Regarding the art of Flatulism, I remember a self styled Flatulist called Mr Methane, touring the country recently. I did a quick search to find any extra information and turned up his website which I thought may be of interest to some of your correspondents, including Curious of Baltimore.
Regarding your question – it must be something about the people who come to the SDMB, because this keeps coming up all the time. We;'ve had a lot of long discussions about le Petomaine. Search the archives.
And the column being referred to is, of course, Did a French vaudeville star once specialize in trained flatulence?
And, um, thank you for the link.
I think.
I do not have words to express my amazement that Mr. Methane has not only a video…
…but also an album. God help me, I chose to preview his rendition of “The Blue Danube” while eating lunch, and I am now engaged in the interesting task of cleaning beef ‘n’ noodle casserole off my keyboard.
Welcome to the SDMB, JRP. I have the feeling you’re gonna fit right in here… 
Wow! These computers are so advanced these days. Why, I would never have thought…what? Oh!
I misunderstood, DDG. I thought he had the beef and noodles. :eek:
His name was Joseph Pujol, he was known as Monsieur le Petomane (“Fartomaniac”), and at the turn of the 20th century he was the highest paid entertainer in all of France, nightly packing the Moulin Rouge.
From thatisweird.com/petomane.htm:
"One summer’s day in the mid-1860’s, a young French boy named Joseph Pujol had a frightening experience at the seashore. Swimming out alone, he held his breath and dove underwater. Suddenly an icy cold feeling penetrated his gut. Frightened, he ran ashore, but then received a second shock when he noticed seawater streaming from his anus. The experience so disturbed the lad that his mother took him to a doctor to allay his fears. The doctor complied.
The boy didn’t know it at the time, but this unsettling rectal experience at the beach not only indicated no illness, but it also foretold of a gift that would later make him the toast of Paris and one of the most popular and successful performers of his generation."
It’s fun & easy to get the whole scoop (I didn’t say poop) on Pujol by entering “petomane” into Google.
Le Petomaine wasn’t the first, it seems. According to Suzanne Westfall’s article in The New History of the Early English Theatre, a man called Roland Le Fartere received a land grant from King Edward III for entertaining the court with “a leap, a whistle, and a fart.” (She didn’t say how much land, so I have no idea whether one could actually earn a living as Farter-in-Chief to the king. Anyway, I can’t imagine that this would go over well at Buckingham Palace nowadays. Medieval royalty was a lot more interesting.)
I don’t understand. How did the seawater get inside him?
He openened his anus in the water (thus the icy cold feeling), and then when leaving the water, the water left him.
Seems odd to me he would not be controlling this process.
Nor was your Roland the first. I came across mention of people who could sing out of their backsides in – God help us – St. Augustine’s tome The City of God.