Excerpts from Hillary Carlip's appearance on the Ellen Degeneres Show where she taught Ellen how to eat fire. Added bonus: Liza Minnelli runs out on stage -- unplanned -- with a fire extinguisher!

A teenage Hillary Carlip wins the Gong Show, and gets the first perfect score of 10 from Gong Show judge and cocky critic Rex Reed, with her hysterical comedy juggling song. Read the whole story in her memoir, Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan

A video trailer describing the acclaimed book, showing how author Hillary Carlip has taken real, found grocery shopping lists, and transformed herself into the imagined authors by being photographed as 26 different characters who vary in age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, even facial hairstyles, and writing unforgettable stories about each.