split image of April Choi

April Jennifer Choi (USA) is a whip artist, fire eater, and NASA engineer, but most importantly… she’s a serial record breaker!

April, 36, currently works at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where she manages an engineering department working on the Artemis lunar exploration program.

However, for over a decade she was a full-time performer, travelling the world to showcase her circus skills in festivals and on TV.

April has broken several whip-cracking records in the past, but she recently wanted to show off some of her other talents, such as fire eating, spinning, throwing and catching.

Impressively, she managed to set six new world records in one day:

  • Most riffle shuffles of a deck of playing cards in one minute: 34
  • Most fire hoops spun simultaneously: 6
  • Highest throw and catch of a spinning fire knife: 3.14 m (10 ft 3.6 in)
  • Most shoot the moon (fire eating) transfers in one minute: 30
  • Fastest time to hit 10 targets with a whip (Tasmanian cutback): 5.56 seconds
  • Most flowers crack-whipped from the hands in one minute: 50

April’s record attempts took place on an abandoned golf course behind her house.

Despite warnings of a potential hurricane moving into the area, the windy weather only served to fan April’s flames as she went on to set record after record.

“We had some setbacks here and there but that’s kind of expected when you’re trying to set all these new world records,” April said afterwards.

“If they were easy, everybody would do it.”

April Choi fire hula hooping

April has studied dance and movement arts almost all of her life.

She describes herself as ‘goal-oriented’ and ‘achievement-ready’ - traits which were fostered by her parents from a young age.

“They put me in various different classes […] and gave me a lot of opportunities to just test my athleticism,” she explained.

April is also supported by her wife, Bethany Byrnes, who deserves equal credit for all of April’s world records, as she often puts herself in harm’s way to help April achieve them.

For example, Bethany holds up targets for April’s knife-throwing; she holds objects in her mouth while April whips them; and in general she serves as a test dummy for April’s wild and wonderful tricks.

“I know it’s terrifying,” April said. “She is basically fearless.”

April’s record attempts were observed and verified by Official Adjudicator Michael Empric, who met April for the first time back in 2017.

They were on The Today Show, where April attempted to break the record of most Jenga blocks removed by whip in one minute (currently held by Adam Winrich of Texas, USA, who whipped seven Jenga blocks).

Although April failed to break the record, since then she has continued to hone and expand her skills, culminating in her slew of new world records.

“I’ve met many amazing people in my time at Guinness World Records, but April may be one of the most fascinating,” said Official Adjudicator Michael. “I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from April in the future.”

April Choi holding GWR certificates

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