Welcome to softcore History. Welcome back to softcore History. I'm your host for
the week Damn Rechester, and I am joined as always by Rob Fox and
Jake Goldman. What is up? Boys? Oh? You know, just
being chilly? You know? Did you know? Yeah, for the listeners,
did you know that our studio doesn't have heating? The studio is currently
forty six inside. Is it really that cold in here? Yeah? I
knew. I fucking knew. When I was leaving the house, I was
like, okay, I was like putting on like my peak coat and stuff,
and I was like, wait, wait, whatever, whatever jacket I
put on, I'm gonna need to keep on. So I swiped on.
Yeah, swapped out to my thick ass. Yeah. It's a once in
a lifetime storm that happens every year. Now yep, well this year it's
because of Elmino. I thought it was the polar vortex. Is that what
we are? It's polar bortex? Yeah, twenty five degrees again, not
that bad, it's magic. Yeah. I would play outside in this weather.
We're from St Huish, shut up, shut up, No one cares.
I know he's from phil No one cares. Isn't there signs behind it
actually being colder here and in Florida because of the humidity. Mm hmm,
well with the precipitous when it gets cold here, yeah, like Florida colds
a different cold bites. It's like a Florida fifty is still somehow worse than
a Philly twenty. I would say, once it gets below fifty degrees in
Florida, it's like, ooh, it's just wet. It's wet and cool.
All the iguanas die, they do they fall out of trees. Yeah,
really well there basis right, Yeah, and they'll just like you'll be
driving, you gotta take your umbrella for iguanas. That'd be sick to just
like wait under a tree with a baseball bat and try to like hit them
as they fall. That's actually how use in the state of Florida get get
at baseball bat in practice. Y. Yeah, Chipper Jones grew up in
Florida, and he actually that's how he learned to hit. He would stand
under a tree and swing at iguanas. Nash, don't I remember the iguana's
always being a thing. I'm sure they're not. I'm sure everything happened in
the last forty years when your asshole residents just like flush their pets into the
fucking swamp. I'll doo who Now you have an open python season, you're
well come, we're just making it cooler. I want to go python hunting,
dude. You don't want to go to the Everglades unless you have to
know. You could do it in normal places too. They're everywhere. He's
just going to some guy's backyard with the dogs and ship. I swear to
god, we're like five years away from a monitor lizard eating a toddler.
It wouldn't surprise me. This thing's awesome for sure. Happened before now.
Oh one funny thing to if you've thought of it, you can look it
up. It's happened. Yeah. If you're if you're ever in South Florida,
go on Facebook marketplace and look for a black market iguana meat for sale
because people people be out here scoop and iguanas and flaying them fucking gnarly.
I actually you shouldn't need those. Do you follow Python Cowboy and Instagram?
Is he the swamp puppy guy? Yeah? Boop, he like boops them
and stuff like that. Yeah, those dogs trained hunting dogs, you like
that he kills iguanas and like the Egyptian geese that are invasive too. Oh
yeah, I've seen this guy and uh, anyway, one time he I
mean, he'll just like sniper. He has like guncam videos of killing iguanas.
Is awesome. Anyway, he had some dead iguana on his boat that
the dog brought back, and and some redneck woman was on there, and
he was just like Daria, and he like pulled these eggs out of the
iguana, like it's like a female iguana, and the woman just like ate
a raw ascid iguanta egg out of the iguana. I went a fucking puke.
Oh man, you know it's crazy. When I talked about how he
made the carnie eat the goldfish, Everyone's like, you're a monster. What
are the macros on that egg? It's a forty protein right there. I
do it, no question. Raw. I mean raw milks all the rage
these days. Raw milk's probably so much better for you. It's just it's
the problem with raw milk was that we started putting dairy cows into pins and
they'd started infecting each other, and like the dirty people weren't cleaning up when
they were milk. I go straight to the tea. Yeah. No,
it's just like there's a way to clean. I've just kept my wife lactating.
That's perfect. Yeah, Fin's almost a year old. She's been going
the whole time. You gotta put another baby and we use formula. That's
all for me. I feel like you should be buffer, I know,
human milk to find time to work out of all the milk you gotta get
out, it's all drinking. Yeah, it's all. It's all taking,
no lifting, sick. And also because of all the content we're putting out
on patreon dot com, slash softcore History five dollars a month gets you two
additional episodes every week, and we have an entire back catalog now of a
year and a half, two years of evergreen content. And we've got some
new content coming your way. Just got the ship for that on Patreon.
I'm excited for it. Oh oh what content. We are going to a
Battle of wills between the Battle of wits, Battle of wills, oh the
thing, yeah, battle of patients because it's a board game. Yeah that's
right. Well we're not gonna do it all in one sitting. No,
it's gonna be a multi part Yeah, Patreon, it'd be amazing. We
unless we're very bad, we won't do it in one sitting. Yeah,
just smokes us. We get I don't see. I've never played a full
game. I've never played a single second of Risk. I haven't played.
I haven't played it in probably twenty five years. That's why we're gonna get
the official Milton Bradley instructions and find every loophole possible. I'm just gonna cheat
my dick off. Yeah that's war baby. Yeah, it's like Monopoly cheatings
encourage. Every game is cheating encouraged. It's just wherever I am. I'm
going to dig in, like the Afghans, just starting off against There isn't
I don't believe there's a stinger missile piece in the in the Risk, but
we never can hide in the cave. Yeah, okay, you rolled the
Okay, I roll a three. All my guys go into a cave.
There's a tactical nuke piece. We don't know what exactly it does, but
it works. So again. Pitchreon dot com slash softcore History. Make sure
to subscribe to our YouTube. Start in February, big announcement, guys,
huge here big. We're going two episodes on the main feed every week.
I believe we decided Mondays is when the audio drops for kind of like us
covering events in history. Yes, and then Thursdays it'd be more of a
biography on somebody. Yeah, we're gonna need to make a calendar. Yeah,
I'll do that. I'll get in there. That's uh. I could
see do it off the dome. My guys shooting the hip. I you,
this isn't hard. I was preparing for this week because I thought it
was my week again. Well no, no, so we actually kind of
boned ourselves. I never got a week off. Oh technically, yeah,
because of the holidays and the break and the shooting schedule for that. You're
welcome, Yeah, you got a free week. I'm saying you're welcome to
you. Oh extra grind Yeah, I am a grind boy. Yeah.
I've accepted that. I don't want to do anything fun this year. Yeah.
Dan's pulling up analytics now we're calling them the analytics. I'm tracking my
macros, I'm gonna track all my workouts. I'm tracking my budget for the
first time. Thirty two almost thirty three, sick, Enter my Jesus here.
I'm not getting haircuts. I'm not getting I'm not gonna turn my bear.
Actually we're both doing that. Gross, We're just gonna be Jesus.
Guys, Well you fit? Are you thirty three? We're both the same
age, we're the same age, birthday week, babies coming up in May?
Okay, so you'll be thirty three this year. So you have thirty
three year old jew with a beard. Crucify me, dad, Yeah.
