two or three times per day throughout the CNE. The stunt is the climax of the 15-minute show they'll present on Princes' Blvd. "We believe he did it about 1,000 times," she says on the phone from Indianapolis, where she and her husband, illusionist Kevin Ridgeway, live. In the past six years, she's performed the escape almost 500 times and has her eyes on Houdini's record. Widely regarded as the world's top female escape artist, Johnson is the only woman currently performing the Water Torture Cell stunt and, she says, the only escapologist who does it with the audience watching. Who knew what was going on back there? Johnson does it in full view of the crowd.Īfter three years of fire at the CNE – human cannonball Dave "the Bullet" Smith, joined last year by his equally high-calibre sister Jennifer Schneider – it seems elemental to follow that up with water. Houdini, loaded with handcuffs, manacles, locks and chains, freed himself from his Water Torture Cell with a curtain between him and the audience.
There aren't many people who can get close to that, which is why she's able to out-Houdini Houdini – taking one of the legendary escapologist's most nerve-wracking stunts a step further than he did.
Kristen Johnson has trained herself to stay under water for more than three minutes. At best, you'll wind up soaked to the skin.
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