Ep 565 - The Entertainer (feat. Steve Crawford)

Summary

Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast
Episode 565: "The Entertainer" (feat. Steve Crawford)
Release Date: June 30, 2025

In Episode 565 of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, hosts Matt McCusker and Shane Gillis sit down with the multifaceted entertainer Steve Crawford. Steve, known for his diverse talents as an actor, magician, hypnotist, and daredevil stuntman, shares an array of captivating stories from his illustrious 40-year career in entertainment.

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1. Introduction and Early Inspirations [00:00 - 02:00]

The episode kicks off with Matt introducing Steve Crawford, highlighting his numerous roles and accomplishments. Steve reminisces about his childhood fascination with magic, inspired by the movie Houdini starring Tony Curtis. This early passion set the foundation for his diverse career in entertainment.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [01:01]: "I was a kid, I had a childhood hobby of magic... something affected me differently than it did the others, and it grabbed me."

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2. Journey into Stunts and State Fairs [02:00 - 07:45]

Steve delves into how he transitioned from magic to performing daring stunts at state fairs and festivals. For over three decades, he thrilled audiences with acts like being locked upside down in a water torture cell and escaping from roller coaster tracks. He describes the adrenaline and meticulous planning required for each performance, emphasizing the blend of showmanship and genuine risk involved.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [06:28]: "One of those was locked upside down in the water torture cell that Houdini inspired... hanging from burning ropes."

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3. Personal Experiences and Dangerous Stunts [07:45 - 19:12]

Steve shares harrowing accounts of close calls during his performances. From breaking ribs during a stunt to suffering severe injuries like a concussion and a broken hip from miscalculations during an air show escape, his stories underscore the physical toll of his craft. He recounts a particularly terrifying incident where a malfunction during a stunt led to multiple injuries, highlighting the fine line between spectacle and danger.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [36:01]: "I had a world record... escaping from handcuffs in 1.47 seconds."

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4. Comedy Clubs and Hypnosis Acts [19:12 - 26:50]

Expanding his repertoire, Steve ventured into comedy clubs in the 1980s, blending magic with humor. He recounts developing acts that included pickpocketing demonstrations and clinical hypnosis, where he would perform mind-reading tricks. This period also led him to become a certified clinical hypnotist, though he maintained strict professionalism by never crossing personal boundaries with his assistants.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [19:56]: "Most of us have an internal clock in the subconscious mind. You tell yourself, I need to wake up at a certain time as you fall asleep."

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5. Security Testing and Legal Troubles [26:50 - 34:12]

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Steve's foray into security testing, where he leveraged his lock-picking and escape skills to breach airport security. His methods, which included using everyday items like windshield wipers and glasses stems to bypass security measures, eventually led to legal repercussions. Steve details his interactions with law enforcement, the resulting restrictions on his career, and the ethical dilemmas of sharing such sensitive information publicly.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [32:15]: "If we show the public what's going on, they'll change it."

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6. Physical Toll and Career Shift [34:12 - 52:08]

The relentless nature of Steve's career in stunts took a severe physical toll, culminating in multiple injuries and a hip replacement. He reflects on the challenges of maintaining such a demanding profession and the eventual shift towards acting, a long-held passion that allowed him to continue performing without the same level of physical risk.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [51:16]: "The body's changing. Time to go to become an actor."

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7. Appearance on "World's Worst Cooks" [52:08 - 56:35]

In a lighter segment, Steve talks about his stint on the reality show World's Worst Cooks. Despite his lack of culinary prowess, the experience provided him with memorable moments and highlighted his comedic side. He expresses admiration for his co-star, Chef Ann, who recently passed away, underscoring the camaraderie formed during the show.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [54:14]: "When I was single, I would throw everything... But now I marry a girl that was a great cook, and she doesn't allow me in the kitchen at all."

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8. Live Magic Demonstration [56:35 - 61:53]

Towards the end of the episode, Steve engages in a live magic demonstration, showcasing his skills in rope manipulation and illusion. This interactive segment not only entertains but also provides listeners with a glimpse into the technical precision required for his craft. Despite the humorous attempts to reveal secrets, Steve maintains the mystique surrounding his magic tricks.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [60:22]: "You did it. You did it."

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9. Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts [61:53 - End]

The episode concludes with heartfelt thanks exchanged between Matt and Steve. Steve reflects on his diverse career, the lessons learned from both successes and failures, and the unwavering passion that drives his continuous pursuit of entertainment excellence.

Notable Quote:
Steve Crawford [65:44]: "I lie a lot, you know? Right? But you know it's a trick."

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Key Takeaways:

• Versatility in Entertainment: Steve Crawford exemplifies the blend of magic, comedy, and daredevil stunts, demonstrating the breadth of skills required to sustain a long-term career in entertainment.

• Risk and Reward: His stories underscore the inherent risks in performing dangerous stunts, highlighting the physical and emotional toll they can take.

• Ethical Boundaries: Steve emphasizes the importance of maintaining professionalism, especially when interacting with assistants and leveraging his skills outside performances.

• Adaptability: Faced with physical injuries and changing industry landscapes, Steve's ability to pivot towards acting showcases the necessity of adaptability in the entertainment industry.

• Legacy and Impact: Through his long career and willingness to share his experiences, Steve provides valuable insights into the world of live performances, security testing, and the personal sacrifices made by entertainers.

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This episode offers a comprehensive look into the life of a seasoned entertainer, blending thrilling anecdotes with reflective insights. Whether you're a fan of magic, stunts, or the dynamics of show business, Steve Crawford's stories provide both entertainment and a deeper understanding of the dedication required to excel in multiple facets of the entertainment world.

Transcript

[Steve Crawford]

Wild, wild west. Actor, magician, hypnotist, escape artist, television personality. There are a lot of parts to make up. Steve Crawford.

[Matt]

Steve and his team of experienced professionals would like an opportunity to tailor a program to meet your needs. Hey, guys. Welcome to Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast. We're doing a little road episode. I'm in Ontario, California, recording a comedy special. But we are. We were recording an intro for my newest special that'll come out eventually. And I met you, Steve. Steve Crawford. Dude.

[Steve Crawford]

Great to be here.

[Matt]

Lifetime entertainer.

[Steve Crawford]

That was a crazy day we had.

[Matt]

Well, I mean, yeah, it was mostly you. You're doing stunts, and this guy, don't.

[Steve Crawford]

Let him fool you. Wow.

[Matt]

Wow. You got.

[Steve Crawford]

Actually, I got hurt a little bit injured.

[Matt]

Your ribs are messed up. Well, that should be nothing to you. You're a stunt. How long are you doing stunts for exactly?

[Steve Crawford]

That's the problem. So now I'm all broken down and sore. So I did a daredevil stunts on the road for 30, 40 years. And that was for state fairs, festivals.

[Matt]

How did you get into that?

[Steve Crawford]

You know, I was a kid, I had a childhood hobby of magic. My mother told me about the movie Houdini with Tony Curtis. And I watched this thing, and I watched him get locked in the water tank and his appendix burst and he dies.

[Matt]

And.

[Steve Crawford]

But something affected me differently than it did the other watching, and it grabbed me.

[Matt]

You watched the Houdini? So you saw him die in the tank? And you're like, I did.

[Steve Crawford]

I'm like, oh, my gosh, I want to do what this guy's doing. That is so cool. I mean, if you're going to die, let's die in a water tank in front of an audience. We're all going to die.

[Matt]

True.

[Steve Crawford]

But didn't plan to die and didn't die. But I was lucky. I had a locksmith that lived next door. He taught me how to pick locks. And I really became a big Houdini fan.

[Matt]

Your stage name was Houdini, right?

[Steve Crawford]

As a child, I went all the way in those days, actually, all the way to college. Houdini names, you know, with somebody. Eenie. Everybody put an eeni. So I went with Houdini. Can you hold. My beautiful assistant is here. Would you hold the microphone? I'll show you one of the first tricks I learned. This is a quick one.

[Matt]

Do you ever use mail? It's always women. Why never like sexy boys?

[Steve Crawford]

I think you gotta hold it closer. Somebody told me that. All right, here we go. A little dollar bill trick. Here we go. So A lot of kids start with this stuff, which I did in the library. Picture of Barbara Bush. I don't know if you can see.

[Matt]

That or kind of looks like Barbara up there.

[Steve Crawford]

I always thought there was a kid. Anyways, no, we. We fold the dollar up in this trick. What you want to do is make it come out backwards or different or upside down. But in this case, it actually changes.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

99 different, as you can see. You get a hundred dollar bill. So money didn't really become the motivation to do it, but it kept me doing it.

