Original subtitles

♪♪

There was something odd about me.

[ Cuckoo clock chiming ]

ANDREW: I kind of found my own niche

that nobody else was really interested in.

HJORTUR: It was a little bit weird.

JOSEPH: That's definitely not normal.

It's one of the most wonderful feelings in the world for me.

Ooooow!

CAMPBELL: 100 years 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 for the world's most bizarre,

astonishing secrets...

♪♪

...on "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"

♪♪

It's been said that oddity, like beauty,

is in the eye of the beholder.

It can be just as rare and just as mesmerizing.

I'm Bruce Campbell, and when it comes to these curious cases,

you just have to see it to believe it.

♪♪

Most people aspire to carry out their daily chores as quickly

and simply as possible...

but 35-year-old Brooklynite Joseph Herscher

isn't most people.

♪♪

He specializes in making everyday tasks

even more complicated.

♪♪

Among his crazy inventions -- the wine machine,

the sandwich wrapper,

and the Christmas tree decorator.

♪♪

But now he is attempting something far more complex --

an elaborate cake server he hopes to debut

for his fan base of over 1 million followers.

But will it work?

♪♪

[ Glass shatters ]

Joseph is a very eccentric roommate.

♪♪

The toilet, the shower, the couch,

the dining-room table -- anything, really --

is up for grabs as a part of Joseph's Machines.

♪♪

I'm Joseph Herscher, and this is my apartment,

where I make my machines.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Objects clattering, glass shattering ]

If you look at any of our furniture very closely,

you'll see that there are holes, strange evidences of clamps

or drills being used in any number of different ways.

So, he can be quite eccentric, yeah.

♪♪

When I see a problem in my life, I just want to make it better.

I want it to be more efficient.

Coming out of the shower, you really need to leave

the fan on for a good while to really get the steam out,

and I always forget to turn it off.

My roommates would nag me about it.

I came up with a little invention

that'll switch it off automatically

after, like, 10 minutes.

JACOB: The bathroom-fan device was one of the more frustrating devices

because you couldn't actually use the sink

when you went in there.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Joseph has been tinkering

ever since he was a child growing up in New Zealand.

♪♪

This is gonna allow me to eat potato chips

while I'm typing on my laptop.

♪♪

I like that every object that we take for granted

in our daily lives behaves in these very particular ways,

and so I like exploiting them and using objects

in ways they're not normally used.

CAMPBELL: Like this power-nap device so you can get some shut-eye

without falling all over your neighbors.

♪♪

These days, Joseph is pushing his skill to the next level,

creating fantastic and farcical machines

in the spirit of cartoonist Rube Goldberg.

♪♪

JOSEPH: A Rube Goldberg machine,

it usually does some simple task at the end,

like turning the page of a book,

but it does it in this very elaborate, convoluted way.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Goldberg was one of the most well-known cartoonists

in the early 20th century.

My inventions are a bit ahead of their time,

a shade fantastic, perhaps.

All right, go on and say it -- downright screwy.

CAMPBELL: In fact, Goldberg played a huge role in Robert Ripley's career,

helping Ripley land some of his first comic strips.

♪♪

Joseph has taken Goldberg's creations off the page

and onto the Internet,

becoming a viral sensation in the process.

[ Thud ]

His early attempts included the turkey stuffer...

Today, I'm gonna show you a super-simple turkey recipe

that gives you the most perfect, delicious bird every time.

♪♪

...the terrifying automatic hair cutter...

♪♪

...and the lunch feeder.

♪♪

But for his most complex Rube Goldberg machine yet,

Joseph is cooking up a clever way to serve himself dessert.

Recently, I was having dinner,

and I got to the end of this beautiful meal

that I spent a long time preparing,

but I was annoyed because I was ready for dessert,

but I had to get up and prepare it and serve it,

and it kind of ruined the flow of the meal.

And it got me thinking,

"What if there was a more seamless approach

to dinner and dessert?"

CAMPBELL: The cake server is comprised of 51 steps

that have taken Joseph three months to perfect.

♪♪

[ Glass shatters ]

It's the most difficult,

technically challenging machine I've ever made.

CAMPBELL: Today is the machine's first full run.

♪♪

So, the machine starts with me

knocking over a glass of orange juice.

And I had this kind of crazy idea --

What if you knocked over a glass

and it rolled off the table

and landed perfectly on a platform

and then all the juice gets funneled down a tube

and goes back into the same glass?

♪♪

♪♪

For one part of the machine, I need my phone to vibrate,

so I'm using Skype to call it.

So I thought I could use a hammer to start the phone call.

♪♪

[ Cellphone ringing ]

[ Baby cooing ]

This was my friend's son,

and she graciously let me borrow him for a couple of hours.

I noticed that he loved smartphones,

and if a smartphone was ringing, he ran up to it immediately.

I want to teach you. When you pull this...

[ Bells chime ]...look at the sound it makes.

There you go.

Grab it, and pull it.

[ Gasps ]

[ Cellphone ringing ]

[ Thud ]

♪♪

I think that we're drawn to this idea of a playful machine,

and I think it's because it becomes more about the process

and the journey than the end goal,

and I think these machines highlight,

suddenly, the value in that journey

because it's all about the journey.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: And dessert is served, though not without a casualty.

♪♪

But even at the cost of a laptop,

Joseph and his millions of viewers

are still thrilled with his creation.

Things constantly go wrong and bounce in a way

that I didn't expect and break in ways that I didn't expect,

and it's a nightmare,

but when it all works beautifully,

it's one of the most wonderful feelings in the world for me,

and, like, that is why I keep coming back to it.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: And with more than 8 million views, most people agree --

This Kiwi's crazy machines really take the cake.

♪♪

Joseph has figured out a way to have fun and games

with the laws of physics.

1,000 miles south,

there's another man whose skills leave people mesmerized,

but he doesn't need props to show off his curious abilities.

It's just him and his furry little friend.

♪♪

My name is Christian Stoinev.

I am a hand balancer, and I do a hand-balancing routine

with my acrobatic Chihuahua.

♪♪

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Christian Stoinev was destined to be on stage.

CHRISTIAN: I'm a fifth-generation performer on my mom's side.

My dad was also a circus performer.

Together, they actually did a trapeze act.

♪♪

I started performing when I was 5 years old

doing a kind of balancing ladder act with my dad,

and at the age of 10 is when I started hand balancing.

CAMPBELL: By 13, Christian was already wowing audiences,

but he was not exactly fulfilled.

[ Applause ]

If you would have asked me what would have been my dream career,

it would have been playing sports.

♪♪

My idols were basketball players.

That's really where my heart was at,

but because I grew up in the circus kind of tutored,

I never got the chance to really play on the team.

CAMPBELL: He never had the opportunity for normal friendships

with other kids.

It's hard to make those friends that you kind of grow up with.

I think definitely not having kids my age

on the show played a part in me wanting a pet.

Come here.

I just wanted a companion, so my parents got me Scooby.

CAMPBELL: It was not long before Scooby joined the family business, too.

CHRISTIAN: Good boy.

♪♪

We would teach him little tricks around the house,

like to sit down.

We were curious -- Could he, like, jump through this hoop?

♪♪

We just started taking Scooby with me

when I would go start practicing handstands,

and we would, like, put a treat, like,

on the bottom of my feet, and he would try to look for it

and try to find a way to get up there.

CAMPBELL: The bond between humans and canines

is older than history itself.

[ Film projector clicks, whirs ]

20,000 years ago,

before the Egyptian pyramids or the Roman Colosseum,

human hunter-gatherers bred the most loyal

and friendliest wolves with each other.

[ Wolf panting ]

Over the generations, these wolves evolved into

Canis familiaris -- the modern dog,

in all its many shapes and sizes.

[ Projector clicks off ]

Bringing Scooby into the act lifted Christian's spirits,

but he still wanted more.

CHRISTIAN: There's a saying that most people

run away to join the circus.

I kind of ran away from the circus and went to school.

♪♪

I went to college at Illinois State University.

CAMPBELL: Illinois State is home to the Gamma Phi Circus,

the oldest collegiate circus in the country.

There, Christian thrived.

♪♪

CHRISTIAN: There was a different kind of feeling

I got performing with my peers in college.

