PROCTORVILLE — Escape artist Michael Griffin has a standing offer of $1,000 to anyone who can tie him up so he’s unable to get himself free. Tuesday night during the Lawrence County Fair, as every other time in the past, he was able to keep his money.

During his first appearance at the fair, three Ironton teens signed up to challenge Griffin, a nationally known performer who has been named “The Best Living Escape Artist” and “The World’s Greatest Living Escape Performer” by the International Magic Awards Committee.

Specializing in difficult escapes from ropes, boxes, straightjackets, handcuffs and even coffins, Griffin has performed around the world.

Travis Wagner, Nathan Davenport and Kyle Meadows were given 35 feet of rope and then were told to tie Griffin to a chair in an inescapable way. The 4-H members had a plan before going on stage, but there were certain parameters that they had to follow that foiled their plans.

“We were going to hog-tie him with his hands and legs behind his back,” said Travis Wagner, a member of the Starlite 4-H group. “But, then he told us we had to tie him to a chair, so it was a lot harder for us to figure out what to do.”

After learning of the task ahead of them, the teens said they knew they probably wouldn’t be going home with the $1,000. But, it was still something that was worth a shot, they said.

“We knew that it probably wasn’t going to work,” said Nathan Davenport, of the Kitts Hill Willing Workers 4-H group.

It took them about five minutes to tie up Griffin. They carefully wrapped the rope around his legs, neck and tried to tie it tightly to the stage placed in the middle of the stage. After a few minutes of squirming and gasping, the escape artist freed himself, much to both the dismay and the delight of the crowd.

Griffin also performed one of his other signature tricks, the “East Indian Needle Mystery.” He swallowed 100 needles separate of an eight-foot piece of string. After proving his mouth empty to an audience member, he regurgitated the needles threaded.

“I thought that was the grossest part,” said audience member Kaylee Bradford. “It was cool, but it was still nasty seeing all of that come out like that.”

Her friend, Bradley Crawford, said the performer was a welcome addition to the fair. He said Griffin was a lot more entertaining than many of the acts in the past.

“I liked it a lot,” he said. “I think it was interesting and it left you wondering how he did it.”