How does the magic trick “sword swallowing work”
In: Biology
Penn Jilette (half of the Penn & Teller magic act) has a description that fits pretty well here: he likes to compare magic to juggling, since he started out doing juggling and other circus acts. He likes to say that a magician says “I’m gonna do this” and then doesn’t actually do that, they do something else instead. While a juggler says “I’m gonna do this” and then actually does it.
In this case, sword swallowing is a lot like juggling, and not like a magic trick. A professional sword swallower tells you that the sword is going right down their throat, and they aren’t lying to you. There are ways to do it with trick swords where the blade retracts somewhat into the hilt, but a real sword swallower will often allow a volunteer to check their sword to make sure that it’s legitimately just a long piece of metal without any tricky bells or whistles.
The only “trick” to it is practice; the sword swallower has to learn to relax their throat and properly drop the sword in straight (or follow the curve of the sword, if they’re using a bendy one) to avoid injury. And the sword itself has to be properly lubricated to make sure that it slides down easily and can be pulled out without incident.
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