2/28/15 at 2:28:15 PM
Every year Sword Swallowers from around the globe meet at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditoriums for a Simultaneous Sword Swallow!
Join us Saturday, Feb 28th for a FREE SHOW!
Simultaneous Sword Swallow takes place at 2:28:15 PM local time.
1. Sword Swallowing originated over 4000 years ago in India.
Sword swallowing originated in India around 2000 BC by fakirs and shaman priests who developed the art along with fire-walking on hot coals, snake handling, and other ascetic religious practices.
- Lithograph of a Fakir. Via Wikimeda Commons. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Lithograph 1844 By: Emily Eden
2. Encyclopedia Britannica is WRONG!
According to Encyclopedia Britannia:
The majority of sword swallowers employ a guiding tube which they have previously ingested, and hence their performances are less dangerous.
Dan Meyer, President of the Sword Swallowers Association International emphatically disputes this “fact.”
It would actually be more uncomfortable to pre-swallow a sheath and attempt to walk out on stage or deliver an introduction for several minutes with a sheath down the throat than it is to actually swallow a sword.
Dan Meyer being X-Rayed
Various XRays of Sword Swallowers
3. In 2008, The Sword Swallowers Association Int’l (SSAI) founded World Sword Swallower’s Day.
Ripley’s has co-sponsored the event since 2009.
Sword Swallower Jack Wise performing in front of the Blackpool Odditorium.
4. Ripley’s has been home to Sword Swallowers for 80 years!
Ever since three Sword Swallowers performed at the original Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Chicago World’s Fair in 1933.
Chicago Odditorium, 1934
5. Veronica Hernandez will Swallow a Sword…and she’s NINE MONTHS PREGNANT!
She will perform at our Grand Prairie Odditorium.
6. Last Year Thrill Kill Jill Performed While Pregnant
When Thrill KIll is not performing with her husband, Tyler Fyre, she’s a doting mom of three.
Pregnant Thrill Kill Jill in Baltimore, Feb 2014.
Tyler Fyre, & Thrill Kill Jill with sons Hank Lightning & Duke Dynomite. No pictures of the newest family member yet!
7. Only 1 out of every 250 million people know how to Sword Swallow
There are less than a few dozen professional Sword Swallowers left actively performing the 4000 year old ancient art around the world today. To put that in perspective:
- There are over 2.1 million skydives jumped each year
- There have been over 80,000 Elvis impersonators since 1977
- Bull Riding is more popular with over 12,000 professionals in the world
- Over 4,000 people have successfully climbed Mt. Everest since 1953
- More than 750 astronauts have flown in outer space since 1961
World Sword Swallower’s Day, Hollywood, California, Feb 2014.
8. How to Swallow Swords in 14 SUPER EASY Steps – Via SwordSwallow.com
(Kids, Don’t Try this at Home.)
- Insert the tip of the blade into the oral cavity,
- Repress the gag reflex in the back of the throat
- Navigate a 90 degree turn down the pharynx
- Find the proper alignment into the esophagus
- Slide the blade through the cricopharyngeus upper esophageal sphincter (UES)
- Flip open the epiglottis so that the blade goes into the glottal chamber behind the prominentia laryngea and the voice box
- Repress the peristalsys reflex
- Slide the blade down the esophagus into the thoraxic chamber between the lungs
- Nudge the heart slightly to the left,slide the blade past the sternum and breast bone through the diaphragm
- Relax the lower esophageal sphincter (LES)
- Slide the blade through the lower esophageal sphincter and into the upper stomach
- Past the liver and kidneys
- Repress the retch reflex in the stomach
- Insert the blade all the way down to the duodenum
Did you get all that? No? Maye a visual will help.
I’ll bet Haley and Jill are appreciated by their husbands and boyfriends.
Tom Roberts — don’t be a giant douche. Swsx is an insanely technical skill that takes a lot of training for both men *and* women.
Maybe you should go back to crushing beer cans on your mullet.