SW: What provides you with the biggest challenges? Why and what are they, regarding both safety and performance?

RR: Regarding safety, it’s all a challenge. Every time that I step on stage and raise a sword above my head – tip in my mouth ready to go down my throat – it’s a challenge. It’s an act of extreme mindfulness, and it’s tempting to let the mind wander. It absolutely can not, and it’s sometimes challenging.

SW: Now let’s step a few years back in time and learn what is was that influenced you to want to learn the acts. What are your first memories of show business and how did they influence you?

RR: Truth be told, it wasn’t until I was a late teenager that I became interested in “show business” at all, and it was for entirely utilitarian reasons.

Interview with Roderick Russell
by John Robinson, Publisher
Sideshow World

“Roderick Russell is an original and unique form of entertainer. He controls his own mind with such skill that he accomplishes the astonishing while simultaneously influencing the minds of others to create the most powerful and profound types of personal experience.

By complete coincidence, the Saturday, June 2nd edition of the New York Times featured right on their front page (web edition at least) two stories that are near and dear to my heart (being both a Vermonter and a sword swallower).

The first is a ridiculous (but I couldn’t help laughing in delight) amateur rap video produced by three Montpelier, Vermont high school students. In the video, two extremely white boys walk the streets of Montpelier “rapping” about all the stereotypes of Vermont and Vermont life.

My good friend Cliff first blogged about it last month, long before it ever hit the NYT. If you’re a Vermonter you’ll probably get a kick out of it. Why the New York Times would cover it I have no idea.