Status: Magic trick
Stevie Starr calls himself a professional regurgitator. He's been doing his act for a long time, and is quite famous. (He's appeared on shows such as Jay Leno and Ripley's Believe it or Not.) But I just became aware of him through
a video of one of his performances on Google Video, and I'm at a complete loss to explain how he does what he does.
His performance includes some of the following tricks: He swallows sugar, followed by a glass of water, and then regurgitates the sugar, completely dry. He swallows a live goldfish and regurgitates that a minute later, still living. (As he does this, he mentions the urban legend about
goldfish having 5-second memories.) Reportedly he's also able to swallow a (miniature) rubik's cube and bring it back up — solved. (Though the Rubik's cube trick isn't shown in the google video.)
I can't find anyone on the web who has a decent explanation for how Starr is able to do all this. Obviously he has a genuine talent with his stomach. An article about him in the
Amherst Student reports that:
he was born in a children’s home in Scotland, where he lived for the first 19 years of his life. When little Stevie was four years old, he discovered this unique talent by swallowing his lunch money and realizing he could bring it right back up. Thus, a freak of nature was born.
But this doesn't explain how he can swallow sugar, followed by water, and bring the sugar up dry. Or the trick with the rubik's cube. Does he have a second stomach, or something like that? To do the rubik's cube trick I assume he must have swallowed a solved rubik's cube before the show. But like I said, I'm pretty much baffled.
Incidentally, history is full of famous vomiters, so Stevie Starr evidently isn't the only one who has ever had this talent. In 1621 there was the case of the nail-vomiting Boy of Bilston (who had been trained by a priest to simulate the symptoms of being bewitched). This was followed in 1642 by Catharina Geisslerin, "the toad-vomiting woman of Germany," who, as you might guess, had a talent for vomiting up toads. In 1694 there was Theodorus Döderlein, who vomited up twenty-one newts and four frogs. (I'm getting this info from Clifford Pickover's
The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits
.) Pickover also reports that there have been cases of compulsive swallowers who don't later regurgitate what they swallow, including one guy in 1985 who had "53 toothbrushes, 2 razors, 2 telescopic aerials, and 150 handles of disposable razors" removed from his stomach.
Comments
HADJI ALI - The Great Regurgitator
http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=964
THE GREAT WALDO - The Regurgitating Geek
http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=60
I was very annoyed when I found that out, as I wanted to believe that he was genuine.
As for Keith, look at what you have written "after he swallows the pool ball" So he can swallow the ball but has to hide a coin in his mouth! Anyway, I have looked closely & can't see the coin but even if it were there, what does it prove? Maybe because the pool ball is the largest thing he can swallow, he actually brings the coin back immediately before swallowing the ball. Try hiding ten 10p pieces in your mouth & talking normally. It's impossible.
And he is scottish, glasweigen was brough up right outside glasgow.
Not sure what keith saw, couldnt see it anyway.
The guy is genuine and is one of the best shows of anything i have ever seen, keep watching britains got talent, the stuff he can do just gets better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFIRhJrHJE&feature=related
He puts five keyrings in his mouth and brings them up connected but you can see him put five allready connected ones in his mouth before. He does this very well and tbh I think this guy will be famous no matter how many people think he is fake and until he stands behind an xray and people can prove its fake he will never be found out. And he will always be entertaining!
I am pretty sure that he is disclosing the items in his mouth and this is helped by the cleft palate - he is secreting the items in his nasopharynx. Given a cleft palate deformity this is actually a large space more than adequate to fit the objects he 'swallows'. It also explains how he is able to talk as the objects are not technically in his 'mouth' but stuffed up inside the nasopharynx space.
As for the lock/key rubix cube illusions, this is either done before the show or is done with the coercion of an audience member. In the case of the Britains Got Talent, the judge was obviously 'in on it' before the act.
To those who think he is actually swallowing these things and somehow has superhuman control of his stomach/oesophagus, I ask - why has he not submitted to medical exam? Where is the PROOF he is swallowing these things?
This is clearly an entertaining hoax, nothing more. Not two stomachs, not remarkable (impossible) control of muscles, not anything other than slightly abnormal anatomy and a bit of patter.
