Despite the rejection, repeated showings of the Idol clip turned Hung into a cult star. Soon, ‘The Real American Idol’ was giving off-key performances on talk shows ranging from the Today Show to the Tonight Show, singing at a nationally televised NBA game, and sharing the stage with the likes of Janet Jackson, Outkast, and Lenny Kravitz at the Wango Tango Music Festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. He signed a contract with Koch Entertainment and recorded an album, Inspiration, that sold more than 200,000 copies – outselling the debut album by Idol’s season one runner-up, Justin Guarini.
– B.F.
10 Most Unusual Variety Acts of All Time, by Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay is an author, actor, sleight-of-hand artist and scholar of the unusual. Most of the performers listed here are included in his histories of remarkable entertainers, Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women and Jay’s Journal of Anomalies.
(In no particular order)
1 TOMMY MINNOCK Shortly before the end of the nineteenth century, this ‘human horse’, a subject able to withstand excruciating pain, was literally nailed to a cross in a Trenton, New Jersey, music hall. While he was crucified he regaled the audience with his rendition of the popular tune ‘After the Ball Is Over’.
2 THEA ALBA This German schoolgirl wrote with both hands, both feet and her mouth, simultaneously; for a finale she wrote 10 different numerals at the same time with pieces of chalk extending from pointers on each of her fingers.
3 DANIEL WILDMAN This eighteenth-century equestrian beekeeper rode around the circus ring on the back of a horse while swarms of bees surrounded his face then moved away to specific locations at his command.
4 MATTHEW BUCHINGER Born in Germany in 1674, this remarkable man was one of the most well-known performers of his day. He played a dozen musical instruments, danced the hornpipe, and was an expert pistol shot, bowler, calligrapher and magician. His accomplishments seem even more remarkable when one realises he stood only 28 in. high and had no arms or legs.
5 ORVILLE STAMM Billed as the ‘Strongest Boy in the World’, he played the violin with an enormous bulldog suspended from the crook of his bowing arm. As an encore he lay on the ground and a piano was placed on his chest; a keyboardist stood on his thighs and pounded out the accompaniment as Orville sang ‘Ireland Must Be Heaven ’cause Mother Comes from There’.
6 SIGNORA GIRARDELLI Entertained audiences in the early nineteenth century by cooking eggs in boiling oil held in her palm, running a red-hot poker over her limbs, and attending to baked goods while inside a blazing oven.
7 ARTHUR LLOYD Astounded vaudeville fans by producing from his capacious pockets any item printed on paper. Admission tickets to the White House, membership cards to the Communist Party, and ringside tickets to the Dempsey-Carpentier championship fight were among the 15,000 items he could instantly retrieve from his clothing.
8 JEAN ROYER A seventeenth-century native of Lyons, he swallowed an enormous quantity of water and then spewed it out in continuous graceful arcs for as long as it took to walk 200 paces or recite the 51st Psalm.
9 CLARENCE WILLARD As ‘Willard, the Man Who Grows’, he had an act that consisted of his growing six inches in height while standing next to a volunteer from the audience. A master of manipulating his body, Willard used no trick apparatus of any kind.
10 JOSEPH PUJOL ‘Le Petomane’, as he was called, was the legendary French musical farter who issued sonorous but odourless notes from his body’s most secret orifice.
Jeremy Beadle’s 20 Barmy Quiz Questions
Writer and TV presenter Jeremy Beadle first came to major public attention in 1981 when he co-hosted Game for a Laugh. Among the other series he has presented are Beadle’s About, You’ve Been Framed and Win Beadle’s Money. But before all that, Beadle was the European editor of The Book of Lists. He has a personal library of 25,000 volumes. Here Beadle displays his passion for quizzes in typical style.
1 What colour are the breasts of blue tits?
2 To which planet do Abbott & Costello travel in Abbott & Costello Go To Mars?
3 How long does morning last on the moon?
4 The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest what?
5 Built on the first level of the Eiffel Tower, where would you go to have a meal in Le Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel?
6 In England, what day followed September 2 in 1752?
7 How far down a flagpole should a flag be if it is flying at half-mast?
8 Where does Juliet stand during the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet?
9 What religion was Britain’s only Jewish prime minister?
10 What type of creature was Buffalo Bill famous for killing?
11 Is the Upper Nile north, south, east or west of the Lower Nile?
12 It was predicted Henry IV would die in Jerusalem and he did. In which town did he die?
13 In the 1948 London Olympics, what stroke was used by the first seven finishers in the 200-m breaststroke final?
14 At the time of writing, the world’s population is estimated at 6,222,336,610. Approximately how many of them live on the surface on the earth?
15 Who wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X?
16 In which city were The Plymouth Brethren founded?
17 What was the name of the character played by Clint Eastwood in the 1973 film The Man With No Name?
18 On what side of the moon is the Eastern Sea?
19 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a trilogy of how many parts?
20 Including Queen Elizabeth II, how many Queen Elizabeths of England have there been?
ANSWERS
1 Yellow
2 Venus
3 A week
4 Lake
5 New Orleans, Louisiana. The dismantled restaurant was originally on the first level of the Tower from 1937 to 1981.
6 September 14 1752 – it adopted the Gregorian calendar
7 Only the distance equal to its depth, i.e. the top edge is placed where the bottom edge should rest
8 On a floor beside an upper window. There is no mention of a balcony.
9 Christian, Benjamin Disraeli was baptised into the Church of England at the age of 12.
10 Bison – buffalo are found in Africa and India.
11 South (it’s higher – more elevated – hence its name)
12 London. He died in the Jerusalem Chapel in Westminster
