Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, I'm Dr. Todd, dentist by day, magician by night. And this podcast is where my two worlds collide. Welcome to the Magicians Workshop, the show where I get to sit down with the most brilliant minds in magic and variety arts to uncover their secrets, stories and creative journeys. If you love magic as much as I do, make sure to like subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss a moment right here on YouTube or your favorite podcasting site.
Today we're talking with Luke Harrison, fire eater, sword swallower, and part time bear. Luke, thanks for sitting down with us.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: You're welcome. Thanks for, thanks for having me. I think brilliant mind and, and variety is, is a, is a lot to live up to, but I appreciate it.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
So tell me, okay, so you're a professional variety artist. Is that what you would label yourself as a variety artist? Because you do multiple different forms of variety art. But I, I want you to treat me like I am a small child that does not understand anything about magic. So that way anyone like listening to this could be like, okay, what, what does variety mean to you?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: I'd say variety is, it's kind of, I don't know, it's kind of anything that's not like traditional, like circus art or you know, like, I want to say anything that you can find on, on the strip, but like, there's a lot of variety on the Strip, you know, so like sword swallowing is one of them. And fire eating, juggling, maybe like magic kind of fits in there too. But I, you know, like, I don't know, like, there's so many different, like I know of so many different variety performers, you know, who do a lot of random stuff that it's hard to like quantify and like, it's hard for me to quantify because like, I don't really know what not variety arts is. Like. I know what like variety is like. I've seen variety performers, you know, but like I, you know, and that's kind of what I grew up, kind of what I grew up doing. But like, you know, I couldn't really label what is variety or what isn't a variety either. You know, it's this weird.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: I don't know. I've been in this world for so.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Long like that it's, it's everything. Yeah, it's juggling magic.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of everything. Like I said, it's kind of everything that's not like, like, yeah, anything that's not like traditional circus, whether it's, you know, it's like their gymnastics and like teeter board and you know, sear wheel and trapeze and you know, all this stuff that you would find like in a circus LA show or any other like circus show. And then there's like, there's. Then there's like sideshow, which is like the sword swallowing, the fire eating, you know, human blockhead, walking on nails, you know, all that stuff. And then there are these other acts that fall into the category of variety, but it's this act that this person has come up with from scratch and it's like, it's amazing. It's these like great, it's a great act, but it's not anything like traditionally like you would see as like non variety or variety. And it's like they're the only person that doesn't. And it's, it's fair. Fantastic.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: When you said human block. Blockhead.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Okay, now you got my attention. All right. I'm. I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: So it's. You take a, take a big long nail and you hammer it straight back into your nose.
And usually.
Yeah, so do you. It's usually an actual hammer or I've done a glass like beer bottle before just because it makes an amazing sound when you hit the end of a nail with it as it's going in. Gets the great reactions.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Wow. What, what got you into this? Like, what.
Where were you? Like, this is, this is my genre.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: I want to do this well in terms of like sideshow, like the variety.
High school, like, I think like my freshman year of high school, I think it was, I got the, the human blockhead thing was the first thing that I learned.
Like I said freshman year of high school. And at that point I had been doing magic like card tricks and coin tricks and close up. I had been doing close up magic for, for forever. Like I got into magic in like the third or fourth grade and then kind of solidified it through middle school where I knew that I was going to be in entertainment. Like, I wanted to have my own magic show and the whole nine yards. And I was like, that was the big dream of middle school. And then kind of into high school is when I kind of shifted into, well, if I don't have my own show, I want to work into entertainment in some form or degree.
And middle school is kind of where it drifted from just magic and close up into like swordswall or like into like a human blockhead was first.
A year after high school, I learned fire eating. I did. I think it was high school I was eating glass light bulbs at one point, but, like, it lasted for like a year and a half, two years. And then I decided that was too invasive. Not that sword spawning is already invasive.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Where did you learn. Where did you first learn how to eat fire?
[00:05:02] Speaker B: I learned from a guy named Bizarro. He's a magician.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I've seen him.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah, so he's a magician in town. And I had met him, like, once or twice at Magic Live, and I wanted to learn how to do it, but I was like, I don't know anybody you can teach me. Like, I. And I went to my mom and dad. I was like, I want to learn how to eat fire.
My mom, like, this. This is about.
This is a recreation of how my parents handled that question.
I went up to them and said, hey. I was like, I want to learn how to eat fire. And my parents both went, okay, how about this? If you find somebody who will teach you and stand there in person while you learn it, then you can eat fire.
And I was like, great. Yes. That's amazing. So I left that conversation, and like, 45 minutes later, I thought back and went, oh, they said that, like, I wasn't going to find anybody which would, like, squash the conversation.
Like, they didn't want to tell me no, but they also were like, wanted to give you some kind of hope. And I realized I was like, oh, that's 100% what they just did. Dang it. And then I thought, oh, well, I have Bizarro's business card that I got from him at one of those times in Meta Magic. Live and email them. I was like, hey, my name's Luke. I'm just some magician kid from Vegas. Want to learn how to eat fire? Would you teach me?
