#7 – TONIGHT LIVE
Back in 1992 there was an Australian late night variety show “inspired” by David Letterman called ‘Tonight Live with Steve Vizard’. It was quite a coup to get on the show.
One time, while Tim was on tour in the Northern Territory, he saw them ask for any group who had a use for the TV studio next door to call them. So he called saying that a group of Melbourne magicians were in need of a place to hold their convention that week. (There was no convention). The studio loved the idea. So Tim called out to his networks and within a few days they staged a magic convention on live TV… while he was stuck in Alice Springs.
Then he got a call to perform his suspended straitjacket escape on the show. Fantastic exposure! However, the show was running behind and his spot kept getting pushed later and later in the show. Eventually they asked him to save time by being tied up while they crossed to the late night news. Of course, this ruins the credibility of the escape if you don’t see Tim being tied up… but TV knows best so he tried to make his escape look as difficult as possible.