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Dan Meyer grew up a bullied child of ridicule who vowed to do real magic and change the world. Today, he's the world's leading expert on sword swallowing as president of the Sword Swallowers Association Int’l, global TED speaker, and winner of the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine at Harvard for medical research on sword swallowing.
Guinness World Records and Ripley's Believe It or Not! have called Meyer the "world’s top sword swallower" for his 40 world records and death-defying stunts seen on 15 Got Talents including the finals of America's Got Talent, on over 100 TV shows, and live in 60 countries around the world.
A global TEDx speaker, Meyer enjoys inspiring audiences to cut through fear and do the impossible in their lives. His viral TED talk "Cutting through Fear" is the most translated TED talk in the world.
ABC News called Marc Hartzman "one of America's leading connoisseurs of the bizarre" and Coast to Coast AM said he's "as bizarre as Robert Ripley." Hartzman has written for Mental Floss, HuffPost, AOL Weird News, All That's Interesting, Morbid Anatomy, and Bizarre magazine, he’s spoken at the Humans to Mars Summit, the Coney Island Congress of Curious Peoples, New York ComicCon, the Exeter UFO Festival, and he’s discussed oddities on CNN, MSNBC, Ripley’s Radio, History Channel’s The UnXplained, Xploration Outer Space, Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum, and dozens of podcasts.
Hartzman is an award-winning advertising creative director. His work can be found at WeirdHistorian.com
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
To the Hilt by Dan Meyer and Marc Hartzman is a deep dive into the dangerous and fascinating world of sword swallowing. The book covers the lives and careers of iconic performers, including Dan Meyer himself, who became a leading figure in the field, setting records and even winning an Ig Nobel Prize. The history of sword swallowing is provided, starting with early pioneers like Ramo Samee, who introduced the art to Europe in the 1800s, and Marie DeVere, a celebrated performer in the early 20th century. Through stories of daredevil acts, injuries, and triumphs, Meyer and Hartzman introduce readers to the careers of Edna Price and Michael Costello, who pushed the boundaries of the craft, among so many others, mixing historical context with Meyer's own experiences to celebrate the art and its performers.
Going into To the Hilt by Dan Meyer and Marc Hartzman, sword swallowing was so far off my radar as a reader that I imagined it almost exclusively as a thing of the past—and even then as an optical illusion. This is why I was drawn to reading this book. The authors do an incredible job of showing us the history and artistry of sword swallowing and making clear that it is a very real art and is still in practice today. The most interesting parts to me were those of Meyer's life and the technical aspects of the craft, the risks, sacrifices, and physical endurance required to master such a perilous art. With strong writing and Meyer’s extensive knowledge of sword swallowing, bolstered by his personal collection of artifacts and visuals, this tribute to the performers is both informative and thrilling for anyone interested in the world of extreme performance art. Very highly recommended.
