Space Cowboy (performer)
Encyclopedia
The Space Cowboy is a world record-breaking sideshow, street, and freak show
performer born in Byron Bay in Australia
on 13 April 1978.
, machete
and fire torch (although recently he has been using a battle axe
, and jungle machete and a butcher knife
) whilst blindfolded on a 10-foot unicycle
, suspension (the art of dangling from hooks in your flesh), seven ball juggling
, hat manipulation
, spoon bending
, levitation of himself and other objects, sword swallowing
, psychic surgery
, Human Blockhead Trick, knife throwing
(the usual victim his girlfriend and part of his show, Zoe Ellis). His theatre act has included swallowing a 60 cm 2000-volt neon glass tube with a microphone on the end (his heart can be seen beating as the light shines through his skin from the inside).
He has also toured his "Mutant Barnyard" travelling tent show, displaying his collection of historical Freak show
items, including misshapen or deformed oddities of nature. These include his earliest item, Ditto, the two-bodied duckling, a two-headed cow named Daisy and Maisy, extreme body modification skulls from Peru and paintings of bearded women and a person with lobster hands. He regards this as a travelling "Museum Of Mutations and Oddities".
Hultgren has performed his shows in a variety of locations, including streets, theatres, the Sydney Opera House
, the Sydney Royal Easter Show
, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Glastonbury Festival
, the Adelaide Festival of Arts
, the Gentse Feesten
(Ghent Festival in Belgium), the Rotterdam
Straatfestival, the Toronto
BuskerFest, the Woodford Folk Festival
and the Edmonton
International Street Performers Festival.
twice in a row.
He has broken six world records, including most swords swallowed (17), then broke that record again, this time scoring 27 swords at the Irish Street Performance Festival (although this 27 swords record is unofficial) and on 8 February 2010 the BBC
recorded that he broke this official world record by swallowing 18 swords. He also broke the longest distance pulling 400 kg by fishhooks in his eye sockets. He also holds the record for heaviest weight lifted while swallowing a sword. Other records include most sword swallowers swallowing the same object simultaneously (the four steel legs of the same bar stool, with three other people).
Hultgren holds many "world firsts" such as first double sword swallow, first sword swallow underwater, and his signature trick "The Black and Decker Digestion Wrecker" a power drill with sword attachment which he swallows, and first person to publicly swallow a sword underwater in a tank of live sharks. He was also reported to be the youngest working sword-swallower in Australia, when he was 22 years old.
He is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians
and the Society of American Magicians
.
in his ear, a lower lip piercing and navel piercing. He also has a subdermal implant
in his chest which he acquired at the tattoo festival. It was done by "Samppa Von Cyborg" a body modification fanatic.
Due to an internal deformation medically known as congenital division of the stomach, the lower half of his stomach has been replicated and sits lower than the average human stomach, allowing him to swallow longer swords.
In 2007 Hultgren had to have emergency surgery to the nerves in his hand after a stunt in his theatre stage show in Adelaide
, Australia went wrong. During the performance he had asked an audience member to hide a sharp blade under one of five polystyrene cups. He then hit a cup hard with his hand, with the intention of avoiding the one hiding the blade. Instead, he sliced his hand open when he smashed his hand down on the wrong cup. He is reported to have stayed calm and told his audience: 'This isn't part of the show, you will have to go now'. He resumed performing at the following night's performance.
website when he broke a world record in Dublin by swallowing 27 swords decorated with the flags of all the countries in the European Union, on the day of the EU referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
In 2008, The Times
newspaper stated that the "Two-time world champion, quadruple Guinness World Record-holder, built out of muscle, tattoo ink and piercings, the Space Cowboy gathers crowds that nobody else in Edinburgh can muster without a seat on Mock the Week
."
In 2009 Hultgren appeared on the Australian television show Australia's Got Talent
. His other TV appearances include Ripley's Believe It or Not!
(USA), Don't Try This at Home
(UK), The Sideshow
(Australia), "Guinness O Mundo dos Recordes" (Spain) and "Lo show dei record" (Italian version of the Guinness World Records
show).;
In February 2010, his successful world record sword-swallowing attempt was covered by The Sun
, The Daily Mail, the BBC
, The Independent
, USA Today
, The Hindu
and many other news media around the world.
