Imagine your worst fear becoming reality. Buried Alive!
This is still a modern day fear and in days gone by it was so prevelent that people would be buried with bells and string attached to their caskets so that anyone above would know they were buried alive. Some even had people stand guard for days on end just as a percaution that they would some how need assistance. Know can you imagine stepping forward and voulenteering to be buried alive in the prime of your life.
Well people didn’t need to imagine this they got to see it first hand when magic man Jeff Kraemer climbed into his specially built casket last night and was lowered six feet down and then buried alive with hundreds of pounds of earth. It truly was some thing to see. Most in attendance couldn’t believe what was happening in front of them. The average person can survive without air for no more than two or three minute befor death or permanent brain damage occurs. Yet at the twenty first minute we had no sign at all that Jeff was still alive. This is the problem with a stunt like this unfortunately. Their is simply no way for Jeff’s team to know he is having a problem or struggling until it is to late. Just in the last fifteen years 4 performers have lost their lives trying to perform this nerve racking stunt. The latest to achieve was Criss Angel when he accomplished it 2 years ago in Las Vegas.
From the very beggining of the evenings performance the mood was ominus, Jeff wearing a black Armani Tuxedo and his crew dreesed entirely in black seemed edgy and nervous. The feeling amongs the audience was that some thing wasn’t right and it was just to late to back out. We Kaemer was lowered into the ground and the earth was being poured on top of the casket we all thought it may take mere minutes if all went well before Jeff woould emerge. We were wrong, at the tweenty first minute you could see the angst on his teams face, the worry and fear something was going wrong right in front of them. It was evident the crowd picked up on this vibe as you could hear whispers from every direction. He’s not going to make it or it’s to long why aren’t they getting him out. When the clock chimmed midnight it was the thirty seventh minute, covering magic for as long as I have I couldn’t believe I might be witness to some thing this horrible, this final in person. When out of the night we say movement in the earth, then a finger pop through. Everyone began to chear and celebrate as we soon saw a hand, then arm. To demonstrate Jeff’s struggle once his hand broke the surface it was almost ten full minutes more before he managed to un earth himself. He was fighting for air, cover in dirt and fell to the ground. EMS paramedics quickly moved in and started checking vitals and supplying oxygen. To everyones shock he was wisked away on the ambulance stretcher to an un disclose hospital. As he was being loaded in to the ambulance Jeff managed a California surfers wave signifying he was ok. I contacted Jeff’s publicist late last night and was assured his condition was improving and he was out of the woods. It truly was a nail bitting evening for all who witnessed the spectacle, even when the ambulance sped away people were still screaming and chearing with full applause.
Magic has come so far in the last ten years and I am glad last night played out the way it did. We all talk about seeing race cars crashing or videos of people wipping out but none of us want to witness some one dying during a performance such as this. I often wonder how far guys like Kraemer and Angel can push the limits with out some major consequence. All I can say is thank god you made it Jeff, you are a fantastic magician and performer and your fans want you around for a very long time.
Marcie Johhson