And he was like, yeah, 100%. We just got to work. Out of time. Yes.
I go back to my parents and I said, mom and dad, look, I found a guy who teach me how to eat fire.
Yay.
Oh, no.
You could see it in their face. They're like, I didn't think he was going to find anybody.
And then, sure enough, I had learned from Bizarro and, you know, made my props and have been doing it on and off, like, irregularly more recently.
But, like, I still. Every now and again, I try to keep the skill up and try to do it as much as I can.
But, yeah, it's not like. Like, fire eating is certainly not the main thing that I do, but it's still a skill that I can do.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah, you're. And I Think anyone that looks you up online would, Would pretty much see you as your skill. You seem to do a lot of sword eating, sword swallowing, I should say, because you don't eat it, right?
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Well, I mean, kind of. You eat it and then it sort of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, the, the, the sword act is the main thing right now.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Okay, so how, what did you have an inspiration for when you wanted to become a sword swallower? Did you see someone? You're like, okay, yeah, that's where it is. Or like, where did that, what inspired you to get into that?
[00:07:44] Speaker B: So in my little, you know, high school pursuit of learning all the sideshow acts, sideshow arts, I stumbled across sword swallowing. But at the time I was like, sword swallowing seems so invasive and a lot of things could go wrong, and I, I just don't know if I'm. If I'm ready for that kind of a thing.
Uh, and so I didn't, I didn't touch it. And then I thought that eating glass light bulbs was a better option, but I don't know why that was the logic. Oh, yeah. So I just, I just didn't for a while and I just didn't do sword swallowing. And then I went and saw Opium, which was a, a show produced by Spiegel World at, at the Cosmo in Vegas, and a guy named Brett Loudermilk was swallowing swords in that show.
And it wasn't until I saw swords following live that.
That little, like, itch in me was like, you need to learn how to do that. So I, like, I found all the resources. I actually he messaged Brett a couple of questions of, hey, pointers on XYZ and whatever. And he was super gracious. He answered like all of my questions.
And. Yeah, but like, that was the, that was the moment I saw it live and saw the reaction, the kind of reactions it gets, and was like, I need, I need that. I need, I need that kind of validation or that reaction.
But what.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: That actually is interesting. What. And when I see things like that live, it's just fire eating, sword swallowing. It's. There's such a visceral reaction that you get that you can't get from watching somebody do a card trick because, you know, apparently, you know, like, okay, he's. He's doing a trick or he's. She's not really being sawed in half when you see that sword and you're actually, you know, and I saw a video of somebody pulling it out. I mean, it's a, it's a real sword. You're Putting down your. Your throat. It's. There's. There's nothing. You know, it's real. And there's something that is just.
You kind of drawn to the danger. Like, why do you think it gets such a reaction from people?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Because.
I think it's. Because it's something. It involves something that everybody can relate to. For. For examp.
Choking on food or, you know, like some. Like I. I've talked to people who said I can't barely brush my teeth without gagging on the toothbrush. You know, like, everybody knows what the gag reflex is, and everybody understands what happens if you trip it, like, if you touch it. You know, they understand that feeling.
And so. And I think that because everybody understands that part sort of inherently, that that's why it gets such a reaction. You know, it. Like, it's. You know, it's just this abnormally large object going into a space that they don't normally think it could occupy.
And they also know how uncomfortable that must be because they know the. The. They have the relation to knowing what that. What that feels like.
And in the same vein with magic, people, like. People, like, understand the impossibility of a magic trick. You know, they can't relate really to it in such a personal way as swallowing a sword, you know, or like. Like, they understand that, like, it's impossible to coin. To go from here to here without his hands coming close to each other, you know, and they understand that conceptually, but they don't have a. They don't have a.
Like a. A connection to that. Like a physical, like, connection to that.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Um. How long or does it still happen? How long did it take you to train your gag reflex so that it didn't bother you anymore? Or is it still a struggle?
[00:11:37] Speaker B: It's. Sometimes it's still a struggle. Uh, for the most part, it's. It's pretty easy. Um, Like, I don't really need a warmup. Like, I don't.
Like, you know, like, you know how, like, if like a contortionist has to, like, do like, 15 or 20 minutes of like, stretching or a warmup or, you know, or however long they. They for. But like, I. For me, I can just. I can pick up a sword and do it, you know, Like, I don't have to, like, drink a hot tea beforehand. Like, you. A hot tea after is great for, like, recovery and stuff. And I guess you could maybe do it before, but, like, there. There's not like a.
At least as far as I'm aware of, there's. There's not a, a set like like warmup routine for that is after, after a set.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Do you, does is your throat sore? Do you, do you have any discomfort after it or of have built up an immunity to it?
[00:12:27] Speaker B: I mean that it comes from not, I mean not being sword after you swallow swords for a show comes from like proper technique and like doing it correctly every time. You know, when I first, when I was first doing shows, you know, I could, I could get a sword down but like I hadn't like found all of the specifics yet in terms of technique and position.
