travsd

Happy World Sword Swallowers Day

Happy World Sword Swallowers Day! It is scheduled every year for the last Saturday in February. This year’s is a special one on Travalanche however as it is the first one to come along since we started our Sword Swallowers section. It’s fairly modest, with a couple of dozen posts, but hopefully enjoyable for you to peruse. I don’t know how many I’ll add, but, to give credit where it’s due, it’ll never be as thorough and extensive as The Sword Swallowers Hall of Fame, which will always have the last word, and is a frequent resource for your correspondent. For those seriously interested in this harrowing performance craft, I’d also recommend the website of the Sword Swallowers Association International.

While it’s every bit as dangerous as it has ever been, sword swallowing is also more popular today than ever, both with performers and audiences. In case you are new, sword swallowers really do shove those hazardous implements all the way down their gullets into their guts. There’s no trick; they just do it. It’s easily as dangerous as swinging from a trapeze or walking a tightrope. Perforating an intestine is no joke. So tip those buskers well, please!

While I know dozens of people who perform this feat on contemporary stages, most sideshow folks don’t specialize but offer a whole menu of skills, including fire eating, the blockhead act, lying on a bed of nails, and so forth. Today, though I would like to give a shout-out to one colleague who has made it a special area of focus and that is the great Lady Aye (Elise Carter). She has written and spoken about what she does extensively, on Jewcy (2011), Salon (2013),and in The Atlantic (2014).

Honor your sword swallowers! Again the sword swallower section of Travalanche is here.

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To learn more about the variety arts, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.