[ Cheers and applause ]

You're getting this vibe around everybody else

that they're all, like,

"Oh, man. Like, this is a big deal."

And so, like, you start feeling it, too.

I felt like a rookie again. Just so much fun.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: With new enthusiasm,

Christian once again went out on the road with Scooby,

but this time, he had a destination in mind.

♪♪

CHRISTIAN: I never lost hope, but I also didn't know

how to find my way to the NBA.

I knew that there were already a couple acts

that were kind of halftime acts,

so I reached out to a lot of teams

trying to become a performer.

The next thing you know, I'm at Madison Square Garden.

This is the mecca of basketball.

ANNOUNCER: Please welcome world-renowned Christian Stoinev!

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

Christian Stoinev and his dog, Scooby,

left the circus behind and ran off to join...the NBA.

♪♪

CHRISTIAN: I was really nervous.

I didn't know how this was gonna go.

It was kind of my one shot to be where I wanted to be.

ANNOUNCER: And tonight, he's making his NBA debut.

Please welcome Christian Stoinev!

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: But after years of living the dream, change is in the air.

♪♪

When Scooby was about 10 years old,

it was just getting a little harder.

It just felt like the right time where it was probably better

to kind of have Scooby stop performing.

That way, it was kind of ending on a high note

while his tail was still wagging and he was loving it.

CAMPBELL: Scooby retired to the lap of luxury,

leaving Christian without a partner.

♪♪

CHRISTIAN: And then we got Percy.

He was a natural, like Scooby,

and definitely loves the attention,

that's for sure.

I think he's full of himself a little bit.

I mean, Percy definitely steals the show.

Once he comes out, like, nobody wants to see me.

It's all about Percy.

♪♪

I wouldn't want it any other way. That's fine.

♪♪

And even though now Scooby's retired,

we still call it Christian and Scooby within the NBA circuit.

I guess it's my way of returning the loyalty to Scooby.

This dream of mine that we're living now

wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for him.

♪♪

Christian has made a name for himself balancing upside down,

but what if your whole worldview was permanently flipped?

There's a man in South America

who knows exactly what that's like.

♪♪

Claudio Vieira de Oliveira was born

with physical challenges...

but it rarely slows him down.

Sheer determination has propelled him to do things

no one ever thought possible,

with a very different perspective on the world.

Believe it...

or not.

♪♪

From day one, Claudio has defied the odds.

♪♪

Born with severe arthrogryposis,

a birth defect of the joints and muscles,

Claudio was not expected to live more than 24 hours.

He's now 42 years old.

♪♪

In the 1970s, remote Monte Santo, Brazil,

was a tough place.

Claudio's mother was even tougher.

Some people advised her to stop feeding her baby

so he could die peacefully.

She did the opposite, nurturing him just like any other child,

and despite his physical limitations,

the little boy thrived.

Claudio's condition presented a number of challenges.

He had to eat and drink lying down.

His hands barely function.

For the first eight years of his life,

he had to be carried everywhere.

♪♪

But inside his constricted body,

a passion was burning to adapt to the world

no matter what it took.

Once Claudio got moving, he never slowed down.

He excelled through high school and college,

earning a degree in accounting.

♪♪

But Claudio's pursuits aren't purely academic.

He has learned to operate electronics and heavy machinery.

Now he's facing a different kind of challenge --

putting himself onstage in hopes of inspiring the world.

♪♪

It's not pleasant,

but you learn how to ride the wave of adrenaline.

Ooooow!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Claudio Vieira de Oliveira lives with physical limitations

that boggle the mind,

but to his credit, he has never given up.

♪♪

Now he's facing his most daunting task yet --

taking to the stage as a public speaker.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

♪♪

Impalement -- a punishment reserved

for the worst criminals during history's darkest times.

Curiously, there's one man in Las Vegas

who's just jonesing to face the blade.

Let's cutto him. [ Laughs ]

Did you see what I did there?

♪♪

My name is Andrew Stanton.

I'm a professional sideshow artist.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Today, he will attempt to spin five times

on the tip of a spear.

♪♪

Believe it...or not.

♪♪

As a professional sideshow artist,

Andrew Stanton makes a living inflicting pain on himself.

It's a skill he's been perfecting since childhood.

♪♪

I grew up in Hawaii right on the ocean,

so my whole family and my community,

everybody's always surfing or going hiking

or even cliff jumping and stuff like that.

Extreme sports was just part of the culture.

CAMPBELL: But Andrew was hobbled by juvenile arthritis,

an autoimmune disease that causes pain

and swelling in the points.

ANDREW: So, the arthritis prevented me

from doing a lot of stuff I wanted to do --

running, jumping, a lot of impact stuff.

If I did too much activity,

it would feel like hot burning knives in my knees,

just absolutely agonizing.

I didn't want to take the medication,

so I used what my mom taught me --

learning how to breathe through the pain

and block it out and go somewhere else.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: What his mother did not anticipate

was that he would use those same coping techniques

to deliberately inflict harm...on himself.

[ Andrew grunts ]

ANDREW: I kind of found my own niche, you know,

something that I could excel at,

that nobody else was really interested in.

When I found out how to start swallowing swords,

I would bring a coat hanger to school.

They didn't really like me to do that there.

[ Laughs ]

CAMPBELL: But he soon found a place to perform --

in a friend's band.

ANDREW: I can't keep a beat to save my life,

but they liked what I did, so I would swallow swords.

I would even swallow some drumsticks,

and I would do a handful of other things --

putting tubes in my nose, nails in my nose.

Just little stuff starting out.

CAMPBELL: Andrew went on to earn the Guinness World Records title

for longest metal coil

passed through the nose and out the mouth.

He uses power drills to wind two metal coils

into his nose and out his mouth.

He also holds the record for the heaviest car

pulled by only his eye sockets.

Now, he's developing his most painful performance yet.

ANDREW: Over the years, I would do more research,

and then I came across the Shaolin monks.

I saw them doing the single-point spear.

That was really impressive.

CAMPBELL: The monks' goal is to bendthe spear.

Andrew wanted to balance his whole body on the top of one.

♪♪

ANDREW: Over the years, I would just use posts,

and then I would find smaller and smaller posts

and even, like, broomsticks.

My first spear started out fairly blunt,

and then I'd file it down,

and I was able to go a little bit sharper,

a little bit sharper, and kept working with that.

♪♪

You're dealing with a lot of sensation,

suppressing a lot of pain,

and it feels like you're getting punched in the stomach,

and the wind gets knocked out of you.

It's not pleasant,

but you learn how to ride the wave of adrenaline.

You get through it.

You conquer it.

CAMPBELL: Relying on the techniques he learned from his mother,

Andrew enters an almost meditative state,

slowing his blood pressure and heart rate to tolerate the pain.

♪♪

But just in case, he's asked a paramedic to supervise

this dangerous stunt.

KEITH: Andrew showed me his spear.

I can attest that it's real metal.

It's really sharp as a knife.

Just a slight miscalculation, and his body weight would drive

that spear tip through that part of the body,

causing what could be a mortal injury.

♪♪

What if I crush my spleen or my liver,

puncture an intestine, break the stomach walls?

CAMPBELL: Pushing that possibility to the back of his mind,

Andrew readies himself for the stunt.

ANDREW: If you anticipate the pain, you're never gonna get on it.

You don't run away from it.

You don't let the fear take you over.

You just get on it, you accept it,

and when you feel your pain tolerance

start to go to a 9 or to 10,

then just let go of it and keep going.

CAMPBELL: With the spear tip sharpened and in place,

it all comes down to this moment.

Will Andrew be able to pull off five spins

on the top of the spear,

or will it poke a hole right through his body?

♪♪

♪♪

Most of us are gutted by bad news,

but if this guy gets gutted, it'll be nationalnews.

♪♪

ANDREW: I put the spear tip on my abdomen, on bare skin.

Got to lean down on it, pushing the organs out of the way,

relaxing the muscles, and then when I find the right spot

on the front of my spine,

I start putting a little bit more weight on it.

[ Breathing heavily ]

♪♪

♪♪

One...

♪♪

two...

♪♪

three...

♪♪

four...

