When we do this trick everyone feels so sorry for me. It's not as bad as it looks, but I come off as the poor abused assistant tormented by the evil magician and Pete plays it for all he's worth. We either do this as the final trick in an act or as a one-off for corporate events.
Pete introduces the trick by talking about Houdini's famous Water Torture trick, how the victim has to escape from a box full of water whilst suspended upside down before he drowns. He pulls a cloth off the prop revealing a glass box edged with sturdy looking steel, but it's smaller than Houdini's basically a cube about 3 feet square and full of water. The box is on a raised platform that is larger than the box itself and gives the audience a good view under and around it.
He explains the other difference in his trick is that he's not going inside at which point I step out from the wings wearing a string bikini and a pair of heels. Pete says he needs two volunteers so I step down into the audience and pick a couple of likely looking guys whilst he explains how in the original Houdini would have his ankles locked into the top of the box and be lowed in head first.
Pete steps up onto the platform and signals the stage-hand to lower the winch. He clips it to the lid and it's raised up and swung over beside the box. Pete explains the construction of the lid to the audience, it has four holes in it and is in three parts, like a set of stocks allowing the victims ankles and wrists to be placed into the holes and the whole device closed up again.
I step up onto the platform and kneel sideways on to the audience. Following Pete's instructions the two volunteers guide my ankles into the first part of the stock and slide the middle part down trapping them. I reach back and they guide my wrists into the cut-outs on the top of the middle part, sliding the top part down trapping my wrists as well. Finally two long bolts are slid down through all three pieces and tightened with spanners.
I'm now left kneeling with my hands and feet behind me bolted into an inescapable set of stocks. Trust me, there is no escape, I've tried, but for the benefit of the audience I try to pull my limbs free as the volunteers confirm I am trapped. Pete signals the stage hand and I'm winched into the air a couple of feet suspended by my wrists and ankles.
Pete turns to the audience and jokingly says I may have some bolt cutters concealed in my clothing, he tells the volunteers they should remove my bikini. They don't need a second invitation and quickly untie the strings holding it on. I struggle a bit and glare at Pete, but there's nothing I can do to resist and a few seconds later I'm hanging completely naked in front of hundreds of strangers. Pete takes one of my nipples and uses it to turn me completely around, giving the audience a full view of all my charms.
I'm raised up some more and swung over the top of the box, Pete hands each volunteer two large padlocks and instructs them on what to do as they take up positions on either side of the box. He looks at me and theatrically asks if I'm ready. I nod and I'm dropped into the water causing some of it to splash over the sides. The volunteers quickly push two steel bars through loops on top of the box and the lid and snap the padlocks through either end. I'm now bolted into the stock which is padlocked to the box, escape seems impossible.
Pete takes the keys from the volunteers and drops them on the stage in front of the box explaining they are the only copy and that at most I have about 3 minutes of air in my lungs. I'm facing the audience in the box and they can see me wriggling slightly with my hair floating around me. Pete then clips a cover around the box hiding me from view, except for my feet and hands that are sticking out of the top.
He gives the audience some flannel about Houdini and briefly reveals me still in the box wriggling. A bit more flannel and by now the audience has seen my hands and feet are really wiggling at the top of the box. Pete reveals me and I'm really squirming, I see him and start violently shaking my head. Pete just laughs and says to the audience “Looks like she's having some trouble there” before covering me back up.
Finally after a bit more chat with the audience Pete steps back up to the box and raises a sheet in front of it. There's a flash and he drops the sheet, a couple of audience members start to applaud expecting to see me standing triumphantly on the box dripping everywhere. But I'm not there, my feet and hands are still sticking out of the top, still now. The applause stops suddenly and no-ones sure what's happening.
Pete pulls the cover off of the front of the box. I'm still inside, but it looks different, I'm perfectly still, staring ahead. I don't look like I've drowned, but it doesn't look right. He jumps down and grabs the keys, unlocking the padlocks. He signals for the winch and I'm hoisted up from the box.
It takes the audience a few seconds to realise what they're seeing, the box is completely empty, hanging below the stocks is a three foot cube of ice with me trapped inside. He lowers me and my icy prison down to the stage and with the help of the volunteers, removes the bolts from the stocks and slides them off.
Pete taps on the block of ice and asks if I'm OK. I make a thumbs up sign and wiggle my feet. The audience realises this is the trick all along and applauds as I start waving to them. The volunteers check my hands and feet and confirm they're real as is the block of ice. I really am trapped inside it, thanks to Pete's magic I'm not suffocating or freezing to death but it does feel like someone is constantly rubbing an ice cube over my nipples and pussy which I think is one of Pete's little tricks.
Depending on the venue I'll either be left on the stage or placed on a table where people can examine me as the block slowly melts. It normally takes about an hour before enough of the ice has melted for me to break out during which time people will touch my feet, shake my hands and peer into the ice at my nude body. It's only when I finally break free from the ice after having spent an hour in their midst that they finally believe I was really in there.