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by Vicki Williams, Wasbash County Sampler
We wandered over to the public square,
curious to see what had
drawn the large crowd.
On a mat in the square's center, a small, slender man stood staring straight ahead. Two university students had already fastened him into a straitjacket, the so-called inescapable kind with the extra strap that passes between the legs.
Now they were in the process of wrapping a heavy chain around his body, around his neck, his arms, his legs. Before they reached its long, heavy end, he was encased in chains that probably weighed almost as much as he did himself. The chain was padlocked to itself and then handcuffed to doubly insure it would be escape-proof.
He spoke to us in a voice that sounded
someone said "like he was in a trance," telling us a
little about what would now take place as he tried to free
himself from his bonds. He told us that there had been times when
he'd gotten loose in as short a period of time as IO minutes and
at other 
times, it
had taken hours, depending on how well his helpers had done their
job of imprisoning him. He said that if we saw signs of progress,
we should let him know in order to encourage him. He pointed out
the donation box into which we could put our money if we thought
his performance deserved a reward.
Had anyone told me in advance that I would have been fascinated
watching an escape artist free himself from chains and a
straitjacket, I would have said positively - "Huh uh, not my
cup of tea at all."
I would have been wrong. Time Eric drew his crowd into a
compelling alliance with him. Silent and enthralled, we watched
the battle between the man and his bonds. It was obvious that the
challenge was mental as much as physical. The head had to plan
each next move but the body must then struggle to implement it.
Using toes, teeth muscles and breath, he
fought his way, painfully it seemed to us, to liberty. His
audience whistled and yelled as each length of chain fell away.
We held our breath and then heaved 
a collective sigh of relief as he loosened himself
from the straitjacket. We broke us sweaty and exhausted, but
triumphantly free. We closed around him to drop our offerings
into the donation box and to ask questions.
Sitting before his questioners, he kept one arm still in his lap, as if it hurt to move it. His previous robot voice was normal now. He told us that he meditates as he is being bound.
With intense concentration, he is able to recognize problem areas in advance and have solutions worked out for them- "that is, if everything goes according to plan, which it often doesn't."
Tim Eric is 47 years old though at first
glance he appeared much younger. He has been an escape artist for
23 years. In those almost two and a half decades, there have been
26 occasions when be was unable to escape and had to be set free.
Each time it was because the chains cutoff his oxygen causing him
to pass out. His job demands that he stay in almost perfect
mental and physical 
condition.
He often does not know what damage he's done to himself until the
next day when the strained muscles, pulled ligaments and chain
scrapes make themselves painfully obvious.
His home base is Key West, Fl., where he performs in the winter for the tourists. During the summer, he travels the country, setting up wherever he takes a notion, dependent on the generosity of his voluntary audiences.
During his show, I heard one man say, half in admiration and half in disbelief - "Geez, what a way to make a living."
What a way to make a living, indeed - the
irony of a man who wraps
himself in chains in order to he free.
Vicki Williams is a nationally syndicated columnist who writes about people and places in Wabash County twice a week exclusivly for the Plain Dealer.
Contact Tim at 305-942-0398 -or voice mail
Cultural
Preservation Society, P.O. Box 4837, Key West, FL 33041
305-292-7700