Interview: Edward Pinder on throwing knives at Simon Cowell
When 11-year-old Edward Pinder narrowly avoided putting a knife into Simon Cowell’s shoulder, the audience gasped but the talented performer remained cool as a cucumber.
We caught up with Edward to find out more about that nail-biting moment.
“I was a bit nervous about throwing knives at Simon but I got over it,” he said. “I wanted to impress David and Simon.
“I’ve been doing it for about a year and I never miss. Sometimes the knives bounce out. I practice every day. I'm 11th generation circus performer and this is what I want to do when I am older too.”
Edward admitted he’d like to have had a go at throwing knives at Ant and Dec next but that there are more tricky elements to his act.
“The knives takes a lot of practice but other parts of my act are even harder like the whips and lasso.
“The ropes are really difficult. You’ll have to wait and see what I do next.
“I wanted to go on Britain’s Got Talent to show people what I can do. You don’t see an act like mine every day. I thought I’d give it a try and it worked.”
When he is on tour with the family circus, Edward attends 50 different schools in a year.
“I enjoy going to lots of different schools. My friends always say can ‘can I Have a go’ and I say no because they’re not trained.”
Edward’s Dad Eddy told us he is very proud of his son who has been part of the circus since the age of seven and has already ticked of a Diablo act and the role of ringmaster on his list of achievements. He explained Edwards was a competent and confident child but even he was worried when Simon put himself into the act.
“When he had Simon on stage I was in the audience and was quite worried,” he said. “He had multi-million pound Simon Cowell in front of him and with live entertainment there is always that one per cent chance something could go wrong.
“He’s the only person in the world who has thrown knives at Simon Cowell!”
Watch Edwards audition again.