[Matt]

You got the philosopher's stone. You could do alchemy. Transfer the lead into gold.

[Steve Crawford]

We could do that. It's true. I will say I picked up many, many dates as a child pretending to be a real wizard. And I could do real magic and read her mind and you wouldn't believe it. Magic is a great way to meet girls.

[Matt]

I was. I wanted to ask you about that. That seems. I watched the reel of you. That was the Oklahoma. What was that? The hockey team. Right.

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, you saw one of my sports events during illusions. Yes.

[Matt]

My question is, though, when you're a magician, because you were. You're a magician, actor, stuntman, you do it all. You're a genuine. You're a general entertainer, a real entertainer. Everyone thinks they're an entertainer now, but you are the real deal. 40 years of locking in the. What? Getting locked underwater. Acting.

[Steve Crawford]

You know, it was a funny thing when I, when I was growing up, I was the only entertainer that I knew. And I, I mean, I met people who helped me in the business, but, you know, I did my shows and now I look at social media and everybody's an entertainer. I'm like, I'm the only one on there not entertaining anymore. It's blood, sweat and tears in the world. The world has changed. Everybody's entertained.

[Matt]

Well, here's, here's the question. So with. With the magic, you're saying is a good way to meet girls. When's the first time you converted magic skills into just some. I don't, I don't know how graphic you want to get so.

[Steve Crawford]

So often. Well, I've got one true story. And it's, it's, It's a no joke. There's a victims protection order on file in Oklahoma.

[Matt]

Hold up, bro. On you or the person.

[Steve Crawford]

The girl who had a Fatal Attraction. And it was, it was, it was this, that in 81, I opened for Alice Cooper. I was just his opening act. We did some illusions, and I was a good guy. Backstage. I met with the people who won the radio passes to come backstage, you know, and friendly and the band members were sleeping with people and all that. I didn't get any of that. And one of the rules I had.

[Matt]

How old are you back that.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, I was very young. I was 18, 19 years old. Okay. It's crazy, but yeah. I went to my earlier gigs back in college days. I was in college when we hooked up for that. But I had been meeting girls in clubs and telling them I was psychic. So I felt bad about that. This even in high school and would read their mind. And of course it worked. You know, they're just got this connection. But I had a rule. I would never go out with a girl that I met at a show because what they see in the show is not who you are. I mean, you're. You're playing a role. You're a daredevil stunt guy with security around you. And I mean, you're playing this image, right? Or you're a funny guy in a show, whatever it is. So those people don't know you. So. And I made. I broke the rule one time and boy, it was crazy. Young lady, you can look up. It's still on the file. Court case. But yeah. She tried to come on hard to me to marry me. All of a sudden I'm like, what in the world? We just met.

[Matt]

You gave her one taste. She lost her mind and.

[Steve Crawford]

Exactly. And I told her. Her words to me were, you know what she said? I should have killed you when I saw you at the state fair in September. I'm like, what? And she grabbed the wheel of my little convertible and it was icy out and crashed it. And then broke in my house later. Stole stuff. There were gas stoves in those days. I was a single guy. And turned on all the gas, blew out the pilot lights and. And then. And attacked me through the back door. So everybody on our city block there went to court and we won. And bro. But I learned my lesson.

[Matt]

How many times you Piper down?

[Steve Crawford]

One time just. It was once you got a taste in the world and I just don't know. I don't know what to say about it except, you know, I don't think it's a good idea to commingle know that makes.

[Matt]

That's kind of smart. You were that smart that young to keep it separate because that's kind of. That's a good. That's a good insight to know. Like, dude, this is all glitz and glam.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. And learn the lesson so that I.

[Matt]

I, I really wanted to ask you about that because doing the county fairs must have been crazy. Like, what were some of the stunts you. What was like the craziest stunt you did at like a county fair?

[Steve Crawford]

You know, everybody had a favorite. And so I at state fairs were Primarily we about 25 state fairs starting in September through November. West Palm Springs, Florida, kicks off early February. And Shreveport, Louisiana, my favorite fair. But that's. That was ran right into Thanksgiving, so there was a ton of fairs. And so we had ground acts, family shows, animal circus, kids circus. I did circus sideshow illusion. So we had that going that I book a secondary act, which was the daredevil stunt. So one of those was locked upside down in the water torture cell that Houdini inspired. Strapped to roller coaster tracks and a straight jacket had to dive out of the way right before it crashes through, you know, from a screen and yeah, hanging from burning ropes. Straight jackets in the air. But there were other markets for swimming pool events. People, anybody with a backyard pool could hire me, bring their padlocks and chain me up to weights and throw me in the pool. And if you had $5,000, I was available to do it. And some close calls. But we did made it through that.

[Matt]

What was a close call?

[Steve Crawford]

Well, there were a lot of close calls. I, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I don't know which ones are.

[Matt]

So what's. Here's the question.

[Steve Crawford]

Some accidents.

[Matt]

Someone hired you at, like, their pool to escape, and you died in their pool. What's the deal with that?

[Steve Crawford]

I would sue myself. So I had a $2 million liability policy that if myself or anyone else was ever injured at one of my shows, that it would pay off. So my first step would be sue myself because I was injured at my show. Come my plan anyway. Get rich off the accident.

[Matt]

So what were the babes like at the county fair? Because I know Alice Cooper, obviously, probably crawling. But like the county fair, what's that like?

[Steve Crawford]

Well, exactly. Use your imagination, you know. And smaller the fair, the smaller the town. Yeah, I love small town from a small town, so. But people are, to be honest, you know, we joke about that. And there was a lot of flirty, you know, horror types, I guess you could say. But there was a lot of very, very sweet people. And I mean it sincerely. The. My favorite guests that came every year. Every year. Just really good people, honestly. Yeah, that's community.

[Matt]

That's cool because I always wonder about that because that's like. And you kept it to the code that whole time, you just only broke once for that one lady.

[Steve Crawford]

Absolutely. You know, I think my fingers always practice with my fingers. You want to see a finger trick? You want to do something?

[Matt]

We're talking about the hose.

[Steve Crawford]

That's another magic trick. Um, all right, I'm lovely assistant. I'm going to have you lay your mic down. You got to do this one with me. Would you hold this for us? So, actually, magicians, we do use our hands to exercise a little bit to get our magic going. If you do this with. Hold your hands like this. Clasp your fingers together. Now wiggle your first finger. Wiggle your little finger. Good. You're very talented. You're so. Okay, now separate. Now we're going to go down. Now can you keep turning to go all the way out? It's a little bit of a stretch if you're watching this or try it at home to get all the way out. Now reverse your arms and lock on like that, except kind of hold them up high. There you go. Now wiggle the first finger and the little. And go. Oh. Oh. Linda Blair taught me that one, actually.

[Matt]

What'd you do?

[Steve Crawford]

Twist your arms around, right?

[Matt]

Oh, I didn't do. Yeah, I couldn't do that.

[Steve Crawford]

I didn't either. Anyway, I tried.

[Shane]

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[Steve Crawford]

You want to hear a county fair story?

[Matt]

Yeah, please.

[Steve Crawford]

You got time when you come back. He's so good at this. I love it.

[Shane]

This episode is brought to you by Dude Wipes. If you're still dry wiping with toilet paper, you need to stop being an A hole to your B hole and switch to Dude Wipes. Isn't that funny?

[Matt]

That is funny.

[Shane]

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[Matt]

For sure.

[Shane]

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[Matt]

All right.

[Shane]

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[Matt]

Yeah, Leave those on the floor.

[Shane]

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[Matt]

Yeah.

[Shane]

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[Steve Crawford]

Trip with a couple of jokers and. Hold on. We're missing one. We're used to standing standing up. What kind of comedian sits down?

[Matt]

I told you I would stand. I have no problem standing.

[Steve Crawford]

So I've got a story how I lost some money from a guy running a little scam, a little gambling game at a fair. And it went like this. I thought, being a magician, I'm going to win all these carnival games, right?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

This guy had three cards at his game. One of those was a joker that he was using. He had a second card, and it was a joker. And then he had a third card, which was actually an ace. He said, this is the money card. Now, what you got to do is keep your eye on this ace. All right, Here we go. I noticed he made a shifty move. I thought he put the ace on the bottom. When I guessed the bottom, well, actually, I lost my first dollar. Now. Then he said this. He said, look, I'm not gonna mix the three cards. I'm gonna leave them in the same sequence, the three, and right now give you a second guess. Now, I said it was the top card, which cost me a dollar. I said, I knew if it wasn't the bottom and had to be the middle, and, well, that would cost me a dollar. I said, okay, now you're using more than three cards. He said, that'll cost you a dollar. I said, you've taken the ace out of the game. He said, well, he said, that'll cost you a dollar. Anyway, I owed him five bucks. Here's where he got me. He said, look, there's an ace. Would you hold that one?

