Hooker Life

Forty years ago today a great man was born.  Who might you ask?  Well, if you’re an American, then you know him as Pain Solution.  Live in Europe?  Well, if you know the anything about the world of sideshow or flesh hook suspensions then you’ve probably seen the Head Master.

Although he is best known for being a mutli-talented performer, his biggest contributions have been in the world of education.  Besides teaching the art of suspension throughout the world and running a school of sideshow in Oslo, he has worked directly with the Norwegian medical community to explain the art and science behind pain and to show the positive effects of body suspension.

Yes, today is my friend Håvve Fjell‘s 40th birthday.  Unfortunately I cannot be there to celebrate with him.  However, I will be there in a few weeks for the Oslo Suscon. (In my opinion the world’s best suspension convention)

My Story of Håvve
It was December 3rd, 2000 – I had just finished a suspension performance for Torture Garden .  (Opening for Ron Athey)  During my suspension I had managed to rip my knee and was a bit distressed about how to handle the gaping wound.  I remember sitting upstairs at Body Probe Studios staring at the hole when I notice a tall bald man standing over me.

“Hello Allen, I’m Håvve”
“Nice to meet you Håvve, by chance to do have any sutures?”
Now in all honesty, the question was more of sarcastic joke.  Yes I needed to stitch my knee, but I never expected anyone to have anything that might help.
To my surprise he replied, “Yes I do”
He dug through his backpack and handed me a sterile suture pack.
“Wait.  Who are you?”
“I’m Håvve from Oslo.  We have been chatting online.”

At the time it seemed like a random encounter.  Little did I know that I had just met such an amazing person that was not only going to influence the world of suspension, but become such a good friend.

Happy Birthday Old Man

The video below is MUST see. I love my crazy friends! My hat goes off to Jesse and the AGRO crew for pulling off this mini bike suspension. Enjoy:

In other news, we just got in 800 needles from Industrial Strength Needles. I can’t even express how thankful I am to have Maria and her team supporting the suspension community. If you work in the tattoo/piercing industry, you should give your business to IS Needles! Even in this bad economy, they have gone out of their way to donate supplies to us!

Yesterday, we made a rather landmark purchase. It cost a pretty penny, but we now own a dynamometer. We even spent the extra money to purchase the software that goes along with it. So what does this mean? Now we can test suspension equipment by pushing it until it fails. Plus with the software we can record, in real time, the forces exerted during a suspension! The company even told us, that if we record video we can sync the dyno’s readings with the video. If I remember correctly, the software takes 24 measurements per second! Holy crap I’m excited to see what kind of results we will get.

And in final news, we are placed a giant rope order for the upcoming Dallas Suscon. In previous years we’ve only had a few choices of rope. This year we will have a selection of ropes for people to compare side by side: (MBS=minimum breaking strength)

1/8″ Tech 12 (600′) – MBS: 2500 pounds

1/8″ Amsteel Blue (600′) – MBS: 2300 pounds

1/8″ Amsteel Gray (600′) – MBS: 1600 pounds

4mm Accessory Cord (646′) – MBS:1056 pounds

7 strand Paracord (1200′) – MBS: 550 pounds

So much is going on in the world of suspension right now. First of all, I finally made an announcement that the Dallas Suscon will happen again in 2010. It is scheduled for April 2-4 of 2010. The event will be similar to last year, including the big Freaks and Fetish opening party that will feature some amazing acts that Dallas has never seen.

