seems he is burning alive in front of thousands of people including his own family. [ screaming ] i didn t hesitate a nanosecond and i told that crane operator bring him down. we needed to get him down and close to us. jasen s sister yells in desperation. i remember people yelling go faster, bring him down. but he couldn t. he was literally going as fast as he could. the crane operator lowers jasen into the river as firefighters battle the flames. i saw him lifeless hanging back. i was really, really scared. i didn t know what the situation was at that point. i knew it wasn t good. but then slowly joe chasny sees signs of life in his friend.
but as the rain pours down, they need to make adjustments. because of the rain, we wanted to put a bit of extra fuel on the platform and on the rope. i knew the fire would burn through the rain as long as we had more fuel than we had rain. minutes away from the performance, jasen appears relaxed, even jovial. and they set the magician on fire too. just after 9:00 p.m., joe makes the announcement. it s showtime. ladies and gentlemen, the man of the hour! let s hear it. make some noise! a professional camera crew records the action as jasen gets strapped into the harness and joe lights the rope on fire. meanwhile, jasen s sister in the audience can barely watch.
oh, god be with you, jasen. i ve got the hugest lump in my throat. the crane lifts jasen upside down 50 feet above the river. so jasen s job was to get out of the straitjacket, detach himself from the harness. he d be free and clear from the rope. and with any luck, as he s being brought down, the rope burns through showing a dramatic finish to a successful stunt. but things don t go as planned. immediately joe sees jasen struggling with the straitjacket. the canvas that these straitjackets are made from will shrink and tighten in the rain. it s just that much harder to get out of. jasen s sister is getting impatient. go, jasen. my god, go. with seconds counting down
coordinator and emcee for the evening. he remembers the day clearly. we were out on site really, really early. we had to run through so many things with so many people. jasen s entire family is in attendance. how do you feel about your brother performing? very, very calm. they filmed the events of the day from a distance. the local news is there to cover jasen s story. as jasen gets ready to take the stage, the weather begins to turn. you maybe can t see, but there s a huge storm blowing in here. the wind is majorly picking up. and it s raining. night falls and the crowd is filled with anticipation. we were so concerned with putting on an entertaining show i m telling you, it never occurred to us at any moment the rain would be a factor. a hurricane could have come to michigan, wouldn t have stopped us.
it turns out the burning platform hung just secentimetre away from jasen s body, causing only minor burns. the only bruise i got was to the ego of a perfectionist who wanted to finish a stunt the way he wrote it on paper. ladies and gentlemen, let s give a big round of applause to jasen! i was so emotional. do you want to say anything to the fans? yeah. and now ladies and gentlemen, jasen magic. i put the microphone on, took a big swallow, thanked everybody for being there. apologized to everybody. whatever you do, don t hang upside down with a burning rope. you d be an idiot to. thanks again.