The whole point is to level up so then we can die. So we're
gonna we got to reach ascension. I mean Jesus really did is all his
ship in the last like two years? What would be like our easter?
I guess how many months is uh easter from the birth? It's like four
months? Right? Well, well, I mean historical thirty three years birthday
is not December twenty fifth, my guys, it's like in March allegedly or
okay, so it's like a fucking eight grade easter. What date would be
our Easter? Something like August September, a week after we turned thirty three?
We die, essentially, why because that's really what happened with Jesus.
Well, so easter was win, then I'm confused even more now, like
whatever, Okay, we don't need to figure this out on it, No,
not on air. Don't need to do this. I think people would
love it. We don't have to do it at all, truthfully, whatever
man. In fact, we're gonna talk about a man as magical as Jesus
Christ. I doubt that. I'm gonna tell you what a priest yelled at
my classmate in first grade. Jesus is not magic. It's a miracle.
It's not magic. Yeah, all right, so this man's more impressive than
Jesus Christ. That probably. Yeah. We're talking, of course about my
guy, Eric Wise. You hear about this guy? You know about this
I don't know who Eric Wisse. I've never heard of this person. Or
Wise sounds like a guy went to high school. I was to say,
that's like the guy that sits bench on the basketball in high school, Eric
Wise. Yeah, he's been on the team every year, never plays.
I'm gonna keep going until you figure out who this is. Okay, is
does he go buy another name? We'll get to that. So, yes,
I don't know that David Copperfield. You're doing David Copperfield Epstein. We're
not doing an Epstein list David Copperfield. I've actually seeing David Copperfield life.
You are just around all kinds of child molesterers. It's it's not that it's
not like them out they're seeking it. It turns out maybe they are child
molesters after the fact, like David Copperfield actually has a lot of this man's
material, Okay, and just historical artifacts. Is Eric Wise Houdini? I
figure? Yeah, yeah, got it. Eric Wise was born March twenty
fourth, eighteen seventy four and Hungary. Is it Eric Weiss? Spell it
w e i sc sc z wise a Wise, Eric Weise. He's the
fourth of seven children in a large Jewish family, pour one out from a
boy Eric bang. Yeah. With things looking bleak for the Jews during that
time, as it did every other year in Europe, the family would move
to Appleton, Wisconsin when Eric was just four. His father served as a
rabbi for the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. Was his mother, who he grew
close to the rest of his life, stay at home, never learned English
or Yiddish and communicated with her kids speak German. Okay, okay, yeah,
man, you guys are just stepping all over me, let me to
it. I'm gonna answer your questions. Patty German might as well be.
Yeah. Once his dad got kicked out of the synagogue for being too old
world with his views, Eric's family moved to Milwaukee cancel culture fucking lives and
fell into deep poverty, so he had to pull his share. From an
early age, he started with odd jobs on newspapers, shining shoes, brunning
errands for store owners before becoming a locksmith apprentice. Oh that makes a lot
of sense. Hm, that makes a lot of sense. Now can we
can we discuss it, like we know the fact that it is the person
we're talking about now it is Houdini. Yeah, yeah, okay, cool,
all right, that makes a lot of sense that he would be a
locksmith apprentice, learn how to do loucks, learn how to get out of
them and open them. Yeah. Actually his his trick for getting out of
handcuffs is like genius. I wish you widen your like what is it?
Like he just he flex when they're putting them on, so it's thicker,
right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've also heard
that too when like there's zip tig. Actually, the way he goes like
do this, like put your hands out like this when they're doing it.
Yeah, that you can collapse them in so there's a little bit of gap
there. Oh yeah, or like do you or do that if you can,
like do anything to create space. Yeah, yeah yeah. In his
free time, he would read books about magic and contortion at the library.
He started performing on the streets with his ragtag group of street children, friends
and family at nine under the name Eric the Prince of the Air, doing
trapeze stunts. I like that better than Houdini, and I will only refer
to Houdini now on as Eric Prince of the Air. That's a terrible name.
That's a great name. That's bad marketing, dude. He also renamed
Eric like he is spelled e R I K. His stage name was e
h R I c h. Yeah to add some like yeah, yeah,
he sounds like Yurik the Prince. It seems a mystical like yeah, basically
yeah, basically yes. When Eric was twelve, his family moved to New
York City, where he cut fabric for neckties. He's also an accomplished cross
country runner and swimmer at school. Okay, so we got the breath holding,
Yeah, breath holding good lung capacity, fit just fit in general,
he's he's half the reason I do this episode is because of his quads.
Quads. It's he's bricked up, dude, just like just stacked like a
ship brick house Brod's all lower body. Yeah, bricked up means horny,
doesn't it? Or hard? Right? I think I fucked up the euphemism
there, but he probably, you know, probably a good dick. Yeah.
It's actually how you get out of a straight jacket when they put it
on. You have to have an erection creates extra space and then you get
soft and uh yeah, you just slip right through you. Yeah. It's
like, so if anyone that were trying to commit you against your will,
make sure you have an erection. Yeah. At fifteen, everything changed.
He discovered the memoirs of Robert Houdin and the rest is history. Oh,
he named himself after this guy kind of is Robert Houdin. He is a
man where he learned the tricks of the trade. Oh, a previous magician
you never heard of? Yeah, oh so he had it an I so,
oh man, it's like an homage classic been doing it forever. I'm
just gonna rip this guy make my own thing. I probably could have just
slow played us better. But yeah, he became Harry Houdini and he became
obsessed with the work of his new hero. That sparked his enthusiasm for what
would become the rest of his life. Magic neat nothing nothing. Anglos love
more than a jew doing tricks. I tell you that they love it when
we make things to say on the streets. Yeah, street magic. So
urchin robbing basically, that's just that's pickpocketing. Guys, Oh my god,
he took my watch. It like you're like, can you imagine like you're
a raving anti semi when you see a little Jewish kid manipulating the laws of
physics. Yeah, just thinking. Also, just our our aptitude for entertainment.
We took something basically legal, like pickpocketing. We made it entertainment.
It's like, got your watch off your wrist, Well, yeah, back,
it's fine if you give it back, but then you get a coin
for it. It's like I just practiced the stealing. I get paid for
it. Yeah, I have no risk of jail. Now you're actually like
almost extorting them. You're like, hey, I took your wallet and I'm
gonna give it back to you, but as out of you know, kindness
for this, give me some of what's in it. That is literally a
classic thief move. By the way, hey fo to be like, hey
man, I found your wall, Like, okay, so thank you.
So about here's five bucks? Yep, classic move. He partnered with his
friend Jacob Hyman and called themselves the brothers Udini, not the Brothers Hymen.
No weird why they performed card tricks, coin swaps, and disappearing acts in
dime museums and on Coney Island during the summers next to snake charmers, fire
eaters, and human oddities freaks freaks. Human oddities is the kindest euphemism for
freaks show I've ever heard. Right, It's just like the dog faced boy,
and it was really just someone with fetal alcohol syndrome or something like that.
