Who is the Space Cowboy?
The Space Cowboy is a truly unique and exciting performer from Byron Bay Australia. He started exhibiting his unusual skills at his local markets at the age of eight, a natural born performer. Now at 31 years of age he has amazed audiences in over 30 countries around the world to audiences ranging from 100 to 20,000 delighted onlookers at a time in packed theatres, circus big tops and stadiums. He has shown his diversity and skill by performing at the Edinburgh festival fifteen years in a row, he won ‘The Street Performance World Championship’ in 2006 and 2007, exhibited four different sell out shows in the Sydney Opera house, toured with famous rock bands, freaked out motorcycle dare-devils in massive arena stunt shows, and displayed his extravagant abilities in front of the royal throne of Italy. The Space Cowboy currently holds six Guinness World Records for his unusual skills and all of his acts are guaranteed to leave a lasting impression on all who witness this incredible phenomena….
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Interview for the ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ Book:
Why did you start sword swallowing?
I have been performing street shows since I was
8 years old, and as a teenager I began to get tired of the same old traditional circus
skills, I wanted to do something more bizarre, more unique and more extreme. Sword
swallowing just seemed like the most adventurous skill that I could learn, but I don’t
think I quite realized how dangerous my new career choice would be.
Was it hard to learn?
Yes, it is very hard to learn. I guess I am lucky that I started
to force hoses and other objects down my throat at an early age. You need to learn to
control muscles that are usually involuntary and this can take many years. I started
training for sword swallowing when I was 16 years old.
In the beginning I swallowed a piece of string with a small piece of food tied to the
end. I then moved on to forcing hoses down my throat to train the muscles of my
esophagus. Every time a person swallows we have circular muscles that retract in our
throat. You need to control these muscles so that when you swallow with a blade down
your esophagus these muscles stay open and do not slice on the blade.
Doesn’t it hurt?
No, it doesn’t hurt, but it is very uncomfortable. Having a foreign
object in your throat instantly makes you gag and vomit, and this is just the
first obstacle that you need to overcome in order to swallow a sword. I am constantly
pushing myself to make the impossible possible, and in order to do this I need to make
the pain I experience obsolete. If you want something enough, pain is no longer an issue.
Have you ever had an accident?
I was born with an internal deformation of my
digestive system that enables me to swallow a sword deeper than any other sword
swallower that has ever lived. When I first started swallowing the long sword I was
20 years old, and in a moment of distraction I sliced my stomach lining in a
performance. Backstage I started vomiting blood and was rushed to hospital. To the
doctor’s amazement I swallowed an endoscope with no anesthetic! I was prescribed
serious drugs to stop any infection. It was a lucky escape. It was 10 years before I
would attempt this swallow again.
Do you train a lot?
On days that I am not performing I do need to keep my internal
muscles finely tuned, so I use meditation and internal isolation techniques to stay
sword-swallowing fit. In my business any mistake is potentially a deadly one!
What are your future ambitions?
I love pushing the boundaries of what people think is
possible. I regularly perform what is considered by many to be impossible, in the hope
that just by seeing these extreme acts people may consider the endless possibilities of what they can achieve.
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