So like I would be more sore after performances. But now like I've gotten to a point where I'm also not nervous when I'm swallowing a sword on stage either.
You know, I'm pretty, I'm pretty comfortable doing it now so that when I'm on stage I, I'm not, I'm not being nervous while also trying to swallow a sword. Like my brain is not just chaotic because I'm so nervous.
Um, so I can actually, I actually like think about it now and I like, I can take the time, I mentally take time to go, okay, put it here, make sure you got it in the spot. Okay, go. You know, and I think about all of the different spots that it's, it's supposed to be in. But yeah, that, that soreness kind of, at least from like said this is all my experience, the soreness kind of comes from not doing it properly. Like you can, you can still do it. It's just not the right, the ideal placement of whatever that thing happens to be.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Because what's, what makes a sword swallowing sword different? I know this may seem like a dumb question, but how is a sword swallowing sword different than a sword that you use to cut somebody?
[00:14:01] Speaker B: One of the, what the difference is, I mean the one big one is they're, they're not quite as long as a regular sword.
My, my swords are 22 inches which you know, not say that like 22 inches isn't nothing. But like when I first like this sword here is normally I think the, it's like a 30, 35 inch blade on it. But when I get them I, you know, I crop it so it's not as long. Like that's, that's a, that's a joke in my show is I, I, I, I, I cut the sword and this one has a, has like a, the scabbard that covers the blade.
So I cut the, I cut the sword, you know, do what I need to do to it and Then put it back in the scabbard. So it looks, in the scabbard it looks that long, but it's in reality not as long. And I walk out on stage with it like that and I'm talking to the audience and getting a volunteer up and this entire time I'm not mentioning how long the sword is, but people can see it and you can just see the people thinking there's no way that this guy is going to swallow that. Like that's, no, that's not going to. He's tall. He's not that tall. And I finally get to a point in the, in the show where I say, you know a little bit about this sword. It's a rapier style sword, it's common back in Western Europe. It's double edged, makes it harder for me to swallow and it's not as long as it looks. I'm so sorry. And as I'm unsheathing it, I mentioned how it's not as long as it looks. And then usually people. That gets a laugh and then I say, yeah, no, it would stick outta my butt if it was this long. Come on, like.
But yeah, it's, you know, they, that's probably the biggest thing is it's not quite as long as what like a traditional sword would be, but it's still a decent size. Like it's, it's still like it would, it would injure anybody else who tried to do it pretty severely. Yeah.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: So swords are one thing, but I saw a video of you doing it looked like you were swallowing clothes hangers, metal hangers.
And so the thing I wanted to ask about that is, is when you're coming up with or when you are using something other than a sword, like a clothes hanger, where is your comfort level? How do you train that in the safest way possible? Because it's, I mean are you in, are you really in territory that you maybe wouldn't be otherwise? The way I said it was a little dumb. But how do you, how do you train for a non sword swallow?
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah, sometimes it's, sometimes it's easier, you know, because it's not, it's not entirely rigid, you know, like especially with, like with the coat hangers. Like the coat hangers are slightly flexible, you know, so like there's slight, a little more room for play in terms of like neck position and stuff like that.
But they usually have their own perils I guess is a good word.
Right. Like one of the things, one of the things that I swallow is, you know, those Those, those barf spoon mixers, you know, that like, you find it like the, at a, like at a bar.
I have one.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: I, I have one. I have one over here.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, they, but they. Oh, there it is.
They have like, at least this one. It has this like, it's twisted metal through the middle, you know, and it goes all the way to the length.
So this texture in my throat was awful. Like, it was so hard to practice because. And it's still hard to do just because that texture running past your epiglottis and that tissue in there is just, it's so uncomfortable compared to like a, like a, like a, A flat, like smooth blade, you know. But in like most of that stuff, there's usually like a trade off. It's like, well, it's not as long, but it has a different texture or like it's, you know, it's, it's longer, but it's also like bigger around or whatever it is. But that's kind of the fun of swallowing swords is usually a different challenge with whatever new thing you, you put in the show.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: What's been the hardest thing to swallow?
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Currently, I mean, currently, I, I should be practicing it more, but I had made a.
Basically a sword blade, but with no handle. So it's just, it's like this much blade or however long. It's about this much blade and a length of chain about this long attached to the end. You know, so it's just a flexible, like, handle basically, and lay down. And because the chain is flexible, it can come up out of my throat into my mouth so that I can tip my head forward and like hold it in my mouth. And like, you don't know that it's there.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Yeah.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: But the texture, the same, the same problem. The texture of that chain back here in my throat is just like it, it trips every gag reflex sensor that I haven't touched yet. Like that, that's part of what you got about earlier is like, yeah, there's. There's some gag ref. Oh. And that, that prop specifically just touches everything back there and it's so, it's so uncomfortable.
