99-Year-Old Annie Duplock Walks Into the Zippos Circus Ring and Has Knives Thrown at Her for Her 100th Birthday

Most people approaching 100 ask for a quiet lunch. Annie Duplock of Sharnford, Leicestershire, asked to have knives thrown at her. At the end of a Zippos Circus show on Hearsall Common in Coventry, she walked into the ring with her walking aid, stood against a board, and let professional knife thrower Toni Novotny outline her with steel.

Duplock had hung posters for the circus’s advance crew 30 years earlier, at 70. A few months short of her centenary she had her daughter write to founder Martin Burton and ask for the act she had watched from the wings. Burton said yes. He told the crowd: «Annie worked for me 30 years ago, putting up posters. Annie was 70 years old then and she is 100 years old this August.»

The BBC carried the pictures the next day. Duplock told reporters, «I’ve always wanted to have knives thrown at me.» After the applause she added, «I’m ready for the next one.»

Zippos Circus has kept touring the UK since. The knives stuck in the board, not in Annie.

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