[Matt]

Yep.

[Steve Crawford]

He said, here's a joker. He said, if you can still tell me the name of the last card, if you hadn't forgotten it and all this, you win your five. Double or nothing. You get double Your money? I said it was a joker, he said. Owed him $10. So I did learn. Watch the games that you play at the carnivals while you're on that subject. Yeah.

[Matt]

Yes. Do you ever beef with any carnies? Because that seems like you have a beef with any of the carnival folks.

[Steve Crawford]

Nope. In fact, there was a little. What was the code? If you ever got in trouble with a guest, you holler out. Was it Rufus? I can't remember now. It's been a while since I've been in that market. But all the carnies jump in and help you.

[Matt]

Really?

[Steve Crawford]

They do. They watch each other. They watch your back, the entertainer's back. That was one of the first things I learned. That's kind of a family.

[Matt]

It's kind of cool.

[Steve Crawford]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Matt]

So what would you do then? So if you were. You were on the road like that and, you know, you weren't like, you know, taking advantage of the babes, not in, like a bad way, but I'm saying they're all. They're plentiful, I would imagine. What would you do? Like, you just chill all day and like, do magic.

[Steve Crawford]

Like you're talking about. I'm sorry, after the show.

[Matt]

Yeah. Yeah. What would you do?

[Steve Crawford]

There was no break at a fair. You're. We. You know, you open up in the afternoon, you do some shows, you run them into the night and. And then you go back and you just wore out. You know, you've been outdoors all day. Typically, you know, a lot of indoor events, but.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And go back to your room and hide.

[Matt]

Really.

[Steve Crawford]

I'll get some rest. Because you got to do it again the next day. When the fair ends on a Sunday night, you got to pack your. Tear down our help.

[Matt]

You're out. Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Big tear down. Load your trailer for sure. Head on down to the next one.

[Matt]

So what about the one thing I want to ask you when we started is like, what's the relationship like between a magician and a magician's assistant? That seems like it's an erotic. I don't want to keep, like, hammering on this, but it seems like an erotic situation. Like, how do you handle that?

[Steve Crawford]

It could be. It's all. You keep it in the back of your head. So unfortunately, they never knew. They never knew my thoughts. No, I actually. Very respectful.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

We'd hire dancers. We would hire people that, you know, were there for the art and did a good job. And honestly, we became good friends. I never, never made a move on an assistant, but there were some I certainly liked. You know, I think like me, but we just left it at that.

[Matt]

You're professional as hell. I guess that's how you do it for 40 years, man.

[Steve Crawford]

Otherwise, 40 years, it was that long till I could get out of it. And I did comedy clubs in the 80s.

[Matt]

No.

[Steve Crawford]

So I had three comedy club acts, and it was an agent that convinced me to do this. Keeping in mind I'm an actor. I wanted to be a comedian, but I never really was that funny. I mean, honestly, I, I. So I didn't think. But. So we developed three acts that we booked into the comedy clubs. And one was a pickpocket comedy thing, and one was a monologue with some magic. And the third one is the reason I got out of doing comedy clubs. I had a problem with myself doing this with anybody. I went right in as a headliner, I think a comedy club, you need people to start in the beginning, open air, middle, or, you know, and then you work your way up and you got real talented comedians out there. But I had an act that just booked the year up like that as a. Right off the bat when it right in as a. A headliner because there was no choice but to put it there. And what, why it booked was the ticket sales and it's the hypnosis show. So I became a certified clinical hypnotist.

[Matt]

So that's you majored in psychology?

[Steve Crawford]

I major. It was actually an acting theater major with a minor in psychology. But then I became a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists. And I went into these sessions where we learned how to hypnotize people. And I screwed them up. I messed with them. You had to work with real people, right, and tell them that their watch is gone. Well, I would really steal their watch. And then I would touch their eyes and then put my fingers here and say, I'm going to feel something touch you, touch you. And then I would touch with my other hand. And I was doing magic on these people, right? And then when we came out, all the guests are sharing the stories of what happened. And the certifiers are like, what? What happened? He did what? And, you know, even with kids, we hypnotized kids. But honestly, people are crying, they're talking about their problems. I would never be a doctor. I could never be a clin hypnotist at the shows.

[Matt]

People will get shows.

[Steve Crawford]

It was a animal. So. So yes, a comedian to me is. Is not a hypnotist or vice versa. That a comedian is a comedian. And so here we are in there, booked as the headliner, because you got to do a lengthy show, you got to bring people up an hour and. And it's got to be in that spot. And it was a very popular act. So there was a change at the end of the 80s where there were less comedy clubs. So I got in for commercial reasons again. We. And I like to switch things up because I get bored, you know, change the market some. And we'd. The clubs are going down. And so I had an opportunity to stay on. And I think I heard that Jokers was one of the clubs we were working with. Wanted now their people to go with them full time or something. There were some changes going on. And I thought, you know what? There's some great comedians that I met while I was out there. And those guys, they deserve the comedy club. So. So I left it. I got out of there and Principled.

[Matt]

Man, you know, so what were the show. So you said, what, you would hypnotize people and steal their stuff.

[Steve Crawford]

So pickpocketing was actually a separate thing. But in the. When I was referring to when we were practicing with real people and real problems, we would go into a room with them alone. As part of your training to get certified as a clinical hypnotist. Yeah, to help you with problems. And I just couldn't resist. I'm like, oh, my gosh. You tell them their watch is gone and now they don't see it. And you show them a coin and you tell them it's a different coin and they believe it's a different. How does it work in these tests? Well, this is all through mental program. You relax a person. Hypnosis works this way. You get some in a very relaxed state of mind. They go to an alpha pattern. And now you can speak to the subconscious mind. You don't have to go to a clinical hypnotist to try some tricks at home. For example, if you're worried about remembering something tomorrow, a better word is recall, because it's always in there. But you want to be able to recall. So you relax into this like you're falling asleep, Right? Very relaxed. And then you look and you picture the shower curtain. And tell yourself, when I see this shower curtain, this thought will pop in my mind. So you won't forget it.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And watch the trick to this is the fun thing about it is this. The next day, a year later, 20 years later, when you see the shower curtain, it will pop this trigger in the start and you go, wow. Then you begin to realize, oh, this stuff really works. It's not all just a show. I mean, a lot of it is a show, but you can really do that or the subconscious mind is so amazing. Most of us have an internal clock in the subconscious mind. You tell yourself, I need to wake up at a certain time as you fall asleep. Watch if you don't wake up either at that time, sometimes on the minute, but usually just a little before because, you know, you got to be up at that time. Yeah, your brain will wake you up. So it's about relaxing and getting into the subconscious.

[Matt]

Gotcha. What was like some of the crazier things you did, hypnotizing people in the shows?

[Steve Crawford]

Well, making people rigid, laying them on two chairs and standing on their body. And it was not. It was not. It was not a magic trick. It looked like one, but they're so rigid. And then a friend of mine, Dr. Roy Bellows, was hypnotist and I hear he's in court where somebody came back later and said that they had some back injuries. On my stand on the back through that one. Well, you stand on the front. You put their feet on one chair and their head here and there and then you walk on their body.

[Matt]

What?

[Steve Crawford]

It's a classic. It's been around.

[Matt]

Women are just men.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, that depends on your fetish. I don't know, but I might try that tonight.

[Matt]

I might try to jump on a lady during my hours. Jump right on her belly.

[Steve Crawford]

It's squisher hypnosis, but yeah, it's a lot of fun. They become space aliens. They, you know, race. What fun acts in the shows.

[Matt]

In the show, yeah, we were tempted to use the hypnosis for like evil purposes. Not, not a women. I mean, guys, whatever. Just like tricking people. Getting like a clone army going.

[Steve Crawford]

You know what's really weird about that is people ask you too. Have you ever used your lock picking skills?

[Matt]

Yeah, true.

[Steve Crawford]

You know, haven't you ever been tempted to break in? No. I mean, you could take a brick and throw it through the window tomorrow if you really want to break in. It doesn't change you at all.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah. Well, every locksmith knows how to kind of pick locks.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, sure, but they're like, well, no, I don't want to break it anywhere. No, you don't need to pick locks to break it somewhere if you want to break in. But we don't want to break in anywhere. You really don't change it. And hopefully the people that are. That do take advantage of their skills like pickpocketing. I'll admit, as a Kid. We used to go down the street and take people's wallets and practice and stuff. And I'm like, oh, I'm not going to steal from anybody. You know, I got to get their money back. But we wanted to practice on strangers and we did. I'm like, I can't do this.