But like, so was learning how to swallow a regular sword when I started. You know, it's, it's just practicing it enough and sitting through that uncomfortableness to do, to be able to do the, the, that trick. You know, that's, that's kind of.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: If you walked out, pulled a chain out of your mouth and there was a sword attached to it, I would, I would probably pass out.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: That's that's my goal is just to make you.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: It would. That would be the greatest thing I've ever seen. So, yeah, there's a. I hate to encourage you because that seems like, terrible, but I would love to see that.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: That's the, that's the job security part of sword swallowing. That's why, like, you don't know many sword swallowers, probably because nobody's willing to sit for just hours on end some days practicing the skill to be able to do it. It's, it's just, it's so much time of being so uncomfortable that most people, one, are not, you know, are not going to even attempt to try that thing anyways. But two, it's going to be so uncomfortable if they do try that. They're going to give up like five or ten minutes in.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Have you ever had a mishap or like a close call?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Yeah, with that bar spoon. Actually, part of the reason I do it in my show, I went with a group of friends from work to do.
To do a foodie tour in Vegas. It's like there's a couple companies that do it, but yeah, it's like that you, you pay like a flat rate. It's like 2 or 300 bucks a person, depending on the level of niceness that specific tour is. But this company offers a bunch of different kinds of tours. But you pick one, you pay the flat rate, and then you go to like three or four different places that night. And you try like the entrees and the drinks that they have there, and you spend like a half an hour at every 45 minutes at every place or whatever it is, and you just try their food.
It's amazing. But like, so this night was, we, we did one that was in downtown Vegas and we hit probably.
I think we went to four different places. It's like three or four different places.
You get a cocktail at each one. So I'm like three or four cocktails in and like I'm three or four cocktails deep into this evening.
And then we decide because the, the. The Container park is like right next to where we ended. Container park is this place in downtown Vegas that's made entirely out of shipping containers. And so there's different, like, stores and outlets and retailers who have store. It's usually like locally owned places, but the entire place is made out of shipping containers.
And there's a, there's a whiskey bar in there. And so we decided to go hang out at this whiskey bar for the night after this tour. And so we Go. We sit down, and I've had another. Like, I've had, like, a neat glass of some whiskey that they had that night.
So three.
Three cocktails in and a glass of whiskey. And I thought it'd be a good idea to ask the bartender if I could borrow one of those. Those bar spoons to swallow for my friends, which I had heard about. Like, I. Like, I knew that. Like, I mean, I can't even remember if I had done it at that point or if it was the first time I'd ever tried it, but it was one of the first. It was one of the first. Yeah. 100% is. When it's brand new and you are tipsy, you should. 100. Yeah. And so I.
I don't know how we convinced this bartender to let me do it, but I borrowed this bar spoon.
And the basic.
The basic way that I swallow a sword is I lick it, like, lubricate it. I put. I put it up, I swallow it. I lean forward so I can show the audience that it's going down my throat. And then I have somebody pull the. Pulled the sword out. That's the general outline of how this trick normally goes.
So this is with the bar spoon. So I take the bar spoon. I'm licking. I lick it, lick it, lick it. I put it up, swallow it all the way down. I'm holding the bowl end, you know, the. The sp. The bowl of the spoon end in between my teeth, and I lean forward to show everybody. And as I'm leaning forward, the spoon slips out from between my teeth and goes into the back of my throat.
Yeah.
And mind you, this bar spoon's only 18 inches long. 16 inches long. So plenty. It's plenty short enough to go all the way down with some room to spare.
And so that was my worry. It was like, I'm gonna get this stuck in my body, and I'm gonna have to.
Somebody's gonna have to drive me to the. To the.
Somebody's gonna have to drive me to the hospital. Not because I have something stuck in me, but because I'm three cocktails deep with a glass of whiskey, and I'm not driving my.
At this moment. So I. So, like, I have a. Somebody was filming, and they have a video of it, thank God.
But you can see in this video, I sort of lean forward, and then I go, oh. And I, like. My eyes get this big around, and I, like, immediately reach back with two fingers trying to find the end of this bar spoon. Carefully, too, because not only is there, like, it's wet, first off, because all that saliva. So it's gonna.
Down there.
Like, when I get down there, it's gonna be, you know, an inch of metal left, you know, So I. I get back.
So I. I reach back there with, like, two fingers since can't get, like, obviously my whole hand back there.
And I feel. And I've got.
I've got like an inch of this spoon still sticking out in a place where I can reach it. Like a scary amount of metal still of reachable metal. And so I reach back and like, in. In the video, you can see me tip my head forward because normally when I have something down my throat and it's sticking out of my mouth, I can't lean my head forward because, you know, obviously there's. There's metal there. But it's far enough back that in the video you can see me sit up and do this as I'm reaching and I reach back and I can feel it and I, like, pinch it with my fingers and I'm, like, pulling it out.
And I eventually get it out. Thank God I get it. The whole thing takes maybe, I don't know, five seconds from the time I jump to the time the thing comes out.
But it felt like an eternity. Like, it felt like all time slowed down, and I have all the time in the world to think about where my fingers are going to, like, pull this thing out. But, like, I pull the thing and I look at my friends and they're all like, are you okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm good, as long as it didn't go all the way down. Like, I'm. I'm. I'm better than I was five seconds ago.
