Le Pétomane, le fartist

1857 Le Pétomane (Joseph Pujol; d. 1945), ‘The Fartist’, French vaudeville star whose highly popular act consisted mainly of playing music and doing sound effects by the expulsion of flatulence.

After a successful debut in Marseille in 1887, he took his bizarre act to Paris, where he was a smash hit at the Moulin Rouge. For a time, he put more backsides on seats and made more money than France’s sweetheart, the great actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Highlights of his stage act involved playing a flute through a rubber tube in his anus – the act included an instrumental version of Au Claire de la Lune – and sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms. The grand finale climax of his act was sometimes his impression of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake ...