By: Samantha Brazeau-Wilson
Goldfish, light bulbs and spare change are all common items found around someone’s home. But for Stevie Starr, ‘The Human Regurgitator’, they can be found in his stomach.
The free event was hosted by the Students’ Association in the Observatory on Oct. 18. After a brief delay due to an unexpected fire drill, Starr began swallowing and regurgitating various items with little effort.
First it was a small light bulb followed by 10 loonies, lemon dish detergent and cigarette smoke, all of which stayed in his stomach for nearly 10 minutes before being regurgitated again. Starr invited a volunteer on stage to feed him the coins and described himself as a slot machine.
Each coin came popping out of his mouth, no more wet than it was when it went in.
“Shit, was I popular at school,” said Starr. “I started swallowing shit when I was about five or six and I used to swallow the chalk and the teacher would look at me, ‘Stevie, chalk please.’ ‘What colour do you want today, miss?’ Then I would cough up the colours.”
Other objects that Starr swallowed include a yellow pool ball and butane gas, also known as lighter fluid. After he sprayed nearly a whole can of the gas into his mouth, Starr blew flames out several times, even scorching the hair off of his arm. He showed both arms to the audience, one was bald and the other had a regular amount of hair on it. He said that it happened nearly every day, but that it never hurts.
The show closed with the most anticipated regurgitation of the show. Starr had picked several women from the audience, swallowed their rings and told them whoever’s ring came out last, would be under a hypnotic trance, and would swallow a whole, live goldfish with him. Jade Gilkes, second-year firefighting and bartending student, was the last woman standing.
“I was trying to convince myself not to be hypnotized,” said Gilkes. She described the entire experience as “terrifying.”
Starr revealed that he was only kidding about making her swallow the fish and continued to do so himself, spitting both fish back into their tank once he was done. Both fish came out alive and unharmed and continued swimming around in the water.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Gilkes “but it’s right in front of you so you have to believe it.”