CUE THE LONE RANGER THEME:

Knife Thrower Slices Assistant on Live TV (Reuters, Apr 10, 2003)

A record-breaking knife thrower shocked Britons on Thursday when one of his daggers sliced into the head of his assistant on live TV.

Circus performer Jayde Hanson, 23, was demonstrating his skills when one of his knives hit his assistant and girlfriend, 22-year-old Yana Rodianova.

As she clutched the side of her head, horrified presenter Fern Britton shouted: "Oh my God, there is blood, quick -- get her off."

Over one million viewers had been watching as Hanson, who works for the British-based Cottle and Austen Circus, showed off how many knives he could hurl at Yana in 60 seconds.

He had been trying to emulate the pace of his world record-breaking effort of 120 knives thrown in two minutes which he achieved as part of National Circus Day on Tuesday.

"He felt confident as he has been throwing his mother's kitchen knives since the age of 10," the show said on its Web Site before the accident. [...]

"In 11 years of performing, I've only hit my assistant on five occasions," he told the Daily Mail newspaper recently.

Heck, I only hit the Other Brother five times when we used to do this and I'm no professional. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2003 6:57 PM