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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to go your mind.

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and welcome to the sadness

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Speaker 1: that is the circus side show. Sadness looking with a

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Speaker 1: lot of sadness, and yeah, it's general sadness to the circus,

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Speaker 1: to the circus side show, I mean just to the

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Speaker 1: straight up circus, the main attraction, as opposed to what

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Speaker 1: exists in its shadows, the circus itself. You have, like,

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Speaker 1: we have a lot of of animals that have been

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Speaker 1: taken from their natural habitat and forced to perform inside

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Speaker 1: of a dark tint for for locals so they can

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Speaker 1: cheer and throw a popcorn at them. You have clowns

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Speaker 1: prancing around, uh and engaging in various antics, um, some

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Speaker 1: of which may be arguably perverse. You have you have singing,

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Speaker 1: you have dancing, you have music, and then you walk

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Speaker 1: outside and in the shadow of the tent there you

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Speaker 1: have the side show. And that's where we encounter a

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Speaker 1: number of things that are either um, outright disturbing or

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Speaker 1: more subtly disturbing. Well, see that's the adult perspective. If

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Speaker 1: you'll come with me to my eight year old self.

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Speaker 1: Then you will be delighted and amazed by all of this,

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Speaker 1: this rich symbolism present not just at the circus, but

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Speaker 1: in the Carnie side show, right, because here the mysteries

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Speaker 1: are revealed in front of your very eyes and the

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Speaker 1: oddities of life, and you begin to question what is reality? Yes, yeah, definitely,

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Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of it it's about there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of magic and law involved, a lot of illusion,

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Speaker 1: and then a lot of outright examples of nature gune

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Speaker 1: a little strange, and then that forces you to to a question, well,

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Speaker 1: what is normal? What is what is what is wrong

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Speaker 1: with me? Personally? Because I'm paying to see this, All

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Speaker 1: of these factors come into play, and we are going

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Speaker 1: to start out while we look at the secrets of

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Speaker 1: the side shows more in uh in history here, because really,

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Speaker 1: if you look at a current side show today, it's

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Speaker 1: nothing like it was in the past. As you say,

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Speaker 1: it was very dark terrain here, very dark psychological stuff

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Speaker 1: that people were taking their families to. Yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 1: there's still still a lot of love for it, a

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Speaker 1: lot of nostalgia for it. And you can you can,

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Speaker 1: certainly you can go to Coney Island and enjoy some

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Speaker 1: of that there and then at various other points across

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Speaker 1: the United States. But this was a time, you know,

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Speaker 1: ni nineteen forties, nineteen fifties, where people didn't really have

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Speaker 1: the understanding, um that we do now of the natural

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Speaker 1: loss of science, let's say, and the fact that there

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Speaker 1: couldn't maybe be a Fiji mermaid, that skeleton of Fiji

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Speaker 1: mermaid that proved that mermaids do exist, because sometimes this

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Speaker 1: was part and parcel. Everybody had the more or less

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Speaker 1: the basic understanding of the natural world as that the

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Speaker 1: common YouTube commenter basically perhaps perhaps it's very possible, but

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Speaker 1: today we are We're definitely going to lift the canvas

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Speaker 1: tent flap, look inside and see what's going on here.

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Speaker 1: And to really understand that, you do need to kind

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Speaker 1: of get into the world of the Carnie and the

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Speaker 1: side show more specifically in something called ten in one

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Speaker 1: and this is part of the circus that contained usually

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Speaker 1: ten different side shows in one tent. Well, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if it was one price, but I do understand

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Speaker 1: from what I've read that you had a guide taking

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Speaker 1: you through the sort of hall of horrors or mysteries.

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Speaker 1: Um letting you know about all these fantastic things that

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Speaker 1: exist in the world. Yeah, and then sometimes at the

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Speaker 1: end there's an extra little bit, sort of a sort

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Speaker 1: of an under the table bit for for the discerning

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Speaker 1: gentleman in the audience. You're talking about some sort of

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Speaker 1: like sexy lady thing. Sometimes it was sexy lady thing,

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Speaker 1: but sometimes it was simply a stuff that was like

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Speaker 1: a little grimmer or for instance, it was or sometimes

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Speaker 1: it was just pickled pugs were of course, you know

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Speaker 1: various um uh, still births and weird fetuses of animals

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Speaker 1: that are preserved and and uh, then you got at

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Speaker 1: sometimes that it would be that, and sometimes that would

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Speaker 1: factor into an earlier part of the show. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: the Fiji Mermaid, which I had mentioned the bones of

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Speaker 1: this supposed mermaid that existed. Um but yeah, there are

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Speaker 1: a bunch of different oddities. They had some that were

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Speaker 1: really kind of cheesy and and not to illusion heavy,

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Speaker 1: Like there was a woman who's head stuck out of

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Speaker 1: this board spider web, making it look as though she

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Speaker 1: was a human spider and it's very obvious that our

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Speaker 1: head is just sticking through something like it sounds like

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Speaker 1: they were even doing any makeup on her human head.

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Speaker 1: It was just straight up. Look it's a spider with

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Speaker 1: a human head on it. And then there's the sword swallower,

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Speaker 1: which is a real thing, right, I mean, people are

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Speaker 1: actually pulling off this trick, and we'll talk more about

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Speaker 1: that later, but all of this stuff is mixed in

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Speaker 1: so that you do have some real tricks being pulled off,

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Speaker 1: some some real like hey, we're pushing the edges of

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Speaker 1: what's possible with our physiology, along with just pure like bunk.