♪♪

...and there's five.

♪♪

Whoo!

♪♪

KEITH: It was just shocking that he didn't impale himself

and have that whole spear up inside his belly.

Ooooow!

Doing these stunts makes me feel alive.

To travel the world and meet people

I probably never would have --

going to Japan, going to Croatia,

going to Finland, going all over the world.

I feel very fortunate and lucky to be able to do

what I want for a living.

♪♪

Curiosity keeps us glued to unusual things,

like a body splayed atop a spear.

It may be painful to watch, but you just can't turn away.

The same goes for one of the world's weirdest museums.

Shocked or not, everyone's bound to take a peek.

[ Laughing ] Come on. You know you want to.

♪♪

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Hjortur Sigurdsson runs a museum

that would make the average family blush,

but there's a lot to learn here,

as long as you're willing to gaze upon...

300 penises.

Ugh! The whale penis is...

um...

yes, humongous.

CAMPBELL: There's a wide range of specimens on display,

but Hjortur won't rest until he's got his hands

on the most elusive one yet --

a human penis... preserved for eternity.

♪♪

Believe it or not.

♪♪

I just had to bring him to see what he was missing

or maybe what Iwas missing.

[ Laughs ]

The museum was started in 1997 by Hjortur's dad.

Young Hjortur first jumped into the penis game in 1978,

when a sperm whale washed up dead in his hometown

and his dad headed straight for the beach.

What Hjortur chopped off was a flaccid penis

12 inches in diameter and 8 feet in length.

♪♪

The first year, 1,200 people.

Last year, we had 70,000 visitors.

Some people get, you know, a bit shy.

Others, you know, just keep giggling and can't stop.

Then there are the scholars, here the whole day...

ABDULLAH: I think the cheetah was really interesting.

It's a really fast animal, but he has the smallest one

and is the slowest at mating.

The irony in that.

CAMPBELL: Having moved from Husavik to a bigger space

in Reykjavik seven years ago, there's a lot of room to expand.

CAMPBELL: Indeed, and some would be tremendous gets,

like the lowly barnacle,

which boats the largest penis-to-body ratio

in the animal kingdom,

the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man

with a 300-foot appendage.

Male sharks have two penises called claspers

that expand like umbrellas.

Sadly, they can only use one at a time.

♪♪

But there's one very special item he's been waiting for,

for nearly two decades --

the penis...

of a human.

Now it's finally here, and this little fella has a tale to tell.

♪♪

JOEL: If you have nausea, I feel like Ihave nausea.

If you're gasping for air, I feel like I'mgasping for air.

♪♪

♪♪

Hjortur Sigurdsson's museum captivates visitors with...

penises from 93 different species.

But there's one new addition

that hits a little close to home...

guys.

♪♪

While the addition of human leftovers alarmed some critics,

most of the museum's visitors come away

with a new appreciation of male genitalia.

Instead, maybe we should honor them

for spreading life on Earth.

♪♪

Body parts are bizarre enough,

but there's one organ that is the most mysterious of all.

Of course, I'm talking about the brain.

Most brains are wired to have five very distinct senses,

but sometimes the wires get crossed.

♪♪

Synesthesia is a blending of the senses.

♪♪

So, someone with synesthesia might experience a color

when they hear a sound...

♪♪

[ Horn honks ]

...or smell vanilla whenever they see gravel,

and there's all sorts of exotic combinations.

CAMPBELL: That may sound kind of cool,

but there's one form of synesthesia

that is definitely not fun --

a rare condition called mirror-touch,

where your brain feels someone else's sensations,

from a tiny itch to excruciating pain.

♪♪

Neurologist Joel Salinas doesn't just study this condition.

I'm Dr. Salinas.

He's living with it

and using it to help treat patients.

Believe it...or not.

♪♪

Around 4% of the population has some form of synesthesia,

and there seems to be some link

between this phenomenon and creativity.

Billy Joel, Lorde, and Pharrell are just a few of the performers

who claim to hear music in color.

That same ability got Vincent van Gogh

kicked out of his piano lessons as a child and deemed insane.

♪♪

Most people only cross over between two senses.

For Joel, it's all five of them.