In August 2011, he was arrested while performing on the streets in New York
for "brandishing a sword in public". He was later released without charge after having his props confiscated.
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
performer born in Byron Bay in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 13 April 1978.
Act
Hultgren performs a number of acts, including juggling a sickleSickle
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
, machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
and fire torch (although recently he has been using a battle axe
Battle axe
A battle axe is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were specialized versions of utility axes...
, and jungle machete and a butcher knife
Butcher knife
A butcher knife is a knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.During the late 18th century to mid 1840s, the butcher knife was a key tool for mountain men. Simple, useful and cheap to produce, they were used for everything from skinning beaver, cutting food,...
) whilst blindfolded on a 10-foot unicycle
Unicycle
A unicycle is a human-powered, single-track vehicle with one wheel. Unicycles resemble bicycles, but are less complex.-History:One theory of the advent of the unicycle stems from the popularity of the penny-farthing during the late 19th century...
, suspension (the art of dangling from hooks in your flesh), seven ball juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
, hat manipulation
Hat manipulation
Hat manipulation is a form of juggling in which the manipulator performs feats of skill and dexterity using a brimmed hat such as a bowler hat or a top hat. Tricks can range from rolling a hat up and down the various parts of the body to throwing and catching the hat in amusing ways. Hat...
, spoon bending
Spoon bending
Spoon bending is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either without physical force, or with less force than normally necessary...
, levitation of himself and other objects, sword swallowing
Sword swallowing
Sword swallowing is an ancient performance art in which the performer passes a sword through the mouth and down the esophagus towards the stomach...
, psychic surgery
Psychic surgery
Psychic surgery is a procedure typically involving the supposed creation of an incision using only the bare hands, the supposed removal of pathological matter, and the seemingly spontaneous healing of the incision....
, Human Blockhead Trick, knife throwing
Knife throwing
Knife throwing is an art, sport, combat skill, or variously an entertainment technique, involving an artist skilled in the art of throwing knives, the weapons thrown, and a target.-A throwing knife:...
(the usual victim his girlfriend and part of his show, Zoe Ellis). His theatre act has included swallowing a 60 cm 2000-volt neon glass tube with a microphone on the end (his heart can be seen beating as the light shines through his skin from the inside).
He has also toured his "Mutant Barnyard" travelling tent show, displaying his collection of historical Freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
items, including misshapen or deformed oddities of nature. These include his earliest item, Ditto, the two-bodied duckling, a two-headed cow named Daisy and Maisy, extreme body modification skulls from Peru and paintings of bearded women and a person with lobster hands. He regards this as a travelling "Museum Of Mutations and Oddities".
Hultgren has performed his shows in a variety of locations, including streets, theatres, the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
, the Sydney Royal Easter Show
Sydney Royal Easter Show
The Sydney Royal Easter Show, also known as the Royal Easter Show or simply The Show, is an annual show held in Sydney, Australia over two weeks around Easter.It is run by the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales and was first held in 1823...
, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, the Adelaide Festival of Arts
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
, the Gentse Feesten
Gentse Feesten
The Gentse Feesten is a music and theatre festival in the city of Ghent . Besides stage events there are random small street acts such as mimickers, buskers, etc. It starts on the Saturday before July 21 and lasts ten days...
(Ghent Festival in Belgium), the Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
Straatfestival, the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
BuskerFest, the Woodford Folk Festival
Woodford Folk Festival
The Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music festival held near the small country town of Woodford, 72 km north of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events of its type in Australia....
and the Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
International Street Performers Festival.
Achievements
Hultgren has won the Street Performance World ChampionshipStreet Performance World Championship
The Street Performance World Championship is an annual competition for the best street performers in the world. Since its 2006 inaugural year, it is held at Cork, Dublin and Portlaoise in Ireland in mid-June...
twice in a row.
He has broken six world records, including most swords swallowed (17), then broke that record again, this time scoring 27 swords at the Irish Street Performance Festival (although this 27 swords record is unofficial) and on 8 February 2010 the 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...
recorded that he broke this official world record by swallowing 18 swords. He also broke the longest distance pulling 400 kg by fishhooks in his eye sockets. He also holds the record for heaviest weight lifted while swallowing a sword. Other records include most sword swallowers swallowing the same object simultaneously (the four steel legs of the same bar stool, with three other people).
