Comic breaks neck in wheelie bin crowd surf stunt

A stand-up comedian from south Shropshire broke his neck during a live show after a crowd surfing stunt went horribly wrong.

Bob Slayer, who studied at Ludlow School and Ludlow College, decided to entertain crowds at the Download festival by being carried over their heads in a wheelie bin.

However, after about 20 seconds being held aloft by the cheering crowd at Donnington Park, near Nottingham, Mr Slayer tipped out of the bin head first, fracturing his vertebrae.

He awoke bruised and battered in a festival tent unaware of the fracture and went home to London.

Mr Slayer said: "I was at Download doing a crowd surf in a wheelie bin.

"Alas I was dropped out of the bin onto my head. The wheelie bin kept on surfing and ended up back on the stage, as per the plan, but I was in the mud with a mega winding. The next day I woke up in someone else's tent in a bunch of pain, but that's nothing out the ordinary at a festival.

"I went back to London for Martin Soan's Pull the Other One Comedy Cabaret. Next morning my neck was worse but I had to be filmed riding a tandem around Chelsea."

During the tandem ride Mr Slayer collided with a pedestrian and hurt his thumb, finally forcing the former jockey to go to hospital.

"They asked about my neck, I told them about the wheelie bin and they discover I cracked a vertebra.

"The last time I broke my back was in 1992 when a horse landed on me. That pretty much put an end to my time as a jockey. But this is going to end nothing – apart from maybe crowd surfing in wheelie bins."