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If you've even been to a live sporting event in North America, then you've probably seen some terrible halftime entertainment—but that's because so few halftimes involve a death-defying act that actually defies death.
Feb 3, 2009 12:30 PM
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If you've even been to a live sporting event in North America, then you've probably seen some terrible halftime entertainment—but that's because so few halftimes involve a death-defying act that actually defies death.
The Oklahoma City Thunder turned that concept on its head when they recently hosted a Houdini-style underwater escape act. Kristen Johnson is a professional escape artist whose specialty is getting out of handcuffs and leg irons while being fully submerged in a tube of water. Since that one trick is more thrilling than anything the Thunder have done on a basketball court this season, they booked her for the January 16th game against Detroit.
It was a great idea ... right up until the point where Kristen went into hypoxic seizure—that what's happens when your brain runs out of oxygen—in front of 17,000 NBA fans. It look her a bit longer than usual to get out of the chains, so her temporarily lifeless body had to be pulled from the tank before she drowned in front horrified onlookers. It's Fan-Tastic!
You can watch the CNN report about it, or just this unedited YouTube of the incident—which is strangely prominent on their website—or you can see how the trick is actually supposed to work here. She survived (mostly unharmed), but the confused clapping you hear from the OKC fans seems to say, "Even though being able to tell people we saw a daredevil die in front of our eyes would have been cool, we guess we're glad you're okay."
Houdini stunt horror [CNN.com]
Ridgeway and Johnson [ridgewayandjohnson.com]
Send an email to Dashiell Bennett, the author of this post, at dashiell@deadspin.com.
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