Part of his act used to be to allow someone to put their hand inside his mouth and feel around. Every time I saw somebody do this no-one ever found anything inside his mouth, under his tongue or in your theory in the nasopharynx space. Not sure a pool ball would fit there in any case. Also, he has had people put their hand against his throat to feel the item being swallowed. You are talking out of pure guesswork.
Is it not within the realms of impossibility that the so called 'audience' member is part of the act and is in on the illusion from the get-go?
This is done the world over in 'illusion' type shows. Why should we believe anything an 'audience' member says/sees when we know nothing about them either?
What is more realistic or reasonable?
That it is an illusion helped by his particular anatomy, or that he is in fact swallowing and regurgitating enormous items and flying the face of every single other human being's ability on the entire planet? That he alone has the amazing control of his stomach/oesophagus to be able to regurgitate said items in a particular order at will, appearing not affected by stomach acid, water, etc?
Where is the scientific proof?
Your assumption relies entirely on the so-called observations of audience members who could clearly be a part of the act.
Sorry to say but I find the naievity of many people on this forum to be astounding.
Heaven forbid that a second rate talent show presenter would 'lie' to make an act look good for TV ratings (that's NEVER been done has it - ie recent phone rigging on TV competitions etc) - TV execs are clearly a beacon of purity and would never be economical with the truth.
And no, cleft palate can exist independantly of other visible abnormalities. One does always have to have a cleft lip etc in addition to the cleft palate. Even if he does not have this condition there is no doubt that the objects never leave his mouth at all.
I'm not going to keep replying to this - I find it bizarre how I'm apparently the one who is 'totally wrong' when you are willing to swallow (pun intended) this utter tripe.
He is an illusionist who DOES TRICKS FOR ENTERTAINMENT - obviously a decent one because he has managed to convince a lot of people that he can do these things.
Maybe I should check if that statue of Liberty is still there , because I seem to remember Mr Copperfield made it vanish - was that real too?
I think you need to get out more.
Simon Cowell really cares about crappy forums like this and will be round at my door with the heavies to break my legs?
Get a grip on yourself.
Give me a break.
If you really are this person's manager he should consider new representation, because you certainly are not doing him or his act any favours on this forum.
(And if you can't win your point you resort to threats).
I and many others can see the act for what it is - an illusion / trick. Simple .
No amount of posturing on your behalf will change that.
End of.
"We must depend on the general law relating to subjects & citizens RECOGNIZED BY ALL NATIONS FOR A DEFINITION and that must lead us to the conclusion that every person born in the United States is a natural-born citizen of such States, EXCEPT....children born on our soil to temporary sojourners or representatives of foreign Governments."
B.Obama Sr - sojourner, personified, in this nation
sojourn-to stay or reside temporarily
Firstly do you really think Stevie Starr would wait until his live performance to ask Amanda whether he can borrow her almost certainly very expensive engagement ring for his trick? What if she had just said no? He must have asked her previously and if he really is an unusual medical anomaly that can swallow light bulbs, she was definitely in on the act. He would have swallowed the engagement ring previously attached to the pad lock and then taken a fake engagement ring from Amanda during the show. He would then swallow it and an identical padlock and regurgitate the real ring attached to the padlock and the key. That is the simplest and therefore most likely explanation.
I would also like to point out that during the performance they zoomed in on his 'stomach' muscles moving in odd ways. Anyone who knows anything about anatomy knows that the stomach is much higher up and no where near his moving muscles. The camera actually zoomed in on his large intestines. That was obviously all for show.
Now onto my final point. In one act Stevie Starr swallows and then regurgitates a gold fish. There is absolutely no way a fish could be submerged in stomach acid and then be regurgitated without damage. If the fish did not die, it would have severe acid burns and would be blind. The pH of stomach acid is normally between 1-2 with a concentration of 0.1M. This is very corrosive stuff and the burning feeling experienced during heart burn is from the acid attacking the lining of the oesophagus. No matter how much water Stevie Starr drank before hand, the stomach would not be diluted enough for the fish to avoid serious damage. For this to work, Stevie starr must lack stomach acid naturally, a condition called hypochlorhydria which causes gut infections and stomach cancer among other things, and some strange genetic gift of extreme control of the stomach lining muscles which are not normally controlled by a conscious part of the brain. The whole stomach explanation therefore starts sounding more and more implausible.
