The escapologists who risked death when they buried themselves alive: Harry Houdini, Alan Alan and Anthony Britton nearly died in dangerous stunt but David Blaine lasted seven days in see-through coffin – as magician Dynamo looks to attempt feat on live TV

When Dynamo bury themselves alive in front of millions later this week, they will be following in some very unfortunate footsteps.

The magician, whose real name is Stephen Frayne, is about to perform a feat that some of the biggest names in magic have tried and failed to accomplish.

In 1915, the great American escapologist Harry Houdini started this trend when he was buried without a coffin six feet underground.

But he panicked as he tried to dig his way out, and by the time his hand broke the surface he had lost consciousness and had to be pulled out by his assistants.

British magician Alan Alan attempted the trick again in 1949, but he too had to be rescued and was moments away from death when he finally emerged, shaken but alive.

And his compatriot Anthony Britton attempted in 2015, but he too had to be rescued by rescuers, and photographers captured the moment his hand broke through the ground.

Illusionist David Blaine had more success with a variation of the trick in 1999, when he spent a week underground in a transparent coffin.

Harry Houdini

Houdini performed at least three separate stunts while being buried alive.

After surviving his first attempt, he said in his diary that it was “very dangerous” and that “the weight of the earth kills.”

However, in his first variation of the trick in 1926, he decided to plunge into water while in a coffin.

At the Shelton Hotel in New York, he spent more than an hour by the pool and said that he did not resort to any tricks.

Instead, he reportedly took very short breaths to avoid using up all the oxygen in the coffin.

He repeated this feat the following month and was due to present a fourth version in 1927, but died before he could complete it.

A promotional poster created for the highly publicized event inspired Blaine to accomplish his own feat in 1999.

Houdini died in 1926 from a ruptured appendix, just days after a woman repeatedly punched him in the stomach after asking if it was true that he could resist blows to the chest.

Alan Alan

The British magician, who died aged 87 in 2014, was known as the “British Houdini” throughout his career.

His specialty was escaping from a straitjacket while suspended from a burning rope high above the ground.

But he first made headlines with his attempt to imitate Houdini in 1949.

The stunt, dubbed “Houdini II Buried Alive” and filmed by British production company Pathe, saw Alan head to Cobham, Surrey.

After he lay down in the freshly dug grave, a piece of cardboard was placed on top of him before dirt was poured back into the hole on top of him.

But when there was no sign of it after a few minutes, deputies frantically dug it back out.

They soon realized that they had packed the earth too tightly.

The footage shows him wincing in pain as he is pulled out of the ground.

David Blaine

In his first public feat of endurance, Blaine spent a week in a plexiglass coffin under three tons of water outside the Trump Building in Manhattan in 1999.

Then, when he was only 25 years old, he attracted significant public attention with his stunt. Thousands of people came to see him lying six feet underground.

When the tank that lay above him was raised a week later, Blaine told viewers, “I saw something very prophetic… a vision of every race, every religion, every age group uniting, and that made it all worthwhile.”

The escapologist did not eat any food and lived on only two to three tablespoons of water a day.

Speaking in 2022 about what inspired him to do the stunt, Blaine told Joe Rogan’s podcast: “There’s a poster of Houdini where he was buried alive, but he never did that stunt.

“He died before he could do it.” But they were going to bury him alive underground in a coffin.

“And I looked… I liked this poster since childhood, it’s like in magic books.”

A year later, he repeated the feat with a stunt that involved living in a block of ice in New York’s Times Square for three days.

Blaine’s other antics include standing on a 90-foot pole for 35 hours in 2002 (again in Manhattan) and living in a plexiglass box over the Thames for 44 days in 2003.

Anthony Britton

In 2015, British escapologist Anthony Britton buried himself alive in his second attempt to imitate Houdini’s original trick.

Britton went one step further than Houdini and Alan, choosing to remain handcuffed.

Despite insisting he could free himself, rescuers at the scene in West Yorkshire were forced to spring into action after nine minutes passed without any sign of life.

He later said: “I almost died. I was just seconds away from death. It was scary. The pressure of the soil pressed down around me.

“Even when I found an air pocket, when I exhaled, the soil around me pressed me down even more.

“I felt like I was losing consciousness and there was nothing I could do. I was practically dying.”

The stunt came a year after Britton nearly died when a stunt in which he was hung upside down in a straitjacket from a burning rope went wrong.

The rope burned faster than expected and he had to dislocate his shoulders to free himself before he collapsed to the ground.

Dynamo

After nearly four years away from the country’s television screens due to serious health issues, Dynamo is returning with a new one-off show called Dynamo is Dead.

“Now I feel happy to be alive. Although… Ultimately, I will be happier when I come out of this grave. Touch the wood,” he told the Sunday Times.

The magician also intends to abandon his long-time stage name, hence the name of the new program.

The live broadcast will air at 9pm on Sky Max.