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Speaker 1: It reminds me a lot of the Last Unicorn. You've

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Speaker 1: seen the Last Unicorn, right, perhaps even read it. I've

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Speaker 1: seen ten minutes. You've seen ten minutes of the Last Unicorn. Well, no,

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Speaker 1: I tried to show my daughter. She's four years old,

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Speaker 1: supersensitive to she saw danger of coming and we had

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Speaker 1: to turn it off. It is it's I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: really good, but yeah, maybe she's not ready for it

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Speaker 1: just yet. But there's a scene in it where the

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Speaker 1: unicorn is taken in by this this evil witch and

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Speaker 1: she has this side show these various carts with cages

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Speaker 1: and inside appears to be a different magical creature in

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Speaker 1: each one, like a mantic core and a dragon etcetera.

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Speaker 1: But the thing is that most of these cages are

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Speaker 1: filled with just normal animals that she's cast a spell on,

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Speaker 1: and the spell makes them seem to be like the

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Speaker 1: the manticor is not a manticord. It's just a broken

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Speaker 1: down old lion, but the spell makes it seem like

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Speaker 1: something amazing and unreal. Uh. One of the animals actually

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Speaker 1: is a dangerous, um crazy magical creature, the harpy. And

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Speaker 1: then the unicorn. Uh. The horn is invisible to everyone else,

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Speaker 1: so she still has even though the unicorn is real,

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Speaker 1: she has to cast a spell on it to make

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Speaker 1: it seem amazing to the individuals that are attending her

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Speaker 1: little freak show. And you see varying degrees of that

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Speaker 1: with with with some of these sides show acts that

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Speaker 1: we're looking at, where you'll have things that there's really

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Speaker 1: no trick to it at all. There's nothing amazing going on,

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Speaker 1: it's just the illusion. Then you have a plenty of

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Speaker 1: examples to where there is something really amazing, really dangerous

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Speaker 1: going on, but you need to heighten the drama of

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Speaker 1: it in order to sell it to the audience. And

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Speaker 1: one of the best examples of this that you stumbled

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Speaker 1: upon is the Headless Lady. The Headless Lady, Yes, this

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Speaker 1: one uh um I may have encountered in passing before,

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Speaker 1: but I really had not looked long and hard at

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Speaker 1: it until just yesterday. Um. The Headless Lady act generally

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Speaker 1: consists of the phone. Uh, they'll be, they'll they'll be

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Speaker 1: a woman on the stage, so it's seeded up on

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Speaker 1: a pedestal of some kind. But here's the the gimmick.

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Speaker 1: She appears to have no head. Uh. There's just a

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Speaker 1: stump where where at the neck where the head should be.

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Speaker 1: And out of that stump there's like a tree emerging

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Speaker 1: like a like a metal pipe with other tubes coming

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Speaker 1: out of it, and the tubes are hooked up to

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Speaker 1: um what what What's supposed to be a bunch of

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Speaker 1: medical equipment but in reality maybe like a carburetor and

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Speaker 1: an old octat tank. And who knows what I mean.

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Speaker 1: I look at a number of pictures and it ranges

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Speaker 1: from I could I could buy that as being some

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Speaker 1: you know, typical mad science mumbo jumbo too that is

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Speaker 1: totally like a carburetor or something. Um. So there'll be

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Speaker 1: a doctor or scientist attending her, because you know, when

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Speaker 1: you when you create the kind of scientific breakthrough that

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Speaker 1: can keep a body alive without a head and make

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Speaker 1: it do your your bidding. You want to showcase that

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Speaker 1: at the at the local county fair or freak ship.

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Speaker 1: And the doctor has to travel with this one ting

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Speaker 1: to ensure that she continues to live. Yeah, so the

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Speaker 1: cell on this is the miracles of modern science. Look

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Speaker 1: what we can do now. And so the the ideas

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Speaker 1: that this woman lost her head and the body's kept

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Speaker 1: alive through this amazing mechanical of feet. And then the

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Speaker 1: doctor will even go so far as to h to

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Speaker 1: command the body to do certain things to do, like

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Speaker 1: small tasks with its hands and uh. And then there

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Speaker 1: may even be some sort of vaudevillian uh shenanigans going

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Speaker 1: on in there as well, some you know, slapstick or

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Speaker 1: what have you. Um, someone tickling her foot and so

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Speaker 1: you see the legs moving, yeah, and the whole Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the whole time you're seeing her at least twitch and move,

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Speaker 1: and you're seeing her performed task. And they do the

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Speaker 1: trick by having a real human woman set up there

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Speaker 1: with a kind of tiara of mirrors that reflects the sides,

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Speaker 1: the dark sides of the booth that she's in and

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Speaker 1: makes it look like her head is gone and all

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Speaker 1: you see is this tree of tubes that seem to

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Speaker 1: be emerging from her neck. So everyone you know attends

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Speaker 1: it and they're like, oh, this amazing. And at first

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Speaker 1: I was thinking this is a cool thing to cover

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Speaker 1: because it's kind of mad science e and it's kind

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Speaker 1: of weird, and and it's generally the kind of thing

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Speaker 1: I go for. But the closer I looked at it,

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Speaker 1: the more disturbing it really was, right because here, in

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Speaker 1: its essence, is the objectification of a woman, right. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that she has a head, right, there's

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Speaker 1: her body, we see her in pieces. Yeah, and this

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Speaker 1: falls in line with a lot of advertising stuff I

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Speaker 1: was looking at yesterday to where one author was making

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Speaker 1: the point that anytime you see like a commercial advertisement, etcetera, uh,

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Speaker 1: look to see if the woman's head is partially or

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Speaker 1: completely cut off. Look to see if her feet or

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Speaker 1: partially or or completely cut off. They were arguing that

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Speaker 1: removing the head, rember, removing the feet, that's complete objectification.

