Voting Station

Melvin Burkhart

Please vote to return to collections.

Circus Performer

The Resume

    (February 16, 1907-November 8, 2001)
    Born in Atlanta, Georgia
    Birth name was Clarence Melvin Burkhart
    Known as the Human Blockhead
    Could drive a 5-inch nail or icepick into his nose without flinching
    Performed in 100,000 sideshows over a 60-year career

Why he might be annoying:

    He started in sideshows because 'I was a show-off. [But] I couldn't sing, I couldn't dance, I couldn't tell funny stories.'
    Before becoming a blockhead, he was an 'Anatomical Wonder,' who could inflate one lung at a time, dislocate his shoulders, suck his stomach back to his spine and frown with half his face while smiling with the other half.
    His career as a pro boxer ended with six losses, zero wins and a broken nose.
    Surgeons removed 22 fragments of bone from his nasal cavity, creating a passage into which he could stick a nail.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was also a sword swallower and fire eater, and at one small circus was 9 of its 14 acts.
    He befriended his fellow sideshow performers, commenting, 'We were all freaks together. I tried to be their shield against the world.'
    He hooked up William 'The Two Faced Man' Durks with his future wife, Mildred the Alligator Girl.
    After sideshows went out of fashion, he became a magician and children's entertainer.
    He was married to his wife Joyce for 51 years until his death.
    He last performed as the Human Blockhead one month before his death.
    As magician Todd Robbins noted, 'Anyone who has ever hammered a nail into his nose owes a large debt to Melvin Burkhart.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 80 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 29 Votes: 62.07% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 58 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 43 Votes: 51.16% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 98 Votes: 52.04% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 21 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 32 Votes: 65.62% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 25 Votes: 56.00% Annoying