Imagination rules the Space Cowboy
The Quad, Lismore | 16, 17 August | 5–10pm | Free
What was the first world record you ever broke, and what year was it?
In 2008 I broke the record for ‘most swords swallowed’ by swallowing 17 swords at the same time. This was featured in that year’s Guinness Book of World Records and titled one of the ‘Top 100 records of all time’. I have since broken this record multiple times; currently the most swords I have swallowed simultaneously is 29 swords! I performed this on the American television show The World’s Best; that was about five months ago.
What was the most frightening world record you ever broke? Was there any one that was really dangerous?
My scariest record may have been when I performed the ‘World’s first underwater sword swallow’; that is because I performed this stunt in a tank of live sharks! Also achieving the record for ‘Longest lightning bolts shot from the body’ was truly terrifying; I stood on top a one-million-volt Tesla coil and had all that power travel through my body, and streams of electricity shot from my fingertips.
Blindfolded arrow catching would be another of my more frightening record attempts. I trained with a high-speed tennis-ball-shooting machine and then moved to arrows with thick rubber tips. When I finally removed the rubber from the end of the arrows and started catching speeding metal-tipped arrows while blindfolded this was truly terrifying. It took a long time to be confident and calm enough to attempt it. I now hold the record for ‘Most arrows caught in two minutes blindfolded’; I caught seven speeding arrows in this time and all with the sharp metal bullet tips attached. Each arrow travelled over 80 kilometres per hour and I caught them with my bare hand.
Where have your love and curiosity of science developed from? Were you always interested in the way the world worked even when you were first performing as an 8-year-old?
While all my friends were playing football I was the little boy in a Superman costume catching butterflies and inventing new props for my next daring stunt. I love science and I truly believe that in this day and age, when even many of our political leaders are science and climate deniers, it is now more important than ever to bring science into people’s lives and prove that by taking risks and trusting in science nothing is impossible.
You are going to be premiering a new show at DARK SCIENCE at The Quad in Lismore in August. What can your fans expect from the show? Will it be a science-stunt show?
After winning the Science channel’s hit television show Outrageous Acts of Science that is filmed in the USA I created a very successful new touring science-stunt show called Stranger Than Fiction. I have been performing this show with the amazing inventor and scientist Professor Chaos. I love performing this show; however, my new show in Lismore will be different, a solo performance with a few things that I am trying out for the very first time.
What’s next for Space Cowboy? Do you have any news you’d like to share with your fans in and around Byron and the Northern Rivers?
I’m currently performing in Dublin, Ireland. I’ll be home in Byron Bay in a few days – but not for long. I’m filming a secret television show in Sydney in a few days then I’ll be on tour with the Crusty Demons, the original freestyle Motocross motorcycle stunt riders; we’ll be in a different Australian city every week for almost three months. Then I have another big television show in Italy. So this show in Lismore is the only time you can catch me locally for quite a while.
The Space Cowboy presents Imagination Rules the World at Dark Science at The QUAD in Lismore during Science Week, Friday and Saturday 16 & 17 August. Free. 5–10pm.
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