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Speaker 1: In that case, you're like, look at this woman, but

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Speaker 1: don't worry, she has no brain. She can't look at

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Speaker 1: you or speak to you or hear you. And also

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Speaker 1: she can't run away, so we can just it's just

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Speaker 1: all they are for you. Yeah, every little troop about

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Speaker 1: women is contained in this one sideshow act. And what's

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Speaker 1: interesting about the sideshow act is that this is the

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Speaker 1: age of the artificial lung, artificial heart, and so, you know,

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Speaker 1: no doubt there there weren't a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: were taken by this. I'm sure most people went through

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Speaker 1: it and knew that there was some sort of trick

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Speaker 1: at play. And yet it arrests that the imagination because

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Speaker 1: you know, there's just a period where it must have

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Speaker 1: felt like cutting edge science was going on. Maybe just

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Speaker 1: maybe someone could lose their head in an accident and

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Speaker 1: a German doctor could somehow PLoP all of these hoses

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Speaker 1: into her neck stump and make her live. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: seemed possible, and a little illusion makes it seem completely real.

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Speaker 1: But but yeah, just so disturbing, especially when you look

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Speaker 1: at some of these photos. There was one photo that

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Speaker 1: we're looking at yesterday was actually apparently by your Dora Wealthy,

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Speaker 1: and this one that showed it was like really creepy

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Speaker 1: because the woman, the headless woman's not up on her

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Speaker 1: pedestal in a booth. The drawing shows her standing with

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Speaker 1: an arm around one gentleman, shaking the hand of another gentleman,

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Speaker 1: and in the text promises you a thousand dollars if

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Speaker 1: she is not alive. And that's just it was just

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Speaker 1: so grim and gross, and just like the implied molestation

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Speaker 1: of a headless woman was just really really weird. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty creepy. And I have to say that you know,

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Speaker 1: that's not such a crazy bet. She's clearly alive. They're

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Speaker 1: not gonna lose money, Yeah, you don't. You don't offer

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Speaker 1: that unless you can falter but it. But it also

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Speaker 1: falls right in line with a two thousand twelve study

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Speaker 1: that that you you also sent me, and this is

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Speaker 1: published in the European Journal of Social Psychology titled seeing

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Speaker 1: Women as Objects the sexual body part recognition Bias, And

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Speaker 1: simply put, the study found that men and women tend

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Speaker 1: to see women is an assembolage of various parts rather

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Speaker 1: than a complete whole. That's right. They had them look

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Speaker 1: at a several different pictures and try to figure out

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Speaker 1: if the body part was belonged to this specific person

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Speaker 1: and so on and so forth, and they called it

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Speaker 1: was it global and local cognitive processing, and so it

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Speaker 1: didn't matter if you were a male or a female.

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Speaker 1: Overwhelmingly people would look at the photos of women in

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Speaker 1: a global perspective, meaning that they there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: space between how they saw her, and they saw her

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Speaker 1: more in pieces as opposed to the pictures of the men,

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Speaker 1: which they saw more as a whole. So what that

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Speaker 1: is pointing to is again this idea that um, it's

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Speaker 1: sort of written into the code of of society that

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Speaker 1: you look at women piece meal. Yeah, um, and that

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Speaker 1: you can't help to cut them up at least in

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Speaker 1: your psyche. Oh God, that's awful. It is awful, And

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Speaker 1: that one of the the awful things about this is

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Speaker 1: I wanted to use that Aurora a wealthy uh photo

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Speaker 1: in a blog post yesterday. It wasn't available. So I

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Speaker 1: did a like a Getty Images and a Corbus Images

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Speaker 1: search for headless woman and it was really horrifying. Not

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Speaker 1: that I was saying like a bunch of like decapitation photos,

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Speaker 1: because the decapitation like art that which intended to be

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Speaker 1: uh depictions of the biblical Judith, which was actually rather

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Speaker 1: encouraging in light of the other results which were all

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Speaker 1: just a bunch of fashion e artsy shots of women, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, with their head cut off in the photo

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Speaker 1: I cut off via the photography, and it was just

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Speaker 1: a really, a really dark afternoon. I'm glad you brought

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Speaker 1: that up, because anytime I've done searches in in various

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Speaker 1: stock photo systems and it could be like, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe my search keywords are like mouse baby, eventually a

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Speaker 1: naked female torso is going to show up in that

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Speaker 1: batch for some reason or another. Yeah, well, and you

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Speaker 1: can turn off the nudity results on some of those

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Speaker 1: search engines. But but then again, if you turn that off,

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Speaker 1: you're still going to get a buch of ridiculous images.

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Speaker 1: So my view is, well, they might as well be

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Speaker 1: naked if I'm gonna have to put up with a

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Speaker 1: bunch of stupidity in these results. On a side note,

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Speaker 1: have you ever seen the collection of stock photos of

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Speaker 1: women eating salad? Very funny, It's like women laughing and

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Speaker 1: smiling while eating stuck and picture in my mind for sure,

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Speaker 1: because I know I've seen that a million times and

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Speaker 1: advertising Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting to go into those vaults of of pictures

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Speaker 1: of humans and see all these tropes played out. Um,

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Speaker 1: but we're gonna we're gonna get to some some other

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Speaker 1: good circus side show stuff here. Yeah, step with, step

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Speaker 1: with with more science behind it than the fox science

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Speaker 1: of the Headless Woman. Should we take a quick break

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Speaker 1: before we go into swords swallowing? Yes, indeed, we'll be

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Speaker 1: right back. All right, we're back, and we're talking a

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Speaker 1: little bit now about sword swallowing, another another staple of

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Speaker 1: the of the side show world and a real thing. Right.

