Podcast Interview with Dan Meyer - Sword Swallower
Podcast Interview with Entertainer
CoolKay: OK, here. Do I have the infamous, the one the only famous sword-swallowing Dan Meyer on the line with me.
Dan Meyer: Uh You very well do good to be here.
CoolKay: , Mr Dan. So how long have you been swallowing those things? Anyway, I’m curious.
Dan Meyer: I started in 97. It took me uh – I practiced 10 to 12 times a day every day for four years, about 14,000 unsuccessful attempts. So I got my first sword down in 2 2001. So it’s been about 22 years that have actually been practicing swallowing swords, but about 25 years that I’ve been been uh in the working on it.
CoolKay: I’m kinda curious, I mean, that’s kind of an unusual occupation. Where did the idea come from? Did you meet somebody else who did it?
Dan Meyer: I’m gonna, I’m gonna give you a little bit uh a short version of my TED talk. Uh And if any of your listeners wanna watch uh my TED talks, I’ve had, I’ve done about nine of them around the world, but one of them is called, the first one was called Cutting Through Fear. And the 1st 20 years of my life, I grew up in extreme fear. I couldn’t talk very well. I would shake and stutter. I was a scared shy, skinny wimpy kid with low self esteem, inferiority, complex, fear of failure and rejection. I was just a scared straight skinny wimpy kid got teased and beat up by the bullies all the time. And um, I, when I was 20 I moved to India as a short term Lutheran missionary for about a year and ended up almost dying of malaria fever the week before my 21st birthday and the night before my 21st birthday with 100 and five degree fever, I prayed a little prayer and said, all right, God, if you let me live till my 21st birthday, I will not let fear rule my life any longer. I’m gonna put my fears to death and take on risks and challenges. And that night I made just a little bucket list of 10 things that I wanted to do with my life. Visit all the continents. Visit the seven wonders of the world. Live on a ship on the ocean, live on a deserted island, live with a tribe of Indians in the Amazon. Uh work in the music business in Nashville, work with the circus, jump out of an airplane and see Mount Everest at sunrise. And I never thought I’d be able to do any of those. And uh I won’t tell you if I survived to my 21st birthday or not unless you figured that out for yourself. But I did survive. I ended up moving to a little island in the Bahamas for seven years. Checked off one live on an island, ran that island for a cruise ship for two years. As a scuba instructor checked that off, moved to Mexico, moved to uh Ecuador, lived with a tribe of Indians uh in the Amazon rain forest in Peugeot. Pogo checked one off there. And eventually I moved to Nashville, worked in the music business, started uh doing circus skills, uh circus clowning, juggling fire, eating a glass, eating human blockhead. And long story short in 1997 I heard there were less than 12 sword stars left in the entire world. I met one in Nashville where I was living uh named George the giant. And uh I said, give me some tips on sword swallowing. He said, I’ll give you two tips. There’s less than 12 left in the world. Um And uh number two, it’s extremely dangerous. Don’t try it. And that’s what I did. You know, I added that to my list of Thrones, my list of my bucket list. I, you know, every time I check one off my list, I’d add five or 10 more onto my list. And uh in 1997 after I met George, I started practicing and I set out to find each of those 12 swords followers and ended up finding a couple more. And uh in 2002, we had our first sword followers convention and we had 18 sword followers show from around the world. And from then on, it’s just been an incredible ride. It’s been just a blast.
CoolKay: . I’m gonna presume after all of that, that you’re not a married man.
Dan Meyer: I have been a few times but I’m on the road working fairs. Uh I absolutely love working fairs and festivals. Um But sometimes it makes for a little bit of a tough uh strain on the family. Sometimes you got kids. No kids.
CoolKay: . You make me tired just to listen to you. OK. All right. So what was your first sw swallowing event? Do you remember that you did publicly that you got paid for?
Dan Meyer: man. Yeah, I did in 2002. I in, I got invited to do, I started performing with Brooks and Don, I toured with them 2002 and 2003. That was a pretty good gig performing for 25,000 people. But, um I, the very first gig I did was in a, uh a church in Frog Jump, Tennessee. I kid you not Frog Jump, Tennessee for an upward unlimited thing. And I was performing and they had this big screen, 25 ft projection screen behind me and the thing fell over on top of me. Uh And I remember trying to hold that thing up and people came up and, and put that thing back up and I just kept doing my show and, uh, uh, I’ll never forget that. It was the, the very first one. Fortunately they’ve gotten a little bit better since then.
CoolKay: , Dan, what you do is kind of dangerous, isn’t it? I mean, did you ever get hurt?
Dan Meyer: NO, it’s not dangerous. It’s deadly. Um, I’ve almost died four times. I ended up puncturing my stomach in 2005. I was, I was swallowing five swords at once and they scissored my stomach wretched and punctured. My stomach, couldn’t eat solid food for a month and almost quit, uh, sword swallowing. And, but I had to do a, a, an episode for, um, food Network unwrapped, uh, up in Tennessee. And so I got my swords back out and managed to make it through that episode and just kept going. Never looked back since then. I had another, uh, accident in 2010. I was swallowing swords underwater in Rome, Italy for Guinness World Record TV, for a program called Looe Record. And, um, I had done it for Ripley’s in 2007, saw swords underwater in a tank of 88 sharks and stingrays. And then Guinness flew me over to Rome to, to set the Guinness World record for swallowing swords underwater. And so I did that in 2010 but ended up puncturing my esophagus, ended up in a hospital there in Rome for about two or three weeks. And eventually I had to break out of the hospital to, to fly home because I had another gig up in Copenhagen the next week. So it’s been a, it’s been a wild ride. It’s been a lot of fun that the other gig.
CoolKay: Was it a sword swallowing gig?
Dan Meyer: Yes, it was.
CoolKay: Have you ever had anybody tell you that? You’re crazy all the time.?
Dan Meyer: I had another accident. Uh about 33 years, four years ago, maybe. Uh here in Mesa, Arizona went into a, a sword shop and uh, they had these swords in the wall and I’m looking at them and I saw one that just looked perfect and my mouth started water. And the guy behind the counter said, oh, do you like swords? I said, well, I guess you could say so I said, uh uh what, what kind of swords do you have? And I said, oh, I’ve got about 350 of them at home. He said 350.?? What do you do with 350 swords? And I said, well, to be honest with you, I swallow them and he looked at me and said, no, that’s fake. You can’t really do that. And I’m like, oh yeah, watch this. I said, if I can swallow that sword sharp, will you uh will you give it to me? He said no man, but I’ll give you a deep discount on it and I’ll give it to you for half price. And I took this beautiful saber and got it down to about my collar bone and it stuck, it wouldn’t go any further and I thought I am not pushing it. It, this is a sharp sword. So I took out, adjusted it, slipped it back in a second time. Hit the same place. It, it, it poked again, it just stuck and I said, no, t took it out, flipped the blade the other direction, slid it back down. It went to about the same place and punctured my esophagus for the third time and my throat started to burn. It started to swell up. I went home, ended up drinking uh several glasses of ice water while I could still swallow. And as much vitamins and Theraflu and Nyquil and everything I could to knock me out for about 10 or 12 hours. And hopefully let, uh, let it heal up over the, the most of it. And uh after three days of pretty much just staying in bed, spitting up blood. I um I got back up and I healed up and I went back and I bought that sucker and I now use it as one of the final swords in my show.
CoolKay: So, what did the guy in the shop say?
Dan Meyer:, he became a good friend, he became a real good friend and we uh I bought several swords from him after that. All right.
CoolKay: , you know, if you had kids, would you let your kids do this?
Dan Meyer:, Probably not. No mo the world’s youngest swords followers have started at the age of 12 and 13. And that’s way, way, way too dangerous for kids. Even in my shows. I stress, you know, it’s not, do not try this at home. I stress it over and over before every sword and by the time I’m done, the kids come up to me after the shows and they’re like, yes sir, we are not gonna swallow a sword. So um it is extremely, we know of 29 sword swallowers have died uh over the past 100 150 years. I’m just finishing a book uh on it that will be going to press next year uh on the history of sword swallowing and uh it is dangerous and we have, I’m the president of the Sword Swallowers Association International. We have between 3 to 5 injuries per year where somebody calls me and says, and I’m in the hospital. I punctured my esophagus. I’m like, yep. And they’re like, don’t tell anybody.
