Regurgitator Returns

An incredible mass of Exonians stared on in curiosity last Friday night while internet sensation Stevie Starr stood on stage stuffing a bright orange pool ball down his throat. The confusion then turned into a combination of shock and dismay when Starr beat his chest and the ball popped back out his mouth from the depths of his stomach.Known as Stevie by his friends and The Regurgitator by his huge group of followers, Starr has been coughing up a myriad of items ever since grade school in Scotland, when he learned to swallow pocket money for hiding. After becoming a hero at his school and winning several awards, Starr realized he could turn his bizarre hobby into a fulfilling career. Since then, Starr has competed on Britain’s Got Talent, racked up over 20 million views on a Youtube video and toured all over the world, from New Zealand to the small town of Exeter. While at the Academy, he amazed a crowd of over 300 by swallowing items like lighter fluid, cigarette smoke, a lightbulb, a pool ball and a goldfish. All these items went down Starr’s gullet and into his stomach and, with a pounding of his chest, came up again, intact.“It does not seem physically possible for a guy to swallow those things and then regurgitate them,” lower Pranay Vemulamada said. “It was kind of gross, but it was also cool how he could do all those things inside his stomach. Throughout the whole thing I was kept entertained. And even afterwards I looked him up just to figure out how he did it.”Vemulamada continued, noting the other enjoyable aspect of the event.“He was pretty funny too,” he said. “He was just a comical guy with all his jokes.”Lower Levon Brunson, after learning from a friend that Stevie was coming, decided that he had to see it with his own eyes.“Some friends of mine said there was something cool going on, and once I found out what it was, I had to go,” Brunson said. “The event was pretty amazing, especially to have someone who is all over YouTube and a lot of shows come perform at our school.”“I heard it was going to be really interesting, and I had never heard of this guy so I was excited to see what he could do,” lower Cesar Zamudio said. “I was freaked out through the majority of the show.”But, even with all the shock and surprise from the student body, this is not Starr’s first time here at Exeter. He has been visiting the Academy while on his international tours every other year since 2002.“He travels internationally to do his show literally all over the world, and he is in the states for about two weeks a year in April and two weeks in October,” Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie said. “We tend to [have] him in April. It is a good spring term event.”Exeter loves The Regurgitator, and it seems as though Starr was just as excited for the show as the student body was.“They were a great crowd,” Starr said. “They were young, so they were quite excited about it. There was a time restriction as well, and I was told they had to be in their rooms by 10 PM. So it was a hurried show, but the turnout was fantastic and the show was fun. We will be back again in a couple years.”To many Exonians, the idea of swallowing billiard balls whole and regurgitating them out in the same condition seems like an obvious hoax. But McGahie assures students she has seen it with her own eyes. After the show one year, McGahie went out to eat with Stevie and his manager. While they were eating, Stevie wandered off to the bar where he asked a man for a lighter, which he used to performed his regurgitating act without any preparation.“It is funny,” McGahie said. “It is not really an act. Stevie keeps doing it. He just kind of constantly goes and goes.”Stevie has never informed the public how he can perform such acts and has no plans of doing so in the future. But performing the act isn’t the only thing that left Exonians confused after the show.“I have no idea how he’s not, like, six feet under,” Vemulamada said. “I mean, the things that go into his body.”Despite some skepticism from Exonians, everyone seemed to view it as an odd yet entertaining way to enjoy a Friday night at Exeter.“I think it is fun to have these shows at Exeter,” Zamudio said. “ It gives us an opportunity to laugh and have fun. The crowd interaction made it really fun and I laughed through the majority of it.”Brunson shared similar feelings toward the performance.“Events like this expose us to talents and professions we might not have known about before,” he said. “I do not know anyone who can or would want to regurgitate dish soap and live fish.”