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Speaker 1: This is not an illusion. This is something that someone

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Speaker 1: is doing methodically and obviously they have practiced so many times,

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Speaker 1: have gotten to know their digestive system really well before

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Speaker 1: attempting this in front of an audience. Yeah, there's some

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Speaker 1: myths out there about it, um, and some of these

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Speaker 1: are you know, you'll find I think some of them

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Speaker 1: even have been repeated in major Encyclopedia's Harry Hudeny even

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Speaker 1: reported that sword swallowers would actually a swallow low a

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Speaker 1: metal sheath first before inserting the sword, which for starters,

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Speaker 1: does not sound like it would make it any easier.

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Speaker 1: It's it's like, oh, don't worry, they're not They're not

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Speaker 1: really swallowing a sharp sword. They've secretly inserted a really

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Speaker 1: long sword sheath into their into their down their throat,

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Speaker 1: and into their stomach. And that's how they're getting away

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Speaker 1: with this. Yeah, it just seems like it would complicate things. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and as certainly as we explain how it's actually done,

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Speaker 1: you'll see that that's good. That's completely silly, Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, it's just I wouldn't say it's easy,

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Speaker 1: but it's something that you can control and with practice

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Speaker 1: you can do. Um. If you want to see or

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Speaker 1: if you want to read more about this, check out

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Speaker 1: our sword swallowing article by tricy View Wilson of history stuff.

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Speaker 1: It's really great. But let's look at the g I

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Speaker 1: tracked before we delve into the actual blade into the

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Speaker 1: digestive system. Yeah. Now we've covered some of this before

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Speaker 1: because we did that that epic journey through the digestive system,

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Speaker 1: and we're just talking about the initial jaunt here. You

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Speaker 1: remember from that episode that we chew up our food,

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Speaker 1: we form this bolus, and the bolus travels down the

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Speaker 1: throat and into the stomach, and that's you know, the

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Speaker 1: territory we're dealing with here the upper g I track

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Speaker 1: because of course a series of connected living organs. It

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Speaker 1: includes the throat, uh, the esophagus, and the stomach. And

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Speaker 1: it's relatively soft, has several pronounced curves and uh that's

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Speaker 1: in a relaxed state. Um. And it's on the surface

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Speaker 1: of things, not a perfect sheath in which to insert

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Speaker 1: a blade of any kind. No, because it's a regular

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Speaker 1: shaped right, and so there are some things that you

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Speaker 1: have to do to manipulate it down your throat. But

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Speaker 1: I wanted to point out that skeletal muscle is presence

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Speaker 1: in the upper g I as well as smooth muscle.

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Speaker 1: Skeletal muscle is under voluntary control, so you can just say, hey,

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Speaker 1: that's I don't need to contract this right now. I

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Speaker 1: need to contract my throat or my mouth. But your

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Speaker 1: smooth muscle is involuntary. And this is what is involved

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Speaker 1: in paristalsis, and this is that movement of that bullus

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Speaker 1: down into the stomach. So what we're talking about here

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Speaker 1: is really trying to control those gag reflexes and that

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Speaker 1: smooth muscle movement when you're performing this trick. Because there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of different things that happen when you're

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Speaker 1: inserting the blade. So imagine you have this this sword

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Speaker 1: about fifteen inches long, anywhere from fifteen inches to two

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Speaker 1: inches by the way, and there's an actual like limit

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Speaker 1: that is set forth by the Sword Swallowing Association. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like they they're generally cool with you not having it

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Speaker 1: enter the stomach, but it's okay if it does a

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Speaker 1: little bit. However, you don't want to use a sword

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Speaker 1: so long that it like winds up in your boot

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Speaker 1: because then then you're doing it wrong. There's gonna be

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Speaker 1: some puncturing going on with that. So yeah, there's actually

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Speaker 1: a Sword Swallowers International Association that that sort of police

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Speaker 1: is this, if you will, And what happens if you

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Speaker 1: have that blade what stays twenty inches long? It passes

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Speaker 1: by the teeth and then the eases into the up

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Speaker 1: esophageal sphincter scrapes over the teeth even I think that

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Speaker 1: makes it even grizzly or so yeah, yeah, okay, now

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Speaker 1: I'm like having some physiological responses here to that. Um So,

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Speaker 1: then it's coated and saliva at this point, and that

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Speaker 1: helps to lubricate it, and it goes deeper into the esophagus. Now,

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Speaker 1: the blade as it is traveling down into the esophagus

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Speaker 1: is sort of straightening it out this long tube and

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Speaker 1: occasionally is actually nudging organs out of the way as

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Speaker 1: it passes by, because there's a lot of stuff that

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Speaker 1: could potentially get pierced if you do it wrong. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about the trachy of the heart, the order, the vannakava,

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Speaker 1: the diaphragm, and you can get it all on one

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Speaker 1: big shish kebab. It's true you could. And here's the

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Speaker 1: thing you need to know your digestive system. You need

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Speaker 1: to know whether or not the lower esophagus curves as

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Speaker 1: it meets the stomach or if it's just a straight shoot,

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Speaker 1: because if it curves, then you're not going to be

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Speaker 1: able to insert or plunge that sword as deeply as

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Speaker 1: you could if it was just a straight shoot. As

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Speaker 1: you mentioned already, one of the big things you want

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Speaker 1: to be able to do is suppress the gag reflects

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Speaker 1: because we're we're naturally inclined not to let swords climb

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Speaker 1: down our throats. Uh. It gets into our regular bodi's

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Speaker 1: defenses against choking, et cetera. And uh, and so all

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Speaker 1: you have to do now, you know, as you're listening

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Speaker 1: to this podcast, is if you hang out and I

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Speaker 1: got hope that you'll start to gag a little bit, unless,

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Speaker 1: of course, you suppress it. Now, suppressing the gag reflex

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Speaker 1: is something that doesn't really it's not going on off switch.

