This week, Australian Story steps inside the fantastical, the mind boggling and the sometimes terrifying world of magic and escapology with Gold Coast father and daughter duo Helen and Arthur Coghlan.
Arthur’s death-defying escapes in the 1970s and 80s earned him the title of Australia’s Houdini. And he admits there were times he took it too far.
“I thought it had to be dangerous for people to watch it,”
Arthur says.
“I don’t think anybody wants to see anybody die, but I mean, they don’t want to miss it if somebody does.”
At the age of 89 Arthur reveals how close he came to death on live television, and his apprehension when his daughter Helen also took the plunge into escapology.
“I remember some of Dad’s male magician friends were saying that escapology was a male domain and that women couldn’t do escapes,”
Helen says.
“And to me, it was like, excuse me?”
Helen became the first woman in the world to perform Houdini’s Water Torture Escape, a nail-biting, underwater stunt invented by the great Harry Houdini, first performed by him in 1913.
Together Arthur and Helen spent many years performing at Magic Castle, one of the Gold Coast’s first theme parks.
After a long hiatus, Arthur and Helen are enjoying a career renaissance on the US television show Penn and Teller Fool Us, and their magical prowess is receiving global recognition.
The program features magicians from around the world trying their hand to challenging Penn and Teller to work out the secrets behind their stunts. Arthur conjures up the tricks and Helen performs them, and they have now successfully fooled Penn and Teller four times, a record few other magicians have achieved.
“They are two of the finest minds in magic,”
Penn says.
“He can build the stuff and design it, and then Helen executes it beautifully. There’s no shame in being fooled by geniuses like that.”
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong
