While they were traveling with the circus, they worked long hours. But they also made good friends, including a young couple named the Keatons who did a comedy act with their young son. Houdini gave him the nickname buster that the used later in tis films. Another friend was an elderly Japanese acrobat. He taught harry a skill that he probably used later for his escape acts: how to swallow things, keep them in his throat, and then bring them back up to his mouth.