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Speaker 1: You can't just you know, go into his end like

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Speaker 1: state and be like, I got it. It comes from

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Speaker 1: a lot of gagging yourself and possibly vomiting as you

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Speaker 1: do it. And and then you need not use a

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Speaker 1: sword to do it to to actually prepare yourself. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And generally they're using like something you're like a chopstick

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Speaker 1: or something, or just good old fingers or your toothbrush, right,

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Speaker 1: or your toothbrush. Yeah, I mean this is something you'd

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Speaker 1: have to do over and over and over again until

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Speaker 1: your mind could get comfortable with this feeling and you

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Speaker 1: could kind of say, I need you to suppress this

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Speaker 1: because what's happening here. You've got receptors or nerve endings

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Speaker 1: that are coming into contact with that blade, and then

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00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,199
Speaker 1: the nerves or the neurons carry the receptors information to

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Speaker 1: your central nervous system, and then the integration center says, hey,

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Speaker 1: there's there's something going on here, maybe we need to

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Speaker 1: have a response. And then right back the motor neuron

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Speaker 1: carries the integrating center's instructions to that part of your

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Speaker 1: body to say, hey, you need to do something about this,

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00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 1: and then something called the effect or makes a necessary

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Speaker 1: change to what's going on your body, namely this gag reflex.

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Speaker 1: So it's a it's a bit of a process, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because eventually you kind of have to break down the

395
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Speaker 1: brain and convince it no, it's totally cool that a

396
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Speaker 1: saber is going down my throat and like this is

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Speaker 1: something that is in place for your survival, right, So

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Speaker 1: you have to convince your brain like, look, there really

399
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,159
Speaker 1: is no threat here, even though it's hard wired to say, really,

400
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:56,399
Speaker 1: that's a that's a blade coming after us. So, as

401
00:20:56,400 --> 00:21:00,439
Speaker 1: an audience member watching somebody swallow a sword, well, a

402
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:02,399
Speaker 1: few of the different aspects that really make it a

403
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:05,199
Speaker 1: memorable show is, first of all, you're not is counting

404
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,280
Speaker 1: on the the audience not having a really thorough understanding

405
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 1: of the digestive tract and how it's working. Because again,

406
00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,879
Speaker 1: as where we point out here, it's totally possible to

407
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,919
Speaker 1: get that more or less straight line, get it lined up.

408
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: It's it's totally possible to suppress the gag reflect over time.

409
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,679
Speaker 1: So we're they're doing something that isn't completely crazy from

410
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:30,240
Speaker 1: a physiological standpoint, but then still is risky. Certainly. It's

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00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,399
Speaker 1: it's it's very easy to injure yourself, if not severely,

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Speaker 1: then you know, certainly you can. You can have mild

413
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 1: internal bleeding, you can have you can you can aggravate

414
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,880
Speaker 1: um any number of tissues on the way down. So it's, uh,

415
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: it's at once not that big of a deal and

416
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: still completely nuts exactly, Yeah, because the person the audience

417
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 1: cannot imagine pulling this feed off for him or herself.

418
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: And when you think about swallowing a sword, you immediately

419
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: think of just sticking it straight to your mouth, right,

420
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,560
Speaker 1: And you don't even realize that the performer is hyper

421
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: flexing his or her neck in order to get that

422
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 1: straight shoot down, So you're not thinking about the mechanics

423
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Speaker 1: of like, okay, now, they're just creating a very straight

424
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Speaker 1: tube to insert this into. Yeah, And it's really if

425
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,560
Speaker 1: you don't know how it works, it is easier to

426
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: imagine the ways you could fake it rather than to

427
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,760
Speaker 1: imagine the ways you could actually do it. Now, my

428
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: mind wouldn't instantly go to like fake, I mean to

429
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 1: metal sheets inserted in the throat, because that seems like

430
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: you're doing that would be doing the same trick twice

431
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:36,959
Speaker 1: you get out of doing it once or something, you know.

432
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,359
Speaker 1: But I always kind of imagine, well, they must have

433
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,440
Speaker 1: some sort of a sword that collapses so that there

434
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:42,879
Speaker 1: may be not sticking it all the way down, like

435
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:44,680
Speaker 1: maybe just you know, it's like one of those toy

436
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 1: um you know, plastic swords that pops out, except it's

437
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,479
Speaker 1: made out of metal. But but no, it's the it's

438
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 1: an actual sword going down your actual throat, maybe even

439
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 1: a little bit into your actual stomach. But that's not

440
00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 1: required according to the source Wallers Association International. But I

441
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe it helps you never know, I mean,

442
00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:04,439
Speaker 1: you might want to push your boundaries a bit if

443
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,680
Speaker 1: you're the performer. Yeah, see how good you can get

444
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,440
Speaker 1: and how dangerous it could be, right, because I imagine

445
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: that if you're doing this over and over and over again,

446
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:17,240
Speaker 1: it becomes pretty normal. Uh in quotation marks, I suppose, well,

447
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 1: and then some of these uh these profetic because the

448
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,480
Speaker 1: thing is, as we've outlined it, it's a. It's a

449
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 1: totally learnable thing. You can you can train yourself and

450
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,119
Speaker 1: train your body to do it, and then you're an

451
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:29,879
Speaker 1: accomplished sword swallower. And then you're you're having to compete

452
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 1: with other sword swallows. So what do you have to do?