[Matt]

How do you pickpocket? What's the.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, you don't have a. If you ever watch a giver watch on. Do you have a buckle straw with a strap on it over there? I can't see. Nobody got. So, you know, give me your hand. And so somebody got a watch right here. You grab here and you would literally pull back. Oh, you pop this shank and put out and you squeeze it. And when you pull it away, they don't feel it. So you look for that style watch as a first choice.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And it was in my comedy club act. I'd bring the person up and then I would wave it in front of their face. It's okay, I'm going to hypnotize you. You're getting sleepy. And then we'll try a post hypnotic suggestion. The watch is looking familiar to you. And they're like, oh, that's my watch. You know. So it was inherently funny.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And then I would have them tighten my hands behind my back. And it's an old routine Harry Keller, I think the magician invented where you pull your hand out and back in overcoming. So I'm flashing the guy's wallet behind his back and show it and flashing this and flashing that. So take it. And then return their keys or something at the end as a finale. We had an occasion in a comedy club once which caused a real issue is I added a new bit. So I walked into the audience and I grabbed the proper watch and started picking. Actually, let me go with you. Would you mind help me. And took a different guy. But I had this guy's watch. So the finale, the new change. The new change in this act was at the end after returning this guy step. Everybody laughs. I point the guy in the audience. Hey, don't laugh. I got yours too. And you get an extra round of applause. Right. I forgot I'd taken it. It was a brand new act. It was in my pocket and I left the place where this guy's nice watch. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I got it. So I actually had to call the manager the comedy club. And he put out an announcement and somehow he got a call from the right guy. The guy. I was at that show and my Watch disappeared and. Yeah, you got your what? And we gave him his watch back. So everybody thought it was funny and quite amusing. I don't think they knew it was part of the act or not.

[Matt]

Though it is nice to know if, you know, if you ever need to, you could be a master thief. Obviously you wouldn't do that.

[Steve Crawford]

But it's very true, absolutely true. There's nothing and there really is nothing. No lock that can't be open or there's no item. You can't escape from handcuffs.

[Matt]

I know you can escape. You said so you said the record for escaping from hand.

[Steve Crawford]

Yes, sir. I wasn't going to mention it, but I have a world record. Well, that's boastful. So less than two seconds came front.

[Matt]

Page news as Steve broke a world record with the escape.

[Steve Crawford]

Ready? I've got the stopwatch.

[Matt]

Okay, go.

[Steve Crawford]

Whoa. Yeah, let me see these. All right, Very good. Look at the stopwatch, Steve. 1.47 seconds. And that is less than two seconds is a record. Congrats. And I only sent you one picture. I just want to share this. I, I. When I was stepping away from scapes getting older just a few years back, I started doing something unusual for law enforcement groups. I actually got a phone call from former chief of police and he, he was in Oklahoma and he calls me and he says, steve, we've got a problem. People are getting out of the handcuffs, they're getting out of their jails and they're escaping these things and they're turning the stuff on the cops. They're leaving them for dead or, you know, killing them. One, we need your help. And they had a budget, so they would have been paying me to come in and teach them. I said, well, I'll teach you how to get out of things. Not with just to show you how. How easy it is to do this stuff once you know, is I will show you how to escape from padlocks, handcuffs, and things with items around you. And then I'll do it after a search and then I'll do it without touching anything, which is a matter well, so we went with two things on the cop car. And I've got some photos I can send you as the. A piece of wire from the windshield wiper. Sometimes they put a person up by the windshield wiper and you take this flat piece of metal, you can shim the cuffs open through the notches. You're not really picking the locks.

[Matt]

Wait, so how do you get the piece of metal again? Where is it at?

[Steve Crawford]

Off of a windshield wiper. So you'll see some photos. I'll send you this later today of me holding a windshield wiper out in front of a police station and then in actually with it in front of the cops showing them how to use that. And then a piece of metal that I found in the back seat of a spring of a car if you could dig in to get it but. And then another one was picking padlocks with the stem from reading glasses or glasses which is actually two pieces. You get a shim. You get a. And then there's something completely different which is going through the shank of a padlock. So anyway I'm doing this stuff and we go from local police to. I was connected put up with an organization that was with the criminal justice system and it was called the MacGyver 101 and it was a three day weekend. They had a guy that was a narcotics Federal Bureau of Narcotics there another guy in weapons at three. I was the only one that was a non officer. So I don't know if you can actually Google on YouTube somebody put it on there. Once the handcuffs escape and a prison escape.

[Matt]

How did you escape from the prison?

[Steve Crawford]

There are several ways. So I was. I gave him one of the methods that with certain cells you can use that people would take shampoo bottle, toilet paper stings around you and block the bolt hole. And when you slam this on the cells it seems like it's shut. That's not the. I don't give away my best secrets. Believe it or not. I really don't. So this is the one I gave them.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And I'd copy. Oh, we had that happen. We actually had a guy get out of the cell that way. You know this stuff's really going on.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And that's why I'm not afraid to share it. Yeah, I think the best. But we were shut down. And I will tell you this too. So we're doing these federal things. I know we got to go quick probably but I actually.

[Matt]

We're good.

[Steve Crawford]

Told them I had a second hobby and it was sneaking into places, testing security at places. So I was trying to make.

[Matt]

I always want to do that. I always wanted to go to stores just like show them how much I could steal from them and then go here. Here's how I do.

[Steve Crawford]

So if you really want to see this stuff, I'll send it to you. I was making this part of my business. We had some customers that I would show them how I could get through their security and get past the bomb squads and some of these things were so easy.

[Matt]

You get onto a plane, you think.

[Steve Crawford]

That'S what I was leading up through. No big time story. This is the story. So I've got the photographs to show. I told them in my observation, the TSA at the airport is the absolute weakest security in the world. And I can get. And I got an arsenal of stuff through it. And I will show you. I kid you not. Started with things like metal signs from, you know, about this large surfboard. And finally a big metal sword, which I've got a picture of my wife, angry, looking at me. And it's not. Not a fake picture. She didn't know I did it. And I put it under my jack. And so what was going on? There's a. And here's. Gosh, I'm going to share this right now, because I wasn't. I'm not supposed to share this. This is what ended my career with the law enforcement. I love this story. And I'm sharing it publicly for the first time. And it could get me in some serious trouble. I kid you not. So here's what was going on. I said, I can. I said, okay. First is I called it the magic trick. We'd go to the airport. I've got all this on video pictures. And you've got all these TSA standing around, right? An abundance of them watching. I want to get that number down. When I say the magic words. Abracadabra. All the. A big group of them, they all leave, leaving a skeleton crew for me to work with. And it works every time. Abbottabra. And they want how. This is what they were asking me at the. How do you do? Is it hypnosis? No. So I would hide a bottle of water in a backpack or drop it in somebody's purse while in line.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

In one of my demonstrations, I use my nephew, which because he was in on it. But you can stick it anybody. They get flagged. These extra bodies are here just for that reason. You got a bottle of water, they're going to take you off and they're going to. So you can control. Get these people out of the right. Now they're over there. No harm, no foul. The lady or person gets to leave. There's a bottle of water, right. But you get rid of them. Now the next step was this. There's this tray, this table where you roll all your stuff around and you put your. Your stuff in, right. And underneath, there's nothing there. It runs right up to, I guess, what's designed to be a portable x Ray machine, it's got wheels on it. There's a gap underneath this thing, right? So this is blocking the view. You got the people on the computer looking straight down. You got this guy over here telling you you got to take your shoes off. You got over here making sure nobody needs help. And you got people crawling all over the floor, putting shoes on, on the other side. So I would drop the item in the floor and kick it underneath the machine, right? And I. And I'm snapping photos, which is illegal. I found out I snapped. And I've got a ton of these from like 20 airports. Kick it. And we were showing them on the screen, showing how I got this, that, and trying to get something done. So the MacGyver 101 team, the people I work for, they wrote a letter to the White House. I guess the criminal justice system did. And we got a nice letter, and I got a big certificate. Wonderful. All you stuff you've done, this is. We're. This is going to cause some changes. We want to fly you to Washington at a certain month for this round table thing they do once a year. And our. My stuff would go right to the government. Suddenly, my sister, who lives in Hawaii at the time, gets a call. I don't know why the guy couldn't find me and because I didn't answer my phone, but it says, we need to find your brother right this minute. Where's your brother? And she said, what's going on? He said, well, they're coming to arrest him and go to jail. She's like, what? She said, if you know how to get a hold of him, you must find him right now. So I, I'm. So what's the matter with you guys? Talking about. You told me to call this number if I ever got arrested.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Going through the airport. And you would tell. They said, well, that's the thing, you know, we normally. They work with this. We tell them you're testing it, or we would. We would, you know, talk to the judge and you're working for us. You're helping.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And he said no. He said, the TSA are pissed. He said, these guys, they say they're going to make an example out of you, what you're guilty of several felonies. Not only did you not work really, you're not a lot in law enforcement that you took pictures, you manipulated officers and bragged about it out of the area and endangered lives by showing people how to. How to do this.