In more recent news. Emrys and Bella from Rites of Passage just appeared on the National Geographic network last weekend. The show was entitled Humanly Impossible. The segment was short, but the science they describe pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to the biology and brain chemistry that surrounds suspension:

Those of you that keep up with this blog know that I’ve been promoting the Hellzapoppin sideshow coming to Dallas Thursday December 17th. Presently I’ve been focusing on the Lizardman and his book that he will be selling at the show, but I wanted to make a special shout out for another Hellzapoppin performer, the World Famous Penguin Boy. This last Monday I had the honor of hanging him for his first suspension. Photos never really show the how well people suspend, but I can assure you he hung like a pro:

And speaking about someone that hangs like a champ. Holy shit! Two days ago I opened my email to find a link to this video of Neil from the Houston AGRO team. This, my friends, is in my opinion one of the most impressive suspensions to date. Trust my folks, this is definitely one of those DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME moments:

From Neil: “This would not have happened without the help of so many of my close friends.  Arwen Rosa, Joe Amato, Tim Taylor, Kenny Hughes, Kieran Diedrich, Jill Coudray, Nicola Sands, Rick Pierceall, Miss Ouch, Roel Moreno, CoRE, AGRO, DHS, SMS, everyone who hung from me, and several others who I’m sure I forgot to mention.  I couldn’t have done this shit without help from all of them.”

People have asked if this was the first one point resurrection. Actually the first to my knowledge was done by Alice from Constant Elevation at the 2008 Oslo Suscon photo below:

Update 09/12/11: I can’t believe I forgot about Damien who was hung by Hanged Man Suspension Team in Australia. He did a single point resurrection back in early 2009, I believe.

This next video is also Damien suspending from his forearms, doing some VERY impressive aerial flips.  The clip is from a show entitled “Live Bait. ” Interesting side note, there are some old TSD button work shirts out there, circa 1998, with graphic of a doctor performing surgery holding a hook. The caption on the shirt is “Live Bait”

He may not have been the first to pull of the one point resurrection, but the tandem seen below is, I believe was a first. Yes, that’s Neil again doing a superman with 3 people hanging off him from their knees. Think that’s impressive? What you may not know is that not only was this after the one point suspension you see in the video, he also had several other people hang from him as well this day. I’m not even sure how many in total.

Man I love the suspension community …you guys never cease to amaze me!!

A old friend of mine was cleaning out his warehouse…and guess what he found, one of my old suspension rigs.  It was custom built by Christian Ristow for a show I did back in 2002. (The Los Angeles Fetish Ball) If you are in the LA area and can give this contraption a good home, please drop me a line.

Sorry for the delays on posting a new blog. Between work, school and suspensions I’ve been pulling long hours so I’ve been slacking on this blog. Well, I have actually written two other blogs, but they were never finished and may never see the light of day…who knows.

First Current Events
Two tragic deaths this week
John Hughes 1950-2009
and
Veronica Hoffman 1979-2009

John Hughes…now unless you have been living under a rock, I’m sure you know of John Hughes and his films, or at least the ones from the 1980′s. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, just to name a few. Cinematic masterpieces? No far from it, but one of his films is very important to me. If you know me very well, you probably know that Weird Science is my all time favorite movie. (Yes, I can quote the entire movie from beginning to end) “Are you fucking serious?” Yes I am. “Why?” Well that’s a long story, that I might tell you if you buy me a drink sometime.

Veronica Hoffman…you probably don’t know her, but she was a friend of mine. Usually I’m fairly well spoken individual, but when it comes to death, especially suicide I’m often at a loss for words. So instead or trying to say the right thing, I will just post couple of photos. The first I shot of Veronica in a hotel in San Francisco a few years back and the second was shot by someone else at a party that same weekend. You can also read a short article about her on thefetishistas.com.

Me, Athena, Jody and Veronica
Veronica you will be missed!

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…and in Suspension News
New Gilson Hooks
and
The Horsemen

Steve Haworth has recently added an amazing new feature to the Gilson Hooks. A carriage bolt with a wing nut: (Thanks to Matte for giving Steve the idea)

Oh happy day, no more tools to secure the hooks. He’s even put together a nice little direct hook/shackle/rig design that eliminates the need for a secondary rigging rope. All very good news for suspension safety.

