Thrill show cheats death, has fun

Are you looking for something out of the ordinary to do this weekend? If you’re the adventurous type, you might want to pay a visit to The Steer Inn in Berlin.

The little bar that could will present the return of the Lucky Daredevil Thrill show — alias husband-and-wife duo Tyler Fyre and Thrill Kill Jill.

When not touring the country, they reside in West Virginia, where they try to avoid having too much fun in the snow.

“We’re very careful when we have time off. We don’t want to get injured, especially if it isn’t on stage,” Jill said.

While the show differs from night to night, it often features sword swallowing, fire blowing, burlesque routines and live snakes.

“Tyler drops 19 blades into the box while I’m inside,” Jill said. “The audience members are welcome to look into the box.”

Jill said the crowds have gotten larger with each of their Steer Inn performances.

“We’re big fans of the Steer Inn. It’s a small venue for us, but it’s fantastic. The crowds are nice and we’ve become friends with the owners,” she said. “We actually found out about it online. I knew some of the go-go girls who had performed there.”

“It’s four hours away, but that’s still relatively close for us,” said Tyler, who added that the Steer Inn bookings are usually scheduled between tours. The evenings are usually two hours in length, consisting of two 45-minute sets with an intermission.

“It’s the only place we play that offers free admission,” he said. “You can thank the Steer Inn for that, for thinking of their local customers.”

“We usually open the show with 10- to 15-minutes of our sword-swallowing routine,” Jill said. “The last time we were at the Steer Inn, a couple of people walked in late and asked us what the swords were for and whether we were going to use them.”
Among the other stunts?

“Tyler breaks a cinder block on my stomach while I’m on a bed of nails,” Jill said.

If you think the show always goes off without a hitch, you’ve got another think coming.

“I’ve been injured before, but luckily, it’s been awhile,” Tyler said. “There was an incident where one of the neon swords broke and cut my throat. There was also a fire-blowing mishap that resulted in my lips being sealed shut.”

“We tell everyone, ‘It’s all real and it’s all dangerous, which means it’s all real dangerous.’ We’ve rehearsed a lot of the ‘dangerousness’ out of it. You can’t make it safe, but you can make it less dangerous.

“We spend about two years rehearsing a new stunt before we’ll actually debut it on stage,” Tyler said. “But we’ve got to keep the ‘hits’ because we don’t want to disappoint the repeat customers.”

Different venues have different rules regarding fire-eating, chainsaws, snakes and clothing (or lack thereof).

“The local laws are different everywhere we go,” Tyler said. “The fire marshals will come out and we always have our paperwork in order. I think they enjoy hanging out with us, because they see that we’ve studied this just like they have. We all want the show to be successful and to be run safely.”

Tyler said the cutting-edge performer Jim Rose helped elevate the entire genre during the 1990s by performing in front of tens of thousands of people each night during the Lollapalooza tours.

“He took it from the carnival to the rock ‘n’ roll world,” Tyler recalled. “I think even the older, traditional carnies would’ve tipped their hat to him for bringing it to a whole new market.”

The couple travels with a $2 million dollar insurance policy.

“We cheat death and put the human body to the breaking point while still having fun,” Tyler said.

Tyler and Jill met on Valentines Day 2006 and they were married one year later. It was love at first sight, Jill said.

“Neither of us had thought about anything like this happening,” she said. “We didn’t plan on getting married to anyone. We’ve only been married three years, but it feels like 20. We only have one problem, and it’s something that other couples don’t have to deal with ... we risk each other’s lives on a daily basis.”

Their array of bookings includes motorcycle rallys, tattoo conventions, beer festivals and even childrens’ events.

“We rarely curse and people don’t even realize it. We don’t need it,” Jill said. “We’re very versatile.”

Added Tyler, “It’s universal and it appeals to the human element, regardless of what language you speak. We’ll see three generations of families next to each other and they’re all smiling and sharing the experience.”