[Matt]

Who'd you show, though?

[Steve Crawford]

I put it all over social media. Everyone And I told him I was going to do it. I said, let me tell you something, I'm not any part of a cover up.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

I said, if, if we show the public what's going on, they'll change it.

[Matt]

Yeah, for sure.

[Steve Crawford]

Because I am not so egotistical to believe that I am the only one on earth who's going to see that and could do it.

[Matt]

That's pretty smart though, to kick it under.

[Steve Crawford]

They made some major changes. So if you look at my photographs of airports and, or you have a good memory, go to the airports now and they're all a little different. You can tell they're experimenting, they've changed some things. They've got a wall they're putting now under the, that runs further back so you can't control something right up to the kick it under there. They've got a machine now to bring the carts back around that they made. They, they're finding ways to complicate this thing and I'm very thankful that that happened.

[Matt]

Why did they arrest you? How'd you get out of that?

[Steve Crawford]

So they were coming, they were looking for me and my guy, he says, I need you to hide. I'm like, what? He goes, I'm dead serious. He said, because if they, if you, if you get arrested, we may not know where you are.

[Matt]

Yeah, it's like federal stuff too.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah. He said, we, it's a tsa. He said, these guys are not joking here. He said, they are mad.

[Matt]

They're never, they're never joking. Grumpy.

[Steve Crawford]

He said, we're going to fight with him. So he came back, he said, it's been resolved. There's three conditions. One is we can no longer hire you. You lost the gig. You know, no more teaching the officers. We got to end this. No more airports, no, no nothing. Number two, you got to delete all your social media posts, which I did not do. I still see some pop up memories, but somebody deleted some of them. And they said, number three, they want to meet you in person. I'm like, why do they want to meet me in person? He goes, I don't know, they just wanted. See, no, I said, I'm going to do everything but that. Yeah, because that sounds like a trap.

[Matt]

Yeah. Really.

[Steve Crawford]

But anyway, so no, I, I, I never. He, they said, oh. And he thought that part of the condition, not only can you not tell anybody what you did, you can't tell them why you can't do it anymore. This thing just has to go away. Right? Yeah. Just disappear. So that's why this is the first time I've shared it, and I'm a little upset.

[Matt]

Yeah, that's. How big was a sword you got through? How big was the sword that you got through?

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, my gosh. I want to. I should have sent you that picture. It was from the floor to here.

[Matt]

What'd you do with it once you got through the security?

[Steve Crawford]

Well, I carried it around, but it looked like this. I. I took weird looks with the sword. Well, the photo that I'll send you, we're at the gate where my sister is flying one place, right? From one plane, and my wife's there. My wife said, you can never do this stuff when you're with me. Which I didn't typically on this. And so I had two versions, Right. Some of this stuff I just carried on me and tossed it down. But I usually use the jacket. Okay. I would use the jacket to kind of drop it to get whatever it was underneath. And then when I'm down tying my shoes, I would retain. Sometimes something got stuck under there. It wasn't a sword, but I would just crawl over there and get it because everybody's on the floor. This is the weakest thing I've ever seen in my life, you know, and one of the officers saw me once, and I said, I dropped my wallet, but the sword. So we're done through. We got it through to the gates, and that's. That's. From there on, it's really no big deal. But I'm saying goodbye to my sister and I'm holding the sword and photograph behind my back. And you see my wife going. And I had somebody take the picture, right, of us leaving, saying goodbye. You know, we're hugging inside, and she's just going to. So she's still mad.

[Matt]

She knows you got that thing on you.

[Steve Crawford]

She's very upset about that. So that's a real photo. I'll show you. I wanted to put it back on social media, even after it was so funny. That's when some of this was going down.

[Matt]

And, you know. How long ago was this?

[Steve Crawford]

Seven. Six. Seven. Seven years, I think before I moved here. I don't know why.

[Matt]

In my head, I feel like if a crime happened seven years ago, you're good. So.

[Steve Crawford]

So. And it was one of the reasons I left, where I'm from Oklahoma, was that to move to California. That was the reason. Fact is, I had studied acting in college and always wanted to be an actor.

[Matt]

I thought you were a great actor. You did great.

[Steve Crawford]

Thank you. I think I love doing it. It's. It's really something. I've worked on it since a kid and I want to do it as a career. And it was one of those things where I was going to come out here right after college, but I couldn't. I got trapped in my career. Once you start booking annual stuff now, they're going to book ahead. You're booked that month this year, so they book you the next year and next thing you know, 30, 40 years have gone by and you're just. And so it really took Covid as well to shut everything down. And I said, I'm never looking back, you know, to, to go into acting full time.

[Matt]

Did you get any like long term injuries from doing like stunts and stuff?

[Steve Crawford]

Covered with them, Are you really? Absolutely, yeah. Covered with them. I did an air show stunt, didn't escape and I had a bad landing.

[Matt]

How high up?

[Steve Crawford]

More than 10,000ft. But it's not. It was an escape from a box, which was a thing where the audience thinks that they're gonna. I was actually booked by man named Edsel Ford. He has an air show team and he came to me, he said, I know you do stunts. He said, can you do something for air shows? He said, we need a new act or something to go with us. And he said, in air shows, in most shows you want people to think you're gonna die in a stunt show, but in an air show you want them to know you're gonna die. And I said, what if the audience thinks they're gonna die? He said, even better. So in this effect, I dropped in the plane in the box and the audience is told it's falling out of control. So they take it up in the plane and the audience can see the shoot open and they go. Steve was open to shoot, he's carrying the box back over the. The drop zone. So now I'm holding this box, it looks like, till I get over in the area.

[Matt]

Wait, so are you release it? You're in the air?

[Steve Crawford]

I'm with a shoot. Oh, you're holding the box, which is what it looks like. And then I release it and, and pull these toggles and land. Well, the truth is you can't hold a box when a chute opens in the air. So I'm wearing this harness we had made down in Deland Florida by a company, real nice, they make tailor made stuff or stunts and air shows and things. And a strap attached me to the box. So I have this strap and as I get lower I release the box and would open my chute so the problem is, anytime you get two lines, FAA approved stunt is safe. I was angry at them. I said you guys weren't honest with me. Anytime you put two lines in the air, you run a risk of danger. You get line entanglement, which is exactly what happened. The chute came out wrapped around the strap to the box. So I've got to shoot there. Not the end of the world. We got two shoots cut away your left one puller and your right one. Right. So now I've got this chute open with the strap in the box, which is what it's supposed to look like. But there's an additional piece there that shouldn't be there the first shoot.

[Matt]

Right.

[Steve Crawford]

So it's causing. You go like this as we. As I go down. You can't look down when you're lowering. Skydiving is a weird thing. You can't tell how low you are. But looking down, you have to look at the Horizon. So about 50ft from the ground, looking out that way, you can tell where that is. You slow your descent normally. Right. So in my act is I cut away and then slow my descent. Right. So the horizon is just doing ish. I couldn't tell. And I was. I couldn't cut it away because I know who I'm going to kill. Right. This whole thing could.

[Matt]

God. Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Land anywhere. So I'm trying to focus, to see where I am, and that's the last thing I remember. I had a concussion. I've got the short socks, you know, the nerd socks. You can see the scar right there.

[Matt]

Short socks. Nerd socks.

[Steve Crawford]

I saw you in one of your acts. Some of the audience brought that up. And you showed them your socks. And you remember. You don't remember that. It's on YouTube right now. It's on right now. You're having to yell things out of the audience. And one of the guys said something about this short.

[Matt]

Oh, yeah, they're saying black ankle socks. They were saying, here's.

[Steve Crawford]

You can see the scar right there, Right.

