Original Air Date:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Contortionist Leslie Tipton - World Record Holder:
To open the show, Oprah wheeled out a large, heavy suitcase with the help of a show crew member, only to surprise the audience by revealing contortionist Leslie Tipton inside. Leslie holds the world records for being the fastest person in the world to climb into a suitcase and zip it up, as well as the record for placing eggs into egg cups with her feet while standing on her hands. Leslie described how contortionists are naturally flexible and learn to control their body motions.
Swee' Pea the Dog - World Record Holder:
Swee' Pea the dog and her owner/trainer, Alex, demonstrated their world records on the show. Sweet Pea holds the world record for jumping rope 75 times in a minute as well as 4 other records for climbing stairs with a cup of water on her nose. On the show, Swee' Pea showed how she can walk forward upstairs with water - a trick that took Alex 7 years to teach the dog to do.
Fan Yang - World Record Holder:
Fan Yang holds 14 world records for his bubble creations - Yang explained how he uses a special solution that has a higher elasticity than regular commercial bubbles. On the show, he demonstrated many of his bubble elements including putting one audience member in a bubble. He succeeded at putting 100 people into a bubble on the show by constructing a grid with 130 gallons of soapy solution underneath. When Yang pulled on the cord, the grid came up and out of the solution enclosing the 100 people in a complex patterned bubble. Fan Yang will be performing a mega bubble show in Las Vegas beginning February 2, 2008.
Clapper Kent French - World Record Holder:
Kent French, a "frustrated drummer" and father of 9 holds the world record as being the fastest clapper. He demonstrated on the show what 14 claps per second sounds like - the record is 721 claps per minute.
Cathie Young - World Record Holder:
Cathie holds the record for having the world's smallest waist - at just 15 inches; her waist is no bigger than a large bagel. Cathie credits her waist to doing Victorian costuming and wearing a corset 24 hours a day, only taking it off to shower - she also has had 3 children!
Kenneth Lee - World Record Holder:
Karate master Kenneth Lee holds the world record for the most apples cut mid-air in 1 minute using a samurai sword. Kenneth's previous record was 23, but he broke his record on the show cutting 24.
Oprah's Book Club Record:
Oprah also set a record with the book club selection The Pillars of the Earth, a novel by Ken Follett. Not only was the book the longest at 973 pages, but also the fastest selling book in club history. To end the book's run as selection #61, Oprah and Ken sat down to lunch at Ralph Lauren's restaurant in Chicago to talk about writing and Ken's career.
"When did you know that you were a writer?":
Ken answered this first question by saying "it was always the only thing I was really good at." Ken had wanted early on to go into advertising or be an investigative newspaper reporter, but stated that he wasn't great at reporting. He first discovered novel writing when his car broke down in the 70s and it would have cost him 200 pounds to fix it. He had a new baby and had just moved to London but the bank would not give him a loan. A co-worker at the paper wrote a thriller and was given 200 pounds from the publisher, which gave him the idea to write his first book to get his car fixed.
Ken's First Thriller:
Ken's inspiration for his first thriller was to get his car fixed! He wrote his first book very quickly and sent it to the same publisher his co-worker had used, and was also given 200 pounds. But Ken realized that if he tried harder at another book that he could do better than the first.
Ken didn't have wide success with a book until his 11th try - Eye of the Needle was a huge hit. He was hoping he would not be one of the writers that only have 1 good book in them and became concerned for the success of his next piece. The Pillars of the Earth was Ken's 17th book and very different from the others.
A Typical Writing Day for Ken Follett:
Ken described how he likes to start writing early as he wakes up with the story in his head. Typically Ken is at his desk 5 minutes after he wakes up working in a bathrobe with tea. His first step is to read what he wrote the day before because he always makes changes.
Ken plans out his chapters and characters before he ever starts writing by creating an outline. He usually spends about a year on the outline getting the main points of the novel worked out.Writing The Pillars of the Earth:
Ken actually tried to write The Pillars of the Earth before Eye of the Needle but stopped because he felt it was too ambitious. While his writing friends thought it was a good idea, the publishers were unsure. Since Ken had been so successful with thrillers, they felt he should stick to what he was good at.
Ken did not have a title in mind before he began to write, but had a working title of Vaulting which didn't work because it gave the impression of a pole-vaulting theme. Ken finds phrases from the Bible very inspirational when developing titles and decided to look for verses about pillars or columns. He came across the verse, "The Lord has set the earth on its pillars" and it fit perfectly.
