A producer, performer, and record setting sword swallower, Amy Saunders, also known as Miss Behave, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

A British-born performer and the producer of numerous variety shows, she got her start in sword swallowing and would break the Guinness World Record for most swords swallowed by a woman three times.

An Olivier Award winner and an original member of Absinthe, she's the creative producer and host of Miss Behave's Mavericks at the historic Plaza Hotel and Casino showroom.

Amy Saunders, aka Miss Behave, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you for having me.

-What kind of a person swallows swords for a living?

(Amy Saunders) A very silly person.

[laughter] It's been a while.

She had a death wish when she was little.

-How were you introduced to it?

-I actually read a book called Memoirs of a Sword Swallower, and I remember thinking, Hmm, I think I could probably do that.

And then I taught myself.

-How old were you?

-I was 18, and I taught myself sword swallowing.

And then I used to-- there were three bars in the West End in London that would let me jump on the bar, they'd turn the music down, and I would literally shout at the people drinking.

And then I would swallow a sword and I would pass a glass around and they would give me money.

That's how I paid my rent for about a year and a half.

-What did your family think of this?

-They don't love it.

I'm not gonna lie, my mum would really love me to retire the sword swallowing.

And fair point.

I will, Mum, I just haven't quite yet.

-Yes, you still do it.

I got to witness it when I went and saw your show, and I remember you saying that you're not just a sword swallower, but a lazy sword swallower.

How does that exist, even?

-It does exist, legit.

I am a lazy sword swallower because I only swallow one.

Most sword swallowers I know have a variety of different-- they'll swallow two, three, five in their act.

Me, I'm just doing one.

I mean, I also do a table leg, but that's a different number.

-Okay.

Yeah, I've seen rulers and-- -Well, ruler was what I actually taught myself with.

And if I could say one thing, it's please do not learn with a ruler.

Dangerous.

-Don't try this.

-Also that, don't try this at home.

-Okay, but in order to break the world record, you had to swallow, you got up to seven.

-Yes.

I mean, and that was a while back, so, I mean, I was less of a lazy sword swallower back then.

And Guinness got in touch with me and said, Would you like to set the world record for most swords swallowed by a woman?

And I said, Sure, I'll do five.

And so I did five, and then did five around the world.

And then the next year I did six--see if you can see a theme--and then the year after that, I did seven.

And I thought, this is great.

I'm going to keep this going for years.

And then another woman in New York did 13, and I thought, Ah, screw it.

I can't be bothered.

Lazy sword swallow.

And actually, personally, the best sword swallower in the world is, I think, is in this town, Heather Holliday.

Absolutely amazing.

She is a great example of not a lazy sword swallower.

-What makes her a great sword swallower?

-She's a wonderful performer, but she's, her technique and the things she does with swords is pretty impressive.

And I'm saying that as a sword swallower.

-I mean, what are your options of what you can do with swords besides swallow them?

-Well, it's what-- so she does-- it's the combos she does, I think, the drops and all the scary things I won't do because I'm lazy.

-So seven, where do the swords go?

-Weirdly, despite how dangerous sword swallowing is, it's incredibly boringly practical.

It's all about posture, because there is a straight line from your esophagus to your stomach.

So as long as you get this bit straight, you are just straight down.

That's the, you know, so it's going the same place your food goes.

-And you just stack them on each other?

Can you feel it?

-Oh, you can feel it, yes.

-What does that feel like?

-It kind of, it kind of feels like what it is, actually, if that makes sense, which is why-- -So it's painful?

-No, not painful, but it does feel like there is a rigid metal thing in your esophagus.

So for example, that's when people say, How do you do that?

You say, very carefully.

And it's true.

Each time you swallow a sword, you are completely focused on your posture, on that passing clearly down, and on them going, Ta-da, and then very carefully taking it out again.

And that is all about posture and position and careful.

-And focus.

-Oh, yes, focus.

-How do you do that in front of a crowd, especially a bar crowd?

-The bar crowd was interesting.

I was young then, so in a way, wasn't as aware of safety.

So the near misses I had over my life, whew, you know?

So that's been very lucky.

But I'm pretty good at controlling a room, and I think part of that is from standing on a bar shouting at people, Watch me.

I'm about to swallow a sword.

I think part of it came from that.

-And you broke those records when you were relatively young.

How old were you?

-I was, I think I was 20, maybe 21.

Yeah.

-What was that time in your life like?

-I was pretty crazy.

I was in London.

I was working.

I was doing street performing.

I was also working in a fetish scene.

I was working in late night cabarets.

And then I also discovered that there was a whole circuit over the pond, and that's when I started going to Australia and New Zealand.

And I spent years going between UK and Europe and Australia and New Zealand.

So you'd sort of follow the sun.

-How did you end up in the US?

-I ended up in the US because I have a very, very silly game show called The Miss Behave Game Show.

And I'd traveled around the world with it.

I'd got pretty much every accolade you can go with it, you know, played everywhere.

And I really thought if I could get it into Vegas, you know--and this was me knowing nothing about Vegas--if I can get it into Vegas, I think it stands a chance of becoming quite something.

So, you know, with much hard work, I kind of managed to get it into a gorgeous little back room at Bally's called The Back Room.

It used to be Liaisons Nightclub.

I think it was the first gay nightclub on the Strip.

It closed, but that was the room.