But that's the. Luckily for me, that's the only mishap that I've ever had. And it's with something that's not. It's not a sword, it's something not sharp, you know, and it's like that. And like. Like, I'm pretty sure the only thing that would have happened was I'd have gone to the hospital, they'd have stuck something down my throat, grabbed it and pulled it out, which normally they would knock somebody out for with anesthesia. But I could have been like, yeah, go for it. That's how it got down there. Like, I mean, I'm fine. I can stay awake for this.
But, yeah, I'm lucky that I haven't been in the. In the. Well, I think I've been doing this for four years now. In the four years that I'VE been doing this. That's the only.
The only mishap that I've ever had.
Wow.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: Well, I do want to get to some other stuff.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: That sword swallowing story is making gave me the creeps, but I love it.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: That's good. That's. That's. That's the goal.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: I have some inside questions for you from. From my sources. What is a w. What is a water hold and how do you prep for it?
[00:27:29] Speaker B: What is a water hold? So you're. I believe you're referring to a. A breath hold underwater.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: So.
So a. A breath hold is.
Is just exactly what it sounds like. It's a. It's. You're holding your breath for a inordinate amount of time for whatever the purpose is.
I.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Why did. Why are they telling me to ask you this question?
[00:27:57] Speaker B: So for.
For six months in 2020, I want to say 2023 or 2022.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Good year.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: But, yeah, very memorable, obviously. I was an escape artist in a show that Criss angel was producing called A Mystica.
He.
It was the. It was post. It's the prequel to his show Mind Freak, which he does now and has been doing it for however many years.
It kind of told the story of his life. It kind of told the story of his life growing up and, like, included his inspirations in magic. And so Houdini was one of them. And there was a whole segment where, you know, Houdini, like this screen goes up and it's got all this depictions of Houdini on it and ground fog rolling across the stage and, you know, upstage. Houdini and a character, a girl who was playing Bess, Houdini's wife. They walk to the center of the stage. They'd meet, they'd turn, and they'd walk downstage to the edge. And then Houdini would sort of pull off this tuxedo that he was wearing to reveal this. That old. Like that old timey 1930s swimsuit thing. Yeah. And then he get chained up, put in a tank of water with a. With a metal lock pick and had to pick his way out of restraints, like chains and handcuffs and padlocks and such. And so I did that for, like, I said, like five or six months. And it was some of the most fun I've ever had performing. It was.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: How did you get. How did you get involved with that?
[00:29:31] Speaker B: So my friend Nick Creed is.
He's a fire performer, so he does, you know, in the show, he was doing a body burn, so he was wearing like nine layers of clothing total. And they'd like douse him in gasoline and light him on fire. And that was one of the acts in the show. And so he got cast in the show, like right at the very beginning and, you know, he was telling me all about it and this whole creation process.
I went and saw an opening, like a, like a soft opening, I think, of a mystica and saw him do the fire thing. But then I also saw this other magician, Landon Swank, I don't know if you know that name, but he was doing the, this Houdini escape thing. And so my friend Nick was in this show when it was, when he was getting put together. And about halfway through, I don't know about halfway through, but at some point he asked me if I would. If they were gonna.
If they were, at some point, if they were gonna find and start looking for like an on call escape artist for that, for that track, would I do it? And like, before my friend, before Nick could even finish the sentence, I was like, yes, a hundred % yes. I 100% want to do that. Yes.
And Nick asked me because he, like, I was the only other person that he knew who. One lived in Vegas at the time, but two had a 2 1/2 minute breath hold just already, you know, like one of the, One of the things when I, when I first started in magic, like, all the way. When we were talking, all the way back to middle school, elementary, middle school, when I was still doing card tricks and coin tricks and all that stuff, One of the first worlds that I started to explore outside of card tricks and coin tricks when I was in middle school was escape and like, escape artists. There was a show on Discovery at the time called One Way out with Jonathan Goodwin, and it was a show about escapes. Like he would like, create this escape that he would have to perform at the end of the show.
And I just found it fascinating as like this middle school, middle school boy. I was into magic. I was like, that's amazing. I want to do that. That's amazing. So I was asking my, like in middle school, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, I was asking my parents for handcuffs and leg shackles for Christmases and birthdays.
And because my parents are so supportive, they got them for me. So I have amassed this collection of restraints as a middle schooler, and I'm learning how to pick these locks and to undo all of these. These things. But I'm also doing breath hold because I knew that one of that was one of the things is they were doing like, breath hold stuff. So I'd sit in my room and like, do myself up with all these restraints. And then I'd hold my breath sitting on the ground, sitting on the floor and seeing how long I can hold my breath for and get out all this stuff. And then kind of after it's. Yeah, it's such a wild childhood to have. And like, nobody in my family does performing, like at all. Like, the most performing that anybody does in my family is my father, who, well, I guess my mother too. But my dad, who is a pastor, was, was a pastor at the church that I grew up at for 24 years. And he would stand on stage in front of a giant group of people and preach. And my mom, who's an ASL interpreter who would interpret, you know, shows on the Strip and things like that, so she kind of performs that way. But like, nobody was a magician and with no background or experience with it, they were so supportive. They bought me all of this stuff to do, you know, to do, to do like escape stuff lightly, you know, more like just sitting in your room and doing. You're sitting on the floor and doing it. And then as, as I moved into high school, I kind of dropped the escape thing, you know, Like, I kept the knowledge of it all, but I dropped the escape part. But I kept practicing the breath hold.
