Celebration with evangelist Billy Graham's grandson in May 2008.[1] As their act became more successful they expanded into doing larger venues, fairs and festivals with a show under the name of Ridgeway & Johnson. In 2007 they launched a full-length touring theater show under the name Breathless, which has played across the United States.

Kristen's signature escape is the Full View Water Torture Cell - in which she is chained up and locked inside a water filled tank from which she escapes in full view of the audience. The full view aspect differentiates it from Houdini's water torture cell escape, which required a curtain to be drawn to obscure him from the audience while he escaped.[2] She performed the original version of the stunt as part of the Worldwide Escape Artist's Relay in 2005, which was an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of escapes performed in a day.[3]

In addition to the only "Full View Water Torture Cell" she also includes other escapes and stunts including passing through a 747 jet turbine engine.

On October 29, 2006 Kristen received the Masters Award by Thomas Blacke of Escape Masters magazine at the 4th Annual International Escape Convention. She was one of only two artists to have performed at the first four international escape artist conventions that had been held.[4]

Kristen's Water cell stunt requires her to hold her breath while she picks a series of locks that fasten chains and secure the lid of the cell. She averages 2 minutes and 48 seconds underwater on one breath, however she has occasionally taken up to 3 minutes and 18 seconds to free herself. She ends her shows with this escape and has performed it as often as 30 times in ten days. She offers a $10,000 challenge to anyone who can prove that she takes a second breath, uses an underwater breathing apparatus or a key once she has dropped below the water. Escapologist and convention organizer Mark Cannon has stated that this escape "is fast becoming one of the most talked-about stunts in the world of escapology". And Wayne N. Kawamoto from About: magic has written: "Her escape was the most dramatic and involving that I have ever witnessed. Johnson set a high bar for the other performers that will be difficult to match."[5]

Kristen has been featured on The Travel Channel's Inside the Houdini Museum. This show documented Houdini and modern day escape artists. Kristen was the only female selected for the show, in which she performed her Spike Escape and, together with her husband, a version of Origami. She has been mentioned on the front page of The L.A. Times in a story about the re-emergence of escape artists. On March 17, 2008, Kristen performed her Full View Water Torture Cell during a Half Time Show for the New Orleans Hornets game. Kristen was featured on the television show, Mucizeler Gecesi, in Istanbul, Turkey in May, 2008 where she performed her Full View Water Torture Cell, her Rope Tie escape and her Diamond Plated Steel Box for a live studio audience.

Bill Taylor from The Toronto Star wrote that "In the past six years, she's performed the escape almost 500 times and has her eyes on Houdini's record, which is believed to be around 1,000 times."[6]

References

1. ^ Fuller, Debbie ((2006)). "Living Illusion", Christian Hollywood. Retrieved on 10 March 2007.
2. ^ ""Kristen Johnson's Full View WTC"". Escape Artist Reference Library. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
3. ^ "Worldwide Escape Artist Relay, October 29, 2005". Dr Wilson's Memory Elixir. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
4. ^ For 2nd convention see "Cannon's Great Escapes". Retrieved on 2007-03-10. For 4th convention see Sholley, Diana (27 Sept 2006). "Escape artist convention to mesmerize in Ontario". DailyBulletin.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
5. ^ Kawamoto, Wayne. "Escape Artist Convention Unleashes in Ontario". About.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
6. ^ Taylor, Bill. "Houdini torture revived right before your eyes". The Toronto Star. Retrieved on 2008-08-11.

External links

This page incorporated content from Kristen_Johnson_(escape_artist),

a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

Kristen Johnson

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