The Ten Craziest And Most Death-Defying Stage Acts Of All Time
The acts that are so crazy it beggars belief anyone would even think to try them let alone enact them
Since the dawn of mankind, humans have done crazy stuff as a means of entertaining people. From throwing knives blindfolded at a moving target, to shooting live bullets at a magician, to much much more.
But some acts are so crazy that it beggars belief that anyone would even think to try them. In this post, I present to you ten of those acts.
Disclaimer: definitely do not try these at home.
Frank “Cannonball” Richards
Frank “Cannonball” Richards is one of those people that if anybody told you about them, you would think that the guy was made up.
This is for two reasons, firstly, it is virtually incomprehensible to think that anybody would sit around and think to themselves: I wonder if I could survive having a cannonball shot at me from point-blank range. Secondly, it is virtually beyond belief to think that anyone could survive being shot at from point range by a cannon.
Frank Richards, not only sat around and thought it a good idea, he enacted it and survived it. That means this guy’s act was getting shot at from point-blank range, with a cannon.
When he wasn’t getting shot at by a cannon, his act was letting people jump on his stomach, letting people hit him in the stomach with a sledgehammer, letting people punch him in the stomach as hard as they humanely can.
The list goes on.
I’ve heard of having balls of steel, but this guy had a stomach of steel.
Rossa Matilda Richter — The Human Cannonball
Whereas Frank Richards had cannonballs fired at him, Rossa Matilda Richter, who went by the stage name Zazel, was the cannonball.
And not just any cannonball at that, she was the first-ever human cannonball. At the age of just fourteen, she climbed into a spring-powered metal device known as the Great Farini, and in front of a large crowd was launched somewhere between thirty and seventy feet into the air — estimates vary.
She went on to become a highly accomplished performer, but tragically had her career cut short in 1891, after she fell and broke her back while performing in New Mexico.
Aloys Peters — The Man with the Iron Neck
Have you ever sat around and thought to yourself that it would be a good idea to go bungee-jumping with a noose around your neck?
Aloys Peters, or the Great Peters as he was known, did think just that. During the 1930s, he equally thrilled and terrified audiences with his extraordinarily dangerous yet undeniably mind-blowing “Hangman’s Act.”
Peters would climb seventy-five feet to a rigging suspended in the air, where he would then place an elasticized rope with a noose around his neck, before swan diving to the ground.
He successfully performed the stunt for over a decade before tragically dying at the age of forty-five in 1943 went something wrong during the act and his neck broke — over five thousand spectators were in attendance at the time.
Monsieur Mangetout — the man who ate a Cessna 150 aircraft
Michel Lotito, who was known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mr Eat-All), is one of those people who you simply could not make up.
Holder of the Guinness world record for strangest diet, his public career began in 1966, and his act was eating substances that you most definitely would not think edible. Substances which should either poison you or destroy your stomach and yet somehow with him it did neither.
He ate metal, glass, rubber and much more. Bicycles, shopping carts, televisions, the list goes on.
By 1997 it is estimated that he had eaten nearly nine tons of metal. Famously, or perhaps infamously, he ate an entire Cessna 150 aircraft. It took him two years.
This is not your conventional type of death-defying, but find another person who could stomach what he could stomach and you’ll find a very rare person indeed.
LaRoche — la Sphere Mystérieuse
Leon Rauche, a late 19th-century Austrian acrobat and contortionist who went by the stage name LaRoche, had an act that was perhaps not as death-defying as others but it was as mystifying.
It was called La Sphere Mystérieuse, and would involve a thirty-foot high spiral track — think a helter-skelter. Rauche would get into a metal ball — which was about two feet in diameter — that ball would then somehow magically start ascending the track, seemingly under its own volition.
At the top, a pair of hands holding flags shot out of holes to prove he was still inside the ball. The ball would then descend just as smoothly as it had ascended, and Rauche would emerge to much applause.
Even now people have no idea how he did it.
Harry Houdini — Chinese Water Torture Cell
No list of death-defying acts would ever be complete without the legendary Harry Houdini in it. And arguably no act that Houdini did was more death-defying than the Chinese Water Torture Cell.
This act basically involved Houdini being tied up upside down and then dropped into a tank of overflowing water.
Once locked in Houdini had minutes to escape otherwise he would drown, and escape Houdini did. Every time.
Isaac Van Amburgh — The Great Lion Tamer
Isaac A. Van Amburgh. Back in the early to mid 1800s this guy was extremely popular in both the US and across the British Empire.
However, he is a guy that in the modern world is most definitely not likely to be popular. But the daring of his act — even if that daring was as a result of extreme animal cruelty — cannot be disputed.
Van Amburgh would enter the cage in ancient Roman gear and basically taunt his collection of lions, tigers and leopards, forcing them to stand on his shoulders and let him ride on their backs.
He would also for his grand finale soak his arm or his head in blood and thrust it between a lion’s gaping jaws.
He gained worldwide fame as a result of this, despite the brutality of his training methods being well known — perhaps reminding us all of just how brutal the world used to be.
Note: Van Amburgh was one of the few lion tamers of the times that did not get killed by a lion, proving that alas not everyone gets their comeuppance.
Mademoiselle Octavie LaTour — the Dip of Death
I introduce you to Mademoiselle Octavie LaTour, real name Mauricia De Tiers.
De Tiers was a lady stunt driver from the early 20th century who performed an extraordinarily daring act — even more so when you consider that at the time automobiles were a brand-new technology.
Her act, the Dip of Death, saw her drive a small car upside down before doing a reverse somersault over a twenty-foot crevice at the end.
Just to really put this in context, think about the type of cars they had back then. Then think about spinning upside down and doing flips in one. Then imagine doing this twice a day.
The stunt was so dangerous that De Tiers told local newspapers that she fully expected to die as a result of it.
Which sadly she did while performing it in Lisbon, Portugal.
Lillian Leitzel — The Queen of Aerial Gymnasts
Lillian Leitzel was once voted the most attractive and beautiful woman in the world, but it was not her looks that made audiences come to see her. It was her skills as an aerialist.
She was the star of the twentieth century golden age of circus, and for good reason.
Her act consisted of acrobatic tricks and poses which she performed without a safety net below, despite the fact she was hanging from Roman rings suspended 50 feet above the ground.
Even crazier, for her grand finale, she would grasp the ring with one hand and flip head over heels so rapidly that her arm would dislocate and then snap back into place with each turn.
To say that this was a woman with both talent and guts by the bucket load would be an understatement.
Sadly though, she was another whose life ended in tragedy, dying in 1931 as a result of one of the handles snapping and her plummeting to the ground.
Lillian La France — the Wall of Death
Lillian La France, real name Agnes Micek, was one of the first female motorcycle stunt drivers. She was also one of the most popular of her time — and that goes for both male and female riders.
She was at her most popular in the 1920s, mainly as a result of her ability to ride the Wall of Death — a barrel-shaped wooden cylinder, where motorcyclists, or drivers of miniature automobiles, travel along vertical walls and perform stunts, held in place by only friction and centrifugal force.
She wore aviator goggles, jodhpurs, and a jersey with a skull-and-crossbones design, and was known as “The Girl Who Flirts with Death.”
Considering her act, it’s understandable why she was given such a moniker. She was also cool well before being cool was even a thing.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading! And if you found this post of interest you may also enjoy the following:
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