> (Neon tubes, by the way, have an added risk of shattering inside the throat, with seriously disabling and sometimes fatal effects.)
I was lucky enough in my life to see someone do exactly this -- he even talked about how deadly it was before he did it. Though for his performance, he used a metal cage around the neon tube. It prevented the esophagus from breaking it, but still allowed the light to escape out.
He opened up his shirt and allowed for 30 seconds everyone to see the light emanating out of his chest cavity. It was a truly remarkable experience.
There’s a thing Penn and Teller talk about (in the nail gun routine) about how it is immoral for a trick to have any real danger as it makes the audience complicit in risk. This resonates with me considerably.
But then you move further from magic and closer to acrobatics and things like tightrope acts without nets have real danger.
Juggling, circus acts, and heck even air shows can be dangerous for the performers. I've seen an air show performer die during his act a few years ago when he crashed into the ground.
Even the NFL has a good amount of danger during every game -- and people get injured.
But spectators have died during Airshows [0] and during, say, the Indy 500 [1].
When I saw Penn & Teller live in the same show they did the routine you describe, but also a fire eating routine about how some stunts simply do hurt, and can be dangerous to both learn and perform. Neither break the "no permanent damage" rule but you are left with two seemingly contradictory arguments.
Properly aligned you can fit the two ideas together, but I think they kind of personal mental arranging of ideas is exactly what they want to leave you with.
The tube must have been made of glass, otherwise it could not keep the air out of the low-pressure interior.
However, you are right that a minimal precaution would be to wrap the tube in a transparent plastic film, preferably glued to the glass, in order to contain any broken shards.
I recall it looking bright like a neon tube with the glow that neon tubes emit -- also with heavy duty cable going into the neon tube. He swallows the sword on stage so everyone sees the sword go in and out.
I also had no doubt to believe it wasn't a glass neon tube.
Sorry, I meant in the hypothetical case where someone swallows a "neon" tube without any shielding. The metal cage in your case tells me that it was probably legitimate.
Though, what happened to the other end of the wire?
It was plugged into the wall through I'm guessing a high voltage neon transformer.
I have no idea if the cage was grounded or not. I assume it wasn't, which should have been fine if the connection to the tube was outside of his mouth.
> So gurgitators often "train" by chugging gallons of water in a short period of time to stretch the stomach, or eat huge amounts of cabbage (low-calorie, high-fiber) because it stays in the stomach longer before breaking down. Thats also why fatter isn't necessarily better. The prevailing theory is that excess fat pushes against the stomach and limits how much it can expand. So the best competitive eaters tend to be on the thinner side.
I would venture to guess a copious amount of drugs, boredom and wanting to show off or impress.
Sticks have been around very long time, swords millennia. And then we can think maybe some eat competition as well. Ending up with someone eating their sword or or just showing off by pushing it down the throat is probably inevitable.
I was lucky enough in my life to see someone do exactly this -- he even talked about how deadly it was before he did it. Though for his performance, he used a metal cage around the neon tube. It prevented the esophagus from breaking it, but still allowed the light to escape out.
He opened up his shirt and allowed for 30 seconds everyone to see the light emanating out of his chest cavity. It was a truly remarkable experience.