Original subtitles

Not every couple faces death together on a regular basis.

Whoo!

Smith: I throw the playing cards so fast and accurate

That it could slice through a body.

Andrews: If you puncture your stomach,

You have 20 minutes to live at that point.

[ sizzling ]

I think is something I was born with.

I think it's something that is just a god-given talent.

I didn't know how dangerous it was. I almost died.

James: There's a freedom there when you can manipulate

Your body in ways that you're only limited to with your mind.

♪♪

Campbell: 100 ago, robert ripley went on a quest

To the farthest reaches of the globe

In search of the extraordinary and unusual.

Today, the adventure continues,

Searching the world's most bizarre,

Astonishing secrets...

...On "ripley's believe it or not!"

♪♪

You know it when you see it.

Uncanny ability, outrageous talent,

The daring, the strange to the bizarre.

I'm bruce campbell.

Get ready for these natural-born thrillers.

What you're about to witness

Is hard to comprehend with the naked eye.

Only in super slow motion can you really appreciate

The talent that rick smith was dealt.

I am the world record holder for throwing playing cards.

Campbell: He's mastered all sorts of mind-blowing tricks

With a standard deck of cards.

But today, he's pushing his skill to a whole new level,

Attempting to sever a tiny olive mid-toss

From halfway across the room.

Believe it...

Or not.

At just 1.8 grams,

Not much heavier than a couple of bumblebees,

A playing card hardly seems like a dangerous object,

But with the snap of his wrist, this cleveland, ohio, native

Can turn them into daggers.

When I was 7 years old, my dad showed me a magic trick.

My uncle showed me a coin trick, and basically, I tried to learn

As much as tricks as I possibly could to start fooling them,

But I learned how to throw playing cards by accident.

I played baseball.

I was an ncaa pitcher in college,

And we used to have these sock wars.

Well, one day, I got hit with a sock

But I didn't have a sock to throw in return.

I pulled out my deck of playing cards.

I put the card in between my two fingers, brought it back,

And I snapped my wrist downwards just like I would throw a ball.

He threw a card at me, and it hit me in the leg,

And actually cut me through my baseball pants.

Smith: I didn't even think anything of it

Until one of my friends brought in a world-record book.

And he showed me the world record

For throwing a playing card.

At the time, it was 201 feet.

Campbell: In March of 2002...

-There it is. -Rick gets his big chance

To break that record

At the cleveland state convention center.

-216. -Oh, yeah.

That's the record!

216 feet is 72 yards,

More than half the length of a football field,

An astonishing breakthrough almost 150 years in the making.

Back in the 1870s, card throwing was first popularized

By french magician alexander herrmann,

Better known as herrmann the great.

The herrmann grip, as it became known,

Involves gripping the middle of a playing card

Horizontally between the thumb and the middle finger

While the index finger rests on the corner of the card

Nearest the hand and away from the body.

Man: Oh!

The wrist is cocked inward at a 90-degree angle

Then flicked briskly outward, launching the card.

It should slice through the air perfectly flat,

Minimizing any air resistance that might slow it down.

With his prowess as a pitcher, rick brings a unique spin.

His ability to throw a nasty curve ball

Gives his technique an edge.

Smith: I found out that I can throw the playing card so fast

And accurate that just a regular paper playing card

Could slice through a cucumber,

A carrot, a light bulb, a soda can.

When I was a freshman in high school,

I started working with him during the summer.

It was very impressive.

He was throwing cards 92 miles an hour.

I definitely never move.

Sometimes I'll flinch if he does throw it really fast.

Campbell: At that blazing speed, one bad throw,

And courtney could cut her face or lose an eye.

Marchak: I trust him, but it's still terrifying.

♪♪

Rick has proven that he can throw long,

Fast, and accurately,

But now, he's really testing his ability --

Setting his sights on a moving object

That's less than an inch long.

Smith: So there's a lot of things that go into this.

I have to watch when the olive is released.

I have to release the card at the exact moment

And slice the olive in half in midair.

Campbell: Rick carefully takes stock,

Calculations spinning through his mind.

Just seeing him practice and throw some things around

Kind of makes you a little scared at what damage

They can actually do.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Marchak: He took magic, he took baseball,

Joined the two things, and made a living off of it.

I get to travel the world doing magic tricks,

Making people happy,

So I feel that I have been given this talent,

And I get to share it with the world.

♪♪

Rick smith harnessed his golden arm into a platinum career,

But not all greatness comes quite that naturally.

♪♪

Most of us would never even attempt this,

Chancing death with every single step.

But kimberly weglin isn't like most of us.

Some of the most rewarding things in life

Come out of being uncomfortable.

Campbell: Believe it or not,

Her life's pursuit is also her greatest fear.

Now she's about to take on her biggest thrill

And greatest nightmare at the same time --

A wedding ceremony 400 feet in the air

That could easily kill her

And her husband-to-be before anybody says, "I do."

[ screaming ]

♪♪

When I was little, I was so terrified of heights.

I still am scared all the time.

Campbell: But five years ago, kimberly decided to face

Her fears through the sport of slacklining.

It was a safe way for me to push past my fear of heights

Without having to, like, stand on the edge of a cliff

And look down and hope it gets better.

Then I saw a photo of highlining,

And I was just blown away.

Highlining is when you take that piece of webbing,

And you put it really high up in the air,

And you wear a leash,

And you walk thousands of feet in the air.

Aaaah!

When I first started, it felt awful.

It completely shuts your body down,

And you don't have control over your body.

It's the most primal, instinctual reaction.

Everything in your body is telling you to not be up there.

Campbell: The reaction to fear starts in the amygdala

Deep inside the brain.

Once the amygdala detects danger,

It triggers stress hormones,

Pupils dilate, breathing accelerates,

Heart rate and blood pressure rise.

The body is prepared for fight or flight.

Not exactly conducive to balancing

On a 1-inch-wide strip of nylon.

In the early days, kimberly would have panic attacks.

And she would just sit there because it's so much emotion.

Your body is screaming, "don't do this."

-Whoo! -Aah!

Weglin: Every weekend, falling, falling, falling.

-Whoo! -Oh, my god.

Aaah!

Bruised up, crying, hyperventilating.

-Whoo! -Aaah!

Oh, my god.

You learn a lot about what you're made of and what you do

And how you react when times get tough.

Like, are you going to tap out, or are you going to keep going?

You know, are you going to finish what you started,

Or are you going to quit and leave the edge?

Jenks: So when I saw kim come down the aisle, it was like,

"this is it." this is a magical moment.

Everyone has got to die somehow.

Campbell: Fewer than five performers in the world

Currently swallow swords with a 90-degree curve.

Only two, including this man,

Can swallow the 120-degree sword.

♪♪

Kimberly weglin spent a lifetime in fear, fear of heights,

But two years of nonstop life-threatening practice

On a highline begins to chip away at her acrophobia.

Weglin: It never goes away, so two years of just going out,

Rigging lines every weekend,

Spending my whole weekend falling, having panic attacks,

And that's kind of why we do it.

It's to push past that fear and to not let it control us.

-Whoo! -Oh, my god!

-Whoo! -Aah!

One day, it just clicked.

I was so scared, and I was shaking,

And then I felt the first time

I've ever felt flow state, where everything was perfect.

I stood up, and I wasn't as afraid anymore,

And I started taking steps, and I kind of shocked myself.

Oh, my god.

And then from there, it just kept getting better.

♪♪

Campbell: Now kimberly and her fiancé, ryan,

Are ready to take their biggest leap yet.

In January of 2018, kim and ryan head to moab, utah,

And start setting the stage for an event

That seems insanely dangerous.

It just felt like the perfect place to get married.

Jenks: So we were about 400 feet directly off the ground

And maybe another 400 feet down to where the river is.

♪♪

Weglin: We had the net, and we built an aisle into it

Which is also made out of netting and rope and paracord.

It was something that you can walk on,

And we made it so that our families could join us

Out there on our day if they wanted to.

And that was the first time anything like that

Had ever been rigged with an aisle built into a space net.

Campbell: The net is anchored to the surrounding cliffs

At five points.

Each of these lines can support up to 400 pounds,

Allowing 20 very brave people to join in.

If one of the five legs were to break

That were holding up the net, then it goes limp,

And people could fall off if they're not attached.

I test the anchors.

They feel okay.

I think we're ready to get married.

Weglin: My dad, he was so determined

To walk me down the aisle.

It was so cute, and our friends practiced walking him

Up and down this net, and it's really wobbly.

It's hard to walk with two people on it.

He kept saying things like, "if it's my day to go,

It's my day to go, but I'm going to do this,"

And, like, "everyone has got to die somehow."

He ended up losing his footing, and he fell.

Jenks: And luckily, the aisle kept him on there,

But he only had a sling around his waist,

And he would have gotten hurt if he fell off.

Weglin: He was a good sport about it.

Jenks: So when I saw kim come down the aisle,

I have all my friends around.

Like, the energy we were aiming for was all at this moment,

And it was just, like, boom.

It was like, this is it.

This is the magical moment.

It was really special.

Man: I must ask you that you agree to love ryan,

Joining him today in matrimony.

Hell yeah.

It is my honor and privilege

To announce you as husband and wife.

Ryan, you may kiss your bride.

I announce mr. And mrs. Ryan jenks!

[ cheers and applause ]

♪♪

♪♪

Weglin: There are so many things we're afraid of,

But the things that you're scared of

Are the most rewarding things in life if you push past them.

Kim confronted her greatest fear head-on,

But for one unusual performer,

It's more than just mind over matter.

It's mind over sharp-edged pain,

And if this guy tries to swallow his feelings, it's game over.

♪♪

Andrews: My name is dai andrews, and I'm a sword swallower,

Martial artist and performer of mind-over-body phenomenon.

Campbell: As anyone in the sword-swallowing business

Knows, there's a narrow road to success,

But now, dai is forging a dangerous new path,

One that could kill him in a matter of minutes.

Fewer than five performers in the world

Currently swallow swords with a 90-degree curve.

Dai believes he can be one of just two

To master the 120-degree sword,

Believe it or not.

♪♪

♪ love is all around us ♪

♪ it surrounds us ♪

Dai andrews has always been drawn to sharp objects.

Andrews: The bed of nails is a real classic

In mind-over-body performance,

But I wanted something a little bit more extreme.

So I've replaced the standard bed of nails

With a bed of five razor-sharp machetes.

Campbell: It hurts, bad,

But dai just keeps pushing.

Andrews: I've spent my life studying with kung fu masters

In china who taught me the meditative practices

That they they use to get through pain

And that they use to push themselves to the next level,

And I am able to employ those same methods for myself.

Campbell: That cinder block adds 30 more pounds of pressure,

And when that sledgehammer hits,

The stakes increase dramatically.

One of these blades could sever his spine.

Then again, dai has been training

For this his whole life.

♪♪

[ crowd gasps ]

[ applause ]

I first started in all this

With a fisher-price magic set at age 5.

Unlike every other kid, I just never stopped.

But as I got older,

I got interested in things that were real.

I learned about houdini and escape artistry.

I learned to free myself from handcuffs and straitjackets.

I was fascinated by artists

Who could perform mind-over-body feats.

Campbell: So was robert ripley, who sought them out

All over the world, like edna price,

Who get her start in the sideshow business at just 16.

With her talent for plunging sharp blades

And neon tubes down her throat,

Ripley crowned her queen of sword swallowers.

Andrews: The first time you swallow a sword,

It's frightening, obviously.

You're feeling all kinds of things

That you've never felt before,

And the first step is then to try and break

Those sensations down and say, "oh, I feel this thing,

And I don't like it,"

But don't stop. What is it?

Where is it coming from?

How is it being triggered?

Can I make it stop?

This is the mental process that you go through

When you're practicing mind over body.

[ applause ]

Campbell: An x-ray of him in action

Reveals the inner working of dai's performance.

Andrews: When I swallow the sword, it's down the tongue.

I use the tongue as a guide

Through the first esophageal sphincter.

You'll then continue to go down the esophagus

Until you hit a second sphincter at the top of the stomach.

Then the sword blade will enter the stomach itself

Where it can travel all the way to the bottom.

Campbell: That is, if it all goes right.

Andrews: If you puncture your trachea,

You might not be able to breathe.

If you puncture a lung, it might collapse.

The biggest danger is if you puncture your stomach

Or the lining of your esophagus itself,

At which point your digestive fluids from your system pour out

And start digesting the inside of your body.

You have 20 minutes to live at that point.

♪♪

Campbell: No matter how much control you have

Over your internal organs,

There's no natural path for a curved sword,

Certainly not for this monster, and still...

♪♪

Robert: Anything he started seeing,

He would start picking up and balancing it.

I didn't know how dangerous it was.

There's no other way about it. They're supernatural.

Troy is an explosion of talent.

♪♪

Sword swallower dai andrews has spent years

Controlling his body and mastering his pain,

But there's one sword that seems unachievable --

The 120-degree sword.

Despite the enormous danger, dai has to give it a try.

♪♪

To triumph over 120, dai can't bend the sword to his body.

He'll have to bend his body to the sword.

