Man claims Blue Man Group forced a camera down his throat
A Chicago man filed a lawsuit against the Blue Man Group, claiming they forced an esophagus camera down his throat when he went onstage during one of their shows.
The lawsuit alleges the Blue Man actors circled [James Sroden], held his neck and arms and "forced his head back" to insert the camera."He was an unknowing and unwilling participant of a stunt that went bad," said Sroden's attorney, Anthony Romanucci.
"When I started struggling, it seemed like this fellow, he tried to be more aggressive with this device and shoved it way down my throat," Sroden said. "In the days after that, the nightmares continued. A few days later, I really panicked because I had blood coming from my nose."
Sroden said his throat was sore for days; he had a foul taste in his mouth and eventually lost a few filings.
The general manage for the Blue Man Group in Chicago says the act does not use an esophagus camera. It's just a trick:
"Essentially, we have a piece in the show where an actor holds a camera to an audience member's mouth, doesn't enter their mouth, and then we play a video," Kori Prior said. "We have been performing this show in this theater for 10 years and have never had this issue before."
UPDATE: Here's a PDF of the complaint.
Link (Via Museum of Hoaxes)
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I saw the Blue Man Group in Vegas about five years ago. One of my friends was picked from the audience for this trick.
It's done exactly the way the rep from the Blue Man Group Said. They put a camera up to (but not in) his mouth, and then played a video of an esophagal camera. This guy is just out trying to get an easy buck.
This is on their DVD as well.
This seemed utterly bizarre when I first read about it. I've seen the Blue Man Group show five times, and it's perfectly clear that they put the camera in front of the participant's mouth, zoom in to make it look like it's going inside, then switch to a pre-made video. It's obvious because it's the same video every time!
So either the Blue Men did something profoundly wrong, or this guy is an unbelievable liar, or simply insane.
I'm VERY eager to hear how this all plays out...
...And what's even weirder is that this guy thinks he can get away with it! How could he possibly have a chance?
You'd think he would at least try to make his story more believable. Lost fillings, bloody noses and a bad taste in his mouth for days after? Even if they really did shove it down there, it would still be just a camera, not some kind of unholy, corrupting artifact.
I'm surprised someone would even try this. Was it not done ON STAGE in front of several hundreds, if not thousands of attendees?
This is not some backstage accusation, this is an obvious, easily disprovable lie.
nmeyer79: "So either the Blue Men did something profoundly wrong, or this guy is an unbelievable liar, or simply insane."
I'll pick door #3, Bob.
I pick, "I'm desperate to make money off a lawsuit."
If this gentleman was trying to pull a scam, it seems to me that he would have chosen something plausible. I suspect he has some form of dementia and actually believes that the camera penetrated his throat.
I'll pick "some kind of unholy, corrupting artifact"
because we need more unholy artifacts running around.
If someone tried to force a camera down my gullet without my consent I guarantee it would take at least 5 men to hold me down. One for each limb and one to hold my head steady while the sixth operates the camera.
I have a hard time believing that three blue men would be able to force this on him.
He probably bit his tongue while eating Cheetos and wants someone to pay.
I really do not like The Blue Man group, I just don't get the attraction I guess. Like does anyone know who these guys are anyway? So fine, they're good at percussion and looking blue.... I could paint myself blue and play the spoons, and believe me that's not something you want to see in Vegas or anywhere else.
This is interesting. I wonder what the odds are that the suer hasn't ever attended a Blue Man show and just heard about it from someone else?
@ Cupcake
It's called performance art. There are several blue men, my guess is over 100 around the world. It is their job to paint themselves blue and entertain for the sake of a few laughs. If you fail to see the entertainment value in it, then I'm sorry for your loss. They really are quite good.
is is that guy from Arrested Development?
I own the DVD of their performance and the camera, which I'm guess is medical grade, never gets any further than beyond the teeth. There's an obvious dissolve, and the footage changes to something prerecorded; the image eventually "emerges" above the stage. Sroden is almost definitely full of shit, and quite possibly out of his mind.