So it's a really pretty little room.

And I came in with my crazy game show, and it worked.

It worked really well from a critical point of view.

Locals loved it.

You know, tourists loved it.

We stayed alive largely because of TripAdvisor, you know, and audiences loving it.

But it's very hard to like to build a show from a small room into a big room.

So it was a great way to learn and understand how Vegas works, what I like and don't like, and where I want to do things and don't do things.

So it was fabulous, but it was hard work.

And then the pandemic, see.

I mean, that's where we actually got to was the pandemic essentially closed the Strip, and we went with it.

-But that show is on cruise ships currently.

-It is.

I got a call from Virgin, and they said, Hey, we're doing this cruise line.

Do want it on the ship?

I said, Have you seen it?

They said, Actually, we've seen it in the Edinburgh Festival, in Sydney Opera House, we've seen it in Las Vegas.

And because of how you can adapt it and because of the wide demographic you seem to be able to play with, we actually think it would work well on a cruise ship.

I said, All right, let's try.

And I mean, I'm not performing in it.

I cast it rigorously, but it has worked really well.

It's the most popular show on their ship.

-And I was telling you off camera earlier how empowering that must feel to go from the street performer to being probably in someone else's show to creating your own show and casting it yourself and not even performing in it.

-Absolutely.

And Game Show kind of came-- and just to be clear, Game Show is a very silly game show where I divide the audience based on their cell phones, iPhones, and you have everybody else.

The entire set is cardboard.

There is zero production.

I do all the light and sound.

All the sound is on stage.

And that came from a direct-- I wanted to try doing the same attention to detail as high production.

What happens if you do it the other way around?

What if you have no production, but you've paid the same attention to detail?

And it turns out, it works quite well.

Yeah.

Because I'd been putting on big variety shows in London, I did one at the sort of quite infamous venue, the Roundhouse.

And I've been obsessed with variety for a very long time, but I got fed up with not having, not being able to orchestrate your vision, because it requires others to do this on these times.

I thought, What happens if I take the power back and if I make sure the production is really lo-fi, pay attention absolutely everything, but really lo-fi?

And it really worked.

-When was your first time in Las Vegas, and what made you want to move here?

-Um, did I even-- I came over in 2003 to visit friends who were performing the then previews of Zumanity, and I couldn't drive at the time, so I didn't understand the place at all.

And I was very confused about it all, and off I went.

And then, what was it?

I think it was a case of I was kind of over being in a suitcase, and I was like, it would be really great to see what is the next thing you can do with this.

And it felt like, if you could sit it down somewhere.

And because Vegas is an entertainment capital versus, you know, it doesn't need to be high art.

And I'm not knocking high art, and I'm also not knocking Vegas for it not being high art.

There's plenty of high art in Vegas, and many high art is very good.

I just like entertainment and hospitality, so I thought this might be a spot for it, actually.

And I learned a lot of lessons.

It is, it does work well.

It's phenomenal that that sort of subversive, ridiculous show can work well for demographics that I would be surprised that it worked well for.

But I guess it was just a very good learning ground to figure out how you make things work in Vegas.

-At what point was Miss Behave born?

-I think the personality came out of because I was street performing, I was flyering, I was that sort of-- -Flyering, what is that?

-Leafleting.

Nightclub leafleting used to be a whole thing.

So I've always been a very mouthy gal.

And I think through late nights and various venues, I developed the persona, which is essentially just a exaggeration of a part of me.

And then when I was trying to figure out what a good stage name would be, I think it just came to me.

I thought that probably sums me up quite well.

I am trouble.

-And so I wonder, who are you right now?

-It's weird because it's actually evolved in the last few years because of the amount of booking and producing and curating and casting and directing.

It is weird that it's a different thing.

What I would say is I'm probably Miss B., because Amy, Amy's a pretty private introvert, and she'll probably be at home by herself with her cats.

When she's out and talking with people without too much, without too much of a face on, she's Miss B.

And then when she's onstage, she's Miss Behave.

I used to have it where people-- because I know quite a lot of Amys.

And so people would be like, Have you seen Amy?

Which Amy?

Thank you, swords.

-A referece to swords.

-The other one would be, Which Amy?

Amy Swords.

And so now it's Amy, you know, Behave.

-Okay.

-Yeah.

-I ask because you have said that you are offstage, socially awkward and a control freak.

-Absolutely.

Onstage, also a control freak, but, you know, yes, offstage, socially awkward is putting it mildly.

But I'm brilliant at, what do you call it?

-Do you feel socially awkward right now?

-No, because we're doing this.

If I was to walk into a party and not know what to do with myself, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Like if I was catering the party, if I was glass collecting, fine.

If I have no reason to be there, I have no idea what to do.

-We only have one minute left, but you told me a story off camera about COVID, and you decided, You know what, I am not going to wear makeup when I am not performing.

How impactful has that been?

Why did you choose to do that?

-I am someone who-- it's why I think I'm a natural-born producer and curator is I'm someone who actually does not enjoy dressing up, which means putting makeup on has always been a chore.

And I would say what I do is I'm sort of a large persona, so I'm not putting on natural makeup.

I'm putting on kind of drag makeup.

So taking it off has been very freeing.

Also, I see the difference.

You do get treated differently.

You do become more invisible easier.

-And you like that?

-Yeah.

-Amy Saunders, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you very much for having me.

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