OK, I did my homework and took a closer look at Stevie R's act. He was on Britain's Got Talent the other week (possibly why this topic was started?) and looks to be on the show again. As he can also be found on many online videos, of performances he's done over the past quarter-century, I thought I'd take a closer look ....
He performs a number of tricks in his regular act, using various sleights and gimmicks. So in that sense you could probably call him a magician. But the main thing he's noted for is swallowing large objects such as billiard balls and light bulbs, and that feat certainly appears to be genuine.
In that 'trick' - the first thing anyone might wonder about is whether he switches out the billiard ball with some sort of collapsible replica that remains in his mouth and never gets swallowed. Well, no trick there: if you watch closely you can see that after he sucks/inhales it into his mouth, the ball falls back and drops down behind his tongue, and his neck visibly swells. (also telling that although he can wail, he never speaks while the ball is swallowed)
It's amazing that he can do this at all, let alone without gagging. One can only wonder how much practice it took to be able to perform this swallowing feat as effortlessly as he does.
There's another way that he doesn't appear to be a magician in the classic sense. I was watching a video of him perform in his younger days, and thought it a bit odd the way he bent over and caught the coin in his hand which was out of sight below table level, and then lifted his hand showing the correct coin. Not very convincing (at least to me). I thought his technique there was notable because anyone familiar with the most elementary basics of coin tricks would know that there are more convincing ways to discretely manipulate coins -- with hands in plain view. (That was many years ago, of course, and he has improved his technique since then.)
Not that I'm complaining. It's always refreshing to see someone truly original who can stand out from the legions of performers who all studied the same magic books and shopped at the same magic shops.
He performs a number of tricks in his regular act, using various sleights and gimmicks. So in that sense you could probably call him a magician. But the main thing he's noted for is swallowing large objects such as billiard balls and light bulbs, and that feat certainly appears to be genuine.
In that 'trick' - the first thing anyone might wonder about is whether he switches out the billiard ball with some sort of collapsible replica that remains in his mouth and never gets swallowed. Well, no trick there: if you watch closely you can see that after he sucks/inhales it into his mouth, the ball falls back and drops down behind his tongue, and his neck visibly swells. (also telling that although he can wail, he never speaks while the ball is swallowed)
It's amazing that he can do this at all, let alone without gagging. One can only wonder how much practice it took to be able to perform this swallowing feat as effortlessly as he does.
There's another way that he doesn't appear to be a magician in the classic sense. I was watching a video of him perform in his younger days, and thought it a bit odd the way he bent over and caught the coin in his hand which was out of sight below table level, and then lifted his hand showing the correct coin. Not very convincing (at least to me). I thought his technique there was notable because anyone familiar with the most elementary basics of coin tricks would know that there are more convincing ways to discretely manipulate coins -- with hands in plain view. (That was many years ago, of course, and he has improved his technique since then.)
Not that I'm complaining. It's always refreshing to see someone truly original who can stand out from the legions of performers who all studied the same magic books and shopped at the same magic shops.
) rather than he could knot up his stomach muscles enough to get that detailed of control.
