He was described as"the first man to make regurgitation an art." And what an art form it was. It is important, however, not to let this slogan mislead you; the people who saw the Regurgitator in action last Wednesday night know that his act was not quite as straightforward as this slogan makes it seem. As disgusting and unappealing an act such as this might sound, I think most of the people who attended would agree with me in saying that it was remarkably non-queasy. I believe I can safely say that it was also the weirdest thing anyone in that room has seen in their entire lives.

He calls himself the Regurgitator. His real name (as far as we know) is Stevie Starr, and he was born in a children's home in Scotland, where he lived for the first 19 years of his life. When little Stevie was four years old, he discovered this unique talent by swallowing his lunch money and realizing he could bring it right back up. Thus, a freak of nature was born. And I say freak of nature in the most endearing way, because Stevie himself told me that there is no other man in the world that can do what he does, in which case he would qualify as such.

Stevie went ahead to become an international sensation. He has appeared on Jay Leno more than 10 times, as well as on "Ripley's Believe it or Not." His name is noted in the Guinness Book Of World Records, and he has toured the world, giving shows to crowds of over 5,000. People such as Celine Dion and the members of Guns N' Roses and Oasis have all paid to see the Regurgitator in action.

That being said, the show that Stevie delivered in the Frontroom was on par with his reputation; it absolutely blew my mind. The man got on stage and proceeded to swallow 10 gold dollar coins, letting us hear them clink against one another in the pit of his stomach. He then offered to bring up as many as we pleased at a time. Before he brought up the last of the coins, he swallowed a cue ball and regurgitated the coin before the ball. He swallowed dishwasher fluid and regurgitated bubbles. He swallowed smoke and butane gas, regurgitating them either as bubbles or fire. He even managed to swallow sugar, drink water and then regurgitate the sugar into someone's hands, completely dry. In fact, he managed to bring up all the items he regurgitated completely dry and saliva-free. He did all of this while working the crowd with expert ease. His "adult" show was hilarious and had most people rolling out of their chairs in laughter.

The climax of the show involved three little goldfish in a bowl. He first swallowed rings off the hands of women in the audience and asked them onto the stage. He regurgitated their rings in his chosen order, leaving the most nervous girl's ring last, and thus condemning that girl as the chosen one to be hypnotized into drinking a cocktail with a live goldfish in it. Of course, with my luck, that nervous girl was me. But after much coaxing from Stevie and the crowd I realized that he was only joking and only intended for me to assist him in swallowing two live goldfish. So I poured a glass of goldfish into Stevie's mouth and watched him regurgitate them into their bowls alive and well. Of course he did not regurgitate them before making the crowd believe he would kill one of them, split it in two, and spit each part at opposite poles of the audience, but that's Stevie Starr for you.

The one trick that made me lose some confidence in his authenticity was one involving a key, a small padlock and another audience member's ring. Stevie swallowed each of these consecutively, with the lock securely fastened by a member of the audience. He then proceeded to move his stomach around in dramatic waves while giving the play-by-play of what was going on inside. He apparently unlocked the padlock with the key, put the ring in the padlock and locked it all in his stomach. Sure enough, he then regurgitated a padlock locked around a ring with the key in the keyhole. I am not quite sure how he could have maneuvered this, but I just could not accept that he did that all in his stomach.

So I had dinner with Stevie after the show and took the opportunity to ask him if he had any little secret to his tricks. After freaking out our host by swallowing his pocket change and ordering 40 pieces of bacon for dinner, he told me that doctors followed him around while he was being tested for the Guinness Book of World Records in order to make sure that he did not. They even followed him to the bathroom to make sure he wasn't preparing anything while he was in there. In Japan he permitted the use of an X-ray machine so that the audience could see everything going on in his stomach. So apparently he is the real deal and would pretty much be the most interesting friend to take to a party in the entire world.

After watching Stevie eat 20 pieces of bacon, exchange dirty jokes with the other boys at the table and do his sugar trick for the staff of the restaurant for free dessert, it did not take me long to accept that Stevie is not your average 39-year-old. He seemed like a grown-up version of a lonely kid doing tricks in exchange for friendship, boasting about how long he can keep something in his stomach (which, by the way, he claims there is no limit on). But who cares about how you make friends when you are cool enough to be approached by the mafia and members of the Columbian drug cartel?