Putting metal where his mouth is: Sword swallower proves the impossible is possible

Amid the many attractions at the Alaska State Fair--the rides, food, rodeo, and the concerts, to name a few-- over at the Blue Bonnet Stage, a unique performance artist specializing in the extremely dangerous, and sometimes cringe-worthy cutting edge entertainment took to the stage as Dan Meyer amazed with his ability to swallow swords. And saws, and blades, and other pointy, sharp objects.

Meyer has spent 20 years perfecting his art, 14,000 unsuccessful attempts, and says he finally found the secret to doing the impossible, manipulating his body in ways that “will blow your minds, challenge your perception of what’s real, what’s impossible, and what’s really possible…if you just believe.”

Meyer is one of the last sword swallowers left in the world, what he calls a “dying breed” of artists. He began his quest in 1997 led to locate the surviving sword swallowers and mastering the ancient art himself, an art that dates back 4,000 years. He spent four years researching and carefully practicing, teaching himself to swallow solid steel swords up to 30 inches long.

Meyer has taken around the world, including two appearances on “America’s Got Talent,” where he made it the finals, as well as appearing on other versions of the show around the globe, and at the fair, he combines humor and extreme swallowing feats with an uplifting message to believe in yourself.

“I’m going to prove to you the impossible is not impossible and show you that the impossible is truly possible in your life,” he told the audience.

So what would make someone choose sword swallowing? As Meyer explained, as a little kid, he had big dreams of seeing the world and wanted to do something “really remarkable” with his life. “I wanted to prove the impossible is not impossible.”

But standing in the way of was one small thing-big fear.

“I suffered from low self-esteem, inferiority complex, fear of failure and rejection, and something we didn’t know back then, something called Social Anxiety Disorder,” Meyers told the crowd, adding that when he had to stand up in front of his class to speak, he would freeze. “The words would not come out, and I would black out, like a deer in the headlights. The tears would roll down my face. Because I had fears.”

He says those fears were from bullies. Meyer grew up a scared, shy skinny kid teased and was bullied, and was left with wounds so deep, they couldn’t be seen. But that didn’t stop his dreams of becoming a superhero doing superhuman feats, and looked to the biggest superhero he knew-his father.

“My dad said you can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be. I knew what I wanted to do-I wanted to do magic. Real feats. I wanted to do the impossible. I wanted to be amazing.”

After being amazed while watching fire-eaters and sword swallowers -- first as a child watching circus sideshows in Indiana, and later as a missionary witnessing Indian fakirs in India -- Meyer became passionate about learning the incredible feats himself.

"My hope is that I can challenge others to think beyond the obvious, stretch beyond their limitations, dream bigger than they ever thought possible and dare to do the impossible in their lives.”

For the non-believers in the audience, Meyer had a member come up and not only wield a sword before using it, but remove it from Meyer’s mouth. On this day, Jessica Gath was that lucky audience member.

“I was nervous, but it was awesome,” she said afterwards, and verifying that everything seemed real. “It seemed real to me.”

Despite a close call with a near-fatal injury while swallowing 5 swords at once, and fighting cancer, Meyer enjoys inspiring audiences with incredible feats. “I enjoy performing real feats that people think are impossible to demonstrate how incredible God made the human body, and to inspire people to do the impossible in their lives.”

There is another chance to catch Meyer’s show at the Alaska State Fair as he will be performing throughout the weekend and Monday, August 25 at the Bluebonnet Stage on the Yellow Trail. Shows are at 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.