Sword Swallower Dan Meyer

Well, it’s over… this chapter is done, but what an adventure it was…

Special thanks to all of you who were involved in putting together the Swords For Africa charity benefit the past several months and the resulting show at Emens Auditorium on Friday night. It was an incredible journey to help support this mission to Africa, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it. Long walk, part of gift…

I don’t know which was more rewarding - to be involved in the show itself on Friday night, or to be along on the journey for the past several months! Both were a hugely humbling and rewarding process, and I know I have been changed and grown over the past several weeks and months as a result of it! Thank you ALL for everything you have done along the way, and for those of you who came and supported us in the show!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Swords for Africa, it was a charity benefit to raise awareness and funding for Joy In The Harvest Missions to Tanzania Africa. Many people gave generously of their time and resources, and many lives were impacted on Friday night, and many more will be when the mission team travels to Africa in June!

Our theme was

DO the IMPOSSIBLE - CHANGE the WORLD!

This recurring theme in each of our lives came through in our program, and is what Joy in the Harvest is looking to do in their mission to Africa!

Special guests included

• Rupert Boneham, America’s Favorite Survivor, winner of $1 Million and founder of Rupert’s Kids
• Hunter Smith, the NFL’s TOP Punter (10 years with the Colts and last year with the Redskins), and great singer, songwriter, communicator, and a dear brother! Looking forward to doing more with you, Hunter!
• Danny Frasier, the World’s Smallest Elvis (with no legs, he stands 2′ 10″, my good buddy who inspires me and I look up to!)
• Jim Goldman, the Armless Wonder, an incredible Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, incredible sportsman, and dear friend
• Moses Lanham, the Backward Feet Man, and another dear friend (whose car was TOTALLED on the way to the show!)
• Joy in the Harvest Team to Africa
• Dale Mendenhall, pastor of High Street United Methodist Church

We’ve been hearing lots of great comments from people after the show. One lady said “This was the BEST show I have EVER seen at Emens Auditorium! I would have paid $50 a ticket to see that!”

Here are a few reviews of the show from the BSU Daily News:

http://www.bsudailynews.com/news/ball-state-hosts-swords-for-africa-fundraiser-1.2467080

And for AOL NEWS, we made NATIONAL news!

The AOL article about Friday’s Swords for Africa charity benefit is running nationally this morning on AOL and AOL.com - with pictures and videos of Danny and Jim!

Armless Man and Legless Man Join Forces to Raise Funds to Help the Less Fortunate

AOL has a subscriber base of 22 million viewers and millions more read it on the web!

AOL Feature writer Marc Hartzman did a great job of pulling the article together! Thought you would enjoy seeing it!

Thanks again to everyone for all your help in making it quite a show!

Do the Impossible,
Change the World!

Dan

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

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 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

Dan Swallows a RED-HOT SWORD for the The History Channel

Dan just filmed an episode for The History Channel - The documentary is tentatively to be titled “The Most Amazing SuperHumans on the Planet” and features host Daniel Browning Smith, one of the top contortionists in the world!

The first segment was filmed at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, TN where Dan underwent some medical tests including several fluoroscopes (moving x-rays) so the doctors could see Dan swallow straight swords, a large forceps, a serpentine sword, a curved sword, and a stack of 7 swords at once! Big thanks to Dr. Edwin Donnelly at Vanderbilt, and Dr. Eric Mashburn of Hartselle!

The final segment of the episode was filmed on the farm in Hartselle where Blacksmith Ben Robbins finishes making a large 37 inch sword, and then heats it to RED-HOT over 1500 degrees Fahrenheit before lowering it down into Dan’s gullet!

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots filmed by my friend Josh Pittman:

Special thanks to Ben Robbins, Josh Pittman, Dr. Mashburn, Dr. Donnelly and everyone else involved! The documentary is tentatively scheduled to air all 32 episodes worldwide starting in February 2011. We’ll keep you posted on details when it airs in 2011!