Mr. Methane
Encyclopedia
Paul Oldfield, born in Macclesfield
Macclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...

, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, North West England
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

, is better known by his stage name Mr. Methane. He is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

  flatulist or "professional farter" who started performing in 1991; he briefly retired in 2006 but re-started in mid-2007; he claims to be the only performing professional flatulist in the world. He has worked on railroads before focusing on his flatulence performances.

Background

According to When Will I Be Famous? (2003), a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 book on British variety acts, Oldfield discovered his ability at the age of fifteen when practising yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

. The next day he performed twenty rapid fire rasping farts in under a minute for a group of his friends. It became so popular he made it into a regular event.

In the late 1980s, Oldfield turned professional, performing as an opening act for the Macclesfield-based bands The Screaming Beavers and The Macc Lads. The latter wrote a song about him on their album The Beer Necessities. Oldfield subsequently traveled to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, USA, where he appeared as a guest on the Howard Stern Show
Howard Stern Show
The Howard Stern Show is an American radio show hosted by its namesake Howard Stern. It gained wide recognition in the 1990s when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005...

as the "British Blaster". While in New York, Mr. Methane also performed a series of farts on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

.

In July 2004 Q magazine voted Mr. Methanes album mr methane.com the second most bizarre album ever released in a Q special edition entitled "The 150 Greatest Rock Lists Ever".

In 2009 Oldfield auditioned for Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...

, where he announced his intention to "put the art into fart", but failed to make it through to the live finals, after being "buzzed" out by all three judges - despite two of them, Morgan & Holden, laughing uncontrollably - and received negative reaction from some of the audience - other audience members are visibly seen to be in hysterics - in less than two minutes during his flatulist performance of the Blue Danube waltz, with Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...

 calling him "a disgusting creature". That same year, Mr. Methane also auditioned for Das Supertalent
Das Supertalent
Das Supertalent is the German talent show and part of the internationally successful Got Talent franchise, presented by Marco Schreyl, who was joined by Daniel Hartwich from the second season onwards...

in Germany, but was eliminated in the semi-finals.

Books

  • Featured in Jennings, Charles (7 Dec 1995). "Up North - Travels Beyond The Watford Gap". Abacus. ISBN-10: 0349106851 / ISBN-13: 978-0349106854. Page 51.
  • Chapter on Mr Methane in Kelner, Martin (12 June 2003). When Will I Be Famous. BBC Books. ISBN 0563487771 / ISBN 978-0563487777
  • Featured in Foster, Tim (1 November 2007). Superman's Pockets. FiveFootSix. ISBN 0955704006 / ISBN 978-0955704000
  • There is a lengthy chapter on Mr. Methane called "The Man With the Singing Sphincter" in Jim Dawson
    Jim Dawson
    Jim Dawson is a Hollywood, California-based author and self-proclaimed "fartologist" who has written three books about farting, including the best-selling 'Who Cut the Cheese?'-Biography:...

    's 2006 book Blame It on the Dog: A Modern History of the Fart. Ten Speed Press
    Ten Speed Press
    Ten Speed Press is a publishing house founded in Berkeley, California in 1970. Philip Wood, founder and publisher, began his career with Barnes & Noble in 1962 and in 1965 at Penguin books...

     ISBN 978-1-58008-751-3

Footnotes

Guardian G2 Page 14
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/jul/23/edinburghfestival.comedy

July 2004 THE 150 GREATEST ROCK LISTS, Q special edition in the UK and a MOJO special edition overseas, including the USA. Page 06. mrmethane.com CD voted No2 in a chart of The 20 Most Bizarre Albums.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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