'I'm not an early riser because I'm a night person. I don't get out of bed until about 11am. I have a show in Las Vegas at the Greek Isles Hotel and Casino that finishes just after midnight so I don't get to bed until 3am. After the show I'll go home, check my e-mail and do some work on the book I'm writing called Weird Nevada. There's a whole series of books coming out. It started with Weird New Jersey and now [the creators are] doing one for every state. There's a lot of paranormal stuff, strange creatures, UFO sightings, but also people whose houses are made out of bottles, things like that.
I've always been interested in things and people on the fringes of society. I used to put out a magazine called Off the Deep End, which was all about flying saucers, conspiracies and stuff like that. I'm always collecting information about strange things. I also spend a lot of time accumulating information and knowledge about the acts I do. I work five days a week and have Wednesdays and Thursdays off. During the day I'm involved in promoting and advertising the show.
I'm not a great eater. I'll grab a snack when I can during the day. Because of my hours I don't follow
regular meal times.
I'll get to the casino at 8pm to begin setting things up. The show starts at 9pm and runs for about three hours. The first half is me on a bed of nails with four people standing on my chest, then I'll eat some fire and broken glass. I've had to tone it down because some people were put off by the skewers through the cheeks. It's ironic: once a year I appear in this huge Halloween show at a theme park in southern California performing to people of all ages. The organisers say to me, 'Bring it on, give it all you've got!' At the casino you have to be over 21 to get in and they're telling me to tone it down.
The second half of the show is a celebrity ghost tour around Las Vegas; celebrities that won't leave or famous houses where there has been a tragedy. We have [comedian] Redd Foxx's house, haunted by Redd himself. Elvis Presley is supposed to haunt the Hilton - it was always a rumour around town among the people working at casinos. Then [Las Vegas-based entertainer] Wayne Newton, who knew Elvis, confirmed it in his autobiography. That was a strange confirmation.
I started eating fire at 17 and the puncture thing started in junior high school. I'd been reading about it for a while and I was in this home-economics lesson having a sewing class and I said to my classmates, 'Hey, you want to see something?' and shoved a few sewing needles through the skin of my arm and pulled them out the other side. Some people were impressed and some were shocked. The teacher got to hear about it and I learned quickly that I should not do this at school. You've heard the expression 'Don't try this at home'? Well, definitely don't try it at school because you'll get into trouble.