Bearded lady, yeah, just a woman with hair on her face,
yeah, just like or just a fucking transvest ie yeah, or just a
dude in address. Yeah. You were saying they were doing disappearing acts,
huh, just interesting stuff. I mean they're teenagers here. Yeah. He
would purchase his first major trick around this time, called Metamorphosis. Which involved
two people trading places in a locked trunk on stage behind screen. Jacob eventually
left the act, and he replaced Jacob with his real brother, Theo.
The two locked down a spot at the Chicago Worldfare in eighteen ninety three.
Ooh, that's where the serial killer was, right, Yeah, Devil in
the White City, hh Holmes. Yeah, that was like America's shitty uh
Midnight in Paris. We should do a comedic midnight in Chicago and it's eighteen
ninety three, it's hh Holmes, Harry Houdini. I'm sure there's a bunch
of other people rolling around there that. Yeah, probably just like the odd
Paul Roosevelt shows up. Yeah, like we could do that. That'd be
fun. After the fair, Whodini and his brother returned to Coney Island,
where they performed at the same hall as the Singing and Dancing Floral Sisters.
Was Coney Island just always a fucking carnival essentially? Yeah? Interesting, Like
it's just like they founded New York and they're like, this shall be our
carnival entertainment. Yeah, I guess so. Coney Island also, like,
is it a franchise of hot dogs? Yeah? Well, that's where the
Coney started. Hot dogs are those tied to Nathan's. Nathan's started at Coney
Island, Okay, yeah, yeah, they are tied to each other though,
right, because like I've been to one in Pennsylvanias hot dogs, Yeah,
that's why they have it at Coney Island. Okay, but I went
to one. People acted like it had nothing to do with the fucking island,
and it was just that was a coincidence. I was like, are
you sure, because this seems like right up the alley of the island,
this seems like it's exclusively from this place. They're like, no, this
is like a Pennsylvania thing. I'm like, I don't think so whatever,
man. Yeah, it wasn't long before a romance blossom between twenty year old
Houdini an eighteen year old best ranner. Oh see, ill sisters. I
was really nerve. Oh from the Florals. I forgot you mentioned a chick,
because I was like, have you even mentioned a woman? Is he
about to bang his brother? Well? He got me off the whole Nathan's
Coney Island thing. I'm sorry. Also properly aged woman twenty and eighteen.
That's just that's solid right there. This is a time, man, This
is the time of history where you're like, he fell in love the beauti
twelve year old girl named Clara. Yeah, or he magically got her reaged.
No, she's now eighteen. Like yeah, okay, I'll just give
me the birth ticket for a minute. Okay, you see this. See
this, that's twelve, says twelve. Okay, I already see it.
That's twelve. Turn it upside down twenty one. After a three week courtship,
Whodini and Best were married on June twenty second, eighteen ninety four.
Oh they knew sometimes, I just know. Man. She was very potite
too, so he saw use for this is like related. I read this
thing the other day about David Blaine and Leonardo DiCaprio about how like back in
the Pussy Posse days, Oh I forgot about the Pussy Posy. Yeah,
Blaine was a part of that, wasn't he kind of yeah, and like
they were worried that like he was like date raping chicks with hypnotism. Even
yeah, let's let's throw out the allegedly that's not it's like barely alleged.
It was like Leonardo DiCaprio was like freaking out about it or something. It's
like, you're a moron. Like he's obviously not like colonel open you open
your cornel, my take off, your take out, your titties, okay,
great, all right, putting myself in you know, car, do
you feel great? I think he's just describing what David Copperfield did on Epstein's
Island. No, Copperfield's got flair though, like he's he he's a little
sexual on the stage though. Yeah. Yeah, he was a sex symbol
for a minute. He was like a hot guy. Yeah. Blaine's last
trick wasn't even magic really. He just went up on an hot air balloon.
Dude, upright, the balloons he was holding the whole time. He's
past magic. Now he's like strengths. He's like feeding straight. He did
that too. He's like, I'm just gonna be underwater for eleven minutes or
some ship. Most of Houdini's stuff, his feats of strength. Yeah,
yeah, like Blaine's one of was he like frozen solid or something. He
was like stuck or some shit. It's like it's not nothing magic about it.
It's just like I'm gonna become Walt Disney pretty much. He does.
Like the balloon one cracked me up. I watched the entire thing of that
because I was like, this is it. She's got like seven hundred helium
balloons carrying him into the sky. All right. I do like when he
just fucks with people, like when he just does the card tricks or whatever.
Yeah, like when Harrison Ford, someone gets a card in Harrison Ford's
orange. Yeah, that's great. I don't need to see him be like
the best one won't die. Let's call that magic. The best one is
when he goes to Haiti and all the Haitians run away from him. That's
not a good place to do magic. No, it's the worst. They
believe in it. Yeah, you believe in it. Yeaheah, You're just
some white devil that showed up doing it best. Soon replaced Theo as Houdini's
partner, since she was able to hide in side various boxes and trunks and
venishin acts much easier since she was tiny, plus you know better, like
people don't want to look at two dudes. Yeah, so that's how that's
how he knew. Within three days. Huh, He's like, oh my
god, you are so small. You gotta have your assistant p a female.
Yeah, I mean, that's what the Prestige taught us. He's maade
to the game. You need to Scarlet Johansson in your corner. Yes.
They went by the names of Monsieur and Mademoiselle Houdini, Mysterious Harry and La
Petite Bessie, or the Great Houdinis. In eighteen ninety six, the Houdinis
went to work in the Welsh Brothers traveling circus Nice Best Saying So tour while
Houdini did magic tricks, and together they performed the Metamorphosis Act. In eighteen
ninety six, when the circus season ended, the Houdini's joined a traveling Vadeville
Chill, Wait, did she sing songs while he was doing the magic?
Like he's like setting up the trick and dancing around? She did some of
the the magic too, Yeah, I mean she was a pro. But
is she like uh the final countdown for job? Oh? Ye? You
know what I mean, Like she's just on stage like what's the Yeah,
you gotta have music for your fucking tricks, dude, what's the one?
The one? Right? Putfore the prestige where it's like it's the one where
you're getting them to look somewhere else away the distraction. She's the distraction.
Yeah, like she's the oh look at this lady sing and you know maybe
that buy that He sends a signal to like popper tit out of people looking
at her wardrobe malfunction. In each new town, Houdini would visit the local
police station announced that he could escape from any handcuffs they put him in.
Bolt just walks in. He's like, lift it up, pussy, I
think you can arrest me. Smells like bacon in here. What do they
even even have handcuffs? That point is it's still like shackles, like old
like chains, like yeah like that like Jack sparrows in and fucking it's actually
a ball touched your ankle. Yeah. Crowds would gather to watch as Houdini
easily escaped. These pre show exploits were often covered by local newspapers, creating
publicity for their show. It'd be funny if one of the cops just beat
the Christ out of them. I think he's unconscious, and then the cuff
of it and then they just wildless. I'm like, okay, we do
to our other prisoners, say I'd never put a gun cuffs before I beat
him on, cos yeah, the whole point to keep audiences further amused.
