Steve Starr swallowed a No. 8 pool ball, smacked his chest, made a noise like he was trying to surface a loogie and brought the ball back up without gagging himself.

Starr, the Human Regurgitator, emitted a joker’s giggle, and the crowd

at DUC Theater couldn’t help but shout out with utter excitement at his skills.

“I thought it was amazing – it was the most insane talent that I’ve ever seen,” Elizabethtown freshman Jason Lee said. “It was sick but cool.”

The Campus Activities Board brought Starr to Downing University Center

Monday night, where he performed his famous regurgitation act in front of about 70 onlookers.

“I don’t know how you even find somebody like this,” Louisville freshman Tyler Broyles said. “But I think it’s great.”

Starr was born in Scotland and spent the first 19 years of his life living in a children’s home.

To hold onto his money, Starr had to swallow it to hide it from the other children. For some reason, the money never digested.

Starr said his “misspent childhood” taught him how to make

regurgitation entertaining.

Since then, Starr has made the Guinness Book of World Records for coin regurgitation.

He swallowed $10.50 worth of quarters, all with different years. On command, he brought up the quarters with the specific years called out by officials. He even swallowed a bumblebee to seal the deal. ?

Now Starr takes his act all over the world. He spends about six weeks a year in the United States and performs almost 300 shows a year to afford living expenses.

Starr said he loves being able to do things that no one else can do.

“I love the performing,” he said. “I love the attention, it’s the attention I craved as a child that I never got.”

Monday night, Starr swallowed a goldfish and a film canister separately, then brought up the film canister with the goldfish inside it.

During one demonstration, Starr asked for a cigarette from an audience member and proceeded to puff on the Camel cigarette for about 40 seconds, never exhaling.

Two minutes later, he asked the audience if it wanted to see him blow the smoke into a bubble.

Starr formed a bubble from dish soap, blew smoke into it and let it hang in the air before he popped it, letting the smoke dissipate.

Laura Sutkus, a freshman from Stratham, N.H., was most impressed by the smoke-in-the-bubble portion of Starr’s performance.

“I didn’t think it was possible,” she said. “It’s not possible.”

But Starr didn’t stop there.

He then swallowed half a champagne glass full of Equal and two glasses of water. The human body would normally cause the sugar to dissolve in the water, but Starr proceeded to regurgitate the Equal in powder form into the hands of a female audience member.

After all this, Starr swallowed 12 thumbtacks and a magnet.

He asked a male audience member how many thumbtacks to bring up on the magnet. ?

The audience member said five, and sure enough, Starr brought up the magnet with exactly five thumbtacks stuck to it.

The show seemed to amaze almost all of the audience members.

“I loved it,” Sutkus said. “He was incredible, words can’t even describe what he did.”

Reach Lindsay Sainlar at [email protected].