History has yet to create another act as unique as Joseph Pujol, better known as "Le Petomane." His gift was a unique backside, which could take in and release air in measured increments thus producing amazing and humorous noises.
The story goes that Pujol first learned of his bizarre talent on boyhood visit to the seashore. While preparing to dive beneath choppy ocean waters, he took a deep breath--inadvertently contracting his abdominal muscles. Suddenly, he was pierced by an icy sensation. Panicked, he returned to shore--where he noticed a flood of seawater emanating from his bottom. He eventually realized that, unlike other boys, he could suck water up his hind end at will and then project it out with frightful force. Pujol soon discovered that water wasn't the only thing his rectum could take in: he could "inhale" as much as two quarts of air and so he soon mastered to "sing" simple tunes with it, and found himself entertaining astonished school chums with impromptu Bel cantos and arias.
By 1892 he was ready for his big premiere at the 19th Century's most famous entertainment hall, The Moulin Rouge, where was an overnight smash, and from then on, the flatulist went to become the highest paid entertainer in France.