If he stands up, the blade will destroy him from the inside out.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ applause ]

When performing these feats, the pain never goes away,

But you begin to understand how much of the pain

Is a mental aversion to the physical sensation,

And when you are really able to really be with it,

Then it will no longer bother you.

[ applause ]

In life, we all look for balance.

This next young man has taken balance to the extreme.

[ cheering ]

24-year-old tyler scheuer has a freaky ability.

-Whoo! -He can balance

Practically anything on his face.

But will he be able to pull off his most challenging stunt yet,

Standing atop this 10-foot ladder

While balancing this 6-foot ladder using this chin?

♪♪

Tyler: I can't do a handstand and walk.

I can't walk on a slackline.

I just can balance things on my face.

If someone were to try to learn this,

My advice would be to look at the very top of the item,

And wherever it's falling,

Kind of move your head in that direction

To kind of get underneath the object.

If you had a baseball bat

On your nose, you would have to feel

Where it's kind of falling before it falls.

Oh, yeah!

I have been doing this for 13 years.

I have never dropped a single item.

And I strictly think this is just a god-given talent.

♪♪

I was bored one day at baseball practice.

I was 11 years old, and I balanced a bat on my nose.

I thought kind of anyone could do it,

So didn't really show it off to many people.

Then it was a broomstick, and then it was a shovel,

Then it was like anything he started seeing,

He would start picking up and balancing.

♪♪

I was so nervous the first time I saw him do anything

Because first of all, I thought he was going to get hurt.

I thought it was extremely weird.

Who is able to figure out they can do this?

Tyler: Why do I have this skill?

I think it was something I was born with.

Campbell: Balance is controlled in our inner ears

Where fluid and fine hairlike sensors

Help the body know exactly where it is in space.

If the system isn't functioning,

You'll feel seasick all the time.

For some reason, tyler was born

With an almost superhuman sense of balance.

Tyler: The first time I ever tried to balance anything,

A bike, a chair, a wheelbarrow, a ladder,

The first time, I could do it.

I don't think people can practice it

And acquire this skill.

Campbell: Tyler isn't the only wiz in the balancing business.

British strongman john evans,

With his massive 22-inch-thick neck,

Steadies the heaviest objects on top of his head,

Including this 352-pound car.

An impressive amount of weight,

But what evans does with the top of his head

Tyler achieves using only his face.

Now, his most believe-it-or-not stunt yet.

Tyler: It's 55 pounds of aluminum, so I have to

Muscle it up, and I balance the 6-foot ladder on my face

While balancing myself on the 10-foot ladder.

Brian: I've heard it from scientists, medical experts,

That I could blow my lungs out.

James: I can bend more than almost anyone else I know.

Some people have called me a human pretzel.

♪♪

As an actor, I made money off my chin for decades,

But, uh, never quite like this.

Tyler: It's 55 pounds of aluminum,

So I have to muscle it up above my face.

When I feel I have it balanced on my chin,

I let go of my hands

And keep it up there for as long as possible.

People don't realize this,

But balancing ladders on your face, it hurts.

I feel the pressure in my chin, in my neck, in my back.

I feel it everywhere.

Campbell: He's never been tested like this before,

And the pressure is enormous.

Tyler: There's a lot of risk. I could lose focus.

I could get distracted, and the ladder comes

Tumbling down, and I come tumbling down.

The only thing that I have to balance on

Is my feet at the top of a ladder.

♪♪

♪♪

I kind of discovered this by accident,

And now here I am, 10 years later.

I'm traveling to europe.

I'm traveling across the country.

Aaah!

As long as people want to bring me out,

I'm going to come out and entertain their fans.

♪♪

The average person takes 23,000 breaths a day.

Most we don't even think about,

But there's a man who puts his all into every inhale,

Every exhale.

He's a world-record breather,

And he's about to put his lungs to the ultimate test

Using only his airways to lift a truck off its wheels,

Believe it or not.

♪♪

♪♪

Brian: Look at this.

What do you think about it, wynter jackson?

Whew.

Campbell: 5,000 pounds, brian jackson will need to apply

More force with his lungs than he's ever summoned.

[ siren wails ]

You guys ready for this today?

[ cheering ]

Campbell: Can he succeed without blowing out his own lungs?

I truly believe this is what I was called to do,

Or I wouldn't do it.

My dad was seminole indian, and my mom was cherokee.

About 9 years old, moved to a little town called

Wewoka, oklahoma, and it wasn't until that time

That I really was introduced to people

That didn't like indians.

Found out there was a lot of prejudice.

Campbell: In his late teens, brian's life took a dark turn.

He struggled with drug abuse

And was repeatedly in trouble with the law.

Brian: People ask me all the time,

"how did you kick your addiction?"

I didn't kick my addiction.

I redirected it.

Now my addiction is world records.

There was a guy from luxembourg that blew up

And burst a hot water bottle for a world record,

And I remember thinking,

"if I could blow up hot water bottles,

Maybe I could break that world record."

I started training.

I didn't know how dangerous it was.

Those hot water bottles hold more pressure

Than my lung tissue should hold.

Campbell: A hot water bottle is made of a high-density rubber.

On average, it is at least 12 times thicker than a balloon,

So the pressure needed to inflate it

To the bursting point is enormous.

Brian: When I'm blowing them up,

I have to stop all that pressure on my throat.

I've heard it from scientists, medical experts,

That I could blow my lungs out.

When you're blowing up a hot water bottle,

It works your neck, your back, your shoulders, your arms,

Even down to your legs,

And it takes every ounce of energy for me

To blow into something that wasn't made to blow up,

And then you hope to blow it up until it bursts.

Campbell: Brian succeeds in this challenge like no one else

Mainly because his lung capacity pumps out 26% more airflow

Than the average person.

His core muscles act as one massive air compressor,

Generating tremendous force and pressure.

After his success with hot water bottles,

Brian started to expand his repertoire.

Brian: I know a lot of people think I'm nuts, I'm a fool.

I decided, "I want to see if I can lift a car

With just my lung strength."

I had never lifted a car.

The scientists and medical experts told them,

They said, "don't let him do this. It's going to kill him."

Campbell: But brian didn't heed that warning.

Brian: We put that lift bag underneath the car.

I start blowing into this thing,

And I could start hearing that car move.

I'd breathe in, and I'd breathe out,

And all of a sudden, the tire comes off the ground,

And everybody started celebrating.

[ cheers and applause ]

Campbell: Brian holds 12 world records.

He's lifted a 2,780-pound car

And a 3,000-pound s.U.V.

Today, he's attempting something he's never done before.

This will be the heaviest object brian has ever lifted.

Ooh, look at the size of that trailer.

Campbell: This trailer weighs over 5,000 pounds.

It would take a black hawk helicopter

To lift it off the ground

Or just one man with some very impressive lungs.

I want to put the bags down on the ground.

Uh-huh. The plywood will be

On top of it so when the lift bags

Come up under the trailer...

Okay. ...Nothing pops it.

Okay.

Little bit forward. Just a minute.

Good, right there.

The bags have been tested.

Should be free flowing to all three bags,

So none of them will inflate

More or less than the other ones.

It should be constant.

It's big.

That's a big trailer, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's really big. -Whoo!

[ applause ]

You guys ready for this today? All right.

Brian jackson is just going to do something

That a lot of people really don't understand.

They're probably thinking, "why are you doing this?"

He has some of the strongest lungs in the world.

He's just going to go for it,

Give us something that's never, ever been done.

Are we ready? We're ready.

Let's do it.

♪♪

Oklahoman brian jackson is determined to lift

A 5,000-pound trailer using only the power of his lungs.

Hey, you going to tell him no?

[ applause ]

Man: All right.

Are we ready?

Drue: I get very nervous.

The older he gets, it's -- I get more worried.

Campbell: Brian has to generate the same amount of lift

As over 227,000 helium balloons

To get this 5,000-pound trailer off the ground.

He's exerting a lot of force through his lungs,

And the human body maybe wasn't made for such things as this.

Drue: I'm all over him.

I'm looking at different angles, seeing,

"what's wrong? What can I do?"

Because it is scary.

-I believe! I believe! -Whoo!

[ cheering ]

Campbell: For brian's achievement to be recognized,

The official must be able to slide

A piece of paper under the two tires.

Woman: Close.

[ cheers and applause ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ cheers and applause ]

Give it up!

[ cheers and applause ]

I want to thank everybody that was out here today

For being a part of this.

Thank you guys very much.

[ cheers and applause ]

Wynter: My dad has had some difficult times in his life,

But he lifted a semi trailer today.

Yeah, my dad makes me proud.

A lot of people feel uncomfortable in their own skin,

Especially if they're considered unusual or different.

One such man spent a lifetime

Trying to hide his extraordinary abilities.

Once an outcast, today, he's a celebrated movie

And tv sensation, believe it or not.

