Heather Holliday, A Coney Island Sword Swallower

Miss Heather Holliday is a lovely lady who has learned the practical art of orally-ingesting bladed weapons, and she makes a point of showing it off, often. We like sword swallowers around here, and Heather’s definitely got the skills and charm of a natural stage performer. This interview is from 2008 (from ex-Wonkette producer Elizabeth Glover).

Heather Holliday
photo by edenpictures

Heather has performed at Coney Island for years and is now part of traveling troupe of vaudevillians known as Pretty Things Peepshow (who are on tour right now). She’s also on Twitter. Here’s an excerpt of her bio on Coneyisland.com:

A practicing Mormon, Heather was struck twice by lightning as a young girl growing up in Utah. While this had a profound effect on her faith, she also discovered she had the ability to absorb tremendous amounts of electricity, which bled off her fingertips, or even her tongue.

Heather Blue127

photo by romasteel

I’ve been documenting sideshow culture vintage and contemporary on my Sugarchurch blog, check it out if you dig this.

Here’s another interview with Heather…

And a video profile of The Coney Island Sideshow School featuring Heather, who teaches (taught?) there…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRomKBHGUSo

via Sugarchurch

mikl-em
Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.

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