I disagree that he keeping the objects in his mouth. I think he must be holding the objects in his oesophagus and must have a naturally large oesophagus so as not to cut of his air supply and incredibly strong oesophageal muscles. So in a sense he is swallowing the objects, just not all the way to his stomach.
right back to stevie starr, i belive he can swallow things and bring things back up, but to unlock the padlock and put the key in then lock it back up, impossible to do!...i agree i think he swallowed the ring in the padlock before the show. then just brought it back up
Just wanted to say...Louise...we think you are awesome...
Can't believe how much people want this ACT to be real.......and all the stories by people who think it is......and 'Worked with him back in the mid 80's'.....surely that has given you a couple of decades with which to realise you'd been had.
Love the guys act but come on guys.....
if you watch such videos like when he appeared on the jay leno show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFIRhJrHJE)
you will see sleight of hand.
at 4:08 he takes something out of his pocket, and it looks like he takes something out of his mouth and puts it back in his pocket
at 6:12 he goes back to his pocket, this time obviously putting the completed keychain into his mouth
at 9:21 he again goes into his pocket, and clearly has just taken out a packet of sugar (for his water+sugar trick).. he swallows the sugar and water, then bites on the packet of sugar, giving dry sugar to leave his mouth
he's practised these a lot, and his sleight of hand is very sneaky, but at the end of the day he's just a magician
Who cares how he does it on a scientific and biological level. What if he does have the unique biology to pull this stunt off without slight of hand and lies? Look at freaks from the turn of the century. Look at pictures of people who showed up in Ripleys who took canon balls to the stomach and turned their bodies around 360 degrees at the waist.
Just enjoy the show. What happened to just being entertained, being playfully curious and leaving it at that? Why does everyone have to be so rude, judgmental and accusatory?
I tip my hat to him for the entertainment and joy he has provided over the years. He seems like a great guy.
i had never seen the rubik cube trick with him before but i knew what he was up to. it is a rather old trick. he just made it smaller.
indeed, he has a cavernous mouth, mostly on the top which is a convenient stash point. his british isles accent helps him here, one might not notice the mumble so much. especially if you are a bowdoin student from away.
as for the sugar trick, that is really easy too, another old trick. same for the goldfish.
stevie is a right good showman, i too have the arsenio hall clip and a few more. best is that he is a showman, a really, really good showman.
he would have been a regular on ed sullivan. i hate to say it, he could've topped joan rivers.
As someone said earlier stevie NEVER talks while having "swallowed" the big objects. Thats for a reason: He stores things in his cheek.
He definitely does sleigh of hands as you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kck6bHXxGk&feature=related
whatch how he puts the golf ball in his mouth and pretends to vomit it!!
This fact clearly shows, that he is an illusionist - or why should he use this trick, if he is actually able to store things in his stomach an vomit them out again.
If you watch carefully you can even see in other videos that the big things like the billard ball go to his left side of his mouth instead of going down his throat.
He must be a master in talking while having things in his mouth and maybe he also has some kind of physical aberration that alows him to store such large objects.
No question he is great. Im a big fan!
If there are people in the world who can actually swallow a billard ball then there are people who can manage to put a billiard ball in their cheek as well.
Concerning the dryness: it is definitely a matter of fact, that everything that goes DOWN his esophagus will get wet - no doubt (ask a doctor).
Maybe he has some sort of thin layer of a certain material on the inside of his left cheek - no problem to prepare that.
For the sugar. It is no sugar. Thanks to scientists we are able to fabricate substances which taste sweet and do not mix with water.
To be honest the cigarette smoke and the gas leaves me helpless. No idea about that but maybe an chemist can give insight.
HOW IT'S DONE:
Isn't it weird, that Stevie doesn't only use EACH single joke in the US & UK & Germany but also EACH single move of his hands and ALL tricks must follow in the same routine order...?
Well, magicians know, that sometimes the order of the routine is part of the trick... : one move from trick 1 leads to trick 2, because trick 2 needs this move.
Easiest to explain is the ring-trick, because you simple can SEE how it works: in the US & UK & Germany, Stevie takes the ring with his LEFT hand, even though he is a right hander. And his right hand remains always closed from leaving the scene until receiving the ring. As soon as he receives the ring with his left hand, he reaches it to his right hand... Why? - Cause there's the (first) secret locker! - While walking back to the stage you can see how he makes in each country each time a FIST that locks the ring onto the open (first) locker. He arrives at the scene and EACH TIME he puts the ring immediately in his mouth. He can't wait a second even though during other tricks he keeps talking a lot... But the ring has to get in his mouth as quickly as possible (with the locker attached to it) and ALWAYS (USA, GB, Germany) under the FULL cover of his hand - unlike e.g. the pool ball.
Why can he keep his mouth open for other objects, but NEVER for the ring? - Because there's a locker attached to it! - He "swallows" the ring (hiding in mouth) BEFORE he steps back to the people with the (second) locker. WHY couldn't he bring the (second) locker at his first walk? - Because he needed the cover for hiding the locked ring in his mouth - far from people an without waiting. THEN he hides the second locker (same key fits it) in his mouth to reveal the first locker with *magically* the ring on it.
Bla Bla...
The coins:
He simply has TWO sets with ONE already in his mouth with 5 different spots to reach it - that's why he likes to BEGIN with this trick (with mouth full of 5 coins...). You can see in some videos that the handwritten numbers on the coins are NOT the same from the ingoing and outgoing coins... so there's TWO sets of coins - he can handle the one in his mouth "AT WILL" concerning the order - that's what many magicians are able to in slightly different situations.
rings attached to each other (video Jay Leno) - BIG MISTAKE: you can see him putting the FIRST set of already attached rings in his mouth - some seconds before he "begins" the trick. Why would he reach for a split second his inner pocket without taking anything out? - And why would he then direct that hand immediately towards his mouth - the very same second? - A very quick move, but clearly visible... So the 5 open rings ar like the second set of 5 coins... etc. etc.
For the sugar: again TWO sets of sugar. First already in his mouth (e.g. in a hardcover made of a hard sugar tube that he breaks) the second one gets dissolved in water and drunken. He only has to break the tube with the conceiled sugar in his mouth to pour it out dry.
So basically, he's working with TWO sets of 5 coins, two sets of 5 rings (at Jay Leno's) and two sets of sugar.
And that fact explains the TWO gold-fishes 😊
He is able to hide two objects of the size of the fishes in his mouth (palatal gap... or even not!).
Why couldn't I leave him "entertain" people?
BECAUSE personally, I think that it's a SHAME to hav only a handful of tricks (ball, coins, fishes, rings, ring, sugar, soap, ...) for DECADES !!!
And in ANY country he appears on TV he comes with the exaclty SAME jokes, sentences, story about childhood with coins in mouth, same order of tricks, same programm in talent show UK as Germany!!
NO - sorry, but that's NEITHER a talent after 30 years!! Nor entertainement as he is not capable to at least vary a little bit his tricks or adding new ones or making new jokes.
(so is Uri Geller btw).
COME ON GUYS!! - A little CREATIVITY!! - How can you support your own routine for so manymanymanymany years? - Be an artist / entertainer! - People don't know you in "new" countries, so why not restart with a brand-new routine?
That's why I like e.g. Cris Angel! - He wrapped "old" tricks or own tricks into different clothes. 99% of the mentalists just copy their routines out of the book. I know that because I have those books... and I'd appreciate you guys ADAPTING the written tricks at least a little bit.
Oh - I forgot: Steve has also variation: each time he hides ANOTHER object in his mouth. But come on! - That's ONE really good trick that you show in 10 ways. Even not 50 ways... even not new ways during the decades... always the same 10 variations of ONE good trick. Poor man. No artist. At least good stuff for talking... but after people's conclusions, you're OFF again.
get a life!
He's entertaining, doesnt matter if he does
the same since decades.
..and even if only half of your conclusions are true, you still have to manage doing it.
There are tons of 'entertainers' which cannot
do anything special.
As far as I know, there arent many artists like Stevie Starr - so he's something special.
(One of the participants of this year has been in Big Brother UK)
In my opinion, you should NOT ALLOW professional TV appearancers to participate in this kind of show!
