Escape Artist and Motivational Speaker Michael Griffin: From Straitjackets to Inspiring the Masses with Magic

Michael Griffin has achieved unparalleled mastery and pushed the boundaries of escapology over his 40-year career. An escapologist, magician, illusionist, and today, an unexpected motivational speaker, Griffin stands as the greatest living escape artist and is now teaching others the art of escaping the straitjacket of negative thought.

His passion for escapology began planted in front of the television with his brother, watching Sunday morning TV shows from the 60s like The Wild Wild West and Batman. Watching the heroes of these stories never fail to break free from the clutches of the antagonists, Griffin and his brother followed their lead. “My brother and I would tie each other up with rope, and while I could always get out of his knots, my brother could never escape mine,” he recalls.

After witnessing the jaw-dropping stunts of Evel Knievel, a young Michael soon started staging his own spectacular escape challenges. “I would beg people to tie me up and throw me in the lake. It certainly didn’t hurt that my dad is a world-renowned psychiatrist who had his own stash of straitjackets.” In fact, on his 16th birthday, Griffin refused the car his father offered to buy for him—in its place, he requested a straitjacket. “I chose the path far less traveled,” he says.

As Griffin rose through the ranks, he earned major acclaim for his death-defying stunts. From offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who could manage to keep him imprisoned (a challenge that still stands today) to being the only survivor of a public hanging, he’s earned multiple television appearances on shows like Masters of Illusion and America’s Got Talent. He’s also won two World Magic Awards and a Silver Handcuff Award for his escape stunts.

Griffin’s unique blend of humor and shocking performance may make his come-up in showbusiness appear to be a fun, effortless journey. However, early in his career, he faced the dark side of the industry. “A former manager tried to get me to do drugs,” he recounts, “But I always replied: ‘The Griff don’t do drugs.” Refusing to compromise his values, Griffin chose a more fulfilling path to success—one that later inspired his second career in motivational speaking.

After touring the world to defeat the odds time and time again through the many iterations of an inescapable situation, Griffin has learned that there are multiple paths out of every bind. Today, he combines his magnetic stage presence, showmanship, and magic with moving messages about resilience, self-confidence, and mental health.

To more deeply engage with his audiences, Griffin uses simple but captivating magic tricks that lower their defenses and prepare them for the truths he broadcasts. “Yes, I want them to have a good time,” he says. “But at the end, I bring it all together and tie it up, no pun intended, and hopefully my message gets through.”

Michael Griffin’s winding, unhinged journey from a boy untying knots to a celebrated escape artist miraculously turning up alive after being sealed into an airtight box at the bottom of the ocean and now becoming the world’s most unusual motivational speaker is nothing short of extraordinary. He concludes, “The hardest escape acts are not the ones made of metal boxes or ropes, it’s the locked box of negative thinking. But if you put your mind to it, believe in yourself, and find people to talk to, I guarantee that you will always escape that imaginary straitjacket that we all wear.”