So for me, I'm very much like, like, like, like, like one on one, like competition sports where it's like tennis or like chess or like, or like something like, not specifically those things, but like anything where I'm competing against myself I'd probably be good at because I, I have this drive to like, do something until I'm perfect at it. So like, breath holding kind of fell into that category perfectly. And so I just sort of slowly, over middle school, in my high school years, just kept practicing a breath hold so that by the time I was a senior in high school, with a little bit of a breathing warm up, I could hold my breath for two and a half minutes, you know, no problem.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: So you were ready to go to, to do that?
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: So you, you were able to take over and do the water hold stuff because you'd already just been, you're, you're ready to go, right?
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So when he asked me, you know, he asked me because I, you know, like I said, like, I had two and a half minutes down already, you know, and I, and I could do that pretty easily. And so all they had to teach me was the specifics of their particular escape. But like, I had the knowledge of how to hold my breath. I had the knowledge of lock picking and stuff already, you know. And so it was, it was a pretty easy plug in for me into that show because I already had some most of the knowledge and the, and the skills needed to do that thing.
I was, I was the fill in, I was the on call fill in escape artist show and then however long after that I got promoted to the full time escape artist but nice. But yeah I was, I was the on call like fill in guy. I was doing like every Saturday just so that I could keep the skill in my system and I was doing any day that the main guy had to be out for health reasons or vacation or whatever.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: That's what I started as in, in that Criss Angels show.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: The thing I've been waiting, this is the question I've been waiting the entire time to ask you because this is the one that I, and I love sword swallowing now. I think it's the coolest. But how did you get to be the bear in Matt King show? Let me, let me, let me set a stage for anyone who hasn't seen it. There's a Matt King. It's about like 10 minutes into one of the, the thing I saw but there's, he brings someone on stage and it's like we're going to do camping. There's a, a tent up. The spectator looks around the tent and gets in the tent and checks it out and then there stuff happens and as, as out of nowhere to a bear scares the crap out of everyone that I can imagine in the entire audience. I even knew it was coming and it got me when I was watching a video of it.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: So. Yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: How a bear dressed as a bear, how did you end up as a bear? As a dressed as a bear in Matt King's what, the longest running single magician show in Las Vegas history?
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I, it really was connections, you know and being, you know like a lot of people say right place, right time but it's, it's accurate to this. You know. I, my magic mentor at the time who I met through the church because he was a part time cruise ship magician and pastor at this church, he taught me tricks and stuff every time I'd show up for Sunday and then when I got to be old enough like high school age, like 14 I think. Yeah, 14 was my first magic live.
He asked me if I wanted to help like if I wanted to volunteer at this convention because he co produces the convention with, with Stan Allen and I, I, I was like yes, 100% yes, like, I would love to do that. Like, that sounds so. Yes, like, being around other people who also like magic. I did not know that there was such a thing as, you know, as a high. As a freshman in high school, I was like, there are other people. And, like, I show up to this convention and I'm just awestruck at, like, how many magicians there are, how, like, just all this magic and. And everything. But I did things like, you know, volunteer with registration, you know, checking people in for the convention. I handed out lecture notes after every session, things like that.
And I did that, like, basically every year after that. And the one. The woman who was like my boss kind of at the time, Katie Sokolsky, she got contacted.
This would have been 2018 or like, the end of. Or. No, it had been. Yeah, it would've been 2018.
She gets contacted by a guy who worked at the Matt King show at the time, Ben Young, who's a good magician friend of mine, who, like I said, I met through Mac.
Ben reached out to Katie asking if she knew anybody who would be a good fit for that role that Ben was doing. Because Ben was going to be leaving for a USO tour. It's like him and a couple other magicians go around to different military bas, and they perform magic for these. For these service men and women.
But he was leaving soon. Like, it was like two months or something like that. It was a very short amount of time, from the time they needed to hire somebody to the time that the. The he was leaving.
And she recommended me. Like, she. I was the first name that popped into her head.
And she was like, yeah, talk to this guy. And so I get a. I get a phone call from Max producer.
Hey, you know, this is Bill. Can you give me a call back at this number?
And, yeah, it's kind of history from there.
Went in that day and auditioned, basically.
They were like, great, you're hired. And they taught me the whole show.
It's been six and a half years, and I'm still.
Still there, so I'm doing something right.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: When you're. So you do that one bear, you know, bear thing. Do you do anything else during the show?
