Speaker & Entertainer, Scott Hammell

Scott Hammell on Ripley's Believe It or Not

By Stacy Wyatt

By his mid teens Scott Hammell was performing in front of thousands. His style, show and skills may have grown up but his love of magic is still as full of wonder and imagination as the day he waved his first wand.

In the nearly two decades since, his shows have taken him around the world from Abu Dhabi to Kenya, performing for royalty and foreign dignitaries, including the Prime Minister of Malaysia and Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Nuaimi. Scott has shared the stage with inspiring people like Al Gore, Mia Farrow, Jesse Jackson, Stephen Lewis, Samantha Nutt and Robert Kennedy Jr. just to name a few.

“Escape to Cloud Nine” earned Scott his first of
four Guinness World Records.

In 2003, Scott was featured in the season premiere of Ripley’s Believe It or Not for his stunt “Escape to Cloud Nine.” It was this stunt that earned him his first of four Guinness World Records, for the World’s Highest Suspension Straitjacket Escape. See below.
To execute the stunt, Scott was taken in a hot air balloon to an altitude of over 7,200 feet and was suspended by his ankles from the balloon’s passenger basket. Dangling upside-down, he freed himself from a regulation straitjacket and over 50 feet of steel chain secured with four padlocks. This successful stunt led to numerous television appearances for Scott and the story of facing his fear helped to launch his career as a motivational speaker.

Scott Hammell Escape Strunt Hanging From Air Balloon
In 2010, Scott completed a stunt called “Down and Out”. He jumped from an airplane, blindfolded, with his wrists in police regulation handcuffs, fastened to his waist. While free falling over at over 160 MPH, he picked his way out of the handcuffs, then deployed his parachute, and landed safely, still blindfolded. This stunt taught Scott a lot about leadership, communication and taking calculated risks.

Later that year he decided to bring his stunts back down to earth. Typically, magicians are known for making volunteers vanish, however, Scott decided to turn the tables and challenged the citizens of Toronto to make him disappear. To achieve this feat, Scott spent five days and four nights inside a glass box in front of Toronto’s historic Union Station. The public made him disappear by contributing canned food donations that were piled around the box until Scott disappeared from view. Toronto citizens rallied around the cause and, by the end of the fifth day, over 18,200 pounds of food were collected and donated to the local food bank, providing food that caused the magician to disappear four times over!

Here is a clip of Scott in his production: the Roman Cascade, an ambitious project about art and going after your dreams. After a disastrous first attempt, Scott Hammell successfully juggles live explosives.

Since then Scott has gone on to expand his juggling repertoire, produce a number of videos and hone his production and creative skills by choreographing his magic to music. One of his more popular videos attracted the attention of America’s Got Talent. In 2014 Scott collaborated with Superchannel and Markham Street Films in a feature length documentary film titled “The Trick With The Gun” which he co-wrote, co-produced and starred in. The film provides entertaining insight into Scott’s working methods and what goes into pulling off a large scale stunt.


Over the course of his career, Scott Hammell has had life changing experiences. From incredible feats of balance and precision to death defying acts of pure will and talent, he has developed a unique set of skills that he is now sharing with audiences around the world as an entertainer and motivational speaker. escape and stunt artist, storyteller and filmmaker. He takes his experiences and creates stage presentations that combine astounding tricks, heart-racing stunts and a healthy dose of comic relief. His topics include leadership, goal setting, understanding fear, communication and facing adversity to name a few.

Looking for an exciting way to take your event to the next level? Imagine your conferences motivational speaker starting his talk by dangling high above the crowd, ankles bound, performing one of his world renowned straight jacket escapes then magicallt appearing on stage. Talk about an entrance!

Learn more about Scott at www.scotthammell.com.