Meet Stan Marye, an 88-year-old former sword swallower who started after reading an excerpt of Daniel Mannix’s 1951 book, Step Right Up!, in Reader’s Digest. He taught himself fire-eating and then learned to gulp steel. During the 1950s and '60s he worked with numerous sideshows and added various other stunts and skills to his repertoire. Hear about his adventures in sword swallowing and much more in this episode of To The Hilt.

Stan Marye is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, published by Schiffer Publishing.

For more on To The Hilt, visit ToTheHiltBook.com or purchase a copy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

You may have seen Jellyboy the Clown on America’s Got Talent Season 19, where he amazed audiences and the judges. Or perhaps you've read his recent book: Memoirs of a Coney Island Clown (Outside Talker Press). In this episode, you'll hear about Jellyboy’s beginnings as a clown, his start in sword swallowing and his creative twists on the art, like adding a chainsaw to the blade and experimenting with a Tesla coil. He also tells us about his adventures in retrieving a confiscated rifle sword in Ukraine, and much, much more.

Jellyboy is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, published by Schiffer Publishing.

Find Jellyboy online:

Website

SquidlingBrothers.com

Facebook

Eric Broomfield

Squidling Brothers

Instagram

@ConeyIceland

And check out his new book, published by Outside Talker Press!

Memoirs of a Coney Island Clown

Outside Talker Press

For more on To The Hilt, visit ToTheHiltBook.com or purchase a copy on Amazon.

Keith Nelson, also known as Mr. Pennygaff, is the co-founder of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. The Bindlestiffs have been performing circus, sideshow, and vaudeville acts for thirty years. The show has presented nearly 600 of the world’s top artists in the circus and variety fields across New York City and the Hudson Valley, and throughout the United States. Performances have engaged audiences in the hundreds of thousands in theaters, Spiegeltents, big tops, cruise ships, fairs and festivals, and more.

In this episode, Keith shares his experiences working for Ward Hall, offers tips to aspiring sword swallowers, talks about performing on Late Night with David Letterman, and more.

Follow Keith Nelson and the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus online:

Website

Bindlestiff.org

Instagram

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

Keith Nelson

Facebook

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

Keith Nelson

For more on To The Hilt, visit ToTheHiltBook.com or purchase a copy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf