Sword Swallower Dan Meyer

YEC 2010 Oklahoma City

Posted by dan | Filed under Reach Your City, live appearances

Wow! What an AWESOME weekend I had at YEC in Oklahoma City, OK!

I flew into Oklahoma City on Friday afternoon after only 3 hours of sleep. When I arrived at the airport, I called for my ride… They said, “Dan Meyer? We already picked up Dan Meyer this MORNING!”

I said, “That’ funny… I don’t remember it! I just GOT HERE!”

Come to find out, the sound guy for Britt Nicole is named Dan Myers, so they had picked him up about an hour earlier!

I later met him and he was a pretty cool guy! When I got to the Lloyd Noble Center, I enjoyed hanging out in the green room with my friend Illusionist Brock Gill, and Jason Dunn, lead singer for Hawk Nelson! They are both such great guys!… Both of them!

Then on Friday night I was privileged to open for Hawk Nelson by doing fire-eating and the Human Blockhead. Because I had a very short window of time, I kept it all pretty short, and I could tell the audience was pretty freaked out and wondering if I was ever really going to swallow swords. But it was fun and I heard lots of great comments from some of the 10,000 kids who were there that night! Then immediately following after me Hawk Nelson went on. Hawk Nelson was AWESOME and ROCKED THE HOUSE!

On Saturday, I finally got to meet one of my favorite Christian artists Britt Nicole! As it turns out, I use two of her songs in my show, and she sang BOTH of them live… JUST BEFORE MY SET! How cool is that? To follow Britt Nicole! As she was coming off stage, I asked her if she would be willing to pull a sword from my throat? “SURE!” she said! I was elated!

So I did a VERY quick version of my show, and then called for Britt to come up on stage. She was so gracious and generous… You can tell she has been blessed with a wisdom well beyond her years!

When it came time to pull the sword out of my throat, I gave her all the details…. You should have seen the look on her face! I think she was a little freaked out!

But Britt was a true professional, did a GREAT job, and was so gracious in not killing me! Thanks, Britt!

Then I put on my laser light gloves and did a laser choreography to Britt’s song “GLOW” Even though the haze fog was not too thick and the lights were still up fairly bright, the laser gloves and light saber still seemed to go over pretty well. The cameraman said he could see the light saber glowing through my neck and others said they could see it on the jumbotron!

If anyone got any photos or video of the show, and ESPECIALLY Britt Nicole pulling the sword out or the glowing sword, please, please PLEASE e-mail me! I really would like to see them or even post them here if it’s ok with you!

With stage manager Brandon Kalicki and 10,000 kids in the background at YEC OK 2010

I made so many great friends at YEC OK! I would LOVE to come back to YEC OK again sometime! If you were there, please follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook!

Tags: Baptist, Britt, Britt Nicole, celebration, Center, Christian, Christian Artist, City, conference, convention, Dan, Dan Meyer, General, glow, glow sword, glowing, glowing light saber, glowing sword, Hawk, Hawk Nelson, laser, light, light saber, Lloyd, Lloyd Noble, Meyer, Nelson, Nicole, Noble, Norman, OK, Okahoma City, Oklahoma, swallow, swallower, swallowing, swallows, sword, Sword Swallower, Sword Swallowing, swords, swordswallower, swordswallowing, YEC, youth, Youth Evangelism

Read more | Comments (1) | August 10th, 2010

Cross N Dagger Ft. Wayne, IN

Posted by dan | Filed under Reach Your City, live appearances

Had an AWESOME time at Cross N Dagger in Fort Wayne Indiana last weekend! I wasn’t sure what I was getting into performing for a few thousand bikers, and I’m sure THEY weren’t sure what they were getting with a sword swallower, but from the many hugs and tears and great comments I got from the bikers, it seems like it was certainly a perfect fit!

Life Bridge church is a REALLY COOL church - They had an AWESOME worship band that ROCKED, motorcycles up on the stage, they roasted a few hogs, and invited about 2000+ bikers to come in! And they had a weird sword swallower there as well! I guess Pastor Bill really DOES like to do things OUTSIDE the BOX!

Fire-eating and motorcycles in church? What kind of church IS this? A pretty cool one! Photo by J. Sanner, used by permission

After the second show, one of the bikers came back to talk to me. He said he knew there was a God, but he said that my show and message had put him “over the hump” into believing He was real and making a decision to follow Him! He was pretty choked up. So was I!

A few minutes later, I was relating this story to one of the pastors, and as I mentioned the man’s name and told the story, and a lady overheard me. She threw her arms around me and was sobbing in tears, and said she was the man’s wife and had been praying for him to know the Lord for years! She was SO overjoyed that he had made the decision that day, and she kept thanking me and hugging me and crying. It made quite an impact on me!

If you were there, please follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook!

Tags: bike, biker, bikers, Bridge, church, cross, Cross N Dagger, dagger, Dan, Dan Meyer, Fort, Fort Wayne, Ft., Ft. Wayne, harley, IN, Life, Life Bridge, LifeBridge, Meyer, motorcycle, motorcycles, swallow, swallower, swallowing, swallows, sword, Sword Swallower, Sword Swallowing, swords, swordswallower, swordswallowing, Wayne

Read more | Comments (0) | August 10th, 2010

Dan Sightings and BIG News!

Posted by dan | Filed under Science, TV Appearances, live appearances, medical, print media appearances

DAN ON HISTORY CHANNEL “SUPERHUMANS”

I just got a note on Facebook from a friend who said he just saw me on a TV commercial for the upcoming History Channel documentary “Stan Lee’s SuperHumans!”

This is an eagerly-awaited new series of episodes on History Channel about people who have what may almost be considered “SuperHuman” powers to do the incredible, with my friend Daniel Browning-Smith (Flex the Rubber Boy!) as host. It was great to see Daniel again and work with the production crew from Bristol England. We had a blast filming my episode at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, TN in January, and at our farm in Alabama in February, and there should be some VERY INTERESTING footage in our episode!

According to the History Channel site, the series premieres on The History Channel on Friday, July 30, at 9/8c to 88 Million viewers worldwide. The series airs four 8 minute episodes on Thursday nights in each week’s 50 minute program, and some episodes re-air again later that night.

My Episode #7 is tentatively scheduled to air on

Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 10est/9pm Central Time

Check your local listing for local times. Let me know if you see the commercials or even see the episode itself! Can’t wait to see how it turns out! Should be HOT!

“Dan’s creativity, professionalism, and devotion
has taken his sword swallowing to a Superhuman level.”
-Daniel Browning-Smith, Host, History Channel’s “Stan Lee’s SuperHumans”

DAN IN QUEST SCIENCE MAGAZINE

Just found out I am being featured in a multi-page article in QUEST magazine - Quest is a major Dutch Science magazine (won “Magazine of the Year” in 2010!), and Quest publishes over 200,000 copies each month to a readership of 1.1 million readers. The article was written by a great guy, Dutch journalist Rik Kuiper, who I hit it off with while I was speaking at the PINC.11 Conference in Zeist Netherlands in May. If you’re a Dutch reader, please let me know how the article turned out!

http://www.quest-magazine.nl/

Sad news: On the day I received my copies of the magazine in the mail, I also found out that Quest’s Editor-In-Chief died at the young age of 39. What a sad story for such a great magazine. Please keep them in your prayers.

DAN IN SCANNER MAGAZINE

I also just received a copy of the Dutch medical magazine “SCANNER” which features an article on me as well! Scanner is published by Erasmus University in Rotterdam Netherlands and reaches a large audience of medical readers.

DAN IN THE LUTHERAN MAGAZINE

Also look for an article on me in the September 2010 LUTHERAN magazine (formerly “The Lutheran Standard”) written by journalist Jeff Favre. This magazine reaches an audience of 4.7 million ELCA Lutherans and 17,000 Lutheran clergy in over 10,300 ELCA Lutheran congregations around the US! Let me know if you happen to see it or hear of any Lutheran congregations, Bible camps, or Lutheran Colleges who might be interested in having me come and speak/perform!

Sword Swallower Puts God in His Act!

UPCOMING SHOWS

CROSS AND DAGGER
This weekend I’m heading up to Indiana to perform at “Cross and Dagger“ Biker Rally for about 2000 bikers at Life Bridge Church in Fort Wayne. If you’re in the area, definitely stop by and say hi!

http://www.crossndagger.com

OKLAHOMA YEC

Then next week I head off to Oklahoma to perform for about 10,000 Baptist youth with uber-cool magician Brock Gill and Peter Nestler on August 6-7 at the Oklahoma YEC Convention in Oklahoma City. If you’re in Oklahoma City, stop in and see us!

Hope you’re doing well and staying cool!

Stay Sharp, and Keep it REAL!

Dan

Tags: Channel, comic, comicbook, Dan, Dan Meyer, documentary, episode, hero, History, History Channel, hot, Lee, Lutheran magazine, Marvel, Meyer, Quest, red, red-hot, Scanner, Stan, Stan Lee, super, Super Human, Super Humans, superhuman, superhumans, swallower, swallowing, sword, Sword Swallower, Sword Swallowing, THC, The History Channel, TV

Read more | Comments (0) | July 27th, 2010

Off to Netherlands - It’s all Dutch to me!

Posted by dan | Filed under Have Sword Will Travel, Ig Nobels, SSAI, Science, live appearances, medical

Just getting ready to catch my flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in a few minutes.

If the volcanic ash is not too bad, I hope to land in Amsterdam on Saturday and spend the weekend there. Then on Monday, I will be traveling to the little Dutch village of Zeist, for a VERY special occasion!

I have been honored to speak at the 11th annual prestigious PINC Conference (PINC stands for People, Ideas, Nature, and Creativity). PINC is like a European version of the well-known TED conference, and the PINC board has invited me along with a small number of other speakers to speak on “out of the box” type topics… like SWORD SWALLOWING! What a HUGE honor! I am really looking forward to this trip and to meeting the other speakers!

