The Fire-eating Chicken Hypnotist Blues

“Fire eater's sad tale tugs at hearts
MISFORTUNE Sale of $1,800 bike for $15 strands performer in Scotland.

By S.J. Komarnitsky
Anchorage Daily News

A fire-eating chicken hypnotist from Palmer is making international headlines. In fact, Emily Harris may be the most famous chicken hypnotist in Britain right now, according to a spokesman for the BBC, that country's main news organization.

But it's not Harris' fowl act and her life in a traveling circus that is bringing her fame. Rather, it's her misfortune that put her in the public spotlight and earned her the sympathy of many Brits.

While she was trying on clothes at the British Heart Foundation's charity shop in Edinburgh, Scotland, last month, the staff mistook Harris' custom-made $1,800 bike for a donation and sold it for 10 pounds, about $15.

Harris, 25, nearly penniless, was distraught. The bike was her main mode of transportation and had great personal value since she built it herself. Shop employees told her they sold the bike to a middle-aged Asian man with short dark hair.

The media knew a good tale of woe and chicken mind control when they heard it.

And they liked what they saw in Harris, who sports a shoulder-length, Easter egg-pink hairdo.

Overnight, Harris made headlines. She was interviewed by the BBC on its main 6 p.m. newscast, and bulletins went out on nearly every radio and TV station about the missing bike. Harris pleaded for its return and said she was stranded until she could earn money to buy a new one.

A newspaper columnist took it upon himself to try to find Harris' missing wheels using "bike-noculars."

A spokesman for the BBC said audiences were enthralled by Harris' looks, her background as an Alaskan, and the fact that she eats fire and allegedly hypnotizes chickens to play the piano as part of her job in a traveling circus, he said.

But what really got Brits going was the tragic nature of the tale: a young girl stranded in Scotland by a horrible mistake.

"One thing people in Britain do like to talk about is their bad luck," he said. "Everybody was quite happy to think, 'Today, I've had some bad luck, but . . . maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all."'

So far, news of Harris' plight has been picked up in such far away places as Detroit and in China, where it appeared in the South China Morning Post under the headline "Bike-selling Scots strand Alaskan chicken hypnotist."

In Austin, Texas, a group of engineers who read about her plight raised $500 for her to buy a new bike, according to one report.

In some cases, the headlines in England sounded nearly lewd to Americans unused to British slang.

"Circus performer breathes fire as her 'way of life' bike is flogged for a tenner," read Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Harris could not be reached for an interview. Her father, Steve Harris, who lives in Palmer, said she is staying in a hostel in Edinburgh. He last talked to her about a week ago, he said.

"She's upset about her bike, but the people in Scotland have been really good to her," he said.

His daughter has always been a free spirit, he said. But he's not sure how she became a fire-eating chicken hypnotist and ended up with a traveling circus. She had no background in the trade, he said.

She left Alaska a couple of years ago for Denver and then ended up in New Orleans doing performance art, including walking on stilts in parades, he said. The next thing he knew she was in a circus.

Despite her current notoriety, Harris said he had some words of advice for his daughter.

"I told her it was her 15 minutes of fame," he said.

Reporter S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at skomarnitsky@adn.com.

To read about Harris' lost bike and to hear her interviewed, go to news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_2064000/2064854.stm


source: adn.com”

“What a story, I would pissed if someone mistook my bike for a donation and sold it, even if it was for more than the thing is worth.
Why did the chicken cross the road, it was hypnotized of course!!”

“Hmmmmm... the story circles the world three times but the guy doesn't return the bike.

Who could imagine a girl like that could wind up in a circus? Astounding.”