Every year, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! searches the globe for the boldest, strangest, and most unbelievable stories to pack into our annual book. In Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seek the Strange , one performer glows brighter than almost anyone else: sideshow artist Carmen Getsum, a sword swallower pushing the craft far beyond steel blades.
Step right up… this one’s a dazzler.
A Talent That Cuts Through the Ordinary
Carmen takes the average sword-swallowing performance a step further, and pushing the boundaries means pushing the danger level. Carmen has worked to develop a custom sword that lights up so audience members can visually see the blade through her throat!
Carmen has found a way to get the audience even closer to the unbelievable feat of sword swallowing.
Timing Is Everything, And the Stakes Are High
Sword swallowing is already a dangerous art form, but adding electricity and heat raises the risk to an entirely new level.
Carmen must time the act perfectly to avoid burning her throat on the heated tube. One second too long, one movement too slow, and Carmen could be at serious risk. Her show blends precision, danger, and showmanship in a way that reminds us why human oddities have fascinated crowds for centuries.
Carrying on a Glowing Legacy
Believe It or Not!, Carmen isn’t the first performer to swallow light on a Ripley’s stage.
Back in 1933, during the opening of the very first Ripley’s Believe It or Not! attraction at the Chicago World’s Fair, a performer named Edna Price became famous for her act. Known as one of the era’s “human rarities and oddities,” Edna could:
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Swallow 2-foot-long neon tubes that glowed visibly through her throat
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Down 12 swords at once, removing them one by one with dazzling precision
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Robert Ripley himself crowned her the “Queen of Sword Swallowers”
Nearly a century later, Carmen’s glowing blade act feels like a brilliant continuation of the daredevil women who shaped sideshow history.
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