The Human Ostrich

A stage name used by a number of circus and vaudeville performers since the late 18th century, usually by someone tall, whose act consists of eating tin, blades, glass, etc.

In South Africa this was apparently an act by one of the circus performers called William Coetzee (Snr and Jnr). It is not always certain which of them did what over the years, since a British Pathé film showing The Human Ostrich at a sideshow in Durban, for example, dates from 1940, which means it could be either one.

See William Coetzee

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