Here’s a link to PINC.11

It looks like they have some other interesting speakers and entrepreneurs there as well! I am looking forward to meeting all of them!

After PINC, on Wednesday I will be heading to Rotterdam where I will be speaking at Erasmus University Medical Center with my friends Erwin Kompanje and Kees Moeliker, both fellow Ig Nobel speakers themselves. This should be a fun talk for the doctors and nurses in the area, as this is one of the aspects of my job that I really LOVE!

From Wednesday to Saturday, I will be visiting the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, the Rotterdam Zoo, the Kinderdijk Windmills, and the floating Noah’s Ark replica and museum that is on exhibit in Vianen in the Netherlands! And it looks like I will be doing some media interviews in various magazines, newspapers, and even the TOP Dutch TV show in the Netherlands!

Should be a fun trip!

If you’re on Twitter, please follow me for live updates: @Halfdan

Looking forward to keeping in touch with you, and if you’re in the Netherlands, I’m looking forward to meeting you!

Tot ziens!

Dan
http://danmeyer.tel

Tags: conference, Creativity, Dan, Dan Meyer, doctors, Erasmus, Ig, Ig Nobel, Ig Nobels, Info, Information, lecture, medical, medicine, Meyer, Nature, Nederlands, netherlands, Nobel, Nobels, nurses, People, PINC, speaker, swallow, swallower, swallowing, swallows, sword, Sword Swallower, Sword Swallowing, swords, swordswallower, swordswallowing, talk, TED, TED conference, University, Zeist

Read more | Comments (0) | May 14th, 2010

Sword Swallowing in Netherlands

Posted by dan | Filed under Have Sword Will Travel, Ig Nobels, Science, live appearances, medical

I’m getting ready to head over to Amsterdam, Netherlands this weekend if the volcanic ash doesn’t act up again, and then on to Zeist Netherlands to speak and perform at the 11th Annual PINC Conference next week.

PINC stands for People, Ideas, Nature, and Creativity, and is a Dutch convention with speakers made up of entrepreneurs, scientists, CEOs, and others who think creatively “outside the box”, similar to the renowned TED convention. It is a huge honor for me to be invited as one of the few featured speakers at such a prestigious conference, and I am really looking forward to it!

Here is more on PINC.11

And here’s information on some of the other speakers

From Zeist, I will head over to Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, where I will be giving a lecture for an audience of doctors, nurses, and medical faculty on our research paper “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects” that won us the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine and was the focus of a Dutch documentary last year.

Click here to download the flyer in Dutch!

From there, my hosts have plans for me to do some media interviews, a visit to the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, some windmills, and possibly even to visit a lifesized Noah’s Ark nearby!

To get live updates from the road, follow @Halfdan on Twitter!

Tags: netherlands

Read more | Comments (0) | May 10th, 2010

Sword Swallowing in Denmark

Posted by dan | Filed under Guinness World Records, Have Sword Will Travel, Ig Nobels, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Science, live appearances, medical

I had a blast on the Ig Nobel Tour of Denmark in May, and got to perform at several universities in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus, and the Marine Research Center in Kerteminde, and at Ripleys and Guinness World Records in Copenhagen.

Sword Swallowing at Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde Denmark

Sword Swallowing at the Famous Jelling Runestone, Jelling Denmark

Sword Swallowing at Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Copenhagen

Read more | Comments (0) | May 10th, 2010

Sword Swallowing in Rome Italy

Posted by dan | Filed under Guinness World Records, Have Sword Will Travel, TV Appearances, World records, live appearances

Check out these videos of Dan swallowing swords in Rome Italy in March/April!

World’s smallest man removes sword in Rome

World’s Smallest Man watches Hedge Clippers in Rome

Sword Swallowing Demonstration on Guinness World Records TV Rome

Guinness World Record Sword Swallower Lo Show Dei Record TV

Dan Punctures his throat while Swallowing Swords Underwater on Guinness World Records TV

Dan Punctures Throat Swallowing Sword Underwater on Guinness World Record TV

Shortly after filming this episode, I felt a strong pain in my throat, almost like a bad cramp that made it impossible to swallow. From the studios, they took me by ambulance to one hospital and then another in Rome, where an MRI showed that I had punctured my esophagus while swallowing the first sword (see video above to see it happen!).

I stayed in the hospital on an antibiotic IV drip for 8 days - No food, no water, just antibiotics! Finally they released me, but I needed to wait a few more days before I could fly home to make sure there was no air embolism left that had leaked into in my body cavity - If I still had an air embolism, the air would expand and double and triple in size when my flight flew home… and POP goes the Weasel! NOT a good idea!

So I stayed in Rome a few more days and got to visit the Coliseum at Rome the next day before flying home!

Swallowing a Sword at the Coliseum in Rome, Italy