CoolKay:. So, hey, I saw that video. You sent me on America’s got talent where you pulled the car, you wanna talk about that?
Dan Meyer: Sure, – That was a fluke. I got a phone call on a Monday from um one of my producers on America’s got talent. I’ve done America’s got talent season. Three of, I think nine episodes I went through from Vegas from Nashville, uh, audition to the Atlanta regionals to the Las Vegas semi quarterfinals and semi finals got, um, uh, eliminated there and then was brought back to the finals, uh, in Hollywood in season three. And of course, I, I didn’t win the million bucks but, uh, then eight years later in, um season 11 in 2016, I get a voice message from one of my producers. He said, hey, Dan, do you wanna be back on America’s got talent call me. So I missed it that night. I called him the next day. He said, uh, you wanna be back on? I said sure, next month, next year in, in Miami or Orlando, he said no tomorrow in Pasadena. So I had a, a gig all during that day and I got done with the gig at five o’clock, made it to the airport by six, was on a plane by seven. Got to L A by about three or four in the morning and um got about two hours of sleep and then had to be up on the set and they’re like, we want you to pull a car like we say you did for Ripley’s, believe it or not. And I’m like, well, what kind of car they said, I don’t know, we’ll get you something. I’m like, oh my gosh. So all day long I waited and they finally got me on the episode that you see on, on youtube, it’s, uh, season three episode, I think, episode five, when America’s got talent 2008. Um, it was about 1230 at night. I hadn’t had anything to eat. I’d only had about two hours of sleep in, in two days. And, um, and I hadn’t seen the car that they had rented for me. And then they said, you know, do you know, do you, are you sure about this? And I said no. And Heidi says, well, you don’t. And I said, no, I haven’t tried it before with this particular car. And fortunately it went really well, got standing ovations from the audience from the judges. Four yes votes. It was incredible. And now I’ve gone on and done that at, uh, about 1314 other got talents around the world and it has been a blast. Absolutely. Love impacting lives. Ok. So, is this the way you primarily make your money now by swallowing swords? That’s, that’s all I do. I do fairs at fairs in the summer, um, festivals in the fall and winter, uh, Corporates here in Phoenix in the, in the winter of the snowbird season. And, uh, several got talents. I just did my 15th got talent last week in Germany. And, um, I love doing, I love doing this for w what, what I do in my show. Most people don’t believe sword sewing is really real. They think it’s a fake a trick. And so, uh in the beginning, I would say, OK, watch very carefully, watch my fingers, watch my lips, watch my throat see if you can figure out what the trick really is. And so that everybody leans forward, they think it’s gonna be a magician’s trick. And they’re watching. And the first two swords I do are the fake swords, the curl up sword, uh telescopic sword that telescopes into the handle. And the audience goes, uh I knew it was fake. I knew it was fake. I say, well, the reason I do those is if I didn’t show you the fake swords, now you wouldn’t believe the real swords later, right? And then I start with a small 15 inch dagger, impel an orange with it, swallow it very slowly, eventually throw it into a board in the floor to prove it’s real. And then I saw hedge Clippers, a giant straight razor, a serpentine sword that makes my Adam’s apple wobble back and forth, a curved sword that I have to bend my body. Um eventually sometimes a car axle or forceps a giant saw and all of them to prove that it cannot fold up in the handle. And eventually, along the way, the audience gets this paradigm shift. Oh Wait, this is not fake. This is the real deal and it really becomes pretty mind blowing for him. And then I use some of my TED talk ending at the end and turn it all around. It’s not about me, it’s not about the swords. It is about you finding your sword, finding your superpower, your force, but your purpose in calling what you were put here on earth to do. And I turned it into a little bit of a TED talk at the end and people’s minds just get kind of blown. It’s not about the swords. It’s not about me. It’s about them finding, you know, what is their superpower that they can do in their life and people absolutely love it. So my whole show runs about 45 minutes. My goal is to try and get a, a standing ovation every show. And, uh, I’m not kidding. Every, almost every show, somebody