[Matt]

Damn.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah, I got one on both sides, but I broke my hip. I broke that ankle, too, but this one got crushed and most of the entire parts came out. It took forever to heal from that one. Broke the jaw. I've got scars on my arm still from it. So this is a long time ago. It took forever to get well, but I had a shoot opener. I'd be dead. You know, it was just what you'd say, a hard landing.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And I tell you, you know, it amazes me People, the old army, those guys never did have an opportunity. They had. They always came down hard. I don't know how they did it. Commendable that they would ever put up with that. But. But yeah. So, yeah, I had spikes through my body one time. There was a guy who'd hired me before. It was the thing where I used to get chained in a chair and we'd had a martial artist with a screen with spikes. And he would come running down, I'm gagged, and he would kick through this thing after a 10 second countdown and I would roll under him, basically come out. And so this guy hires me and he says, can you do this act? I'm going to have people bring stuff to the show. I'm like, I'm exhausted. And he's got a pole in the stage, like a flagpole. He goes, we're going to wrap you around this pole instead. I'm okay. And I said, we're bringing. We'll do a pair of handcuffs. Give me 10 seconds to get out. And. And then he has people bring stuff to the show and brings up on the stage, what in the world are you doing? He's an emc. He's had hired me 10 years before.

[Matt]

Was it emc? What's that you said emc?

[Steve Crawford]

He was the MC of the show and the promoter. He hired several acts. So he brought me back for this finale and people were chaining me up and I'm like, okay. I said, I need. I need a full minute to escape from this. He gags my mouth. And they get the screen ready and he says, how many of y' all think Steve can get out of this in the 10 seconds he originally promised, I'm like, whoa, punchline's gotta be coming, right? Gotta be a punchline. And everybody applauds. And he said, put it in place. And he stands up and he says, 10. I'm like, are you kidding me? What? And I'm like, I didn't have a chance, right? So I just turned my back to the spikes and this thing and I've still got here.

[Matt]

What the fuck, man Crush.

[Steve Crawford]

And the sad thing. And I wish my brain had been in the right place to not move an inch. That the audience broke out into applause because they thought I disappeared. And instead I'm mo. I start moaning and moving and I'm stabbed, you know, But I wish I had not done that now. I didn't realize if you didn't move.

[Matt]

You would have been fine.

[Steve Crawford]

They thought I was gone. The curtain would have shut, you know. Into the show, and everybody thought I disappeared. And then this thing starts moving. They're like, oh, you know. So anyway, I'm like, dude, why did you do that? I thought you were kidding. He said, man, I've seen you a million times. He goes, I thought you could disappoint, and you're out. I've seen you do it.

[Matt]

Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

[Steve Crawford]

Thanks.

[Matt]

How big are the spikes?

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, my gosh. Oh, one of them. Yeah. Went right back to my spinal cord, you know. Oh, I've been paralyzed.

[Matt]

What?

[Steve Crawford]

Do we have time to do another magic trick or. We don't.

[Matt]

I think we have time. Well, the one thing I wanted to ask you about. We have a half an hour. We're good. This episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast is brought to you by. Dude Wipes. Riff prompts when you wipe, are you sitting or standing? I started out sitting today, and then I actually. Actually, I'm not lying. I got saved by Dude Wipes today. I was in the bathroom taking a dump at Shane's house, and I had. You know what? It, like, clings to the side of your butt, kind of. I had a large deposit cling to my butt, and it, like, literally, you don't ever get it on your hand at all, and you're wipe. I don't want to gross you guys out. Has, like, accidentally. Have you. Have you ever got it on your hand? I did. It literally happened to me today. Like, I got it just a tiny bit on my hand. I was like, well, that's the joy.

[Steve Crawford]

Of the Dude Wiper XL Wipe for xl, Man.

[Matt]

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[Steve Crawford]

Yep.

[Matt]

And now you said you can't hold your breath that long anymore.

[Steve Crawford]

No. And nor do I know what happened. I've had, you know, a lot of things started to change. I used to be in very good physical shape. You might remember seeing some of the older photos. I saw the picture for an audience, you know, and I, you know, I was starting to develop some intestinal issues, Crohn's disease, which I kind of hid and continued. Some things were going on. But uh, yeah, I started as a kid holding my breath and I was on the swim team and they always hated it. I was horrible swimming on top of the water. So I would always dive in and go all the way to the other side. As soon as we come back, emerge, you know, to finish it up. So I get in there.

[Matt]

Which joke were you doing? What stroke were you doing?

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, that was just a regular bicycle, you know. Oh, dude, they, they, you know, you.

[Matt]

Would just be submerged the whole time.

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, they'll do it for the first run all the way to the end. And when I come back I'd come up to give him a few, a little bit of fairness. But I was fast under that water. There was no rule how long you stayed under. Right. So I, well, if there's no really rule in the books how long you stay. But I practiced all the time. And so yeah, I was comfortable sitting on the bottom of pool, shimming locks, picking locks, manipulating them open that people would bring. And, and you know, in all honesty, you get eight or 10 locks, you don't have to open all of them. People didn't realize that necessarily, you know, you open the key locks and. But I was comfortable and then I would, I would spread this, pace it out. I want to give the audience a good show. Somebody asked me when I was coming out of one of my water effects, which I could do the lake in the box things, all these. You mean you come out, you're exhausted, you're coughing up water, you know, are you really suffering or is it all an act? No, I'm really suffering, but it's all self inflicted. I stayed, would stay down, you say, as long as you stay underwater. As long as you can. Until you absolutely can't stay under the ring. Come up, you're going to be really breathe it.

[Matt]

Did you ever pass out underwater?

[Steve Crawford]

Actually I did one time.

[Matt]

I did once too. It was terrifying.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Matt]

How'd you get, you get pulled out?

[Steve Crawford]

I don't know what happened. We were at Punkin theater in Punk City, Oklahoma, which was supposed to be a haunted theater. And we had some weird stuff happen with the water tank, an older water tank, when they were trying to pull Me up a double pulley system where I go up easy. Started fighting them. They're pulling this thing. They're, you know, we don't know what's going on, right. And, and we got this on video. And they kind of get me up and it's this big a frame. I'm hanging upside down. There's a roller thing. I mean, you got your, your feet and these stalks, right? And then you got this thing that runs up to the top of this where they pulled you up and they roll you across was. I'm. They're having so much trouble. I think, man, this thing's going to break. Something is wrong here. So the minute we got up there, I said, get me over the tank quick, because they're holding your hands. And so. And I mean, the second I was there, it broke. The weird thing on that night, the break had nothing to do with the pulley system. It was a piece of steel that they would use for mountain climbing, right. They held the stalks and went, that thing just broke. It shouldn't have broken. And another place had nothing to do with the tension. So there was two issues, really. Three, because the water was boiling after we put a little bucket healer in hours before because it was ice cold, water should have taken a day to heat it. But the water was like boiling hot when I almost went in it. And I'm, I'm glad I tested it. So this was like a haunted theater. And everybody's telling me all this haunted stuff's going on. I'm like, you know, I said and believe it. And then all of a sudden everything's going downhill. So when I hit this thing, I didn't get any air because I wasn't prepared. Right?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

It's a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5th one, hold it, go in. And I'm good for a while, right? In this case, I was probably on the exhale and I went down. So when the stocks came down, they couldn't get the lid on because it fell so fast. You got to hit it just right.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And you guys are fighting with it. And I've got a guy sitting right over here who's a spotter who does nothing but watch me. And if he sees me make a signal, something's wrong. Cut it. Yeah, I'm like, cut it. I'm looking. Where is he? Not there. First rule and daredevil stunts escape. Don't change anything. Don't improvise, nothing. This guy left his post to run. Help these guys get the lid on. Right. So I'm Trying to get my part to get out of this thing and I blacked out. The next thing I know, I'm in the floor. So I had fallen, but I don't know what happened. I literally don't remember.

[Matt]

Jesus.

[Steve Crawford]

Very peculiar experience. Yeah, that's very terrifying. For sure.

[Matt]

Yeah. I was just swimming with my friends and we were like drinking and I think my, I was using my kids goggles, so they were super tight and they were just like cutting off like blood in my brain. And I tried to go back and forth in the pool and I was coming back and I just, I don't. I like remember coming out of the water, just lungs full of breath. I somehow just propel myself out, like kind of blacked out and then I fell forward again. Just hit my chin on the edge of the pool.