Hoodini decided to escape from a straight jacket, using his agility and flexibility to
wiggle free from it in direction big old boner. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
hard on. When this show ended, the Houdini scrambled to find work,
even contemplating work other than magic. No, that's you gotta be addicted to
the game. You gotta be willing to be fucking broke. They were offered
a position with Doctor Hills California Concert Company, an old time traveling medicine show
sealing tonic that could cure just about anything. Oh god, So, just
so we're clear, what this sounds like to me, is content created to
sell merch? Yep, there's never there are no new ideas. No,
everything is fucking the same ship over and over. So this guy, it's
like, who, what was the company that bought a content company just to
just to like sell their ship? Every company? Yeah, what you one?
Recently? It was like very transparent like that. That's like it was
like a non content company bought a content company just to sell ship. Oh
oh well, Penn and Barstool for example, necessarily, but that was literally
they just wanted a Why pay for advertising when you can just have a platform.
You just have a channel, right, yeah, exactly, like a
entire multi channel operation to do it for you. Absolutely nothing new, No,
I mean, yeah, you put on a show, sell some ship.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh what do you think a concert is? Yeah,
that's what music's for. They don't make money off the shows. It's
all about selling that sweet tease. Yeah. In the Medicine Show, Whodini
once again performed his escape acts. However, when the tendance members began to
dwindle, doctor Hill asked, who DENI? If he could transform himself into
a spirit medium? What do you mean? Like he They're like, hey,
people aren't showing up. Could you say you're talking to their relative?
Chances? We need a sance bit yes, basically so. Houdini was already
familiar with many of the spirit medium's tricks, so he began seances while best
performed as a clairvoyant, claiming to have psychic gifts. Sure, why not?
Is it racist that whenever I go to New Orleans and I get my
cards read, I'd never want a white person. Uh No, and if
they are white it's gotta be a woe like I did. Last thing I
need is a white man reading my Tarot card. Heamn, Scott, I've
been doing tarot for nine years. Got here? Yeah, okay, tartal
cards and like sushi restaurants. Yeah, like I am. I am literally
looking for like a stereotypical like like disgustingly racistly stereotypical voodoo woman. You don't
want to get to voodooy, No, you just get cursed, yeah yeah,
yeah, because then she knows your Yeah yeah, yeah. You want
to like spit in vodka out you know what I mean around the perimeter and
maybe some face hats. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's just what I want.
But as far as the sushi chef comment goes, it's not an original
thought. I think the League covered it. Timothy Oliphant in an episode was
a sushi chef. It was just like nope, and they're like, no,
thank you. I see. I realized now that like every time you
go into a Benny Hanna, you know, you get like the guy that's
not Japanese. It's like now it's like mostly not Japanese guys. There's not
enough Japanese people in the country to do it's the most Asian guys. Yeah,
it's Asian. That's fine, But he's like, that's not the right.
Oh, I'm talking about like in Florida, where it's like mostly like
Puerto Rican guys. Yeah, but it is like the type of thing where
it's like, imagine you're in Japan or just imagine you're in Japan and you're
like, man, really it's the Mexican food and like the guy you see
the guy cooking and you're like, oh, he's from Oregon, close enough,
same continent. We're good. Yeah, we're good. No, but
also like it doesn't matter. No, it doesn't matter except what the tarot
cards are. Not terrort carts for sure. No, there's a difference between
food and magic. Yeah. Food is food. Like if you can make
it tasty, you make it tastey. Yeah, there's there's literally, there's
a there's directions, and no one from des Moines is channeling anything from the
other from the other side of the No, that's not happening. The Houdini's
were very successful pretending to be spiritualists because they always did the research. As
soon as they pulled into a new town, the Houdinis would read recent obituaries
and visit graveyards to see the names of the newly That's fucking great. That's
smart. Gotta do your work man. No, he's he's committed to the
bit, and he's like, that's a high level of showmanship, honestly,
Like even those people are getting scammed, they're getting scammed convincingly. That's great,
that's good writing. Yeah, you do your research. Yeah. They
would also subtly listen to town gossip. That's just fun. All this allowed
them to piece together enough information to convince crowds that the Houdinis were real spiritualist
with amazing powers to contact the dead. They have ears and eyes. Can
you imagine if they like outed an affair in town. I bet they did.
I bet they had fun with it. Like if there's a town,
they're like, man, fuck this town in particular, you just like get
the merits hard and feathered. By the end of the day, however,
feelings of guilt about lying to grief stricken people eventually became overwhelming, and the
Houdinis ultimately quit the show. But there they're got too good at it.
Yeah, they're not in it for that right, it's after that is a
nightmare. Like after the show, someone runs up, like, tell me
more what my little Billy said for the I messed him so much. Oh
you can handle that easy. It's like, oh, he said it's really
hot. Yeah. But then she follows you. Think about all right,
yeah, think about fans we've had or have where it's like they just get
really into it, you know what I mean, and really and they like
you'll damn me a lot or whatever, like, but think about that,
and it's like, but you're telling the chick about her dead toddler who she's
like devastated, died of typhoid or something. She starts following you. She's
like, I just don't wondering if Billy said anything to you to day.
At some point you're just like, oh my god, Dade, Oh he's
a nightmare. He's in limbo now. Yeah, you actually ruined it.
I got him set there because you are pissing me off. And if you
never talk to me again, I'll go back Bill. He says, Billy's
moved on too far. I just like, Billy's moved on too far as
clearly in heaven yeah or that. Yeah, for sure, he will go
home. But again, this was just a paycheck. This is not something
they were striving to do. That wasn't even their idea. The sancing is
their podcast. Yeah yeah, with no other prospects. It's not a joke
with just about us. It's like every writer and comedian now just their primary
form of income is podcast. That's not what they want to do. Yeah
yeah, but embrace it, boys, Yes, we're here for the long
haul boom. With no other prospects that Houdinis went back to perform at the
Welsh Brothers Traveling Circus. While performing in Chicago in eighteen ninety nine, Houdini
once again performed his police station stunt of escaping handcuffs. The following day of
the Chicago Journal ran the headline Amazes the Detectives with a large drawing of Houdini.
The publicity stunts surrounding Houdini and his handcuffed act caught the eye of Martin
Beck, the head of the Orphum Theater circuit, who signed him for a
one year contract. Whodini was to perform the Handcuff Escape Act and Metamorphosis at
the classy Orphrom theaters in Omaha, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Francisco,
and Houdini was finally rising from obscurity and into the spotlight. I have
a big break. That's a pretty big deal. That's a world tour really
for that time. I mean he does go into an international tour after that.
