I’ve been informed that the new Discovery Channel 3D episode of “Human Body in 3D” that we filmed last January in New York is now entitled “I, Human” and is set to air around Christmastime, first on 3Net (apparently you can watch it in 3D with 3D glasses!), and then possibly on regular Discovery Channel (2D) and IMAX.
We filmed this episode on a cold, drizzly Friday the 13th under the Queens Bridge in New York City. For the composition of the shot, the Director said he wanted a long distance shot with lots of “keystoning” and depth of perspective looking down the street, then he wanted to film it while two trains were dissecting the shot horizontally from both the left and the right, and then at the right moment, he wanted me to swallow a long sword that dissected that view vertically from top to bottom, then bow and lean into the camera diagonally so the sword was protruding right into the viewer’s screen! It was such a cold day that I couldn’t stop shivering, but the looks on the faces of New Yorkers passing by was well worth it! This was all filmed on the most expensive state-of-the-art stereo 3D IMAX cameras. I’m curious to see how it looks all in 3D!
Then after I thawed out, they had me swallow a new 3D endoscope camera so they could see down my throat in 3D. This is an innovative new invention and the inventor himself was there from Israel to make sure things went well. This was all filmed on the most expensive cutting edge state-of-the-art stereo 3D IMAX cameras by the world’s top 3D cinematographer! Let me know if you happen to see it on 3Net!
Reality TV - Pawn Shop Chicago on TruTV
In January, watch for me in an episode of Pawn Shop Chicago on TruTV Network. The past 4 seasons were filmed at a pawn shop in Detroit, but the location for this next season is just off State Street in Chicago. I can’t tell you much more about the episode, but it was all unscripted and nobody knew what was going to happen. If you’re a pawn shop reality fan, let me know if you happen to see it on TruTV Network!
AMC TV - Venice Beach Freakshow
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of filming a fun episode of “Freakshow” for AMC TV. They’re filming the entire series at the Venice Beach Freakshow in Venice Beach, CA with a very interesting cast! Our episode included me getting to meet and swallow swords on a very windy day with 3 other sword swallowers I’d never met before in person, and a couple of really unexpected surprises! Our episode will be the 2nd in the series and is tentatively scheduled to air on Thursday, February 21, 2013, just two days before our annual “World Sword Swallower’s Day” on Saturday, February 23rd!
Legendarios Brazil
A few weeks ago, I had the great opportunity to perform on Legendarios, which is like the equivalent of “Saturday Night Live” on Brazilian national Rede Record TV, the #2 TV network in Brazil that airs on prime time on Saturday nights to over 150 million viewers on 150 stations! I got to swallow a number of swords, hedge clippers, straight razor, and even 7 swords at once. But the fun finale was when the host Marcos Mion whipped a sword from my throat from 10 feet away! The next day, people on the street in Sao Paulo were coming up to me and asking to have their picture taken with me, so I guess a LOT of people watch the show! What a great time I had in Sao Paulo, Brazil! Can’t wait to go back and practice my Portuguese!
And here’s a video from the national program “Right This Minute” featuring Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of Huffington Post removing a sword from my throat at the offices of Huff Post AOL in New York for World Sword Swallower’s Day 2012:
So for Ignite talks, you have only 5 minutes and 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, which is about enough time to get in one sentence, before the slide advances to the next slide…
So I had about 3:56 to get in 4000 years of sword swallowing and 30 years of my life, and about a minute to swallow 3 swords. I was pretty nervous about trying to get everything in…
A friend from Minnesota just sent me the following Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon that came out this morning, and told me I was IN IT! I didn’t have a clue that Ripley’s was even aware of it! What a total surprise!
So here’s today’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon:
Ripley's Believe It or Not Cartoon April 8, 2011
And for those of you who hadn’t seen it, here’s the first Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon I received in September 22, 2007:
Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoon Sept 22, 2007
Ripley’s cartoons are syndicated in newspapers in 43 countries around the world. The original cartoon got me a mention and photo in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not book, and in a Ripley’s card game!
As for me, this is the best surprise birthday present I could ask for!
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 in Tulsa, 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 real swords. I teased them and told them to come back tomorrow for some real sword swallowing. 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 where I swallowed a small sword, a hedge clippers, a giant straight razor, and a few other swords…
Dan Meyer swallowing sword, hedge clippers and giant straight razor at YEC
Then I asked the audience if they wanted to see Britt Nicole pull a sword from my throat… They loved it! So I called for Britt to come up on stage. She was so gracious and generous… You can tell she has been blessed with a wisdom and maturity 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!
Here’s video of Britt pullng out the sword!
Christian Artist Britt Nicole pulls sword from Sword Swallower Dan Meyer
Britt was a true professional, did a GREAT job, and was so gracious in not killing me! Thanks a million, 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!
Video:
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 and 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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
The 4th Annual World Sword Swallower’s Day was Saturday, February 27, 2010. As President of the Sword Swallower’s Association International, I had requested sword swallowers around the world to help us celebrate by swallowing a sword at their local Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.
The results?
We had 22 sword swallowers from around the world (18 men and 4 women) swallow a total of 84 swords at 10 Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums worldwide - a total of over 1658.5 inches of swords or 138.21 feet of steel!Believe It or NOT!
For my part on Saturday, I got to perform at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Dallas (Grand Prairie), TX, where I swallowed the giant straight razor, the hedge clippers, and 7 swords at once! I even donated one of my favorite swords to their museum, making this the 5th Ripley’s Museum I have performed at that also has a display on me! What an honor! A special treat was to have my friend Paul Salos, the Frank Sinatra impersonator who made through to the finals in America’s Got Talent, come make an appearance, sing a few Sinatra songs, and pull a sword from my throat! Here’s a video from the Dallas Morning News
Tomorrow morning I will be swallowing a sword live on the Bob and Tom Show at 9:25am ET / 8:25am CST! If you get a chance, listen in!
Next week I’m off to the finals of a talent contest in Branson, MO and from there on to London and the Ig Nobel Tour of the UK, including Scotland, and from there, on to a major TV appearance in Rome, Italy! I’ve gotta say - I LOVE MY WORK!
Thanks for keeping in touch! Stay tuned for more over the next few weeks!
Thanks a million, Britt!
Alex and Me
Black, Red, White
Blink
Heading For Home
How the Best Get Better
How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget
Maximum Entertainment
News of the Weird
Outliers
Quiet Diplomacy
Ripley’s Believe It or Not Book
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Swallowing the Sword
The Art of the Solo Performer
The Faith of George W Bush
The Last Lecture
The Shack
Bounty
Bucket List
Facing the Giants
Final Season
Fireproof
Mountains of the Moon
Pirates of the Caribbean
Shadowlands
Carter Burwell
Ceili Rain
Dan Meyers
David Foster
David Wilcox
Family Force 5
Freddie Fernbrant
Mark Isham
Dan’s Favorite Quotes
Dan at Ripley’s Believe It or Not Copenhagen Denmark
Sword Swallower.