JOEL: It was my first year of medical school

that I learned what synesthesia is.

One night, a friend of mine

who has a background in neuroscience

just kind of throws into the conversation,

"Hey, did you all know that there are these weird people

who see colors when they hear sounds?

It's like they're constantly on an acid trip."

I said, "Everybody has that," and he just kind of looked at me

and said, "No, that's definitely not normal."

[ Laughs ]

CAMPBELL: Looking back at his own childhood,

Joel began to realize his friend was right.

I always had a sense there was something different

or odd about me,

and I always just chalked it up to being a really weird kid.

Whenever I would kind of color in letters and numbers,

the "1," had to be yellow, the "B" had to be light orange.

If I were to see the numbers and letters in different colors

than my own, I would just assume that it was, like, wrong,

and I would kind of, like, throw a fit over it.

CAMPBELL: But it was not until Joel was well into his medical training

that he found out the hard way about mirror-touch.

So, if you are having a headache,

I feel like Ihave a headache.

If you have nausea, I feel like Ihave nausea.

If you're gasping for air, I feel like I'mgasping for air.

I feel as though I have to will myself to breathe.

♪♪

♪♪

Joel Salinas has an unusual superpower --

His brain registers other people's sensations

as if they're his own.

For a medical doctor treating sick people,

that's got to mess with his mind.

[ Medical equipment beeping ]

JOEL: I'll never forget the first time I saw a patient die.

[ Indistinct talking ]

As I'm seeing this patient getting chest compressions,

I feel as though I'm getting chest compressions

on my own chest.

I feel as though my back is on the floor.

As the patient is getting a breathing tube

placed down his throat,

I feel a sharp object being slid down my throat,

and as he's dying,

I feel as though I'm losing all movements in my own body.

And that moment was so intense,

I had to just kind of head out of there.

Once he's dead, I feel as though

I have to will myself to breathe.

I went to the nearest bathroom, I threw up.

Had to just kind of sit in front of the sink

and kind of splash my face and look at myself in the mirror

and remind myself, "No, this is my body.

I didn't die."

CAMPBELL: Empathy is one thing,

but this is something far beyond.

JOEL: What I see somebody else feel --

physically, emotionally -- my brain makes mefeel

as if it's happening to me at the same time.

It's like my brain is automatically categorizing

the people that I see as if I were looking in a mirror,

where they are me and I am them.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: That kind of overconnectedness

could have stopped Joel's career in its tracks,

but he was determined to forge ahead.

♪♪

JOEL: I realized that if I was going to be the best doctor

that I could for my patients

that I was gonna have to find a way to figure this out

and hopefully apply it towards helping my patients.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: He credits meditation with helping him

put guardrails on his own sensation.

JOEL: I've really learned kind of how to manage the situations,

and I've also really driven myself

to really expose myself

to as many extreme situations as possible,

because the more I expose myself to them,

it's almost like I get desensitized more to it.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Today, he's trying to harness his mirror-touch

to better diagnose and care for his patients.

WANG: The fact that he's able to empathize

better with his patients

and really get a sense for what kinds of symptoms they have,

how they're feeling, I think that really improves

the quality of care he can provide for his patients.

All right, can I have you follow my finger here?

Left. Right.

You've had this pain... Yeah.

...in this area. Yeah.

I mean, I feel kind of a little bit

of that kind of discomfort and sensation up

along this side, almost, like, shooting up.

Yeah. Makes me feel validated.

I know that sounds strange, but, like,

you never know when things are in your head. [ Laughs ]

I believe you 100%.

There isn't pixie dust, like, floating through the air

and kind of informing me what's going on.

It's almost like a hallucination.

♪♪

WANG: I always knew that Joel was a special person,

but I think this just put a whole new spin on things.

It's never 100% exact, right?

This isn't being psychic. This isn't telepathy.

Being a doctor that has mirror-touch,

what that means to me is

that I get to form a deeper connection with my patients

and be a part of their pain,

their suffering, and their pleasure when things go well.

♪♪

There's a world within our own that seems to defy explanation.

These curious cases may shock or puzzle us,

but they also inspire a sense of wonder.

♪♪