Yeah. Man, it's interesting to me too that, likeial metamorphosis was
an act he bought from someone else. That's every magician, Yeah, sold
acts left and right. Yeah, it wasn't uncommon, like, but the
shows themselves were like trade shows too, because like you go to see another
magician's act and then buy that from you. Yeah, like, I think
I could pizzazz it up a little bit more. It's just like the Aztec
too, interested development, which you gotta job's thing he like bought like a
ten thousand. It's in the first it's in the very first episode. He
hides his dad in there, and that's why he gets kicked out of the
Magician's Alliance because there's the police dogs sniff out his dad and they show how
the trick works. Yeah. During all this too, Wodiny is kind of
he rises to the president of that The Magicians the Line it's not called The
Magicians the Lines, but it's like essentially that concept. Yeah. Yeah,
Oh, they'll kick you out for revealing secrets. No, but he is.
He just gets power. He's the president of the organization. Yeah,
he's like the head of the Teamsters, but for magic people. In the
spring of nineteen hundred and twenty six year old Whodini, exuding confidence as the
King of Handcuffs sick, left for Europe in the hopes of finding success.
His first stop was London, where Houdini performed, and while there Houdini was
challenged to escape from Scotland Yards handcuffs. As always, Houdini escaped the theater
fill in each show every night for months. It's amazing how bored people could
be. Back then nothing to do, I know, seriously though, it's
like, what do you want to do for the next hour. Let's just
watch this guy get out of progressively weirder chains. That's pretty cool that now
doing on my phone. Yeah it's true. And then don't believe it's real.
Yeah, the fucking funny you say that. In September nineteen hundred,
Houdini was summoned by the German police prior to his first performance in the country,
who suspected his act was fake. Don't go Houdini in Berlin, he
was stripped naked and forced to perform an escape routine in front of three hundred
policemen. That is the most German thing I've ever heard in my life.
We should have saw her arrested to take off your clothes, seriously, put
him in chains, escape yourself, show us all. It was just three
hundred German cops just like watching silently, like the fathers of future SS officers,
just being like, show us magic mom, show us jew gets within.
Yeah, Houdini was tightly restrained with thumbscrews, fingerlocks, and five different
hand and elbow irons. Who was able to escape in six minutes and later
use the stunt and advertisement three hundred. I'm just can't get over three hundred
policemen staring at his fucking hog come on naked guy while he gets James.
Would that be the worst Holocaust movie ever made? A magician leads an escape
for a fucking docout, It would be pretty bad? Yeah, it's I
mean, that's a producer's level bad idea, Like so bad that? Yeah?
But take Springtime? What was it? Springtime with hilar Springtime with Hillary?
Yeah? Well, what is the fucking what was the actual Holocaust movie
that was like a wacky comedy with Roberto Benini. Life is beautiful, oh
Rabbit, but no, well yeah no, but like Jojo Rabbit that it
knows what it is like. Yeah, I guess they both did. But
life is beautiful as like Slapstick. Yeah, we should watch that on the
Patreon someday because it's it's a ridiculous movie. Yeah, we should, it
would be fun. In nineteen oh one, a newspaper in Cologne accused him
of attempting to bribe a police officer in order to rig an escape attempt,
and paying a civilian police employee to aid him with another performance. Houdini sued
the newspaper and the police officer for slam. It's part of the trial,
Houdini was asked to open without the aid of tools one of the police officers
handcrafted locks, which the officer had said that Houdini had tried to bribe him
for. Whodini was able to do so won the case. Boom. That's
I love that kind of shit where it's like courtrooms just like let's just like
do the practical thing here. Oh, have you ever seen there's like a
famous picture from the nineties maybe of the stripper showing the judge that you can't
see her vagina when she's bent over wearing the underwear that she or like bottom
that she wears in her performance, because it was like a no bottoms state.
Oh gotcha, gotcha. It's just her be like straight up bent over
in front of the judge being like, look, you can't see my vagina.
Yeah, and the judge is like, cash, no, I think
I don't understand that in the strip clubs where they're like you have to wear
pasties like nudity kind of yeah, because just can't see nipple. Jesus or
puritanical country that's weird whatever. He asked me, how alcohol are or a
lot like that, and like because Jesus, Yeah, that's Jesus. It's
that. The Houdini's went on to perform in Dresden, Germany, at the
Central Theater, where ticket sales broke records for five years. Houdini and Best
performed throughout Europe and even in Russia, with tickets often selling out ahead of
time for their performances. Whodini had become an international star. Sweet yeah.
He might have been one of the first pre sale people, one of the
first what pre sales peoples. Yeah, I mean he's got to be.
I don't know when performers started becoming internationally famous, probably like composers, I
would say opera singers too. Probably certain opera singers would probably be worldwide renowned.
He's probably literally maybe the first internationally famous performer of the twentieth century.
Oh, I would have to think so, right, Well, maybe from
America gets in there, and yeah, yeah, he might be the first
famous American, like internationally famous American person that's not a politician. Yeah,
well no, because you had Buffalo Bill. Oh yeah, out Lost that
was a traveling show, traveling circuit. Yeah, that Wild West show.
I think that went to Europe and stuff too. I couldn't tell you probably
did. Didn't do the research on every other famous name. In nineteen oh
five, the Houdini's decided to head back to the United States and try to
win fame and fortune there as well. Udini's specialty had become escapes. In
nineteen oh six, Oudini escaped from jail cells in Brooklyn, Detroit, Cleveland,
Rochester, and Buffalo in Washington, d C. Houdini performed an escape
act involving the former jail of Charles Caddell the assassins of President James A.
Garfield, A little fun little tie in there. He get out, Well,
of course he got out, but wait, the jail cell was like
where he was held after the shooting or whatever. Yeah, stripped and wearing
handcuffs supplied by the Secret Service. Houdini's freed himself from the lock cell and
then unlocked the adjoining cell where his clothes were waiting, all within eighteen minutes.
See, that would be sweet if David Blaine was like just like recreated
the Jack Ruby shooting, dodged the bullet. He just gets shot, staying
like but I'm gonna live. It's like, that's not magic. You just
didn't die. What is it? Hold on, pull out the bullet and
there's just like an ace of spades inside the bullet. This was John F.
Kennedy's card. Around nineteen oh seven. People are starting to kind of
get a little tired of the unlocking handcuffs, the escaped acts. It makes
sense. It's like, oh, I wonder if he's gonna get out.
It's like entourage, right, It's like, oh no, keep referencing.
I wonder if they're gonna make But we're ripping on it. It's like,
oh, I wonder if they're gonna make the movie or if Vinnie's done for
good in the town. Yeah, oh no, oh, what's good?
Oh they made the movie, says we can do the movie. Every it's
every right. I wonder if he's gonna get out of the head because oh
so he's still gonna do escape acts. But he ups the ante here.
That's what you gotta escalate. Houdini unveiled a dangerous stunt in Rochester, New
York, where his hands handcuffed by his back before he jumped from a bridge
into the river. Then in nineteen oh eight, who did He introduced a
dramatic milk can escape where he was locked inside a sealed milk can filled with
water. Oh thank god it wasn't filled with milk milk, Yeah, it
kinda would be. It'd be wasteful, though. No one wastes that much
milk on a magic trip. What is a milk can? It's gotta be
just like a giant vat. Yeah, like a vat. Yeah, okay,
because I'm just like obviously picturing like, no, he he fit into
a cart and he shrank. Well, yeah, it's honestly not very big
kid that just like got stuck in the jar the other day he got stuck
in a vass. This is him. It's not that big, Okay,
it is a boss. Yeah, so he did the kid that just got
stuck in a Yeah. Yeah, I mean this thing, this thing is
up to the homie in the fucking video that you're talking about was just stuck.
