Performance By Escaper

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31935, 12 March 1969, Page 14

Performance By Escaper

An escape from a straitjacket while suspended by the feet and strapped to a bed, 120 ft above the main ring of the Christchurch Show Grounds, will be the feature event of an afternoon on Saturday organised by the Christchurch Lions Club in conjunction with the Silver Shears blade shearing competition in Canterbury Court. The escape will be performed by lan Joy, of Dunedin, twice during the afternoon. During the second performance, he will be strapped to a bed. Mr Joy is believed to be the only person in the world who has escaped from this position, and it will be the first time the act has been performed in Christchurch. Before he is strapped into

the canvas straitjacket, Mr I Joy will have his hands tied by the officer-in-charge of the I Christchurch Police District (Chief Superintendent G. S. Austing). He will then be lifted by a crane and suspended by his feet from 120 ft. Since his first public escape at a Jaycee Guy Fawkes bonfire at the old Tinwald golf course in 1956, Mr Joy has appeared in several New Zealand centres. He has been suspended from a 100 ft fire ladder in a 40-mile-an-hour wind and has dangled from a 50ft crane. Mr Joy is also a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, a clown, a hypnotist and a lightning sketch artist His stage name as a magician is “Jo Jo the Clown” and he is known as “Andre Herne” the hypnotist. Other attractions during the afternoon will include sheep dogs driving geese, bands, go-kart races, greyhound races, an egg-throwing contest, a judo display, a gymnastics display, a police dog display, a tractor race and a display by the St John Ambulance Brigade. Proceeds from the afternoon will be given to the replacement fund of the St John Ambulance Association. Mr D. 0. Chapman, who is helping to organise the entertainment said yesterday that it was hoped to raise about S4OOO. One of the most unusual events of the afternoon will be a demonstration of sheep dogs driving geese, given by Mr R. M. Wilson of Kirwee. The Canterbury Model Aero Club, working from Adding-

I ton Raceway, will send radio controlled planes over the I ring.