moulin rouge sword-swallowers

[maryad2]

Posted: 10/13/21 at 2:17pm

does anyone know if they are *actually* swallowing swords at the beginning of the performance? i find that kind of hard to believe, especially since the performers don't get special recognition in the playbill for the skill. what happens if someone is sick, do multiple people know how to swallow swords, or would there just be one person? I feel like it's more likely a retractable sword, curious what others' thoughts are

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 10/13/21 at 3:05pm

I do not have the official answer for this, but a conclusion I drew myself is that it’s not real. There was a beloved sword swallower at my local Renn Fest (Johnny Fox, who died a few years back. Massive loss) and the real deal looks totally different. Essentially, he would get it into position and partially down, and then it was this wild swallowing action where it was fully inside in about a second. It was crazy.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/13/21 at 3:49pm

These are trick swords.  As mentioned above, they would literally have to have their heads in a straight angle to allow the length of the sword to slide down evenly.  These are collapsible swords but no one is paying attention to the logistics of their heads.  If the swords were real, they would puncture out of the back of their heads.  Hahahaha.

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 10/13/21 at 11:09pm

I've seen them a couple of times close up. The "swords" roll up in their mouths, then unroll when they pull them out.  It was obvious one night when one of them rolled back up after they pull them out.