will come up in tears and say I was teased and bullied. I had dreams, aspirations and you’ve inspired me to do the impossible in my life. I love giving back to people. I love watching their ex, their expressions, their reactions in the audience when they find out it’s not fake. It’s not a magic trick. It is really dangerous. And, uh, but, uh, it, it makes it just for a really, really fun show. I do something different than most entertainers. Most entertainers stand on stage to get laughter, to get applause, to get affirmation from the audience. And I do just the opposite. I don’t, I don’t, I’m not there to get, I’m there to give, I give the audience a chance to laugh and squirm and think and learn and wonder in, on amazement and to believe that they can do the impossible in their lives. So, I kinda turned around. It’s all about them. I do five things for fairs when I go to, uh, to, when a, a fair books me, I do five things. Number one, I attract people to the fair. Uh, uh, I of offer to do, uh, radio and TV, interviews or just phone interviews for the newspaper the week or two before the fair to draw publicity. And what that does is it, it raises curiosity. Everybody’s curious because they, they, they, they kind of, they know the celebrity. They’ve seen me on America’s got talent twice and Guinness and Ripley’s and, you know, a bunch of other shows, Huckabee Show and, uh, today’s show. And so people come out of curiosity for the celebrity, for the oddity, for the unusual weird you like? Is that really real? And, uh, I’ve had, I don’t know how many times over and over and over. People come to the fair and they say the only reason we came to the fair was to see the sword swallower. My son wanted to see the swords fuller. You’re the only reason we came to the fair. So if I can attract people to the fair, that’s one thing. The second thing I do is I, um, I give them, uh, entertainment. I, I interact with the audience I make them laugh. I make them, you know, I, I do a lot of comedy, a lot of visual stuff at the beginning. So it’s very, uh it’s like a comedy show up a little bit of a stand up comedy kind of bit with swords going. And when, especially with the fake swords. So I attract, I uh interact with the audience, uh make them laugh and then I create a reaction in the audience. And this is something that most other entertainers don’t do. When I do my show, it creates cortisol the fear reactor in people when they’re cringing adrenaline, dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin endorphins. And people come up to me after the show and they say my hands are shaking. I know I’m breathing fast. My heart is beating and you just did something to me and I can create that reaction in the entire entire audience. I’m creating a chemical reaction in the audience and you, you don’t get that with balloon animals or just, I’ve done both. I love it. Unicycle the whole bit, but it doesn’t make people breathe fast and you know, their, their hands get sweaty and it’s like, wow, you’re what’s going on with me. Well, I created a chemical reaction in you and that brings people back again and again. Um I do, it kind of creates a profound reaction in people and that reaction makes them say, oh, I gotta go get my grandkids, gotta get my neighbors and bring them back again and again. Um, there’s one fair that I do Eastern Idaho State Fair and I’ve got several people in the audience who have seen every single show 306 times per year over and over every show. I’ve got a family of 10 up in, at the Alaska State Fair and they come to every single show for three or four years. Uh, I got a lady who flies from Maine to go to the Alaska State Fair and she comes to every show and another married couple and this happens fair after fair, after fair people come back again and again and again, they like that warm feeling that um the some of the, the gems of wisdom that I like to import part at the end, they like having something to take home and, and bring their grandkids and their neighbors to see. So I attract uh interact um kind of create a profound reaction in people and then peop bring people back to your fair again and again. And I’ve, I’d love to do, I’ve been doing this for I whatever I said 20 some years now love doing state and county fairs and festivals uh in the fall and spring. So if you’ve got, if anybody’s interested, you know, check me out on https://www.cuttingedgeentertainment.com/.
CoolKay:. Hey, Dan, you’ve done a lot, you’ve done a lot. You’ve done a lot of stuff in your life out of all the stuff that you’ve done. It sounds to me like you like the sword swallowing best. Is that right?
