WEEKLY WHINE

Don't try this at home

Many of you have written in asking about Edvard van de Kamp, the well known Dutchman who has made himself famous for consuming explosives. "Dynamite Eating" Edvard holds the unofficial world record for dynamite consumption with twelve sticks, although rumors abound that he will attempt to beat that record during his latest tour, "Dynamite Eating: What You Should Know Before You Blow Up".

Edvard van de Kamp was born on WED 06 SEP 1967 in Rotterdam. His parents, Norman and Anita van de Kamp, were both singers in a travelling band, Half a Dirty Dozen. "There really were half a dozen of us... at one point," says Norman. "But not all of us were dirty," adds Anita. The band's popularity rose and fell, but most of their shows, which generally took place at various record stores in the Netherlands, were well attended.

Young Edvard first wanted to become a paleontologist. "His favorite was the Triceratops," Norman recalls. "But he was interested in all sorts of life in the Mesozoic and Cambrian eras. He also had a penchant for the trilobites. He said they looked like beetles."

Edvard graduated in the top ten in his high school class and went on to the University of Utrecht as a biology major. He soon became involved in additional activities, including assuming the role of the campus daredevil. "One day I just said to him, 'Bet you can't jump out of that tree.' The tree was twenty meters tall or so, but he said, 'How much?' I offered him fifty guilders, and he hopped up onto a branch, scurried up, got most of the way up, and called down, 'How's this?'" says his longtime friend Patrick Sooron. "I said, 'That's fine,' and he went flying. I was rather impressed with his landing - he came down on his feet and went into a roll, so he only hurt his ankle a little bit."

With that, Edvard had nowhere to go but up. Although stunts such as jumping into a moving car first built his reputation, he would later advance to specialty eating. "The first thing I ate was a tadpole. After that I tried to avoid eating live things," admits Edvard. He soon found himself making a significant profit, but it was still no substitute for a real job. He graduated from Utrecht in 1989 in biology and found work at a natural history museum. It seemed that Edvard had settled down and found his calling.

But old habits would die hard for Edvard. Soon Sooron, finding normal life a bit dull, came calling to ask a favor. "He said that his friends had a model rocket engine and were trying to dare one another to eat it. So he called me up," Edvard recounts. "I said, 'Are you nuts?' He told me that they were all putting in a hundred guilders each. I figured that at worst it would pay my hospital bill, so I went ahead. It wasn't that hard, and I wound up making 1,200 on the deal." Edvard had found his niche.

In 1995 Edvard became serious. He started training twice a week on small explosives and made continuous steps. On SAT 23 NOV 1996, the following entry was made in his training log: "Saturday 23. Ate one stick dynamite. Felt good for most of the day, but light dizziness in evening." The problem did not recur on subsequent attempts, and soon Edvard could eat three sticks in a sitting. He decided to go public.

"I wanted to represent myself, but my parents talked me out of that. They said I needed to concentrate full time on my art, so they offered to act as my agents. I gave them the job because of their show business background. They did a terrific job, of course." Edvard's first show was at a nightclub in Utrecht, not far from the natural history museum where he was now an assistant curator. "I didn't want to accept any money for this any more - I already had a stable job. So we did it for charity." Edvard's first performance in APR 1997, at which he ate three sticks, got him accolades from the community. It also collected 2,000 guilders for a local charity. Subsequent performances benefited a different charitable fund, and by the end of his 1997 season, his ten appearances had collected a total of 25,000 guilders for various charities.

In 1998, Edvard appeared outside the Netherlands for the first time, visiting Brussels, Belgium and Hamburg, Germany. During a twelve city tour, he consumed a total of 92 sticks of dynamite, raised 60,000 guilders in the Netherlands, and, perhaps most importantly, coined his now famous moniker "Dynamite Eating" Edvard.

With the success of his summer tour, he started again in late 1998. He again visited twelve cities but this time spanned the western half of the continent. He appeared in Paris, London, and Naples for the first time before concluding his tour in ambitious fashion: At The Hague, he first made an attempt at the world record. By that time, the Guinness Book of World Records no longer accepted new records in categories such as this, but Dynamite Eating Edvard would not be deterred. He ate twelve sticks of dynamite, beating the old record by three. However, all was clearly not well. Ten minutes after finishing the twelfth stick, an explosion occurred in his stomach that would have been fatal, doctors say, had his mouth not been open at the time, allowing the rapidly expanding gases to leave his system.

Edvard escaped with minor injuries, but his doctors urged him to put an end to his antics. He would have none of it, even though he would be persuaded to take a break for a couple of months before resuming training.

Dynamite Eating Edvard successfully returned to touring on FRI 02 JUN 2000 in Amsterdam, where he ate six sticks to start his new tour. To those who want to pursue such a profession, he offers this advice: "It's a good fun activity, but it's not what I do for a living. Fortunately, the folks at the museum are very supportive and gave me quite a bit of time off when the accident occurred. But even so, I look forward to the time when I can put this behind me and get back to the museum full time." When that happens, his fans will surely be distraught, but he will have made a name for himself in more ways than one.