Nature is remarkable in its beauty

And also in its singularity.

The same is true for an astonishing young man

At the end of his own ugly duckling story.

My friends call me twisty troy.

♪♪

♪♪

My name is troy james. I'm 29 years old.

Campbell: Growing up, troy thought his extreme flexibility

Was something he needed to hide.

Can this canadian contortionist embrace the very thing

That makes him different?

♪♪

To most anyone who meets him, troy james is superhuman.

Aw, geez, am I really superhuman?

Um, I am abnormally flexible.

I was born with preternatural flexibility,

Hypermobility in my parts of my body --

My fingers, my legs, arms, shoulders, back,

And I have fun scaring people with them.

[ screaming ]

It doesn't quite look human.

It's been compared to "the exorcist,"

When she runs down the stairs.

Campbell: Troy's path hasn't always been so smooth.

As a child growing up outside of toronto,

He learned the hard way what it means to be unusual.

James: I would be watching tv upside down or reading a book

With my arms bent in crazy positions,

And it was not until the other little children

Pointed out that I realized I was different.

I was teased horribly when I was a kid.

They would say, "you're not human.

You're a freak. You're an alien."

And of course that makes you sad.

Campbell: Troy's uncommon ability is a product

Of extreme joint hypermobility.

5% of the healthy adult population on earth

Has hypermobility,

But troy's unique physiology puts him in the top 1%.

Though he feels no physical pain when contorting,

The emotional pain does flare up from time to time.

Because I'm more flexible, I can stretch not realizing

I'm in a public place, and then I get weird stares.

I got embarrassed about it, and I hid my talent

Because I was being shamed for it.

Twisty troy james grew up with a superpower

That allows him to bend and flex and contort in unusual ways.

Sadly, he was made to see his gift as a curse.

James: I felt, "well, this is not normal."

And of course, the only thing you want to be

As a kid is normal.

Really got to me, and I hid my ability

For a really long time,

But things turned around for me in high school.

Woman: Oh, my god!

James: Because I went to an art school,

And so it was full of kids who celebrated their quirks,

And I happened to have a pretty unique skill.

Woman: What is wrong with you?

Something I used to be teased for became

A really popular crowd-pleaser,

So I made a lot of friends in high school.

Campbell: Finally feeling accepted,

Troy started to see his hypermobility as a gift

And not a curse, and soon, doors started opening.

James: About eight years ago, I was working at a theme park.

I was a roller coaster operator.

My crew knew that I had this special skill,

And they wanted me to show the management.

Eventually, I did, and they were so impressed

That they asked me to work for our Halloween haunt,

And they set me loose in the park

To scare people however I pleased.

And I found out pretty quickly

That chasing people upside down covered in blood

Was a pretty effective way of doing that.

Woman: Oh, that's terrifying.

Halloween haunt attracted many actor types,

People who performed on tv and in movies,

And they said, "you should audition for this horror movie."

I felt it was time I could show people

What I really had hidden up my sleeve.

Well, hello, mr. James.

Campbell: Roberto campanella is a world-renowned

Movement coordinator and professional dancer

Who's worked on films such as "star trek"

And "the shape of water."

A little bit more. He knew from the start

What a treasure he had found.

Let's put the arms a little bit,

Maybe a little bit higher up.

Troy is this explosion of talent, of natural talent.

Over 30 years, I've never really never experienced

A talent of that caliber.

Campbell: Robert ripley was also dazzled by people like troy,

Scouring the far reaches of the globe

To find and film them,

Be it in china with the buddhist sam dancers

Or back in the u.S. With acts like joe laurello,

The man with the revolving head.

The secret to joe's act was that he was able to dislocate

Various vertebrae to turn his head a full 180 degrees.

Today, troy james doesn't need a promoter.

His drive to succeed in hollywood is motivation enough.

James: I would call myself a creature performer.

I'm a walking, talking special effect.

And when I'm playing a monster,

I can make it look like an extreme position

Or extreme move and be really aggressive.

I can chase people upside down.

I can leap at people and jump on objects which is contortion,

But also pretty extreme physical performance.

I've performed in several television shows and movies.

I've had roles on "the strain."

I recently got a role on the "the flash"

As the rag doll villain,

So I'm looking forward to using my flexibility

Not only to frighten people

But to twist my body into shapes that are inspiring.

Whether these performers were born

With extraordinary abilities

Or spent decades mastering a death-defying skill,

It's their passion that keeps us spellbound

And keeps them always striving for the top.

♪♪