is for Queen of the Fire Eaters, Jo Girardelli.
In England during the 1810's, there was a woman who traveled around, defying the laws that govern flame and heat. Billed as the Incombustible Lady, she ultimately became known as the Queen of the Fire Eaters. The name she gave people, though, was Jo Girardelli, and she was born in Italy.
We've all seen some manner of act that involves breathing fire. I saw one up close at a Greek restaurant a month or two ago. Typically, the flames don't actually come too near the mouth, as it involves spitting out a combustible fluid through a flame. Rarer is the fire eater, but they usually have the same gimmick.
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| Fire eater (obviously not Jo, as there are no photos of her) By Ryan Amos (originally posted to Flickr as Fire-eater) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
However, Jo didn't just do this. No, she put molten lead in her mouth and pulled it out in solid form. She swished nitric acid around in her mouth and spit it onto iron so the audience could see it eating away at the iron. She'd put boiling oil in her mouth after showing it could cook an egg. Her tongue and mouth never appeared to be burned. In fact, she let people examine her, and she was fine.
It wasn't just her mouth that was resistant to extreme heat. She liked to play with flame and show that it didn't burn her. This usually involved candles, touching the flame, running it along her arms. She'd heat a metal object in a flame and press it to her body, even lick it. Now, think back to the molten lead she'd put in her mouth. Apparently, she would scoop this up with her hand and put it in her mouth, all without burning herself.
How was Jo able to do these things without harm or injury? She said she had a secret formula, but no one has found anything that could withstand the tests she put herself through, even to this day. Not one skeptic was ever able to find out how she might be using a trick to do this.
Was she genetically impervious to flame? An alien (oh boy, I know you guys missed the aliens!)? Someone from another world or alternate universe? Had she trained her body to withstand the flame and caustic materials?
May you find your Muse.
*Letter Q courtesy of Yamilia, clker.com