453
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 1: You have to swallow more swords. So you see acts

454
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: where an individual will will have like seven swords uh

455
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: down their throat at a given moment, and so just

456
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 1: ups the annie until somebody winds up a shisha and

457
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 1: then you know, then everybody just goes home. Yeah, and

458
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: there's still some sort of awful delight from that. Yeah,

459
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 1: let's just admit it. Yeah, because it's yeah, there's the

460
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: shadow side of this whole thing, as you had said

461
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 1: at the top. All right, so we are patting down

462
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: the hall of wonder here and what do we come

463
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 1: upon next? Oh? The bed of nails. Yes, now, this

464
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: one is this one has always been a favorite of

465
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: mine because it's on the surface of things. It's it's

466
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: clearly a torture instrument. It's it's nefarious. You've taken something

467
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 1: completely comfortable and mundane and wonderful. The bed the place

468
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 1: where where where where people find their rest, where they

469
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: find their enjoyment where they may read a book. It's

470
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: a it's supposed to be a safe place. And what

471
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: have you done. You've turned it into an instrument of torment.

472
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,439
Speaker 1: You've replaced that comfy mattress with with hundreds of razor

473
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,160
Speaker 1: sharp nails and they're just poking up. And so clearly

474
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: if one were to lay on this, it would just

475
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: be just unequal torment. And you know, if you you

476
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: color it up a bit in your presentation and you

477
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: you describe how this, uh, the the origin of the

478
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: u the bed of nails like dates back to some

479
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,640
Speaker 1: you know, twisted civilization, or it's it's an import from

480
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: some strange country on the other side of the world.

481
00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:00,199
Speaker 1: Then all the better. It's exotic, it's got aggon. It

482
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 1: looks like a medieval torture device. Yes, but if you

483
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: put mind over matter or somehow use a little magical

484
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,120
Speaker 1: who do in there there's a way to lay upon

485
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: the bed of nails and suffer no injury, miraculously. But

486
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 1: all of this actually has a lot to do with

487
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 1: it seems odd, but say stilettos and an elephant's foot, okay,

488
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: Because this is this idea that a bed of nails

489
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: is providing surface area, and your body is the force

490
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: or the weight that is going to lay upon this

491
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,640
Speaker 1: area or ly upon this area. So if you okay,

492
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 1: so let me just go back to this, the stiletto

493
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: and this elephant. If you are to be stepped on

494
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: by an elephant, you would actually find out that it

495
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 1: is much less painful than the stiletto. And the reason

496
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 1: is because all of that padding, that surface area of

497
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 1: that that elephant's foot is actually helping to distribute the weight,

498
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 1: whereas that that stiletto has just that little bit of

499
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 1: surface are and there's a ton of pressure coming down.

500
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 1: In fact, a person in high heels is going to

501
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: exert fifteen times more pressure than that elephant's foot because

502
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: all of it is is completely isolated into that one

503
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: little tip, all the weight and that one little tip,

504
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,880
Speaker 1: whereas in the elephant foot it's spread out, it's distributed. Yeah,

505
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 1: So imagine if there was a piece of plywood, you know,

506
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,200
Speaker 1: the size of a bed, and it had only one

507
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 1: nail in it, much like that stiletto, and you threw

508
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:29,960
Speaker 1: your body on top of that, You're gonna puncture yourself, yes,

509
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 1: But if you have six hundred nails that are spread

510
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: across it, low and behold. It's going to support your

511
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: weight and you're going to come out of that experience

512
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 1: completely unscathed. But the audience is going to think, what

513
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 1: sort of superpowers do you have? Yeah, because it's first

514
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: of all, again it's the presentation of the thing. And

515
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: then most people do not have, or at least did

516
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: not have access to a bed of nails to try

517
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: this out for themselves. They had no real frame of

518
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: reference other than one nail is bad, so clearly hundreds

519
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 1: of nails would be even work. But you have given

520
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: the choice between laying on a bed of nails and

521
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: laying on a bed of nail, always go with the nails,

522
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: That's right, go with the plural and um. What I

523
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: love about this is that this sideshow act has actually

524
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 1: been taken into schools by the University of Virginia and

525
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: their fun uh fun science section I believe, excuse me,

526
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,399
Speaker 1: their division of science. It's I can't remember the name

527
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: of it it, like fun fun physics, excuse me, and it's

528
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: p h U N fun. But they go into elementary

529
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,199
Speaker 1: and high school students with this bed of nails and

530
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 1: then they have the teacher lie on top of it,

531
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 1: and they teach children this whole idea about force and pressure.

532
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: And um, what they had said actually in some of

533
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: their materials that they have online, that is that an

534
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 1: average human of a hundred fifty pounds, when they're spread

535
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 1: out over the six hundred nails, they'll feel only point

536
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 1: to five pounds of force per nail. So if you

537
00:27:55,080 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: have this bed of nails, um, they're not getting or

538
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: I should say, they're not going to get that experience

539
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,399
Speaker 1: of pain because they would have to experience something like

540
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 1: two pounds of pressure per nail. But if only your

541
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 1: teacher could fire breathe. Ah, yes, fire breathing is another

542
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 1: another great carnival act, and of course this one is

543
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,960
Speaker 1: often generally flavored up with lots of lots of information

544
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: about how it's like a you know, far Eastern art

545
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: that is being brought to you and uh, and certainly

546
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: it's an old practice. An individual will sometimes drink something

547
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: or sometimes they'll sort of do that a little surreptitiously.

