The Man Who Smoked A Pipe Through His Eyes, Meet Alfred Langevin

Some people juggle, some perform card tricks, and then there was Alfred Langevin—who could smoke a pipe through his eyes.

A Man of Unique Talents

Langevin was a resident of Detroit, Michigan, in the 1930s, a time when the world was reeling from the Great Depression and desperate for a bit of amusement. Enter Mr. Langevin, whose particular skill set was equal parts astounding and slightly unsettling. Not only could he inhale tobacco smoke through his mouth and exhale it through his eye sockets, but he could also blow up balloons and even play the recorder using his eye socket.

And just to be clear—because you're probably wondering—yes, he had two perfectly normal, functioning eyes.

The Science (or Mystery) Behind the Skill

How exactly was Alfred Langevin able to perform this ocular sorcery? The precise reason remains uncertain, but the best guess lies in an anatomical anomaly related to his tear gland. A rare defect in the nasolacrimal system—the part of your body that connects the eyes, nose, and throat—may have created an unusual passageway, allowing him to redirect air (or smoke) in ways most of us cannot.

This condition is not entirely unheard of. In fact, the same kind of tear duct oddity is responsible for an even stranger Guinness World Record: the furthest distance for "squirting milk from the eye." Yes, this is an actual competitive category, and the reigning champion is Mike Moraal from Vancouver, Canada, who propelled a stream of milk an eye-watering 8.745 feet in 2001.

Alfred Langevin, Ripley’s Star Performer

Langevin’s abilities did not go unnoticed. He was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon series, an institution dedicated to chronicling the weird and wonderful. He wasn’t just a footnote either—his talent earned him a place in Ripley’s famous Odditorium, the travelling museum of the strange, from 1933 to 1940. His likeness even made it onto a 1933 Odditorium postcard, which is probably one of the few pieces of mail in history that required a double-take.

Imagine, for a moment, being a guest at a 1930s dinner party where Langevin decided to demonstrate his skills. One moment, he’s lighting up his pipe, the next—smoke is emerging from his eye. You would either drop your drink in amazement or reconsider your life choices altogether.

---