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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: 115
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 frequently reach in his pocket and then touch his face or put something in his mouth. Especially during the Jay Leno perfomance
Posted by Suzie Suzie in Smile town on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 10:48 AM
sugar is that i dont believe anyting else goes
Posted by myllydjk in hell on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 09:22 AM
you know, a simple x-ray would solve all these issues.
Posted by voice of reason on Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 10:52 PM
i just saw this guy perform at my school in canada...although this guy is a nut, his talent is quite impressive. The one trick that i saw him perform that amazed me the most was to swallow someones ring... followed by a locked lock and then the key for the lock. a minute later the ring was hooked onto the locked padlock. he had opened the lock with the key...slipped the ring on and locked it again...ALL in his stomach...
Posted by fsdaf in waterloo on Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 11:52 PM
gg steven jie b mc culloch contact please
fallside missin you
steven jie b fallside saw a ghst eatin toast halfway up a
Posted by john bolton in scotland on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Actually, he doesn't solve the rubik's cube. You got that wrong. He just moves the movable parts in the Rubik's cube.
He does this by swallowing a solved rubik's cube, moving the squares, and regurgitating the same cube but with moved squares.
Posted by Fatin on Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 12:13 PM
He does this by swallowing a solved rubik's cube, moving the squares, and regurgitating the same cube but with moved squares.
I knew Stevie personally. He is one of the greatest at what he does, but what he does is not regurgitating lol.
Posted by Mae in uk on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:15 AM
There is a video floating around of a guy in some 3rd world country drinking a 1 liter bottle of water and then completely regurgitating it back into the bottle, swallowing it again, and regurgitating it yet again.
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.
Posted by No one on Mon May 12, 2008 at 08:49 AM
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.
watch closely - he doesnt have many bottom teeth...he hides them back there like a hamster.
Posted by ss in usa on Mon Jun 09, 2008 at 12:11 AM
I have seen Stevie Starr performe in front of me twice and frankly he is awsome. I don't know how he does it, although I think I once saw a picture showing him having two stomachs.
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.
Posted by Andrew in Australia on Sat Aug 02, 2008 at 02:50 AM
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.
Well however he is doing it....he does posses a trick/trade/talent that I do not....and he is making money doing it...
either way....the man is very good at what he does
Posted by Aimee on Wed Aug 06, 2008 at 05:58 PM
either way....the man is very good at what he does
Look carefully on the video close-up as he swallows the billiard ball.
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.
Posted by Xavier on Mon Aug 11, 2008 at 12:09 AM
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.
I saw him tonight and I don't believe it was a hoax. He swallowed a guy's ring then a locked lock and the key to the lock(all separately. After a bunch of show and moving around he coughed up the ring and the lock(the ring was now attached to the lock) and then he also coughed up the key. Meaning he unlocked the lock, then put the ring on the lock and then locked it...all while it was in his stomach. CRAZY!
Posted by Matt on Sat Oct 11, 2008 at 07:04 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFIRhJrHJE&feature=related
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.
Posted by Daniel on Sun Nov 23, 2008 at 10:55 AM
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 first saw him on tv in the late 80s. He swallowed and coughed up a light bulb. You cannot hide a light bulb in your mouth. He also swallowed various coins during which the tv presenter put the microphone to his stomach and you could hear them dropping in there. Surely after 20 years or more he would have been exposed as a fake by now
Posted by Jason in Australia on Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 01:15 AM
Here's a clip from Swedish television (high quality). It's kind of close-up and you can see that he has all his teeth, and you see the tricks from the front (I'm from Seden myself so I'm not sure my english is correct). Watch the billiard ball goes right down his throat and not under his tongue. And how could he possibly hide the gas under his tongue for such a long time? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_rP2wVc2y4&fmt=18
Posted by Tore on Sat Jan 10, 2009 at 07:13 PM
I worked security in 1988 at Melbournes 21's century dance club for Stevie Starr.
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
Posted by DJFlex in Australia on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 06:32 PM
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
The majority of these responses verify P.T. Barnum's most famous statement.
Posted by john in Florida on Tue Mar 10, 2009 at 12:46 PM
My brother is a VERY famous magician in Las Vegas. He told me EXACTLY how this is done. Nothing ever leaves this guys mouth, PERIOD! There is slight of hand to switch most items before they go in, like the billiard ball or Rubix Cube.The other items are taken into the back of the mouth and cheeks. It really isn't hard to hide smaller objects like ballons, nails or even fish. The "sugar" is really sand.
It's a great illusion, believe it or not!
Posted by jbj_elvis in California on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 07:59 AM
It's a great illusion, believe it or not!
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