I know many of you are looking at the above photo, reading the description and saying, “Do, Hunh, Wha?” It’s ok I will explain. In the world of suspension we have been using fishhooks for years. Yes, debarbed stainless steel fishing hooks…and the hooks have always been the weakest point. “Not the skin, doesn’t that rip?” Well, yes the skin is the one difficult variable, but contrary to what you might think, the skin is actually stronger than most hooks. Plus, hooks are open on one side. Not only are they weak, they can fall out. These new hooks take care of both issues! Interested in buying some. Well then, hop on over to Ebay and pick up a pair. BTW, this author is TOTALLY NOT RESPONSIBLE for misuse of the product. In fact, don’t hang from hooks without seeking professional help. Yes, pun intended there

And lastly, The Horsemen came out on DVD last week. Um, what can I say. If you are a producing a feature film, underground flick, TV show, over even a little youtube video and you want people hanging from hooks in it. Please just send me a message or contact one of the groups on suspension.org I know I’m just jaded, but I hate it when suspensions look so fake. As I remember the special effects guys of The Cell were paid $20,000 to do show a quick little clip of someone hanging in a rubber suit. Hello Hollywood, we will do it for less than that, and it will look real Actually, nix that last statement, you should pay us the $20,000 plus hazard pay. I kid…well kinda.

As for the movie, it was ok. The story line really didn’t seem to go anywhere and the ending was bit contrived, but overall I would say it was entertaining. On that note though, unless you are really interested in seeing every Ziyi Zhang movie, just skip it and go rent a John Hughes film…ok maybe not Beethoven’s 5th…stick to the 80′s and you’ll prolly be a happy camper.

National Lampoon’s Vacation
Cousin Vicki: I’m going steady, and I French kiss.
Audrey Griswold: So? Everybody does that.
Cousin Vicki: Yeah, but Daddy says I’m the best at it.

Yes, the rumors are true. I am coming out of retirement to do a show: Torture Garden – Toronto – August 29th Why? I am done with performing (yes I still suspend just not on stage) but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Plus, I’m getting to perform with Samar. (myspace/modelmayhem – see her images below) In my opinion, she is one the most talented suspension performers in the world…and working with her is always an amazing experience.

BTW there is another rumor that I might do a show next year. There is a bit of truth to it…but until my conditions are met it’s all just talk

crew for the shoot:
photographer: Daniel Riedel
piercers: Erik Dakota & Andrea Costantino
makeup: Jessicka Schumann & Shamika Baker

To order any of these prints please click this: link

Yesterday, I did an interview for BME. It was their inaugural podcast and I’m quite happy to be their first. Well, not really the first. Shannon’s BME Radio was started nearly nine years ago. This is actually a homage and rebirth of the old show. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Click the link below to stream the interview

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I just ran across this nice video on the bodymod.org site. It’s from the 2008 isuspend suscon that was held in Vienna Austria. I’m not sure who all was involved but I do recogize quite a few people in the video. Enjoy:

From the credits, here are the shops/teams involved:
Trust, Silver Studio, Modifiedworld, Visavajara, zeroVII

Video by: derHarry.com
Edited by: Ruby Blue (couldn’t find a link)

Before I get into the story, you will notice that Satine is nude and the thumbnails are censored. I think it’s lame that our society is so repressed that you have to censor nudity, but since these images are on the main page and there is no way to put up a warning, I decided to put little black boxes on this set.

NOTE: The linked images are NOT CENSORED, NSFW, etc etc etc ….you’ve been warned.

As many people have heard I retired from performance suspension last year. The key word in there is performance. I have not retired from suspension. In fact, I am more involved than ever. Besides planning an upcoming suspension convention, I’ve been focusing on hanging other people. Just this past weekend I hung 2 people in LA and helped hang another in Orange County. Yes, I’m a hooker for hire.

Anyway …enough about that. The images below are from Satine Phoenix‘s first suspension. For a first timer she did amazingly well and I was very impressed! You can read more about it in her blog, but let me warn you, it is very NSFW. Strangely, I think the best thing about this experience was getting to know the real her. People mainly know Satine as a fetish model and porn star…but the real girl is actually a silly nerdy g33k. You know you’ve found a comrade when there are hooks and naked women, but the topic keeps switching to, “Man it sucks that David Tennant is leaving Dr Who!”