It was just stuck. Man. This this thing that Houdini's in,
it comes up to the wastes of the three people with him. So it's
like what probably two and a half feet tall. Yeah, yeah, it's
fucking tiny. It's not big. No. The performances were huge hits.
The drama and flirting with death made Houdini even more popular. You gotta keep
again, it's like any other content, right, you gotta keep doubling down
and leaning into and getting more extreme. So one of the things in improv,
just like one thing I actually did learn that I think was useful in
those classes is like, if you start a scene insane, that scene's gonna
suck, right because you can't go and keep going and you have to start
or like when you start same thing with like the slow build. If you
want to sing the star spangled banner. Start low, yeah, because those
highs are gonna kick your ass when you get there, because it's a constantly
escalating song. Yeah, so like, yeah, you can't start high up.
It's good. You do have to escalate. You can't run into the
improv scene like like okay, I've got a good on fire. It's done.
You're fucked, dude. Yeah, what's funnier than that? Nothing,
nothing's funnier than a penis. It is kind of funny. You're everybody else
in your troop try to like follow that. Oh yes, like zink a
scene. No, that's actually a thing that is funny. It's called fucking
your buddy where it's like you've just you escalate it and like leave it with
him. It's yeah, it's like, all right, man, Tato's hot
a shit fuck you. In nineteen oh nine, who DEENI became fascinated with
aviation. Hell yeah. He purchased a plane for five thousand dollars in nineteen
oh nine from a Chilean aviator and uh hired a full time mechanic. After
crashing once, he made his first successful flight on November sixth or twenty six
in Hamburg, Germany. The following year, Hudini toured Australia and brought along
his plane with the intention to become the first person to fly in Australia.
Wait, no one had fallen in Australia. That's the first second airplane hadn't
gotten to Australia yet. This is nineteen oh nine, and when was flight
nineteen oh one or two or something. So on Friday March eighteenth, nineteen
ten, following multiple weather delays, he did become the first person to ever
fly in Australia. That's just funny. Yeah, it's hilarious to think that
that's a stat you could get a claim, right, I mean, it
just surprises me because flight became so prolific so quickly. Yeah. The right
brothers flew in nineteen oh three. Yeah, so yeah, it's xp seven
years. Man, it's Australia. It's a fucking backwoods. There is in
nobody's island. I mean, the fact we went from nineteen oh three to
nineteen sixty nine, sixty what six years we got to the fucking moon.
Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, well we left the planet in the fifties.
Yeah. He flew for three and a half minutes, reaching an altitude
of one hundred feet good for him? What Australian flying? What how high
do you have to get to be considered flying? That seems like gliding.
The Wright brothers did not get higher than one hundred feet, They probably got
like twenty five. Yeah. Yeah. After completing his Australia tour, Hohodini
put his plane into storage in England. He announced he would use it to
fly from city to city during his next music hall tour, and even promised
to leap from it handcuffed, but he never flew it again. Booo.
Yeah, he saw that, he saw what the limit was at the time.
Yeah, it would be like that's the type of thing where you want,
like I get I get his like concerned though, because it is the
type of thing where you want like uh, eventually you're like lock yourself.
You're the cage with fucking eight just fucking pissed off gorillas, and if you
don't got to get out of that cage as fast as fucking possible, like
if you just need him to get closer and closer to death. Yeah,
Like it's like all right, cut your artery open and you got to sew
it up before you we'll see the cage. The truth, you'd have to
actually make a big cage with him in the middle, and then eight cages
to hold the gorillas separately that you release at the same time. Right,
that's a pretty complicated engineering job you think about it. Oh, true,
Or he's got to get out like that, he's got four minutes before the
gorillas are released. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah,
and the like ticking clock. Yeah, like every thirty seconds after that,
they released one Nathan for You thing, right, Like he has to escape
the handcuffs before the robot pulls his pants down in front of CHILDRENK. Yeah,
that's very gemmosexual creditor. Yeah. Every time I think about that,
like I just like sit back for a second, and I'm like, that
might be the funniest thing anyone's ever done, Like literally, like not subjectively
like Objack might be. Might be the funniest thing anyone's ever come up with.
Oh god, I just finished his series actually really the Curse. I
sat to watch that, but yeah, Nathan for You all time. Great,
It's just like I don't even it's like beyond I get. The first
time I saw it, I was like crying laughing, But every time since
then, I've just been like, is this the most beautiful thing I've ever
seen. It's it's the perfect line of exploitation. It's like right up to
like where it's problematic, but it's not like it's like it's very gray,
I think for a lot of people. But just I mean, the rehearsal
was perfect too. I thought I've only seen the actual clip. I haven't
seen like the whole episode or anything like that. No, the rehearsal the
series that he did though, Oh the Audi series really mistone. What is
a sound? No, that's a curse. Curse. Yeah, anyway,
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America's best mattresses. In nineteen twelve, Who Deny created the underwater box escape
in front of a huge crowd along New York's East River. Who Deny was
handcuffed and placed inside a box, locked in thrown into the river. When
he escaped just moments later, everyone cheered. Even the magazine Scientific American was
impressed and proclaimed who Dini's Feet as one of the most remarkable tricks ever performed.
Like, what's the Scientific American is it nobody's nobody's like claiming that he's
a wizard, and they're like, well, we can't just prove it where
the spark shooting out of his fingers came from. It's just a guy picking
locks and holding his breath, like, there's nothing unscientific about it. Yeah,
it's really not. He's got it's slight a fan. The only thing
that would have been, like if Scientific America was like that seance was the
closest thing we've ever seen. Yeah, we did peer into another world.
Lavelle was lifted that day. Uh No, but they're talking about, like
you said, okay, engineering and contortia. Yeah, it's it's there's nothing
unscientific about what he's doing. People like, no, no, he's got,
he's got. In September of nineteen twelve, Houdini debuted his famous he's
probably his most famous trick, the Chinese water torture cell, and he escaped
at the Circus Bush in Berlin. Is that the big glass box filled the
water For this trick, Budini was handcuffed and shackled and then lowered headfirst into
a tall glass box boom that had been filled with water. So don't they
show that in the prestige that it's the pristige trick. Pretty yeah, where
Hugh Jackman falls into it or whatever, wasn't the whole thing. He kept
cloning himself. Yeah, that's the whole twist, sorry guys, spoilers.
Assistance would then POI to curtain in front of the glass. Moment later who
Deni would emerge, wet but alive. This became again his famous his most
famous trick. When the US joined World War One, Houdini tried to enlist
in the army. So not a coward, No, not a coward.
However, he was forty three. Oh, so he was not accepted.