[Steve Crawford]

Water is so dangerous and even for an escape artist. And I, you know, I don't like to tell all my secrets, but I would do everything I can, you know, I could do to make these things safe. Like chained up, throwing in a pool is that I would have a signal, you know, to do something's wrong. And we would tell the audience, well, they'll have to jump in and pull these heavy weights all the way to the shallow and to get me out while the fact is we had a rope with a hook on it. But then I'm like suffering later and I'm asked my guys because, could you see me? And you know, I really couldn't see that well, you know, the water chlorinated. I just couldn't see it. Or we're in a lake. I almost died in a lake. I showed you a picture of this, I think yesterday coming out of the lake. That was totally unexpected. Wooden box was in a lake. And I did what I had to do to open it, but the wood had sealed and I mean, it was a tough sucker to get out of there. Once I get out, I'm exhausted and I'm trying to work my way up. Lo and behold, we've got quicksand or something underneath the water. When I get to shallow enough to walk, it takes me down and I'm like pulling as hard as I get. My wet. My head on wet shoes. They're gone.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And I mean, I'm fighting to get my feet out of this and my guys are coming out. So the photo may or I've got on my phone, but they're coming out to try to help me. And then they're sinking. Five guys, ten guys are rescue guys. They can't Even get to me, you know, And I'm just like. And I'm so tired. So. Water. Yeah, it didn't scare me, but it's. Water didn't scare me. Like, some things, like height scare.

[Matt]

Yeah, but.

[Steve Crawford]

But it's very dangerous. Yeah.

[Matt]

It is peaceful, though, underwater. I have little kids, and I will go in the pool and every now and again, I'll just disappear for my whole family underwater for a good minute.

[Steve Crawford]

It's just absolutely.

[Matt]

Just the best just to go underwater. I can't hear anything for.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah. And that was my life, you know, circling back to a question you asked. I would sit there underwater and comfortably do my thing and enjoyed the peace and quiet until it was time to come up. But then one day, it changed. I just lost that ability.

[Matt]

It's crazy.

[Steve Crawford]

So I went to a doctor and I said, we got a serious problem. I got bookings. I said, listen, I can hold my breath a lot longer than this. I can't hold my breath. I don't know why, as much as I practice. And so they even did a heart test. Massage my heart. They said, this sounds like it's a heart thing. And no, your heart's fine. And they finally said, listen, whatever weirdness it was you were gifted with to hold your breath before minutes is just gone. You know, your body's changing.

[Matt]

Just time for acting, you know, it's.

[Steve Crawford]

Time to go to become an actor. Right. I got to survive the last. So the thing that changed was I went from a comfortable performance because it's a show, even if there's danger, we know it's tough, you know, it's still a show, a comfortable performance, to put on a good show of fighting against death, struggling to a real fight against death, where I'm going as fast as I can and suffering every minute.

[Matt]

Did you still keep doing them even. Even if.

[Steve Crawford]

No, I didn't book anymore after that. I had to. But I finished my contract. I mean, I had bookings. I, you know, had a religion about it that once the deal is made, you know, you don't pull out if you want to sign. You're going to be there. And I mean, I don't recommend this for everybody, but it's the truth, you know, I did a show with a broken leg once. Not that. Break another one for a roller coaster. I had to go do a second show.

[Matt]

Break your leg on a roller coaster.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, that was a thing where I'm strapped to the roller coaster. I think I showed you those pictures, the straight jacket. We put a screen up and the roller coasters come in. I have to dive out before it comes through. And I did a long time ago.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Way back Frontiers. Excuse me. Spring Lake Amusement park in Oklahoma City was the first one I did, and that was in college, way back. Some other guys have done it since then, but it was my original act, and there was a way I knew that. The roller coaster was so close. Right. So you don't want to jump out too early or it looks boring, so you got to wait till it gets there.

[Matt]

You caught your leg?

[Steve Crawford]

What?

[Matt]

The roller coaster caught your leg.

[Steve Crawford]

You're saying no, no. I thought it was closer than was. So it's like with flying that, you know, you don't trust your eyes. You can trust the instruments. So I had a way of knowing where it was that I didn't trust it. It sounded like it was there. I'm like, I don't have time to jump up, land on this platform. So I just went under, straight down under the tracks and dropped 15ft.

[Matt]

Jesus.

[Steve Crawford]

Broke the ankles again. My poor body, you talk about. I had a total hip replacement last November. It got so bad I couldn't walk that you're the pain. And I'm like, no, I'm too young for a hip replacement doctor. But that's the best surgery you can get. Boy, I tell you what, I'm. I'm really. Yeah. I can't tell I've ever had a problem. I'm not as limber as I was. But I will say that, you know, because you're not allowed to stretch after six months or something. But, yeah, we live with it, and I think it was all worth it.

[Matt]

Nice. And the one thing I wanted to ask you about because I found this kind of fascinating. The. You were on. What was the TV show? You're on the cooking show America's Worst Chef or something.

[Steve Crawford]

Ah, that was very recent.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Last year was it. Year before. I lose track of time. I'm doing my acting thing, and there's a strike going on. And I. I was on a series at Eli Roth, scary series, which was still on Max, playing an exorcist. And we were going to have additional shows, and we got shut down for the strike. And I'm like, oh, man, this sucks. And so I asked the union, well, what can we do? They said, we can do reality shows. So I am the world's worst cook. I'm really horrible. When I was single, I would throw everything. A bowl, turn on the stove, high as it would go, stir it up, didn't care what it tastes like throw all the things that you need to eat your four friend groups and eat them.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

And. But I was on the road eating out.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

My whole life, and then I marry a girl that was a great cook, and she doesn't allow me in the kitchen at all, period. You know, she. I made a mess when she leaves to see grandkids or something, you know?

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

I've Rent the microwave. I've done. But anyhow, so I auditioned and got on World's Worst Cooks, I think. Is that pronounced that way?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah, it is. Worst cooks, season 27 and 27.

[Matt]

That's crazy.

[Steve Crawford]

Chef Ann and Burrell. I think I'm saying it right.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

You know, she died here just two weeks ago.

[Matt]

That's nuts, man.

[Steve Crawford]

And it's just so sad. She was a great lady.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

We had a lot of fun on the show. You know, of course she's yelling at you and, you know, we're hamming it up. The bad cooking was all real. People think I made that stuff up. You know, we hammed up the performance a little. It was. It was all real. But, yeah, we're really shocked and had a great time, though. Some great memories. And sadly, she was gonna take a break from the show, but she told me she wanted me to come back, and so did the producers. They occasionally do reunion shows. The worst of the worst. And was gonna have me back because we had such a good time, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back. I thought, is this really the image I. With her acting.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

But now that we lost her, I'm like, you know what? If I'd known, I'd definitely gone back quicker.

[Matt]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Very nice lady.

[Matt]

Yeah. Shame she died. I didn't realize that show had so many seasons. That's crazy.

[Steve Crawford]

Nor did I. I've heard it once or twice before that, you know. Yeah. I didn't really watch it.

[Matt]

Yeah. Because, like, triple D's got to be at, what, like, 30 seasons? Like, diners drive ins has to be at least, like, 30 something seasons.

[Steve Crawford]

Yeah, it's got to be. I haven't seen that in years. Is it still on?

[Matt]

I think so. I think it's actually, like, shot in, like, 8k now. I think they really stepped up the production on D3.

[Steve Crawford]

Interesting.

[Matt]

But, yeah, let's add some tricks, man. Let's. Let's close this thing out strong.

[Steve Crawford]

All right, you're on.

[Matt]

Here he is.

[Steve Crawford]

Sorry to make you wait so long.

[Matt]

Oh, that's okay.

[Steve Crawford]

Happy to help. What made me think of this when you're talking about spikes and cutting and a little bit of rope magic today. Okay. But you're going to be my assistant.

[Matt]

Oh, nice.

[Steve Crawford]

Speaking of, I don't know if you can get this. We just stabbed my neighbor over here. Maybe you've heard of the famous trick where the rope floats up into the air? Someone climbs the rope. That'll be you.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Steve Crawford]

Disappears, and then the rope falls. Have you heard of this?

[Matt]

No.

[Steve Crawford]

The East Indian rope trick. Very famous. Well, that's okay because I don't know that one. But that would have been a good trick. All right. I really do know some weird things with rope, though. For example, have you ever wondered what happens?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Take the ends off the rope. You can actually get a loop of rope when you do that. But to do the trick I want to do today, I'm going to need two ropes. They have to be exactly the same. This is where you come into the trick. So would you hand me the center of the rope? It's got to give me the middle right here. All right. Mr. Microphone, would you agree if you cut it here, that would give us two the same length? All right, that's the spot selected. Very careful. Take the scissors. Don't cut the fingers. Just cut the rope. Grab the scissors.

[Matt]

I'm gonna give you a nice injury right there.