Hultgren holds many "world firsts" such as first double sword swallow, first sword swallow underwater, and his signature trick "The Black and Decker Digestion Wrecker" a power drill with sword attachment which he swallows, and first person to publicly swallow a sword underwater in a tank of live sharks. He was also reported to be the youngest working sword-swallower in Australia, when he was 22 years old.
He is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians
International Brotherhood of Magicians
International Brotherhood of Magicians is the world's largest organization for professional and amateur magicians, with approximately 15,000 members worldwide. The headquarters is in St...
and the Society of American Magicians
Society of American Magicians
The Society of American Magicians is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and to maintain and improve ethical standards in the field of...
.
Physical appearance
Hultgren is well known for his tattoos, which include large angel wings on his back. People also remember him for his 19 piercings, which include nipple piercings, cartilage piercings, a flesh tunnelFlesh tunnel
A flesh tunnel is a type of body piercing jewelery. It is also sometimes referred to as a spool, fleshy, earlet, expander or eyelet.Flesh tunnels are hollow tunnels, usually used in stretched or scalpelled piercings. Flesh tunnels are made in smaller gauges however the smaller the gauge the...
in his ear, a lower lip piercing and navel piercing. He also has a subdermal implant
Subdermal implant
A subdermal implant refers to a kind of body jewelry that is placed underneath the skin, therefore allowing the body to heal over the implant and creating a raised design. These kinds of implants fall under the broad category of body modification. Many people who have these implants use them in...
in his chest which he acquired at the tattoo festival. It was done by "Samppa Von Cyborg" a body modification fanatic.
Due to an internal deformation medically known as congenital division of the stomach, the lower half of his stomach has been replicated and sits lower than the average human stomach, allowing him to swallow longer swords.
In 2007 Hultgren had to have emergency surgery to the nerves in his hand after a stunt in his theatre stage show in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Australia went wrong. During the performance he had asked an audience member to hide a sharp blade under one of five polystyrene cups. He then hit a cup hard with his hand, with the intention of avoiding the one hiding the blade. Instead, he sliced his hand open when he smashed his hand down on the wrong cup. He is reported to have stayed calm and told his audience: 'This isn't part of the show, you will have to go now'. He resumed performing at the following night's performance.
Media coverage
In June 2008 Hultgren was featured on the cover of national newspapers in the UK and Ireland, and on the BBCBBC
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...
website when he broke a world record in Dublin by swallowing 27 swords decorated with the flags of all the countries in the European Union, on the day of the EU referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
In 2008, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper stated that the "Two-time world champion, quadruple Guinness World Record-holder, built out of muscle, tattoo ink and piercings, the Space Cowboy gathers crowds that nobody else in Edinburgh can muster without a seat on Mock the Week
Mock the Week
Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...
."
In 2009 Hultgren appeared on the Australian television show Australia's Got Talent
Australia's Got Talent
Australia's Got Talent is an Australian reality television talent show which premiered on 18 February 2007 on the Seven Network. The show was based on the Got Talent series format that originated in the United Kingdom with Simon Cowell...
. His other TV appearances include Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
(USA), Don't Try This at Home
Don't Try This at Home (TV series)
Don't Try This At Home was a reality show produced by LWT with Golden Square Pictures and broadcast on ITV between 16 May 1998 and 1 September 2001. It took up the slot of the Saturday challenge game show slot left by its long running and more sedate predecessor You Bet!...
(UK), The Sideshow
The Sideshow
The Sideshow was an Australian television programme that was broadcast on ABC TV in 2007. The show was a mixture of stand-up comedy, sketches, live music, circus stunts, cabaret and burlesque. The hour long show was hosted by Paul McDermott...
(Australia), "Guinness O Mundo dos Recordes" (Spain) and "Lo show dei record" (Italian version of the Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
show).;
In February 2010, his successful world record sword-swallowing attempt was covered by The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, The Daily Mail, the 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...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
and many other news media around the world.
In August 2011, he was arrested while performing on the streets in 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...
for "brandishing a sword in public". He was later released without charge after having his props confiscated.
External links
- http://www.myspace.com/freakshowwonder
- http://www.thespacecowboy.com.au/