These days, Jonathan Edmiston is usually recognized for his day job in the Navy or acting gigs at the Whidbey Playhouse, but few locals are familiar with “Danger Nate.”

The playful college nickname is today Edmiston’s alter ego as one of the world’s fastest escape artists.

In 2007, Edmiston landed in the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records after he shattered the record for fastest straitjacket escape. He managed to get the restrictive garment off in 20.72 seconds. The previous record was 50.08 seconds.

Now at 40 years of a age, Edmiston says he’s considering breaking the record again. This time, he’ll probably do it in Oak Harbor.

His record at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan was broken that same year by professional escape artist “Matt the Knife” by a mere two seconds.

However, if he goes for it again, Edmiston said he wants to try for multiple world records, such as escapes upside down, on stilts or underwater.

“I’ll see how Guinness likes that,” he said.

Edmiston, an anti-submarine warfare expert and part-time amateur escape artist, has been wiggling his way out of homemade straitjackets since childhood.

He was inspired by a PBS special on illusionist Harry Houdini.

“As I was watching TV I thought, ‘This is wicked cool, I want to learn how to do that,’” Edmiston said.

In college, he picked up his first authentic Posey straitjacket, the kind that mental patients actually wore during those dark times in psychiatric care. It was also the kind he used for his record-breaking escape.

“So I just went, I’m going to learn how to escape out of this one, the real one. Houdini got out of the real one; I can get out of the real one,” he said.

For over ten years, Edmiston said he could unofficially beat the old record at 30 seconds just about every time.

When “Danger Nate” broke the world record on the Fourth of July, in star-spangled tights and a certified jacket, he had a crowd of about 200 onlookers.

Afterwards, he submitted a comprehensive package to Guinness with signed statements and video. He was notified a month later that he was an official record holder.

“I called everybody I knew. If I had a number somewhere in a book of someone I went to elementary school with, I was dialing it,” he said.

Today, Edmiston’s fastest times are between 10 and 14 seconds. But he usually likes to draw the escapes out to 30 seconds to build excitement.

“You have to keep your crowd entertained. I found out when you watch certain street magicians escape they have this whole routine and they take two minutes to escape. But it starts to get boring after a while,” Edmiston said. “Then if you do it in 10 seconds, people think, ‘Obviously it can’t be that hard.’”

Edmiston is now among the handful of artists who can escape from a certified jacket. His peers include record-breakers Criss Angel (escaped two jackets while hanging from a crane) and James Peters (most escapes in an eight hour workday).

He believes people are still drawn to straitjacket escapes today because they’re a little bit macabre and very rare.

“People don’t normally see a straitjacket. You see them on TV, you see cartoons, you see pictures of Houdini but you don’t get to be up close and physically touch one,” he said.

It will take time for Edmiston to set everything up to challenge current record holders again. There are several safety logistics to settle with the Navy; he will also have to obtain special permits and possibly a crane, along with finding funds for the trick.

Edmiston said the feat was too difficult to plan when he was stationed in Japan, but he believes Oak Harbor is an easier place to set it up.

And just as he did previously, unlike professional magicians and other record-breakers, he would also be representing the Navy.

“Anytime you hear, ‘Sailor breaks world record,’ people like that kind of thing,” he said. “Sailors can do anything.”

To see video of Edmiston’s original record-breaking escape, visit www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/straitjacket.