Johnny Fox (performer)
Johnny Fox (1953 – December 17, 2017) was an American professional sword swallower and sleight of hand expert.[1][2]
Early life
Fox was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota,[3] and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He saw his first sword swallower at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was eight or nine years old.[2][4] At approximately the same age, his father gave him a book about Harry Houdini which inspired Fox—substituting spaghetti—to recreate the magician's trick of swallowing a key on a string and then regurgitating it.[4]
Performance career
Fox began performing magic and comedy while working as a waiter in Saint Petersburg, Florida.[5] He learned sleight-of-hand in the 1970s from Tony Slydini, an Italian magician known as "the Master of Misdirection".[2] In his early twenties, Fox was performing in Boulder, Colorado, when he heard that his act had been stolen by a competing magician.[4] He was inspired to begin swallowing swords in order to have "an act people couldn't copy easily".[4] It took him eight months to master the technique, although he injured himself on several occasions learning it.[4] Fox estimated in 1999 he was one of only twenty professional sword swallowers in the United States, noting there were many more than when he began.[4][5]
Fox could swallow up to 22 inches of steel.[5] Besides swallowing regular swords, his act included swallowing a retractable tape measure, a giant screwdriver and a neon glowing sword plugged into an outlet.[4] His act also included eating fire-until he learned that the chemicals used in the trick could seep into his liver.[2]
Fox appeared at such venues as comedy clubs, casinos, and tattoo conventions, as well as special events such as an Aerosmith album release party.[4][5] His television appearances include the Late Show with David Letterman, a 1992 Jonathan Winters television special, and a Maalox commercial in which he swallowed light bulbs.[4][5][6]He was featured in the 2003 documentary Traveling Sideshow: Shocked and Amazed by Jeff Krulik.[5]
Although he performed among other acts presented throughout the weekend-long festival, following entertainment by the band, Radio-Free Carmela [1] on May 1, 2009, Fox was honored as the featured performer at the opening ceremony of the annual Avenida de Colores, [2] a festival of chalk painting by professional artists from around the world and talented local school children on closed streets in historic Burns Square in Sarasota.[7] His act also closed the festival.
Fox was the resident sword-swallower at the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, and performed there since 1981.[5] He began performing at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, New York in 1997.[8] He occasionally worked as a consultant for other sideshow artists.[2]
Freakatorium
In June 1999, Fox opened the Freakatorium, El Museo Loco, a museum of side show curiosities, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.[2] In the face of low numbers of visitors and rising rent, the museum was closed in January 2005.[2] Fox was partly inspired to open the museum by his childhood visits to Hubert's Museum and Flea Circus in Times Square.[2] His collection of oddities includes narwhal tusks, an elephant's-foot liquor chest, a two-headed turtle, a vest owned by General Tom Thumb, and the glass eye of Sammy Davis, Jr..[2]
Personal life
Fox married his wife, Valeria, an Argentine dancer and photographer, while they were atop elephants in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2002.[9] They resided in Seymour, Connecticut.[2]
In the fall of 2016, Fox was diagnosed with hepatitis-C and cirrhosis of the liver and tumors.[10] Then, in the winter of 2016, Fox slipped on black ice at his home in Connecticut which, combined with his liver problems, put him in a coma for several days.[10] After waking up from his coma, he received treatment in a cancer treatment facility in Arizona which specialized in alternative medicine[10], and created a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of the treatments.[11] By the fall of 2017, Fox had recovered enough to return to performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.[10]
Fox died on Sunday, December 17, 2017 at 2:00AM after a battle with liver cancer.[1]
References
- ^ a b http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/obituaries/ac-cn-sword-swallower-20171217-story.html
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Feuer, Alan. "Pickled Piglets and Other Curiosities, in Exile." The New York Times, 2005-06-04, p. B1.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20110909222456/http://www.johnnyfox.com/bio.html
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Louie, Elaine (1999-06-06). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LOWER EAST SIDE; A Man Who Lives by the Sword". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g Montgomery, David. "Strange Attraction: As Sideshows Vanish from the Midway, a Film Recalls Their Glory Days." The Washington Post, 2003-10-24, p. C1.
- ^ "Open Up and Say AHHH!" CNN Live Today. 2002-09-03
- ^ Sarasota History Alive! This Week Newsletter - April 29, 2009
- ^ Murphy, Justin. "Fare thee well for 2011." The Citizen (Auburn), 2011-08-22.
- ^ Lee, Jennifer. "A Sword-Swallowing Collector Closes an Odd Little Museum." The New York Times, 2005-01-01, p. B6.
- ^ a b c d Boyle, Tara (14 October 2017). "Sword Swallower Makes Triumphant Return As He Battles Severe Health Issues". National Public Radio All Things Considered. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
- ^ Fox, Johnny. "Johnny Fox's GoFundMe page". gofundme.com.