Sword Swallower Dan Meyer

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!

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!

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

The IAEWP World Peace Conference this past week was quite an experience! I met lots of really interesting people from all over the world, different cultures, different countries - Africa, India, Europe, Middle East, Far East, Japan, China, Mexico, Mediterranean - and different religions - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, atheist - and met a lot of really great new friends from all over the world.

I was a little concerned about giving a serious 35 minute speech on world peace, but everything went well, even better than I ever expected…

The title of my speech was “Sword of War, Sword of Peace”, and during my speech I showed and discussed a number of swords of war - ancient Japanese Katana, middle Eastern curved Shamshir, Civil War single-edged cavalry saber, WW I 1907 British Wilkinson bayonette, WW II German Luftwaffe Officer’s sword, etc. Then I discussed a number of quotes by famous leaders on swords of war, and how people can use words as swords. Then I recited a poem I wrote on the similarities of swords and words.

Finally, I discussed some examples of conflict and peace from my own life and that of my uncle the Honorable Armin H. Meyer who was a diplomat, a peace-keeper, negotiator, and the US Ambassador to a number of countries around the world. My final point was that we all need to use whatever it is we do for peace, not only in words, but we must be willing to swallow our pride and put our metal where our mouth is and be willing to put our words into action and our lives on the line for what we believe in. I then invited three world leaders from three different cultures and religions - India, Africa, and Europe - to come together and remove a broadsword “Sword of War” from my throat to create a “Sword of Peace”.

At the IAEWP World Peace Conference, delegates from Netherlands, Africa and India all pulled together to remove the Sword of War, thereby transforming it into a Sword of Peace

At the end of the speech, I presented the broadsword to IAEWP President Dr. Charles Mercieca from Malta as a “Sword of Peace”. The speech apparently had quite an effect on the audience, …and then some! As soon as I got done speaking, a Hindu delegate stood up and said, “That was the most inspirational speech I have EVER heard! I am truly moved, not only by the final demonstration, but by Dan’s heart and examples. I propose we include the Sword of Peace as part of our logo!” Then the rest of the delegates stood in a standing ovation, while others suggested I present this speech to the 19th Annual World Peace Congress set up under the United Nations in Seoul South Korea in October, and in Indonesia in 2010! Several others said they wanted to publish my speech and accompanying poem in books and publications! Wow! What an honor!

I was honored and truly humbled to be able to spend time with so many wonderful people all striving towards peace across boundaries, and I learned so much. I’ll keep you posted as things develop along these lines.

Tomorrow I head to Atlanta to film interviews on “Atlanta Live” on WATC-TV. Let me know if you live in Atlanta and happen to see it!

Wow!… What an interesting past several days it has been!

IMPERIAL COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Looks like I just made the cover of the prestigious Imperial College (London) magazine.

What a huge honour! (Yes, with the British/Canadian spelling! For some reason I like it on certain words, so I think I’ll use it on today’s posting!)

Can any of you Imperial College students do me a big favour and save me a paper copy of the magazine? I would be much obliged!

JESSE JAMES IS A DEAD MAN

I’ve had a few friends call and text me to inform me I was just on the Jesse James is a Dead Man show on Spike TV the other day! I didn’t even know it was airing! Several months ago, the producers had called and asked me to challenge Jesse James (who is Sandra Bullock’s husband) into trying to swallow a sword. Stay tuned to see what happens!

PETER ANTHONY HOLDER SHOW

In other news, I had the pleasure of doing another fun half-hour interview last Friday with Peter Anthony Holder of the Peter Anthony Holder Show on CJAD/CFRB Montreal/Toronto, the largest English language shows in Quebec, eh? Peter is such a great guy, and we always have fun chatting about a variety of topics.

CIRQUE ELOIZE MONTREAL

In this interview, one of the things we discussed was my upcoming trip to Montreal next week. I’m honoured to have been invited to be one of 8 performers to perform with the infamous Cirque Eloize on an episode of “La Vie Est un Cirque” on Quebec TV5, which is apparently kind of like a cross between “Circus of the Stars” and “America’s Got Talent“. I’m looking forward to meeting all the other incredible circus performers, to meeting Peter, and to exploring Montreal! If you’re in the area, let me know what’s interesting to see in Montreal!

IAEWP World Peace Conference

Then we also discussed another honour - I have been invited to follow in my uncle’s footsteps and speak before world leaders at the upcoming IAEWP World Peace Conference in Huntsville, AL! What an honour! My uncle the Honorary Armin Meyer was a diplomat, a peace keeper, and the US Ambassodor to Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Japan. But instead of being a formal diplomat using diplomacy, I will be an Ambassador of Peace bearing swords. I will be swallowing a large broadsword “sword of war” and will have three world leaders from three different continents, countries, religions and cultures remove it as a “Sword of Peace” which I will then present to the World Peace Council. Should be an interesting event!

Stay tuned for videos, details, and more information on these and more upcoming events! If you want to stay updated, please follow me on Twitter at @Halfdan or subscribe to my video on YouTube.

I need to get back to practicing my French and Canadian, eh? Cheers, ya’ll!