Stevie Starr, Professional Regurgitator
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.Posted By: Alex | Date: Tue Feb 14, 2006 | Permalink |
Total Comments: 110
Category: Body Manipulation, Food, Magic
Category: Body Manipulation, Food, Magic
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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He does in fact swallow the items. In regards to the Rubik's cube, he doesn't "solve" it, he makes a few rotations to an already solved one.
Isolation, and complete control of stomach muscles.
Posted by Officia. on Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 09:48 PM
Isolation, and complete control of stomach muscles.
About 10 years ago, this guy walked up to the pool table in my local pub and swallowed the white ball. right in front of me - was quite a shock as I had no idea who he was. I saw him a few times over the years and he is basically an alcoholic. would drink a ridiculous amount of beer then entertain (or shock) the people in the pub, talk about his experiences in the childrens home before the locals would have to carry him home with £50 notes falling out of his pockets. For all those who believe the "sleight of hand" theory - do you really think this would be possible when he's had 10 pints or more? Not a clue how he does it, but he definitely does it. Lovely guy.
Posted by emily in london, uk on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 06:40 AM
The ONLY thing I could detect was when he supposedly swallowed key rings and linked them together. I won't reveal what I saw, but it was undoubtedly a matter of sleight of hand and misdirection. However, I believe that he does have at least some capacity for what he claims, that or there is something peculiar about the anatomy of his mouth. He hasn't been studied by any scientific means, therefore nothing is confirmed. My belief is that first and foremost, he is a gifted entertainer and showman. I believe that his presentation is a combination of sleight of hand alongside legitimate oddity.
Posted by John in CNY on Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Rubik's Cube Solution Solved trick:
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.
Posted by Maurizio in Italy on Sun May 24, 2009 at 03:52 PM
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.
I saw him this evening at a good ol' cambridge may ball, and I must say I was astounded. I've dabbled in magic myself, so usually I appreciate the skill of tricks rather than wonder how they're done - but in this case I was clueless. But I did notice a few switches and finger palms, so I guess a lot of it is sleight of hand, but I think some of it might be for real...
Posted by daniel on Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 11:16 PM
well I saw him live, sitting 10 feet away, and I can tell you that it looks VERY real! In his live show he will swallow some stuff, but then start a different segiment of tricks by swallowing more stuff.... and then go back to the stuff he had swalled earlier. ex swallow ten rings from the crowd... then swallow a bottle of dish soap followed by a bottle of butane, then blow bubbles full of g
Posted by roger in canada on Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 10:46 AM
The Rubik's cube trick is very simple. He shows the solved cube to the audience and tells that he will move its colors in his stomach. After that he makes some wild gestures with his hand which allow him to quickly turn the top row with his thumb and index finger. Then he puts the cube quickly in his mouth with the turned top row first so nobody can see the manipulated part. The rest is standard: He swallows it and brings it up again.
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.
Posted by Claus in Germany on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 12:51 PM
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.
I can’t remember if Stevie lived in an orphanage or not but I certainly went to secondary/high school with him (Uddingston Grammar School). He did a lot of mad things and we all called him ‘shite’ as his real name is Stevie Wright ‘shite’. Dunno if it was just a rumour but everyone said that he was taking shit from the boy’s toilets, but I find this hard to believe. I felt sorry for him as he was a bit of an outcast and tended to get bullied. So I was completely shocked when I discovered that he was in the USA doing all this stuff. I wish him well
Posted by Lanarskshire guy in Near Glasgow Scotland on Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 12:20 AM
Have to agree with Emily on this one. Met him in local pub (Moss Hall Tavern - Finchley Nth London), with my mate who was his neighbour - but was more than 10yrs ago. He sat next to me getting pissed and swallowing pool balls and coins. He would carry on drinking and talking before eventually bringing them back up. No way was it sleight of hand. Good to see he is still working on his website.
Posted by Steve in London / Singapore on Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 09:20 PM
if its real why doesnt he do it slower, and show the items entering his throat. sucking it so quick, so that it seems to disappear, is pointless unless you want to conceal where the item is actually going.
Posted by cory in birmingham AL on Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 01:41 PM
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