[00:38:57] Speaker B: I mean, I do things like. Like, that's kind of my one, like, moment of glory, you know, if you can even really call it that.
I'm. I'm also setting cases in the wings before they go out on stage. Like, I'm making sure everything is in its place in that case. And then I walk that case out on stage at the right time.
I sell merchandise after the show.
I, I fix a couple of things if they get broken or if they're kind of falling apart.
Mac and I kind of share the. That role, you know, that, that thing. It depends on what it is that's broken, whether I fix it or he fixes it, but Nice.
Yeah. Any other kind of like, miscellaneous stuff.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Like feed the goldfish?
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Yep, I feed. I feed goldfish. I feed a guinea pig.
Yeah. And keep those. I keep the critters alive is what I say. I, I call myself the animal wrangler at the. The Matt King show.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Yeah, he goes through a lot of. He goes through a lot of guinea pigs, man. The, the way he sucks those things down.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Right. When you. Right. And you eat one every day, you just. You're just going through a guinea pig a day. It's. Yeah, no, it's, It's.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: He's so skinny too. I don't know how he does it.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: Right. You'd think with all that protein that.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: You know, he is there like a magician. Ozempic.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. I think it's called Goldfish.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Goldfish.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: That's what does.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: It just balances itself out perfectly. Yeah.
But, yeah, I kind of do a lot. Like, you can't really put my job into one kind of, you know, like, of. Of the traditional theater roles, you know, like house manager, stage manager, stagehand, you know, carpenter or things like that. Like, I don't really fit into one. I kind of do a lot of different things. But it's.
It's a fun job. I love it.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: I wouldn't have stayed six and a half years if he. If it wasn't a fun job and he wasn't amazing to work for. You know, I'm so grateful for him and his wife Jen and all the people that I've met through that show, they really just, you know, they've made it worth it to, to stay and to be good friends with and it's. It's been amazing.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: That's awesome. I have one last question.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: How hard is it to get your swords through tsa?
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Not as hard as you would think.
I thought it would be really difficult. I was like, yeah, you're traveling with blades.
You're not carrying that on. I, you know, I had before my first gig that I had traveled for. You know, I've made sword swallowing friends and I messaged a few of them going, hey, flying with swords. How. And they were like, yeah, you do. Blah, blah, blah. And, and you. You like I, for me, I mean, I'm sure it's probably similar for others, but I, I went to like Dick's Sporting Goods or Sportsman's Warehouse or you know, pick your favorite, you know, hunting slash, you know, sporting goods store like Bass Pro Shops or Cabela's, depending on where you live.
But I bought a rifle case. Like, you know, it was big, black, like hard shell. Like they have four different latches, two on the side, two on the front. And you know, they have like a, like a, like a loop for a lock. And, but, and it's all that pick apart foam inside, which is perfect because like everything that I, I take is flat for the most part. It's all flat. Sword blades, arrows, fly swatters, bar spoons. You know, all of it will fit in this thing. And then I just, I check it at the gate, I check it at the, I check it at the chicken desk. You know, like, I roll up with it and they ask me what's in it and I say it's props for a sword swallowing gig. And they're like, great, thanks. Like, they don't even open it, which seems irresponsible when you see something like that roll through. But yeah, I just, I just check it. You know, it goes, it goes under the plane and it gets there and it, it works every time.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Super fun.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Is there anything you would, that you would really want people to know about sword swallowing or variety acts? Anything that you're like, oh, I wish everyone knew this.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: I don't know, something that I'd want people to know.
I know sword swallowing is 100 real, it's not fake. I actually, I lucked out because I, I have connections with some folks and I managed to get an X ray of the sword down my throat. Yeah. And I, it's from the front, which I should have done it from the side so that you could see it like this way between my neck, this way. Because, you know, if you do it from the front, it seems like you could just be holding it in front of you. But, but I do have, and I do have X rays of the sword down my throat.
That's, that's partially why, that's partially why I, that's partially why I was more attracted to the sideshow. You know, we kind of touched on it a little bit earlier. But that's part of the reason why I like sideshow so much is with magic. Like, if I do a card trick and I read your mind or if I do a card trick and I find your card, you're you're clapping for my ability to make it look like I found your card or I read your mind or pick your favorite magic ending.
When I swallow a sword or I eat fire. You're clapping for my ability to swallow a sword or to eat fire. Like you're skipping this like middleman, you know. And to me there's just something more honest about sideshow. There's, there's, there's an honesty that like magic doesn't have, you know, it has it in some form. You know, there, there is this like honest connection with an audience member when you do a trick, you know, or you do this really awesome magic effect.
But there's, there's. There's just like an extra like veil, you know, that these people are like looking through and it's, it's slightly more foggy, you know, like when people ask when people about how you did a magic trick.
You're. You're sort of dancing around the truth, you know, like you're sort of.