I mean, you got to just use him as he's too famous to be
like a spy. But maybe I don't know. Well, he ended up
going over and he spent years performing for the troops. Not too famous to
Jermis No for US. We've had situations in US spy games so where like
we've used like famous baseball players and like people in they'd go over to try
and get like Recon and like Dennis Robbin. But then like people, other
American troops would see them and be like, yo, that's so and so
slugan man and like they'd be like, what shut the fuck up? Like,
hey, it went out in a bark for me. Yeah. No,
he'd be like they'd like blow their own spies cover and ship because they
had to like dial that in on who they could actually use. I think
it was a World War two spy that that happened too. That's really funny.
Yeah. When the war was drawn to a close, Whodini gets his
first he check. Really he hoped that he could get into the movies motion
pictures. Oh yeah, it'd be a new way for him to reach mass
audiences. So he was signed by famous players Lasky Paramount Pictures. Whodini starred
in his first motion picture in nineteen nineteen, a fifteen episode serial titled The
Master Mystery. He also starred in The Grim Game in nineteen nineteen Terror Island
in nineteen twenty, and the two films were total flops. I would say,
were the scripted? What was it like? Do you know? Or
was it just like him doing his tricks on film? No, it was
more actors acting. Okay, these weren't talkies yet though. Yeah, no,
he's a shellman. But what I wonder if it was the type of
thing where like you know, Practical Jokers had that movie a film and there
was like a loose plot where it's like, okay, Eva Longoria walks up
to us and she's like, oh my gosh, I love you guys.
I've got two tickets to this thing in la if you guys want to come,
but it's only two and like, okay, here, get to do
We could go across the country. We have to get the best precks,
two best guys, you do the best pricked to go to that. I
need you to stop this one. Yeah, I want to move on.
Also, I one of those people that just doesn't find in Practical Joker is
funny me either. It's I don't get that I wanted to like, I've
never watched this, so I have no rank shows and except Jackass, check
Ass is the only one. I liked. Boiling Points when I was a
kid. Bill the Points was kind of funny actually because it was just like
how much can we piss off somebody before they well, they don't even know
they're on the show. Ye, that's the good thing about Boiling Points.
Yeah, confident that it was bad management that caused movies to flop. The
Houdini's returned to New York and founded their own film company, the Houdini Picture
of Corporation. Whodini then produced and start in two of his own films,
The Man from Beyond and Alden of the Secret Service. These two films also
bombed at the box office, Leaden Hudini to the conclusion that it was time
to give it up. How do you bomb when there's like five movies in
existence and nothing else to watch? Like, how does it bomb? It's
the only shit out, like there's have you seen this yet? No?
Go? Like, how does it bost? You have to do? It
must be like repeats because people like they wanted to see him perform magic,
not act. The second Yeah, like the first second movies. People must
have went back a hundred times though to see that shit. Well, it
was a common thing, like all the influencers now trying to make movies.
It's yeah, weird, I don't like it. There's a great uh,
I've never watched it, but the trailer for I think like twenty fourteen fifteen
Logan Paul had like a dystopian movie when all that stuff was hot, like
it was peak hungry. Ames and May's Runner and the Shale Woodley One divergent,
so they just he just had its own like teen dystopian movie, and
it will it looked fucking dog shit, of course it did. At the
end of World War One, there was a huge surgeon people believe in spiritualism
again. With millions of young men dead from the war, their grieving families
looked for ways to contact them beyond the grave. Psychic spirit mediums, mystics,
and others emerged to fill this need. He felt bad about what he
did, so he went to war with the fucking mediums. Oh, he
started exposing though, he started exposing. I respect that's dope. Also,
people with World War One. Maybe we've talked this before, but people don't
really kind of understand, like we were only in it for kind of like
a year, two years ish, a little bit of whatever. He got
in in like seventeen, but like and it went to the almost to the
end of eighteen. But like a lot of fucking Americans died in that war
for how not long we were in it. It's like a hundred thousand people.
Yeah, that's our third bloodiest war. It was only like we were
only for like a year and a half. It's a woodshipper, dude,
that thing was just a meat grinder. Yeah, that was insane. Along
this quest, Houdiny befriended famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is a
devoted believer in spiritualism after having lost his son in the war. The two
men exchanged many letters debating the truthfulness of spiritualism. In the relationship, Houdini
was always uh looking for rational answers behind the encounters, and Doyle remained the
devoted believer, ironic considering his most famous character. Yeah, like mister rational
and like that, and like all his stories, like the Hounds of the
Baskerville's or whatever, like Peep. Everyone else thinks they're like magic demon hounds
and then Holmes, you eventually figures out that it's Peep. Not. It's
like the Anti X Files, do you know what I mean? Like,
it's like Holmes is Scully, it's Ully. He's always right, it's hypro
Scooby doo. Yeah, yeah, they pull the mask off. It's just
a dude being a piece of shit. Yeah right. And this friendship ended
after Lady Doyle had claimed to channel automatic writing from Houdini's mother. Whodini was
not convinced automatic writing is a hard one to convince anyone of do you know
what that is? No, it's where you sit there and freely write,
and it's like, oh, I was like, I'm not thinking about what
I'm writing, so I was channeling it. Yeah, Hudini was not convinced
because of the many issues that came about. She wrote it in English.
Oh only speaks German, mother didn't speak. Yeah, huge plot hole there.
Yeah. The friendship between Houdini and Doyle ended bitterly and led to many
antagonistic attacks against each other in newspapers. So they kind of they beefed after
this shit because he called his wife a liar. She was, so it
seems accurate if anything. Is just offering advice on the act too, it's
like they're also like, hey, man, I did this. Yeah,
although I have I have a past, I know, I know what they
do. Here are all the tricks of the trade. I feel like,
yeah, it's tough because it's like, I get it, your son died.
That's awful, but like these people are just robbing. Yeah. No,
they're like people like grieving widows or mother's whatever. Blind. Yeah,
they're excluding people's trauma and tragedies for personal gain. It's awful, but also
good on you if you can keep it going. I guess it's all about
the grind. It's the grift. Well, that's the grift. The grift
is a grind. The grift is a grind. Yeah. So Houdini went
on tour and started exposing the grift. He gave lectures on the topic and
often included demonstrations of these tricks during his performances. He joined a committee organized
by Scientific American who analyzed claims for a twenty five hundred dollars prize for a
true psychic phenomena. No one ever received the prize. Yep. Well it's
the same thing with the there's a guy that was doing that for a while
around the seventies and eighties. I think was it Russian guy Urig Organ or
whatever. Fucking yakov'smearing off. Yeah, and so I'll be at the Russia.
Your mother she misses you. What in Branson? I don't yack off.
I don't remember that huge, huge in the eighties and nineties. Really
my song actually yes, and like the yeah he's still kicking. What does
he do? Is he comedian? And he's like yeah, he's he just
makes fun of like Russia. Oh yeah, no, you're Yuri. Was
this guy who was like I can bend. He's the like original spoon bending
guy. Okay, and like this guy's like, all right, if you
can prove this in my controlled environment, I'll give you like a million dollars.
