36 GAMES WORLD^ OF PUZZLES^ | may 2019
thousand cards, he could turn them into a tower, stadium, or
Japanese shrine. The February 1996 issue of GAMES intro-
duced readers to Berg, who had just broken his own GWR by
balancing 22,500 playing cards to form a tower that stood
more than 16 feet tall. Since then, Berg outdid himself by
constructing a house of cards standing over 25 feet tall.
That latest record, set in 2007, still stands today. But why
stop with only one world record? Berg went on to earn an-
other three records, including one for the largest structure
made from playing cards. His 2010 replica of the Venetian
Macao, The Plaza Macao, and Sands Macao consisted of
a whopping 218,000 cards. Berg is still actively balancing
cards and can be found at http://www.cardstacker.com.
It was reported in the May/June 1978 issue that the “Dom-
ino Wizard,” Bob Speca, was planning a GWR attempt to set
up and knock down 111,111 dominoes at the Manhattan
Center in New York on June 9. This feat would beat his pre-
vious record of 55,555 dominoes. Contact information for
the big event was provided, but the results of the attempt
were not reported in any future issue. Now, I'm no pessi-
mist, but I would give this stunt a slim margin of success,
with 111,111 chances to fail. In reality, Speca’s optimism
was on point, and he got all the dominoes set up over nine
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was toppled to start the chain reaction. If all went well dur-
ing the next half-hour as the dominos fell, Speca would earn
a new world record. Unfortunately, a cameraman on a bal-
cony dropped his press badge onto the setup and started
GAMES reported on these four fearless fellows, who were known for taking risks for our
entertainment. From shallow dives to sword swallowing, just how long can a daredevil
sustain a life of tempting fate? Try to match the performer with their current state.September 1979: Henri LaMothe
earned his place in the record books by
diving from nearly 40 feet into a pool
of water 12 inches deep.September 1986: Craig Hosking
graced the pages of GAMES in his
one-of-a-kind plane. He would take
off, fly, and land upside down.October 1986: Philippe Petit was an
aerial artist, best known for his
tightrope walk between the Twin
Towers of the World Trade Center in
1974.April 2000: Brad Byers was a sword
swallower. He held the world record for
swallowing ten 27-inch swords.He now works as a movie stunt coordina-
tor and has his own IMDb page.Never injured in performance;last stunt
performed in 2002. Has been the subject
of several movies; currently doing lecture
tours.Performed for years with only one minor
injury to his nose; retired from stunts and
died of old age. His record has since been
broken.Still performing; 70-time record holder for
a variety of freakshow stunts, although his
record mentioned here has been broken
several times.STU
NT
ME
N
ANSWER, PAGE 76a second stream of toppling dominoes. Speca quickly
removed some dominoes to prevent the damage from
spreading, and had to make do with a lesser record of
97,500 dominoes. That record has since been broken
by Liu Yang of Beijing (321,197 dominoes). Speca is
still active and can be found at http://www.dominoshow.com.GASTRONOMIC OUTLIERS
Have you ever wanted to combine your love of eat-
ing with your desire to be a world record holder? The
following people have successfully married food and
fame.
Michel Lotito was mentioned in a “Call Our Bluff”
puzzle in the September/October 1979 issue for hav-
ing eaten an entire bicycle over the course of 15 days.
A year after the issue was published, he returned to the
headlines, this time, for eating a Cessna airplane. Guin-
ness World Records awarded Lotito a bronze plaque
(which he ate), and then closed the category, to dis-
courage anyone else from eating indigestibles. Amaz-
ingly, Lotito suffered no medical side effects from his
unusual talent, and died of natural causes in 2007.
In the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, cov-
ered in GAMES in July 2002, we learned of Takeru
“The Prince” Kobayashi, who inexplicably consumed a
record-setting (and stomach-stretching) 50 hot dogs
in 12 minutes. Comparable to a sword swallower, Ko-36 GAMES WORLD^ OF PUZZLES^ | may 2019