548
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: You'll have an open flame and you'll just and you'll

549
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 1: breathe out this, uh, this fiery goodness. Let's write a

550
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: fun mist will cover this flame source and then yeah,

551
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 1: you'll get that huge plume of flame. And it is

552
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,239
Speaker 1: pretty simple, I mean in in theory, right, you just

553
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: switch something around in your mouth and fuel source and

554
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 1: then you spew it out. Look, what could possibly go wrong? Yeah? Right,

555
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 1: that's that's so straightforward. What Why isn't everyone a fire

556
00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: breather worst worst case? Why not worse? But if things

557
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: go wrong, you can always join the freak show. Right?

558
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,239
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah. Well, I was reading some

559
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 1: examples of one quote unquote freak in in particular, who's

560
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: in a gasoline accident and burned up lower portion of

561
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 1: his face and he had a prosthetic that he could

562
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: wear that looked fine and you know, in the right lighting.

563
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: And then so he began a career as a side

564
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 1: show freak, as like a two faced van where you

565
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: would see him with the prosthetic and then without. Okay, again,

566
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: it's sad, it's dark, but I know it is. It's

567
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: can clouds the fire breathing. Now, all right, so let

568
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: me let's talk about how it could go awry here.

569
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: You've got to have direction and consistency. So what fibruy

570
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: theres usually do is they practice pretty extensively with water

571
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: first to make sure that they can get that mist

572
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: going in the right direction um and that they can

573
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,360
Speaker 1: get it traveling for the distance that they needed too,

574
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: so it doesn't basically like fall The fuel doesn't fall

575
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: back on them right, never do it into the wind exactly.

576
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: And they have to have a specific angle that they're

577
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: shooting for about between sixty and eighty degrees. This angle,

578
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: if it's lower, it can make that flame come up

579
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: on a body part, and higher can cause that fuel

580
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:12,960
Speaker 1: to fall back onto the face. And the choice of

581
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: fuel is really important because you have a flash point

582
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: and this is the point at which the fuel like

583
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: nites you cannicknite at a higher or a low temperature,

584
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: You have toxicity, You have the taste in the smell,

585
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: you have the color and the visibility of the flame,

586
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 1: which is for the audience, right, you want to be

587
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: huge and big, and then you have the amount of

588
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: um and the thickness of smoke. So kerosene is most

589
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: often used, but I will tell you that gasoline in

590
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 1: methyl ethyl alcohol, they those are things that are avoided

591
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: like the plague because first first of all, they really

592
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: really uh flammable, highly flammable instead of hard to control,

593
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: but they're also really toxic and with methyl ethel you

594
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: could actually become drunk off of the fumes. Yeah, and

595
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 1: there's two things you don't want to mix there for sure.

596
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,560
Speaker 1: So fire breathing not something you just want to pick

597
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: up on a whim and think, all right, it's simple.

598
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: I just need fuel in my mouth and then an

599
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: open flame and then I just do it and then

600
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: people will cheer me and I get paid. Not so fast,

601
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 1: you're saying, yeah, and this is not easy money, folks. Yeah,

602
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: the stakes are pretty high. In fact, I have seen

603
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,320
Speaker 1: recommendations where if people are curious about this, they should

604
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 1: start with corn storch instead of an actual fuel in

605
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: their mouth. Well, you know, just spitting a fine miss

606
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: can be plenty of enjoyment. Of course, as everyone knows,

607
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a fan of the pro wrestling, and there's

608
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: a long tradition of of some wrestlers using a green

609
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: miss or sometimes a red mist as an I legal

610
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: move and it's generally uh. It has kind of a

611
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: side show mentality to it as well, because it's a

612
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 1: it's something mysterious, generally from from the East, and it

613
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,280
Speaker 1: will often be used by a historically used a lot

614
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: by by Japanese wrestlers uh or wrestlers claiming to be

615
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: Japanese performing the United States. Uh. And so you would

616
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 1: have like a die in the mouth and then you

617
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,920
Speaker 1: spit this mist in someone's face and they're blinded. You know.

618
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: I was thinking a lot about wrestling in our Capabe

619
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: episode that we did about the shadow self, yeah, and

620
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: about all of all of what it takes to create

621
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: this illusion. It's not just the mechanics of it. They're

622
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: sci fi films, yeah, not just in in spirit, but

623
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 1: I mean also historically, I mean they're both carnival businesses,

624
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 1: and there's still a lot of Carney uh to wrestling,

625
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 1: and just as there's of course a lot of Carney

626
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: to actually being a Carney. So it's true. Yeah, all right.

627
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: Up next another favorite of mine, the human blockhead. Now,

628
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 1: this act is generally pretty uh, pretty simple on the

629
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: on the surface of things. And you'll just you'll have

630
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 1: a geek cool come forth and they will take a

631
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 1: nail and they'll angle it into their nostrils. Generally, they'll

632
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,719
Speaker 1: they'll sort of their nose will sort of go up

633
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 1: like a pig snows that as they get in a position,

634
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 1: and then they'll tap on it with a hammer and

635
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 1: uh and just so these this nice pink, pink pink

636
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: noises that the nail thinks a little deeper into the

637
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: into the into the face, into the head of the individual,

638
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: and uh. And then they'll turn the hammer around, use

639
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: the client to pull it out, and and everyone will

640
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: go nuts. Sometimes they'll up the annie though you maybe

641
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: they use a screw driver, or they'll use even a

642
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: power drill in more recent years, and it's just grizzly

643
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 1: to look at, uh and and then and they're generally

644
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: approaching them with a certain amount of humor that makes

645
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: it all the more entertaining. Now it's a lot like

646
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: swords wallowing, actually, so sports sorting sorts wallowing, as we discussed,

647
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: is basically taking advantage of an existing orifice, that is

648
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: and and putting a rigid object into that non rigid orifice, okay,

649
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: and also overcoming your gag instinct uh and involutary reflex

650
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: in order to pull it off. And we see much

651
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: the same thing with the human blockhead act. And a

652
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 1: lot of it comes down to the shape of the

653
00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: nasal cavity. If you look at a cross section of

654
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: the human heads. You realize or you at least reminded

655
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 1: of the fact that your your mouth nasal cavity, it

656
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: takes up a lot of real estate in the head.