Yeah, he couldn't do shit. It's not h Yeah, it's like
the way of his own thing here. Yeah, exactly. But he also
spoke in front of the US House of Representative supporting a proposed bill that would
ban telling fortunes for pay in Washington, DC. Keep the government out of
my fifth eye, your third eye, third eye, whatever, that's just
your butt. Yeah, yeah, it's true. True. The result was
that even though Houdini brought about some skepticism, it seemed to create more interest
in spiritualism. Of course of courses, when you try to ban things,
people want to know why it's being banned. That's yeah, you gotta just
let it die. And also people just are going to like dig in.
Yeah. Absolutely, Also a lot of spiritualists then, just through countless death
threats to the Whodinis. If I was a DDI, I'd be like,
well, whatever, I guess, I guess I'd still get to hang around
in another world. Yeah, doesn't not that bad? Death threats really?
Like we really cursing him? Yeah, really putting spells on. Yeah.
On October twenty second, nineteen twenty six, Houdini was innocent dressing room preparing
for a show at McGill University in Montreal, when one of three students he
had invited backstage asked if Whodini could really withstand a strong punch to his upper
torso. Houdini answered that he could. The student, Jay Gordon Whitehead,
then asked Whodini if he could punch him. Houdini agreed and started to get
up off a couch when Whitehead punched him three times in the abdomen before Houdini
had a chance to tense his stomach muscles. He got him slipping, dude,
he caught him asleep. He's getting up ready three times? That's three.
Just a quick succession to a guy that wasn't ready for it. What
a piece of shit. Houdini turned visibly pale, and the students left.
What if you weren't magic? You got him in the jujunum to Houdini,
the show must always go on. Suffering from severe pain, Houdini performed the
show at McGill University, and then went on to do two more the following
day, moving on to Detroit. That evening, Houdini grew weaker and suffered
from stomach pain and fever. Instead of going to the hospital, he once
again went on with the show and collapsed on stage. We're off stage.
He was taken to a hospital, and it was discovered that not only did
his appendix burst, it was also showing signs of gangreen. Oh no.
The next afternoon, surgeons removed his appendix. The following day, his condition
worsened, they operated on him again. Houdini told Bess that if he died,
he would try to contact her from the grave. Oh come on,
wait, here was this? Wait? Wait? Year was this nineteen twenty
six? Oh? You're getting your appendix sticking out in twenty six. That's
a rough one. This is like the start, I feel like of modern
medicine. It's the very start. Giving her a secret code, Rosa Bell
believe. Houdini died at one twenty six pm on Halloween Day, October thirty
first, nineteen twenty six. He was fifty two. Headlines immediately read was
Houdini murdered? Kind of did he really have appendicitis? Was he poisoned?
Why was there no autopsy? Why did that dick punch him three times in
the row before he was ready? That's the biggest one for me. Herjini's
life insurance company investigated the death and rolled out foul play, but for many
uncertain regards that caused to Houdini's death wingers. Eugini's funeral was held on November
fourth, nineteen twenty six, in New York, with more than two thousand
mourners in attendance. Four years after his death, Best attempted to contact Houdini,
but Houdini never contacted her from beyond the grave. I always thought he
died from like a trick that went wrong. Nope, he died from getting
punched in the stomach. So just flamed his appendix for him. I think
you nailed it. He died from a trick that went wrong, because he
was like, hey, I heard you could take a punch of the stomach,
and he's like yeah, and then he got punched in the stomach,
and well, that guy was just a prick. Let's be real. That's
that guy's hitler for me. He said, yeah, that guy that punched
him three times in quick succession, after like not even giving him a chance
to get ready. That guy's hitler. I do remember hearing that he got
punched in the stomach and that's kind of how he died. But I did
think before I wrote this episode that he a trick went wrong. I thought
it was like he was trying to cut a bullet or something. There's like
a bullet catching trick. I'd always heard some magician died from, but maybe
that's that could be. Yeah, was there somebody that tried to go over
Niagara falls in a barrel? Yes, that absolutely happened Oldini. No,
but I think somebody died doing it. I also thought Evil can Eevil died
and like they're doing a t twenty different ways. Yeah, right, Like
it's just these kind of dudes you never know what actually well and and then
you actually dig in, you're like, oh Copperfield did it and lived David
Copperfield whenever Niagara falls in a barrel? Yep, well he also has well
he does a bunch of Houdini like merch, but he also like uh and
put his erection through the barrel hole. That's why he was able to do
it. Yes, Yeah, So his Houdini's brother mentioned earlier, took all
of his tricks and all of his stuff. He like Houdinian as well,
gave him permission to do so. But after THEO died, he was supposed
to burn everything and just like get rid of everything, destroy everything, all
his tricks and everything and all of his h I guess equipment, and then
he just left it. Yeah he got I got sold. Yeah. I
mean Charles Stevens I think might be the magician he's or he was a daredevil,
but he definitely died going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Just why
in a barrel be more dangerous people? Because it was back in the day,
dude. Yeah, like I feel like it was drm barrel days.
Yeah, you know, the good old barrel days of tricks. Put him
in a barrel, rolled down a hill. What else can we roll them
down in the hill? So you say they guy that punched to stomachs Hitler
without question about you, Rob, I think Houdini's Hitler for not letting all
those grieving mothers believe that their sons were Okay. He was like, listen,
listen, I'm trying to help you. Your sons are in a black
void. Yeah, they're nothing, they're cold and they missed their moms.
Yeah, that's okay. I try to help. It's uh, it's John.
What's his crossing over remembers John Ewarts? Yeah, and South worked.
It's such a good breakdown of how that ship works. But it's so true.
It's just they bug the they bug the line. Yeah, and they
just say vague She like, I feel like a dad figure. Yeah,
of course. Good guess you had a connection with your father? Ye do
who did go to the graveyards? Yeah? Get the town gossde. That
would be the most fun part of that job, just rolling into a new
ship down and figuring out who's fucking who? Yeah, he died. Would
you learn today? I didn't know that Whodini was so staunchly anti psychic.
Yeah, it's kind of he was a convert ryeah. Yeah, I didn't
realize. Well, I didn't even want to do the stuff in the first
place. He was like, it was a job. Yeah, pretty much,
it's a gig. I learned how who died today? Yeah? Actually
had I had no idea how it happened. I learned that he became the
first man to fly in Australia. Also a lot today because I didn't really
know much about Houdini. But all I knew was he was fucking bricked up
on his legs. He's stacked up because he's a cross country winner in school.
Yeah, that he's got the run quads that'll crack a chestnut. Bro.
I learned that he was stripped naked in front of the Germans. I
learned that the Germans kind of had a thing for this before I didn't learn
I didn't learn anything new about the Germans. We learned nothing new about the
Germans. So LA's today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be back next week again. We'll have two additional episodes though on
Patreon if you want to check those out. Patreon dot com slash softcore History.
Make sure to leave a review if you can on Apple and Spotify,
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guys, thanks for tuning in for Rob Fox and Jake Coleman. I'm Damn
Michester and you just got saft served