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Volume CXXXII, Number 20 |
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Keeping it all down
HANNAH DEAN
STAFF WRITER
I have never swallowed anything more unbelievable than the show put on by the Regurgitator. Like Hamlet looking at the wasted face of his childhood jester, my temperature rose. And yet, despite the generally unsettling nature of the Regurgitator's act, I could not help but gape open-mouthed and open-eyed at the spectacle unfolding on stage.
He stepped up on stage with light feet, a quick tongue, a sparkling jacket, a Scottish accent, and a stomach like no other. To the list of great entertainers-Houdini, Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, etc.-here, surely, is a man who must be added.
Stevie Starr, otherwise known as the Regurgitator, has nobly pursued fame by swallowing a variety of objects and substances and then bringing them back up. From billiard balls to smoke to live fish, Starr seemed able to stomach anything and everything.
Stevie Starr spent the first eighteen years of his life in a children's home in Glasgow and it was there that he discovered his unique talent.
"I think I was about four when I started swallowing my pocket money," says Starr, "and then I tried other things like going out into the garden and swallowing a bumble bee and then bringing him back and letting him fly away."
Not only does he swallow things, he swallows them in a manner that suggests, dare I say, genius. I hear your protest: "How can you apply that word to someone who vomits for entertainment?" I would counter with the following: he is not the average entertainer. Not only did his act explore the boundaries of his own extraordinary talent, it also explored the boundaries of the imagination of an entire audience.
During the second part of his performance, he promised the audience that he would hypnotize a girl chosen at random from the audience and then make her swallow a live goldfish.
While continuing with several other tricks-swallowing locks and rings and various things-he made sure to comment on the fact that the girl would soon come join him in a dinner of live fish. Although most assumed that he was joking, his squeals of delight at the prospect of feeding the girl the live fish bordered on believable.
Venturing into a realm beyond the stage and his abilities, Starr was able to add a whole other dimension to his performance. Would the girl actually swallow a live fish? Were his extraordinary abilities somehow transmittable? Like a deity bestowing some kind of blessing on a loyal supplicant, would Starr be able to make the girl swallow the fish?
As the girl was brought up on stage, it seemed from the look in her eyes that one part of her was asking these very questions. Starr smiled as though he had swallowed the very devil. "Do you want to swallow a fish?" asked Starr, leering at the girl. "Yes," she answered slowly. He then proceeded to put a fish in his own mouth and approached the girl, telling her to open wide.
At the last moment, convinced that he was indeed making good on the fantastic promise, she started back and said, in startled tones, "No!" Of course, he admitted that he had never planned to make her swallow the live fish. However, that was beside the point because Starr had been able to convince at least part of the audience members that the impossible was possible.
Starr has appeared on a variety of television shows including Tonight with Jay Leno, Late Night with Dave Letterman, and The Arsenio Hall Show. He performed for Bowdoin College on Friday night in Smith Union, and all were humbled by his presence-and the skills of his most talented digestive system.
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