Eeww!!! :eek: I was at the Fringe Festival in Edmonton yesterday and watched a busker do some rather gruesome contortions.
He held a bar behind his back with both hands (one at each end of the bar), and brought the bar over his head and held it in front of him without letting go of the bar. He then managed to bring the bar back over his head and so that it was behind his back again - getting the bar back over his head and behind his back took some much more significant contortions than getting it from back to front in the first place.
From the bulges at his shoulders and the position of his arms it certainly looked like he had popped his shoulders out of joint to do that stunt. He claimed that one of his shoulders is double-jointed, and one is “triple-jointed”, whatever that means.
I can’t get over that stunt. How can someone, even if they are very “flexible” manage a stunt like that more than a few times without totally wrecking their shoulder tendons/ligaments (I forget which are the ones that hold joints together) and basically crippling their shoulders for any normal activity?
Just to reinforce the “Eeww!!!” factor, I once dislocated my shoulder, then slept on it.
The doctor said he had relocated hundreds, but mine was the first he couldn’t get back in… so he had me lay on a gurney, holding a 20lb dumbbell to stretch it out. For an hour. That didn’t work so they wrapped a sheet around my body, two nurses on one side holding the sheet bracing with all their weight, and the doctor wrenching my arm around on the other. No dice.
Lots of pain though.
Eventually they sent me to the hospital where I was put under with morphine (count back from ten to one “ten… niiiieeee zzzzzzzzz”).
I woke up, it was back in, and I was ready to fellate the doctor.
I used to work with a guy who could pop his shoulder blades up, like he was sprouting wings. Very strange looking, but he said it didn’t hurt and he wasn’t disabled by it at all.
I thought it was necessary to dislocate one shoulder in order to do a straitjacket escape. I read a biography of Houdini, who I believe was the first person to escape a straitjacket, who could dislocate one shoulder so as to get slack and bring one arm over his head and then work the buckles loose.
I’ve got a couple of biographies of Houdini and at least one book that details many of his escapes from his own notes. While he was very athletic and quite dextrous they never mention intentionally dislocating anything. Houdini did use some trick straitjackets when time was of the essence but the basic escape procedure is to brace your elbow on something (like a convenient tabletop) and use that to help push the arm up over your head. The long sleeves will allow for this move although it isn’t easy. Houdini could do it with “regular” (ungimmicked) straitjackets, it was a matter of strength, endurance and patience.
Unrelated, did you ever see any of the movies that he made? He did a couple of Z-grade flicks that always involved him getting tied up so that he could escape but they did show some of the things he could do - rapid chimney ascents, untie knots with his toes, that kind of thing. Quite impressive.
I can dislocate both of my shoulder joints at will, although I’ve never found it useful in a carnival setting. It makes them sore now that I’m older so I don’t do it anymore, but I used to amused and horrify my friends and family with it when I was a kid.
The second in the series (the one with all the South African villains). Early on, he’s showing off in the squad room by dislocating his shoulder to escape from a straitjacket. By an astonishing coincidence, the bad guys later throw him into deep water with a weight on his ankles… in a straitjacket.
Humm - I can do that bar trick (if it’s the one I’m thinking of) and I dont’ think I have to dislocate anything.
That being said, occasionally I decide to do something acrobatic and I’ve had my shoulder pop out doing handsprings and whatnot. It just pops back in and it’s not particularly painful. (Maybe and advil the next day).
I saw one of them, but I can’t remember the name. I believe it was the second movie he made, and it is pretty dreadful, if you don’t realize he is doing all his own stunts, for real.
I don’t think it requires any double joints. Just very flexible and a little showmanship.
I personally (I just double checked, feels good to stretch) can hold a bar behind my back, rotate both my arms (I have to bend my elbows) to the front without letting go. My wrists are completely rotated back to palm up position. I can go under my legs and back far enough to hit the back of my head with the bar. If I allow the end of the bar to pass inside my arm it will rotate my wrist back to normal position and I can could keep going indefinitely. Also, it is fairly easy to do without bending my elbows by allowing the bar to break a horizontal position. The whole process I can do in a second or so with hardley any effort.
And add the story of Lillian Leitzel, a 19th century acrobat whose famous stunt was to hang from one arm, and rotate her body vertically using her shoulder joint as a fulcrum. She had to dislocate the joint with each revolution.
I can also dislocate my shoulders on command (The command is: “dislocate your shoulders!”). Always have been able to. When I was a kid I spent plenty of time in the emergency room when they got dislocated from having a jacket taken off me by an adult who wasn’t quite careful enough. It’s not a pleasant feeling, but the “pop” when the bones realign is satisfying.
I read a while back that contortionism ( is that a word ?? ) is largely genetic. Essentially, collagen ( the body’s connective tissue ) comes in a variety of “grades”; some stronger and stiffer, some more elastic and so forth. Most people’s bodies have a variety of types of collagen, depending on what it is supposed to hold together. Some people are born with a lower than normal range, or even just one type of collagen. This means that their joints - and often other body parts, like the skin - are made of more elastic material than most people. Someone with looser joints can naturally dislocate his or her joints more easily, naturally or on purpose.
Doctors don’t recommend dislocating joints, as it can cause injury.
The way he put his shoulder back in was totally unrealistic. If you were to do that, you’d end up with a broken, dislocated shoulder.
To put a shoulder back in, just give it a quick, sharp pull straight out to the side.
I am one of the “fortunate” few who can pop his shoulder out at will. It also has a bad habit of popping out on it’s own whim. While in college, I went on a Fraternity camping trip on an alumnus’ farm. After hopping a fence to retrieve a turkey (he said we could have it for dinner), I popped my shoulder. I was in A LOT of pain. Not being able to get it back in on my own, I asked my friend to help me. “Just grab my arm and hold it straight out,” I winced.
“[Magill], I don’t want to touch your arm.” He said, eyes bulging at my very oddly shaped shoulder.
“Just grab it.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“It [censored] hurts now! JUST GRAB MY [censored] ARM!!!”
He gingerly grabbed my wrist and held my arm up. “Hold it tight,” I instructed, and started counting.
“One. Two.”
–==POP==–
He immediately dropped my arm, and started screaming, “Oh god! I *heard * that!”
Houdini claimed to have taught himself to escape a strait jacket sometime around 1898. I can’t find any reference earlier than that to anybody escaping a straitjacket as a public performance. So at least Houdini popularized it, after (independently?) inventing the method.
My impression was that the switch to five point restraint came about because straitjackets are painful to wear for long. And I imagine it is easier to get someone into five point restraint than into a straitjacket.
WAGs- Houdini could very well have rediscovered the method on his own. He was very inventive.
I doubt he was the first performer to escape from a strait jacket as part of a show.
I’m willing to bet that he was, however, the first to escape from a straitjacket while hanging by his feet, two stories above the ground. Or locked in a giant aquarium. Or hanging over a bed of huge spikes while a candle burns through the rope holding him up.
Those were two of the other reasons. Another was that five point restraint equipment is a lot easier to clean than straitjackets are.
If the orderlies were in a sadistic mood (and bughousers usually were) they would deliberately overtighten all the fastenings, causing excruciating pain.
I was at the Fringe Festival in Edmonton yesterday and watched a busker do some rather gruesome contortions.