Interview from 2006

A blast from the past.... this interview appeared in The Charleston Gazette in 2006
       
Q. What is your skill?
       
A. I am called The Torture King. That's the traditional sideshow title for people that do what I do. I do things like laying on sharp objects with people standing on top or breaking objects on top of me and putting sharp wires through my body - not just through the skin, but all the way through muscle. I do very extreme demonstrations. I have a skewer going into my mouth and going out underneath my jaw - that's one of the things I'm known for.
      
Q. Ow! Doesn't that hurt?
      
A. It appears that I would hurt myself doing what I do, but I come through it without pain - that's the point of the act. If it hurt me, I wouldn't be able to do it every day. And with the show we're doing now, I do it multiple times per day. It's more about healing and self-control over the body and mind than anything else.       
Q. How in the world did you learn that you could do this?
       
A. It was a very slow process. I was fascinated by things like this when I was growing up. I grew up in a small town, so I naively believed that people in bigger cities were still doing it. I quickly learned that was not the case, but I kept learning and researching. [Torture performance] is an obscure subject, so it took me many, many years to accumulate my knowledge, but once I began to put that knowledge into practice, it became easier to learn and achieve stunts."
       
Q. Have you ever had someone puke or pass out watching the show?
       
A. As far as that goes, it's pretty much expected. We have a speech on "How to prevent this from happening." Women usually have the sense to look away. It's the macho guy in the leather jacket that ends up being the one to pass out. I'm usually not aware of it except that a big open area appears in the crowd. Puking isn't as common.
       
Q. In contrast to your stage persona, what's the most normal thing about you?
       
A. It depends on what you consider normal. I'm actually the contributing editor for a book called "Weird Nevada" published by Barnes & Noble, so I'm doing lots of research and scholarly stuff. I don't know if that's normal, but it's certainly different from what people think I should be like, given my profession. Because of the shocking nature of my act, people expect me to be completely over the top, but the truth is, I'd rather be at the library doing research then going to a bar and getting wild.

Charleston Gazette (WV)-August 3, 2006

The Charleston Gazette
http://www.wvgazette.com/

Info about the book Weird Las Vegas and Nevada.
http://zamora.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html#8127998723011887163