Thomas Solomon
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Thomas Solomon (born 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American escape artist and magician.
Escape Artistry and magic were not beginning interests for Thomas Solomon. Rather, it was an early fascination with mechanical devices and especially locks that began the slow roll towards a successful career as an escape artist and magician. At the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to a locksmith with the "enviable" job of answering the phone and sweeping the floors. His perseverance with these mundane tasks endeared him to the lock professionals in the shop who eventually took him under their wing teaching him the 'real work'; how to open high security locks without keys; how to fashion tools from everyday objects; and how to crack safes. Through their guidance, he learned that success in opening locks and safes is not just knowledge, but equal parts finesse, practice and patience -- and mastering the shop's power and hand tools didn't hurt either. Solomon never forgot what he learned and is thus afforded a knowledge of locks that today is among the best in the world. It is said he is able to fashion a tool to open a lock with only a quick glance at the key.
Around age sixteen, a separate interest in stage magic began to blossom. To Solomon, the modus operandi of most illusions and stage magic ran parallel with his interest in mechanics. He began to experiment with a magic act consisting of mechanical apparatus and sleight-of-hand by incorporating what he was learning as a locksmith apprentice.
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[edit] The Great Escape
In Milwaukee, then Chicago, Solomon first presented "The Great Escape," a show combining magic with escape artistry. With the early success of this show, the nightclub asked Solomon to drop the magic and concentrate only on escapes. As a marketing ploy, the nightclub asked participants to bring whatever they wanted to the theatre (handcuffs, locks, and straitjackets) to challenge the magician. It is said that over the course of three years, he never failed.
He has performed his award-winning handcuff act (2000 World Magic Awards, PAX Television) at The Roxy, The Magic Castle, Bally's and many others. In 1988 he entertained President Ronald Reagan at the White House where he escaped the handcuffs of the Uniformed Secret Service. He has done a total of 19 jail breaks to date.
A brief list of Solomon's accomplishments includes his escape from a twenty pound ball and chain at the bottom of the Hudson River, his escape after being chained to a weighted chair in the East River, various underwater handcuff escapes in the Mississippi, Long Island Sound, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Lake Michigan and many others. Also, he has escaped a maximum security jail cell in Brooklyn, a titanium steel bank safe under thirty feet of water for British television, a locked revenue collection bag of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the one-of a kind French I Bar restraint, and London's oldest maximum security prison, Pentonville. He has escaped the leg irons that imprisoned Billy The Kid in 1881 in New Mexico and escaped the solitary confinement cell that held Al Capone at Eastern State Penitentery.
His first network special, Thomas Solomon: The Escape Artist aired on Channel Four in Great Britain in 2003 to rave reviews. His subsequent television appearances include the BBC's History of Magic and Channel Five's Secret World of Magicians. He is currently filming several new shows to be aired on The History Channel and is in final negotiations for a show in Las Vegas.
[edit] Accomplishments
To date (2007) has escaped from more than 5000 pairs of handcuffs of all different types from all times in history. These include:
Standard issue police restraints, the Time Release Spider Lock, the French "I" Bar restraint, the Australian Letter Cipher Lock, Lilly Irons (imprisoned the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators). Various German restraints including Berliners, the Deutsche Polizei, the Dortmunder, Clejusos, and Dollars. Various British restraints including Darbys, Sheffields and Hiatts. Various French restraints including the Lapegy and La Massenotte. Various Italian restraints of the Caribineri. Various American restraints including Towers, Smith & Wesson and Peerless. Various Communist bloc restraints including those from Bulgaria, Russia and East Germany.
Solomon has escaped two locked safes in his career, one of them underwater for the British television show, Thomas Solomon: The Escape Artist
Solomon has escaped 19 jails in New York City, London, Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, Trenton and others. Most notable were his escapes from the maximum security prison Pentonville in the UK (that houses IRA terrorists) and from Al Capone's personal cell at Eastern State Penitentery.
Solomon is the only person to have escaped the leather and canvas money bag previously used by the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.
He has accomplished hundreds of straitjacket releases, most notably an escape from the all-leather straitjacket specifically created to thwart him by Menkes Leather Works.
[edit] Injuries
Four broken fingers on left hand, Broken right wrist (twice), Broken right foot, Broken right ankle, Perforated left ear drum, Inch long laceration above left eye within eyebrow, Longitudinal fracture at the base of fifth finger of left hand
[edit] Stage
- Theatre of the Macabre Off Broadway 1995-1998 (1500 performances)
- Ellusions Off Broadway 2002-2003
[edit] Television
World Magic Awards 2000 PAX Television, Thomas Solomon: The Escape Artist 2003 Channel Four Great Britain, The History of Magic 2004 BBC Great Britain, The Secret World of Magicians 2005 Channel Five Great Britain No Jail Can Hold Me 2007 The History Channel
[edit] Published Works
"Diaries of an Escape Artist" (1999), "Escape!!!" (2003) and "Escape Velocity" (2004).
[edit] External links
www.thomassolomon.com/fans, www.myspace.com/escapemaster, thomassolomon.blogspot.com