@15: Tobias Funke?
Tobias: I just blue myself.
Michael: There's gotta be a better way to say that.
Check the transcript of the suit at TMZ.com - it keeps referring to an "esophagus" camera but claims only that they forced it in his mouth, not his throat. The headline is inaccurate.
If he'd said they bumped his mouth or teeth with the camera, I could buy that, but not that they got it all the way inside his mouth and projected an image of his throat on screen (which, as several people have mentioned, is actually stock footage).
Ugh. I just saw an interview where they're claiming the camera went as far as the uvula, so I guess that's almost "down" the throat.
Doesn't change the fact that the suit is crap, though.
Yeah, dude seems to be mentally askew. I've seen the same show on TV and it's patently obvious that they do not insert any camera into anyone's person during the performance. My best guess is that dude believes this was done to him simply due to the image being projected on the screen: some people really do believe everything they see on TV.
The thing I find particularly irritating about this obviously trumped-up lawsuit is the way the article reports on the charge as if it's perfectly legitimate, and doesn't mention the (easily verifiable) counterclaim until the very end of the story. Really shameful reportage.
Maybe he tried to swallow it to make a buck?
Even though you're all probably right.....
Wouldn't it be more interesting if the the guy who's suing was, say, the evil ex of the current girlfriend of one of the Blue Men, and it was all a set up? Comped his ticket so there's no record that he was there. Dipsticked his esophagus in front of thousands of witnesses so that nobody would believe that it really happened. I'm just saying...
My bum still hurts from when I saw their act.
#12 - Have you ever actually seen a performance? It's more than just "blue guys playing percussion" -- it's a whole stage show with a story, told through music and mime with lots of humor and a great message. It's one of the most audience-involving and entertaining shows you'll see, in my opinion.
But if "having fun" isn't really your thing, no big deal, that's one more seat for me and my friends at their show.
Heh. On the other hand, imagine if the Blue Man Group did this, and just this once.
Nobody would believe the guy, it would likely be very easy to hide whatever camera they used, and they'd almost certainly get away with it, because they do the other trick all the time.
Of course, I have no idea why they would do this, but it seems they could if they wanted to.
I mean, they got that original film from somewhere. Eh?
I've actually had the pleasure of being singled out for this gag at the show. No, I did not have a camera forceably inserted into my person. It's a camera trick, unsurprisingly.
Gag? Funny!
@imamowon - Well, sure they could have tried that... if there wasn't a theater full of other people watching the incident and probably able to distinguish between holding something in front of someone's mouth and shoving it all the way to the back of his throat.
He was probably on drugs and got freaked out.
All I want to know is, what brand of camera? Are we talking the Red Camera? Then I can understand he's bleeding a little. :)
Trying to shove that in someones throat might hurt, yes.
@ Cupcake
One of the touring blue men was actually the drummer for Primus, Tim Alexander.
Maybe the blue man group pulled a double fake here?
Nah, - there would have been a gag reflex, you don't lose fillings, and you don't get a bloody nose. This is from someone who has had his esophagus scoped on more than one occasion.
Doesn't ring true to me.
Mark, your article inaccurately describes this man as a Chicago native. He is, in fact, a Las Vegas freeloader. Nice shot, paps, but the Blue Man Group ain't your scalding hot lap of coffee.
Maybe his symptoms are psychosomatic - he believes that a camera was forced down his throat and the symptoms emerged from the stress.
I originally thought that it was clearly a really brilliant hoax against the original trick.
But he's not complaining that they actually but it down his throat, just his mouth...
Disappointed.
Gimme a break, I got to be the audience member who had the camera put in his mouth in the Vegas show recently (last week in fact). It's a convincing trick but just a trick. Camera never got past my teeth and you do get the psychosomatic need to gag and flex your throat if you're looking at the screen but nothing goes deep into your mouth. They also only grab you if you're really INTO the show, if you're not looking like you are going to play nice they wont pick you. This nut case just wants money, I hope he is countersued to recoup court costs.