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
The 'Scottish' accent is the result of learning to speak with an unrepaired cleft palate. He's fortunate not to have a cleft lip or gum.
The 'accent' is similar to that of other Americans with unrepaired palates. The 'Scottish orphanage' in his bio is pure fabrication.
Having said that, I leave the explanation up to the rest of you to figure out.
he's not American. Stevie (his real name, although Starr is not) and I both attended Strathaven Academy in the 1970's. I remember him from them, but was totally unaware of his talent until I saw him on TV some years later. I don't care if it's not all for real, it's a great act.
Strathaven is about 20 miles south of Glasgow but our local accent is usually mistaken for Glaswegian by furrners.
1) He never swallows 2 billiard balls at the same time. If they were actually going into his stomach he would be able to swallow 2, 3 or more at the same time.
2) He never talks when swallowing very large objects such as billiard balls. He always goes out of his way to explain what's going to happen beforehand.
3) He's inhaling not swallowing.
4) He has a maxillofacial defect of some kind.
His tricks involve a physical defect, training, sleight of hand and above all great showmanship.
The coin trick is just that; a trick. He already has another set of labeled coins hidden in his mouth from 1 to 5 in order between his bottom teeth and gums. He inhales the other coins and just holds them in the air pocket which he brings back up after the show. Since the coins in his mouth are in order, he's easily able to find which one the audience wants to see with his tongue.
The fish trick is very simple too, as is the Rubik's Cube trick. I don't feel like typing any more, so if you want to know how they're done, or any other trick he does, email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
contact please
fallside missin you
He does this by swallowing a solved rubik's cube, moving the squares, and regurgitating the same cube but with moved squares.
Most of this stuff is for real, people who think most of this is fake are just jealous that they cannot do it themselves.
If it was fake, someone would have been able to expose him of this by now, seeing as he has been doing it for over 20 years.
For the sceptics out there, another trick he does is swallow dishwashing liquid and inhale butane gas, then he blows bubbles filled with the butane and lights then with a flame. He gets an audience member to light the bubbles and if not carefull the hairs on their arms gets singed. The fish also get high off the butane which is funny to see.
either way....the man is very good at what he does
You can see it go into his left cheek.
He then turns his head sideways in a 3/4 to the right angle so you can't see the lower part of the cheek clearly, but if you look closely you can see a slight bulge there.
So that's the answer, and it's definitive: he's storing the stuff in his left cheek.
Now watch this when he swallows the billiard ball. There is no faking that. Even as he bring it back up his yell is stifled from the ball closing his throat. Give it up people. He may be the ONLY real magician left.
I went back stage to check on him and he did the most amazing thing.
He put his mouth over the tap, turned it on full and filled his gut with litres of water.
He then turned to me and said " want to see the sprinkler?"
He turned in circles and sprayed water for almost 1 minute on all the walls in the room
ITs real and I watched him up close
It's a great illusion, believe it or not!
Isolation, and complete control of stomach muscles.
He can ingest an unsolved Rubik's cube, but with modified colored stickers, that can react with saliva, and change color to match a solved cube pattern.
Simple enough.
The powdered sugar trick is also simple. He puts the sugar in his mouth but puts it under his toungue. Then he swallows the water quickly not allowing it to mix with the sugar. After that he sinply releases the sugar out of his mouth. Only the absolutely dry part of the sugar comes out, the moisturized part keeps sticking in his mouth.
In my opinion Stevie cleverly mixes illusions with his undisputable talent to swallow even big objects such as billard balls or bulbs. That makes him fascinating. A similar mix of talent and illusion can be seen from Derren Brown.
Watch this video, and tell me how he is not swallowing the lightbulb. His hands go nowhere near his mouth, he just sucks it down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDEIYflt6IA
Is he hiding it in his mouth? Maybe, but I doubt it. I don't know many people who can even FIT a billiard ball in their mouth, let alone keep it HIDDEN in their cheek or under their tongue. It's not a gumball, it's a BILLIARD BALL. Also note that he seems to have more trouble (i.e. makes more noise) for larger objects.
As kids, a pal of mine could swallow an egg and bring it back hours later, unbroken, which is why I enjoy seeing Stevie Starr so much.
Some people are just made differently, that's all, but it seems some have to concoct ridiculous theories such as surgically made pockets in his mouth (grow up!!) or a deep hole under his tongue (really?) Just accept his method of making a living is just that - his job. I wish I could pay my bills doing the same.
Live, when I saw him at uni, he keeps his hands very much away from his sides and a girl I knew placed a ring of hers in his mouth and he swallowed it, and brought it back up in an order she requested with other stuff. His hands stay down. So unless he's empoying a pixie to live in his throat that catches and passes back up these items, he's actally swallowing it (though clearly with the rubik's cube and the sugar it's pre-swallowed). I assume it is an abnormality that he's been able to play to his advantage to make a living out of...
Either way, however he's doing it, it's an amazing trick.