A Closer Look: Dan Meyer

Name: Dan Meyer

Job: President/Chief Executive Director

Association: Sword Swallowers Association International (SSAI)

Meeting or Event: We have meetings around the world, to go where our members live. We combine our event in the U.S. with the Annual Inkin’ the Valley Tattoo Convention, which draws thousands, and the Annual Sideshow Gathering, which includes several hundred professional performers, veterans, historians and aficionados.

Agenda: The usual sessions for association conventions — rules, regulations, records — are interspersed with breakout demonstration sessions for the general public, such as fire-eating, glass eating and the human blockhead (in which nails or knifes are driven into the head).

Favorite Planning Tool or Resource: Fly by the seat of your pants. It’s just good old experience. What’s worked, what hasn’t. Listen to your industry.

Best advice for a fellow planner: Create a draw … What we did right off the bat was to have a big Guinness World Record event every year. It became the central focus of the weekend, attracting other sword swallowers, which attracted the media, which then attracted more competitors and more people who wanted to watch … it’s symbiotic. Each year, there is another attempt to break The Big Swallow Mass World Record.

Unusual Fact: Received the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine at Harvard University. International
Sword Swallowers Awareness Day is held during National Swallowing Awareness Month (every February) to recognize sword swallowers contributions to medical science and medical research since 1868.

Dan Meyers is an avid historical researcher and collector and is recognized as the world’s foremost authority on the ancient art of sword swallowing. He has presented live performances, high profile stunts, motivational talks, medical demonstrations and media appearances around the world. More information is available at: cuttingedgeinnertainment.com.