Michel Lotito

Michel Lotito
Born Mikael
June 15, 1950
Grenoble, France
Died June 25, 2007 (aged 57)
Grenoble
Resting place
Grenoble Cemetery
Nationality French
Other names Monsieur Mangetout
Occupation Entertainer
Known for Eating unusual objects
A Cessna 150, one of the more famous items Lotito ate over his lifetime.

Michel Lotito (June 15, 1950 - June 25, 2007) was a French entertainer, born in Grenoble, famous for deliberately consuming indigestible objects. He came to be known as Monsieur Mangetout ("Mr Eat-All").[1]

His performances involved the consumption of metal, glass, rubber and other materials. He disassembled, cut-up, and consumed bicycles, shopping carts, televisions, a Cessna 150,[2] and other items. The Cessna 150 took roughly two years to be "eaten", from 1978 to 1980. He began eating unusual material as a teenager around 16 years of age and performed publicly from 1966.

Lotito claimed not to suffer ill effects from consuming the materials, even after consuming materials usually considered poisonous. When performing, he consumed around 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the meal.[3] He said, however, that bananas and hard-boiled eggs made him sick. It is estimated that between 1959 and 1997, Lotito "had eaten nearly nine tons of metal."[4]

Lotito died on June 25, 2007, ten days after his 57th birthday. He is buried at Grenoble Cemetery.

Lotito's method for eating all of this metal was to break it into small pieces before attempting to eat it. He then drank mineral oil and continued to drink water while swallowing the metal bits. This acted as a lubricant to help the metal slide down his throat. He also had no problem "passing" his unusual diet.[5][6]

List of items consumed

Item[4] Count
Bicycles 18
Shopping cart 15
Chandelier 8
Television 7
Bed 2
Skis (pair) 1
Cessna aircraft 1
Coffin 1
Computer 1

References

  1. "Man eats 15 pounds of bicycle". The Leader-Post. September 7, 1978.
  2. Barron, James; Nagourney, Adam (August 30, 2000). "Not Half Bad With Ketchup". The New York Times.
  3. Tiede, Tom (February 4, 1980). "Prodigies bag big bucks by going pro". The Madison Courier.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Weird world records: bizarre entries in the Guinness Book of World Records". The Telegraph. September 17, 2008.
  5. Doug Mayer, Val Stori, and Tod von Jahnes. You Don't Know Sh*t. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-312-64990-6.
  6. Miles Kelly Publishing. Ripley's Believe it or Not: Arts & Entertainment. Ripley Entertainment, Inc. ISBN 1893951154.