[Steve Crawford]

Don't cut the. My chord either. All right, but we're a little off on the length. That's okay. I'm gonna have you even these out. Let me line them up straight and ask you to cut this off right here. That should do it.

[Matt]

Right there where you want.

[Steve Crawford]

Right there. I think that should make them exactly the same length. All right, now we have two ropes. Okay, we need two ropes exactly the same length. Would you mind cutting that right there? Just give it a good cut. Here we go.

[Matt]

Right there.

[Steve Crawford]

That's the way to do it. Now we have two ropes exactly the. Have you ever had something called deja vu?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Have you ever had something called deja vu? Have you ever had something. You heard that one coming, I bet. Here we go. Just say abracadabra.

[Matt]

Abracadabra.

[Steve Crawford]

All right, we're just going to start all over. Here we go. Now, to do the trick I really want to do today, we're going to need two ropes that have to be the same length. That's where you come out of the trick. Grab the middle of the rope and just lift it up. Hand it to me. And would you agree if we cut through here, we'd have to the same length like, pretty fair. Would you grab the scissors again? Cut it just like you did before. Here we go. And we're a little off on the link. Would you mind cutting this? You know what? Rather than go through all of that again, I think if we just do the trick, we can actually correct the length. So let me give you a good view. You look like a good knot, right? Hold on to the end of the rope real tight. Don't let go. Watch the knot. Ew. You can let go now. A lot of people think it's a trick knot. That is why I always like to untie it. Come here. So everybody can see that is indeed a real knot.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

All right, now, Matt, would you like to put two ropes back together yourself?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

I know you can do it. Big fan of yours. You know, I got a carpet named after you outside my door at home, too. All right, get the citrus here for you. Always been a big fan, by the way. Thank you for having me, I'm sure. Tie the ends of that one. We'll give it a cut. And I want you to pick a rope. Do you want to use the one I just tied and cut or the rope I'm going to cut right now?

[Matt]

I'll take the one you're going to cut right now.

[Steve Crawford]

Which one? This one? Yeah. Let me give that a cut. I always give you a chance to change your mind. Would you like to change your mind or keep the mind that you have? Okay, I'll keep the one that keep his mind. All right, here we go. So I'm going to tie these together for you, just like that, all right? Mm. Hold it on the end. All right. So you won't be able to do the magic wave because you got a mic.

[Matt]

So, okay.

[Steve Crawford]

Instead, say the magic words. Alakazam.

[Matt]

Alakazam.

[Steve Crawford]

Say, oh, what a great magician I am.

[Matt]

What a great magician.

[Steve Crawford]

You don't have a hand to take it in your teeth. Hold the note off like a real escape artist. Ah. You did it.

[Matt]

There you go. There we go.

[Steve Crawford]

Good job, man. You can keep that as a souvenir.

[Matt]

I will.

[Steve Crawford]

Might be worth pennies someday, right?

[Matt]

Yeah. How you even do that? That's crazy.

[Steve Crawford]

You did it. You did it.

[Matt]

True magic's in me.

[Steve Crawford]

We can do it on the trick if you want. I'll show you how one is done.

[Matt]

No, I would never. I would never reveal.

[Steve Crawford]

I mean, do you want me to show you how a trick is done today?

[Matt]

If you want. I thought magicians get killed for that.

[Steve Crawford]

This is a special show. It's the Secret.

[Matt]

True, true. Show me the secret.

[Steve Crawford]

You got the secret trick. Can we take a little break and we'll take a break.

[Matt]

Take a break.

[Steve Crawford]

We'll be right back with the secret for the secret broadcast show. Okay, sorry.

[Matt]

We're cutting back in. Let me know. We're back. The interview portion. I think the interview portion is concluded. But now we're doing tricks.

[Steve Crawford]

All right.

[Matt]

It's a good interview. That was a great interview.

[Steve Crawford]

Had fun.

[Matt]

Thank you.

[Steve Crawford]

I had fun. I will talk in the microphone, but we're going to give it off in a minute. But first, a little more magic. We promised we're going to be doing some miracles right now. Many as they were done thousands of years ago. Maybe you heard of this one. It's called Walking on Water. Thank you. No. I was about to tell you. You just got promoted. We do hope both of these things now. Okay. Thank you so much.

[Matt]

Oh, he's Lovely. Assistant and Mr. Microphone.

[Steve Crawford]

Okay. This is definitely one of those. We're not going to have a relationship with our.

[Matt]

I don't know, man. If you put me around all those carnies, you could get kind of weird out there.

[Steve Crawford]

All right, so what are we going to do? Well, this is a secret podcast. I'm going to reveal a secret.

[Matt]

Oh, here we go.

[Steve Crawford]

Show you magic tricks. Show you how it's done. For this trick, you need a handkerchief, a scarf, and a left hand. You put the handkerchief or scarf all the way in the hand like this.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Steve Crawford]

You make something called a magic pass. We know what a pass is, right? I go up to Mr. Microphone to go, hi. Not doing that kind of pass. We've already established that a magic pass. You do this. Now we have an egg, and the scarf or handkerchief has jumped into my pocket.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

As promised. All right, you ready to see the secret?

[Matt]

Let's see the secret.

[Steve Crawford]

Actually, I bought it by mistake. If you ladies need some out there, this is the secret. You put that. All right. Different secret. All right. Yes. The secret to the magic trick. And this is a trick egg. It's a plastic egg laid by a very sick bird. And there is a hole in the back of the egg. Kind of a let down when you see how these work. And you need two handkerchiefs to do the trick. All right, here's what you do. You hide the egg in your hand, hold both hands the same. You come out in a natural way. So now, whatever looks natural for sure. Take the handkerchief, wave it around like this. Actually, that depends on the company that you're. You don't want to drop it either. True. Anyway, sorry. You're getting paid, right? That's all that matters. Okay, here we go.

[Matt]

He's actually really wealthy.

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, okay. Really?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Steve Crawford]

Well, maybe we could renegotiate this relationship after all. You didn't tell me that. Okay, so he's in the top 3%.

[Matt]

I would say, in the country.

[Steve Crawford]

Wow. 3% of what?

[Matt]

Earners.

[Steve Crawford]

Earners. Really amazing. Congrats.

[Matt]

Apparently, it's a huge dick. I don't make it weird, but he's got a huge dick, too.

[Steve Crawford]

Oh, yes.

[Matt]

Money. Big dick.

[Steve Crawford]

I guess you're getting a lot of fans right now. Gosh, I didn't plug my Instagram. You guys follow me on Instagram?

[Matt]

Plug it.

[Steve Crawford]

Entertainer. Steve Crawford. Entertainer. You type entertainer. I'll pop up. Why did I do that? Because I'm from Facebook country and I'm trying to get some new friends out here, so.

[Matt]

Got you.

[Steve Crawford]

Nice to meet you guys. Okay, so where were we? Oh, yeah. You hide the egg in your hand. You hold both hands, the same come out in a natural way. Take the handkerchief and you start placing it in your hand. But we know what's going where in the egg. In the egg. It actually goes all the way into the egg. You make the pass, you show them the egg, and you tell everyone that the scarf or handkerchief has jumped into your pocket. Now, there's a couple of quick rules.

[Matt]

Why do you show them the egg? Can't show the egg when you show.

[Steve Crawford]

Them that it has turned into an egg. But there's a few tips. He's got a point. First of all, you know, don't show anybody the backside of the egg. Right? That's important. Wild wild West. And make sure the handkerchief in your pockets the same color as that one. That's. If this doesn't match that, you're not going to fool them. But what do you do if they see the back of the egg? I mean, where you guys are standing, you can see the red. Well, you don't tell them it's a handkerchief. You tell them you cut your finger, you're painting it. Chicken banged his head trying to get out. I may even be a magician. But as you probably got a feel for, I'm an honest guy. I try to be honest. Here's. Here's what I like to do. Make a real magic pass. Peel the hole off the egg like that. Crack the egg so everybody can hold on a second.

[Matt]

Brother.

[Steve Crawford]

Yo. You tricked a real egg.

[Matt]

You tricked us.

[Steve Crawford]

And that's what I like to do. And that's a magic secret.

[Matt]

You tricked us, bro. You didn't give us the secrets. That's awesome. That's a good secret.

[Steve Crawford]

I lie a lot, you know? Right? But you know it's a trick. All right.

[Matt]

That was pretty cool.

[Steve Crawford]

Thank you very much. Hell, yeah.

[Matt]

Thank you, Steve.

[Steve Crawford]

Been fun. Appreciate you.

[Matt]

Bye. Goodbye. That was great.