Dan Meyer: It’s been, it’s, it’s what I was made for. It’s my purpose in calling. I absolutely love it. I love creating a reaction in people that they say. I will never forget this. That’s what I like doing with people is impacting people’s lives. OK. All right. Uh Is there any place specifically that you would like to perform? That you have not had the opportunity? Yes, I’m trying to get in with the Utah State Fair, Nebraska State Fair. Uh, South Dakota Montana. I think they’ve got two of them up there. Um, Illinois State Fair and Missouri State Fair. Uh, those are a couple of them that I’m really interested in getting in with. Of course, Minnesota and Wisconsin State Fairs would be wonderful. I would love to do those too, but absolutely love, love, love, impacting people’s lives and, uh, knowing that, that I have found my purpose in calling in a, in a way to kind of change the world in my own strange, unique way.
CoolKay:. Dan, have you ever had any really bad experiences during any of these shows? I mean, that goes with it, right.?
Dan Meyer: It kind of does. I’ve had some really, really hot shows at Western Idaho State Fair, uh, somewhere it’s just so hot. My swords get up to 100 and 20 degrees. 100 and 50 I have to have to put ice on them to cool them down. Um, uh, I’ve had one injury at Western Idaho Fair where I pulled the sword out and had some blood on it because I just, I done like 30 some shows in a row and, um, my throat was swollen and, and so that was fortunately my last show there and it healed up. No problem. Um, but no, no, not really any bad experiences with audience members. No.
CoolKay:. . All right. Um Do you teach people?
Dan Meyer: I’ve had 1-2-3=4 people that I mentor. I’ve got one, I’m mentoring now. Uh One of my students was the guy who won or almost won. America’s got talent. Alex Magali swallows the sword and then he climbs a pole and does the headfirst pole dive and he’s one of my students and he and I have worked together on, on several things. Um But yeah, I had one in, from India, one from Canada, one in Germany. And now I’ve got one right now that I’m, I’m working with. As a matter of fact, I just received a samurai sword in the mail just a few minutes ago. And I have a hundreds for my students. So that was pretty neat.
CoolKay:. . You’re not a young guy. You’ve been doing this for a lot of years. How old are you? Can I ask?
Dan Meyer: I think I’m 21 or at least that’s what I think. Good luck. I, I, I made it into my sixties and I’m loving it. This year. I did seven, countries, six Got Talents and the Huckabee Show, uh, and several fairs and absolutely just had a blast. Uh, incredible, incredible year. I was shooting to be in front of 10 million people this past year and I just broke over 50 million people. I did the finals of Sweden’s got talent where I had the Golden Buzzer went to Sweden’s got talent. Cro Croatia’s got talent. Spain’s got talent. Canada’s got talent and Germany’s got talent this year and, um, along with Huckabee Show and these other fairs and absolutely had probably my best year ever. Love. Exactly. Love doing what I’m doing.
CoolKay:. Do you have any relatives at all that are still alive? Yup. My brother is a filmmaker in Germany and my sister is, um, trying to start an orphanage in Jamaica. I, uh, I ran five orphanages in Kazakhstan for a few years. And, uh, so it kind of runs in the family to, to travel quite a bit.
CoolKay:. Jeez…, you’ve been every place, haven’t you?
Dan Meyer: , no, but there’s the, the last few I wanna get to. I, I do wanna get, I’ve been to 60 countries now around the world. Um, and, and have enjoyed it. I’ve still got a few more. I, I’d like to hit 75 countries, got a few left in Africa and South America. To visit. Alright.
CoolKay:. , um it sounds to me like you’re looking for bookings. So how do people reach you?
Dan Meyer: So, people can reach me at my website, Cutting Edge Entertainment.com, and click on events and you can find fairs and festivals like Oktoberfest and there are a lot of drop down boxes there and um uh or on Facebook, Instagram, tiktok., YouTube My handle is uh Dan Meyers swords, Instagram Truth, uh, some of the others.
CoolKay:. . And of course, now you’re gonna be on County fairgrounds.net.
Dan Meyer: right. Look forward to it would love to. And if you, if you’re, if you heard about me on this podcast or from County fairs.net, uh, let, let me know. I’m, I’m real curious to see, uh, how many folks out there, uh, are listening and are looking for good entertainment, something that will really blow your audience’s minds.
CoolKay:. .. All right. Well, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking to you and I’ll get this up and running.
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