657
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: So behind your nose there's actually a lot of room

658
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,320
Speaker 1: for a long nail or screwdriver, what have you to

659
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: go in You've just got too again, You've got to

660
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: you sort of angle the nose up and get it

661
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,760
Speaker 1: sort of lined upright, and then add a little theatrics

662
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: about you know, so that you're having hammered in and

663
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 1: creating the illusion that this that this nail is being

664
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 1: driven into solid mass or even brain. Yeah, it's true

665
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: because if you look at the nose, you assume that

666
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:34,880
Speaker 1: the nasal passage is sort of a perpendicular structure, but

667
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: it's not. It's at a horizontal That nasal cavity is

668
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: actually connecting the nose in the throat and it goes

669
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: almost straight back. So that's why when the performer is

670
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,240
Speaker 1: inserting the nail, they kind of lift up the nostril

671
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: a bit like you said, like sort of the pick

672
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: nose in order to get the angle too straight shoot

673
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 1: back into that hole in their skull. Yeah, because think

674
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 1: of the skull. Think of there's a straight up picture

675
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 1: of the skull and the vertical slit that you would

676
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: see where the nose would be. I mean, there you go,

677
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: there's the nose hole right there, and it's uh and

678
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 1: you could totally drive nails into that all day. Now.

679
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: The other thing about the reflex you're having to overcome

680
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: in this particular situation, it's the urge to sneeze one

681
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 1: has to deal with because what happens when you start

682
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: sticking stuff around in your nose, you're going to trigger

683
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:24,280
Speaker 1: that sneeze reflex. Sneeze reflex, of course, is about ridding

684
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:28,880
Speaker 1: the nasal cavity of potentially harmful material by ejecting it

685
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,800
Speaker 1: in a brilliant spray, not unlike the spray of a

686
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,879
Speaker 1: of a of a fire breather. It's true. So it's

687
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: that reflex arc that you have to suppress, much like

688
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,719
Speaker 1: with the sword with the gag reflex, because you know,

689
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: in this case you have that the nerves that are

690
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 1: sending the signal to the brain, and then your eyes

691
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: start to water and your nasal passages start to secrete fluid,

692
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 1: and your diaphragm moves abruptly and is causing you to

693
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: take a deep breath and get ready to eject that

694
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,840
Speaker 1: foreign object or that irritant from your nose. So you

695
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: don't want to just be blasting nails of the audience,

696
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 1: I mean not most that's your deal. And if you do,

697
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 1: or if that is your deal, you want to at

698
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: least have control of when it happens. That would be

699
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 1: a very interesting sort of like low tech pneumatic nail gun. Well,

700
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: that would be actually a very interesting side show on it. Son,

701
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 1: I wonder if anyone's done that. Imagine like a superhero

702
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 1: who is the human blockhead and then he's struck by

703
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: lightning during an act and it gives him the power

704
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: to blast nails out of his nose. That would be

705
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: kind of neat wow to summon like a supercharged reaction. Yeah,

706
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:33,839
Speaker 1: I like it now. Of course, you might also want

707
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 1: to avoid looking at the lights while doing this particular

708
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,359
Speaker 1: act because you want to avoid photo sneeze reflex, which

709
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: of course is we've all had that thing where it's like,

710
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 1: if you feel like you're about to sneeze and you

711
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 1: want to get it over with, they say, stare at

712
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,359
Speaker 1: the sun. Well, don't stare at the sun. But but

713
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 1: let's sort of look in the direction of a bright

714
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 1: light and and it will cause the sneeze to happen.

715
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: You know, that's really interesting. The researchers aren't exactly sure

716
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,719
Speaker 1: why it happens, but something like of the population when

717
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: they go out into this from their house or some

718
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: other dark area, um, maybe it's a sneeze, And thought

719
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: that the sensors in our the light sensors in our

720
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: optic nerves are so close to the sensors for our

721
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:15,840
Speaker 1: nose that it's a little bit of a misfire of

722
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: the brain which is detecting that that the nose um

723
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 1: sensors are basically detecting that light and interpreting it as

724
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,279
Speaker 1: an irritant. It's one of those things that I didn't

725
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,880
Speaker 1: really know about until not too long ago, when I

726
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 1: don't think maybe it was my wife that pointed out

727
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 1: that if you're about to sneeze and you just want

728
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: to go and get it over with, you know, look

729
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: to a bright light and that'll do it without My

730
00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,799
Speaker 1: daughter does it every single time she leaves the house

731
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,840
Speaker 1: son sneezing. Yeah. Interesting, Well, you know, maybe we have

732
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: some swords swallowers out there in the audience. That can

733
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:49,760
Speaker 1: hope we do. Yeah, they can let us know fire breathers,

734
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: fire breathing human blockheads or even just you know, carnival

735
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 1: sideshow officionados. We'd love to hear, crom Um. You can

736
00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 1: certainly find us in any of the normal means. You

737
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 1: can check out our main website, stuff to Blow your

738
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 1: Mind dot com. You can go to find us on

739
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: social media or on Twitter blow the Mind as the

740
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: handle there. You can find us on Facebook and tumbler

741
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,320
Speaker 1: at stuff to Blow your Mind, and you can also

742
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 1: reach us by sending us an email at below of

743
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: the mind at discovery dot com for more on this

744
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:24,520
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, because it how stuff works

745
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:30,720
Speaker 1: dot com