They simply go from one show to another and from one country to another. That's ok for ordinary TV shows, but NOT for competitions with people who need the first prize or a little publicity much more than those professionals like Stevie.
That's why I also don't accept the singer from the Kelly Family to participate in that show...
Give "ordinary" people with an extraordinary talent a chance! - They are for their very first time on stage and have great talents. But a Stevie Starr with DECADES of stage experience will just blow them away.
And for his DECADES on stage, I think that his SAME show of 60 minutes (or 3x 20 min.) is really lame! - NOT if you see it the first time, but as soon as you notice him doing it without a minor creativity a whole life! - So HE's the one who should probably "get a life". I'm happy with 3 professions and countless hobbies - one among them is mentalism and that's why I can say: "I have seen better "talents" in this branche: Banachek or as I already mentioned: Cris Angel." They at least add some creativity and have HUNDEREDS of performaces. Not just ONE with 10 variations as Stevie Starr or Uri Geller.
Nevertheless both have a talent: the talent to shock, entertain, amaze people all around the world for decades with ONE trick and 10 variations. Economy: 100 points. Creativity: 0 points. That's a talent I could not live with. I prefer a "Vincent Van Gogh" with 0% success during his live but a maximal underestimated talent and creativity! He's my "Supertalent 1860".
No, I didn't participate 😊 it's as I said: I'm simply a) unhappy for people with talents who are NOT professionals (e.g. don't work at circuses or in professional music bands etc.) and lost their chances because of a professional and more important:
b) that Stevie at least does not claim it to be an illusion
Cris Angel swallows a needle and a threat and pulls the needle with the thread ON it out of his belly... it's a (btw simple) trick, but it's a "shocker" to the audience and HE CLAIMS IT TO BE AN ILLUSION!
So, a Banachek or Cris Angel or Wayne Houchin would never claim to have real abilities to do what the audience thinks they are doing. As soon as an interviewer REALLY wants to know whether it is a trick or not, they all claim it to be an "illusion". Period. No talking details but neither acting like if they had "superpowers".
Uri Geller never admitted (as far as I know) that all he did for the last 40 (?) years was a trick - even though the prooves started his very first years of acting. THAT'S what I don't like about this sort of entertainement: if you don't admit that it's ONLY entertainement and an illusion.
It seems to me like fortunetellers like Mike Shiva (in Switzerland) who admit in interviews not beeing able to see the future, but beeing able to help people by giving advices... one one hand.... and the very next moment you see them on screen and they do just the opposite: they answer phonecalls of people with problems, looking in the future of those people and telling what they admitted before, not beeing able to tell. It's just moneymaking - that's why they get accused even by swiss national channel (SF1).
Entertain people! Act as if you could swallow this and that - and as if you could get a ring through a locker inside your stomach... but just call this show an "illusion".
If you start claiming yourself beeing an illusionist, then you don't need cheap answers for questions like "Why is there no X-Ray picture of your stomach with the pool ball in it?" etc. - the standard answer remains either silence, or just the story about the childhood, swallowing the pocket money.
I think that also many people don't WANT to know the truth!
(part II follows here below) :
Yes, I'm curious, because I'm a researcher! - Working also as a scientist, I'm open to many things, BUT I always will keep looking for explanations.
As soon as I found the explanation, I stopped researching, as I really have more interesting things to do: I'm learning 9 languages, beeing video-/photographer, washing gold in the river, collecting ancient greek and egyptian art, studiying hieroglyphs, playing music, making sports etc. etc. ... and a little time of the year I spend in mentalism/close-up magic/coin&card; magic etc. - that's the point where my interest got started for Stevie. Has nothing to do with participing myself. I couldn't, because I don't have a "supertalent" that would be worth showing... and I also think that this show MORE embarasses people than helps. It seems to me very embarassing if one participates without exactly knowing what he/she does... and many people make fools of themselves for the next decades with ONE single performance of 2 minutes... so even if I had a supertalent, I'd really think twice, participating in a supercommercial ugly-modern TV-show like this. I prefer watching the poor guys make fools of themselves and the other guys, claiming having a supertalent to regurgirate, but only having a supertalent to give stuff for discussion, amaze and entertain millions of people with almost zero creativity.