Even though, even though you might be telling the truth about whatever you might be telling a truth about whatever it is you're sort of dancing around this center thing that like, you know, isn't, isn't exactly all true, you know, like you're height, you're hiding something. But with, with swords or with, you know, with, with a fire eating or whatever, like there, there isn't that. There, there's. You're not hiding anything. You can like, like if I wanted to, I could give them the bar spoon or I could give them the sword or I could give them the arrow and be like, look, hit this against the table. This is a solid thing, right? Great. Watch. I'm not gonna take it out of your view. It's the same thing and I, it goes all the way down. And to me, I like, I find more comfort in that aspect when I swallow swords. You know, I find. I find comfort knowing that I don't have to like think of a lie or think of the partial truth when it comes to explaining what I do. You know, there's, there's a certain honesty to sword swallowing and decideshow that I really like. And I like it enough that it's, it's sort of pulled me not totally away from card tricks and stuff, but it's like the main passion right now is, is finding how to make sword swallowing, you know, like how to, how to make it interesting even though it is already interesting, but like how to like my, my goal right now as a sword swallower is to figure out how to make sword swallowing more than just. Here's the thing. It goes in, it goes out. Yay it. Like, how do you. How do. Like, usually that comes with swallowing more than one thing, or the thing that you're swallowing is a different shape or a different thing entirely than a sword.
But, like, I'm doing that with the coat hanger trick. That or the coat hanger thing that you were talking about earlier.
Yeah.
The effect for that is I bring out a stack of those white wire coat hangers that you would find at, like, the dry cleaners or whatever. And I go out into the audience and I give two of them to a. To somebody in, like, the front row. I go back on stage and I say, look at those. Make sure they're just exactly what they are. Two white wire coat hangers you find at the, you know, at the dry cleaners and, like, hold them up and show. And I get them to hold them up, like one in each hand, show them that they're just two individual.
You know, I'm like, those look good. Yes. They're just exactly what they are, actually. Why don't you come up on stage and help me give him a big round of applause. He comes up on stage, I stand him next to me, take them from them, and I say, these are like. I said, just they're good. You check them. They are two white wire coat hangers. Yes. The guy's like, yes. And then I start explaining that, you know, there's dexterity of the mind. You're like, dexterity of the hands is card tricks and coin tricks. Juggling is the same way. Dexterity of the mind is the people who can do crazy math calculations and get them right every single time. I'm going to do dexterity of the stomach. And so I explained that my stomach, these coat hangers to this really cool ending to this trick. So I take the coat hangers back, I straighten them out. You know, if coat hangers look like this, I sort of go rink so that they do that.
And then I put them up. I swallow them individually, sort of do this, manipulate them. And then I turn towards the guy, I pull one of them out, and he starts to pull the one out. And as the first one comes out and it gets all the way out, he keeps pulling and it pulls the second one out with it. Because now they're both linked together.
And as it comes out of my mouth, it's linked together, and he's the last person to touch them. So it comes out of my mouth, it swings freely under his hand. And I say, look at those. Like, pull on that. Those are two white. Those are two coat hangers linked together. It's not tape, it's not glue. It's not going to fall apart. They're just physically metal through metal. Yeah.
And I send him back to his seat with him as, like, a gift. I'm like, that's for you. You can have a seat. You know, like, it. It. It motivates the reason.
At least it tries to motivate the reason for putting something down your throat. You know, like David Blaine.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: I've never seen that before, and it's really cool to watch.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I like. I'm like. I'm trying to figure out, like, in sword swallowing, a reason to be other than just the fact that you can do it. The fact that it's just a stunt or, you know, whatever. Like, what, What. What else could I do that motivates putting something down your throat? So, like, the coat hanger trick is. Is.
Is my answer. Is one of my answers for that. Right now I've got a few other ideas that I want to try to create and come up.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Oh, I can't wait to see what else you're gonna stick in your mouth.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: You know you don't hear that every day, right? Yeah, there's a lot of ideas. So we'll. We'll see how it goes.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: The world is your oyster.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: Yes. The world is your scabbard.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: The world is your scabbard. I like that.
And that's a wrap on this fiery episode of Magician's Workshop. Huge thanks to the incredible Luke Harrison for taking us behind the flames and down the sword blade path of his wild career. Where can the people find you if they're looking?
[00:49:41] Speaker B: I'm primarily on Instagram. You can find me at L, E, W, Q, U, E, E. I think there's two E's on the end of that. It's.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: It.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: It looks like it. It looks like a horrendous spelling of the name Luke is what it is. And that's how you.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: I'll put it right there so people.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you can put it up. So, yeah, so that's. That's me on Instagram. Like, I do have TikTok, you know, but hardly post anything there. I hardly post anything on either, but every now and again, I post some things. And you don't need to.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: You're too busy.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: Well, this is true. I. Yeah, I'm super busy with new stuff and new endeavors and things like that.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Perfect.
Well, if you've enjoyed this conversation and want to see more amazing artists who push the limits of what's possible. Make sure to like this video. Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss an episode. I'm Dr. Todd, and as Renee Zellweger said to Tom Cruise and Jerry Maguire, I'm just a magician standing in front of an audience asking them to believe. And we will see you next time at the workshop.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: Sam.
