FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


America’s Got Talent Sword Swallower to Perform at Local Event

<CITY, STATE> -- On <AWARDS NIGHT DATE>, world-renowned Sword Swallower Dan Meyer will perform at the Upward Awards Night Celebration at <CHURCH NAME>. Meyer, a multiple Guinness World Record holder and Ripley’s Believe It or Not performer who made it to the finals on America’s Got Talent, will present his unique form of “Cutting Edge Innertainment” to an audience of Upward league children, coaches, parents, families, and friends. The show is free and open to the public.
<CHURCH NAME> is hosting its Upward Unlimited Awards Night Celebration on <AWARDS NIGHT DATE>. Upward Unlimited is an evangelistic sports ministry program designed to promote character and self-esteem in kindergarten through 6th grade boys and girls, and promotes the theme “Every Child a Winner”. “Upward is a great program for teaching kids about sportsmanship, building confidence, and ultimately about the Lord,” explains Upward Coordinator <COORDINATOR NAME>. “We’re excited that Dan’s show at our Upward Awards Celebration will attract parents and family members to our church, and we invite everyone to bring their friends!” EDIT or ADD TO QUOTE>

Described as a “Christian David Copperfield” who combines real feats with a powerful message instead of just tricks and illusions, Meyer eats fire and swallows solid steel swords, blades, sabers, bayonets, rapiers, and other pointed objects from 15 to 30 inches in length and up to 15 swords at once. A 20x World Record Sword Swallower with 5 Guinness World Records and featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoons, books, and museums around the world, Meyer is known as the top sword swallower of only a few dozen sword swallowers left performing around the world today.

Meyer is best-known for wowing the judges on multiple episodes of America's Got Talent to the semi-finals in Las Vegas and the finals in Hollywood. As an extreme performer, Meyer is also known for his extreme stunts such as swallowing a red hot sword heated to 1500 degrees on Stan Lee's Superhumans and for swallowing swords underwater in a tank of sharks and stingrays for Ripley's Believe It or Not! But as President of the Sword Swallowers Association and winner of the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine at Harvard for medical research on sword swallowing injuries, Meyer is also recognized as the world's leading expert in the 4000 year old field of sword swallowing.

Despite a close call resulting in a near-fatal injury while swallowing 5 swords at once, Meyer continues to amaze audiences around the world with his family-oriented show.

Meyer’s Upward show features real shocking feats combined with light comedy and audience participation where Meyer recruits volunteers from the audience to make everyone feel like part of the show. Meyer performs extreme feats such as fire-eating, the human blockhead, and the ancient art of sword swallowing in a family-oriented stage show that is educational, inspirational, motivational, and unforgettable with a nice touch of light comedy. Once Meyer has captured the audience's attention with his extreme form of "innertainment", he then presents a powerful message to kids and adults alike. Many audience members claim his show has profoundly impacted their lives in unforgettable ways. And he makes it a point to stay after the program to meet each child personally.

“I grew up in a Christian family and made a decision to give my life over to the Lord when I was a teen. Because I grew up shy, it was awkward for me to witness to people through words alone,” Meyer explains.

“Billy Graham once said, ‘Like Jesus, we must use the ever-changing methods of communication to get out the unchanging message of God's love and forgiveness’,” Meyer explains. “My extreme ministry allows me to reach a wide audience and touch folks across a broad spectrum that other ministries might not be able to reach, from youth to yuppies, children to seniors, Goth rockers to bikers, including those who might never step foot in a church.”

“God made each person unique with their own special gifts; I use my unique ministry to let audiences know it's ok to be unique and stand for what you believe in, whatever your calling is!” Meyer continues. “I like to comfort the afflicted, as well as afflict the comfortable by performing REAL feats people think are impossible in order to prove how awesome God made the human body! I remind audiences that ALL things are possible with God, and I encourage folks to live life abundantly, with gusto... not just to sip life, but to GULP it!” he explains. “My purpose is to help others find theirs. I eat fire, swallow swords, and inspire people to do the impossible in their lives... I perform feats; but God performs miracles!"

“Just to see God using me, seeing people's faces when I perform, and knowing God is using me to impact lives is tremendously exciting to me!”

Besides performing at Ripley's Believe It or Not and Guinness World Record attractions around the world, Meyer has opened on national tour for Country artists Brooks & Dunn's Neon Circus and for numerous major Christian artists. In addition, Meyer has been featured on over 700 TV stations, 800 radio stations, 1000 newspapers and magazines, and seen by over 500 million people in 20 countries on 4 continents around the world. Meyer has been featured on programs such as America's Got Talent, Stan Lee's Superhumans, Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, History Channel, Travel Channel, USA Network, Food Network, Entertainment Tonight, SpikeTV, Daily Buzz, MTV, ESPN, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, MSNBC, CMT, WGN, NPR, PBS, BBC, CBC, CTV, ITV, NTV Russia, USA Today, Newsweek, National Geographic, Scientific American, Forbes, Nature Magazine, Science Daily, Christian Activities Magazine, NY Times, London Times, and hundreds of other media interviews.


The art of sword swallowing started over 4000 years ago in India, and requires three to ten years to learn to use mind-over-matter techniques to control the body and repress natural reflexes in order to insert solid steel blades from 15 to 25 inches down the esophagus and into the stomach. There are currently less than a few dozen full-time professional sword swallowers actively performing the ancient but deadly art of sword swallowing around the world today.

The Upward Awards Celebration program will be held on <AWARDS NIGHT DATE> at <TIME> at <CHURCH NAME>, <ADDRESS>, <CITY>, <STATE>. The event is open to Upward league children, their parents, grandparents, families, and friends. For more details on the program, contact Upward Coordinator <COORDINATOR NAME> at <TELEPHONE or EMAIL.

Upward Unlimited (www.upward.org) is based in Spartanburg, SC and offers basketball, cheerleading, soccer and flag football programs to over 400,000 children in over 2000 churches in 40 countries around the world.

Dan Meyer is based in Muncie, IN and is available for appearances through Cutting Edge INNERtainment at www.cuttingedgeinnertainment.com. For more information, call (765) 748-1999, or visit www.blue-n-gold.com/halfdan/upward.htm to check availability and schedule appearances.

For More Information:

Dan Meyer
(765) 748-1999


www.swordswallower.net
www.blue-n-gold.com/halfdan/upward.htm

www.swordswallow.com/press (Press and promotional materials)

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