World’s greatest knife thrower and his target girl tell all

Freeport resident David Adamovich, 77, — considered the best knife thrower in the world —didn’t discover his innate talent until he was 50. He worked as a professor of exercise physiology and a paramedic and owned and operated a pool hall before he ever dabbled in the precise art of tossing a blade.

Throwing a knife for the first time in ’96 was sort of a goof, just killing time with a pool hall patron. But the result was a knife firmly lodged in a tree, which, experts know, is not supposed to happen during an initial throw.

Nine months later, Adamovich held the title as the world champion in knife throwing.

“It’s just a natural talent,” Adamovich said. “Not everyone has one. Those that do, if they’re fortunate enough to find it, can enjoy it. I just happened to find my talent when I was 50.”

Adamovich says over the years he’s refined the niche talent, but it’s evident that the base skill was either built into his physiological make up and his neurological hard drive, or endowed in the blueprint of his soul.

Over the next five years Adamovich continued to dominate in national and world championships held by the no longer existing American Knife Throwers Alliance and the International Knife Throwers Alliance.

That’s when Wild West performer Chris McDaniel contacted him, in ’01, looking for someone to teach him how to throw a knife to add to his own performance.

But after McDaniel saw what Adamovich could do with a knife, he implored him to take his talent to the stage, telling the then 55-year-old serial competitor that he was as good as any professional performer he’d ever seen.

That was 22 years ago — and Adamovich is still going as strong as ever. Along the way Adamovich has set or broken 40 world records, been featured in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!”’s centennial edition, performed in highly esteemed venues all over the world, and won magic’s highest honor: The Merlin Award.

A key element of Adamovich’s performances is the relationship he shares, both on stage and off, with his assistants, known as “target girls.”

When asked about the unique psychology that must drive these target girls to have knives thrown at them, Adamovich offered a correction. “I don’t throw knives at (them), I throw them around (them),” he said. “They last longer that way,” he added wryly.

Amanda Jane, one of Adamovich’s current target girls and a trained aerialist, has been working with “The Great Throwdini” — Adamovich’s professional moniker — for about two years. Before that, she’d never had a knife thrown anywhere in her direction.

“I’m very much a jump-first, ask questions later kind of lady,” Jane said, when asked how she ended up in a career that draws reactions from people ranging from complete terror to questions about sanity.

Her on-stage performances involve her being strapped to a spinning wheel while Adamovich throws knives close to her head and body.

“I am completely oblivious to how dangerous it is,” she said. “I trust him so much. He’s the world’s most accurate knife thrower. I could take a nap up there and be totally fine.”

While she professes to be oblivious to having knives thrown near her, she does confess that she knows the act is extremely dangerous.

Adamovich is the only one to have ever successfully achieved “The Veiled Double Wheel of Death,” which is tossing knifes at a spinning wheel with two assistants strapped to it. Adamovich also accomplishes the feat by throwing the knives through a piece of paper, with the wheel and his assistants hidden entirely from his view.

Jane said she considers Adamovich a good friend who allows her to be her completely authentic self on stage.

“It’s a lot of fun. It really brings me such joy,” she said of her part in the act.