fire breathing - new fuel?

[firegirl]

FUEL LIST:

In the USA I've heard the following being used:

FOR TORCH/MOUTH TRICKS:
White Gas (otherwise known as):
Coleman
Camp Fuel
Butane

FOR BLOWS & JUGGLING TORCHES
Kero (otherwise known as):
Lamp Oil

FOR BLOWS:
Lypcodium Powder (other things used in the same manner):
Non-Dairy Powder Creamer

I've heard about Everclear, 151 Rum.. etc, being used for fuel - tried it once with painful results. I don't reccomend it.

I've also heard that there is an elusive, platinum, "White Gas" of fire eating dreams... the purest of fuels. But, I suspect it's just butane or some other form of camp oil... eh.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting - at one point I'd started working on an article about fire-eating & the like which I'd intended to send to Jim... but, I really think it's too long to post in this thread.

I think the topic was also covered in a thread which occured in "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH" a couple of years back... can't remember the title... something about fire-eating.

anyhow.

[Doctor Eric]

" I heard that milk helps coat your mouth, stomach, throat and washes oil away. myth or fact?"

Misquoted pseudo-fact. Cream (I used to use half and half), will coat your mouth with a layer of protein that the petroleum fumes will have to eat through before they start to absorb into your system. The protection provided is less than minimal, and does you no good if you're doing blasts.

Here are the facts as far as I know them. Tim Cridland (whom I use as an example because he's been doing it for a long time, and he's quite a bit older than me) has no health problems at all, and eats fire very, VERY often. Then again, he doesn't drink or smoke. I do both, and I eat fire very VERY often, and I worry a little. But not much.

Pyro is right as far as job hazards go, think about the NFL guys, alot of them are wrecked by the time they hit 40. Of course, most of them can afford bionic legs. But acting like imbibement of petroleum products is a good idea is just plain arrogant. It IS dangerous. It DOES have long lasting effects, and it IS a stupid idea in the first place. Especially doing blasts, I won't touch 'em anymore personally, and I think that charging $1000 per blast is perfectly reasonable. As a matter of fact, it is somewhat standard here in CA.

I'd also like to second the motion that coleman is a real bad idea for blows, I didn't watch the video posted here but I'm sure I've seen it, I've also seen it firsthand, when someone was dumb enough to fill a lamp oil bottle with coleman at a group fire show in 1999. It's okay, we put her out, and she's still pretty.

The hair loss thing and liver failure are great examples of how urban myths start. A little bit of fact here, a sprinkle of assumption, just a dash of hype, and three tons of stupidity. Simmer and serve.

I posted once a while back about the fact that pure citrus oil is extremely flammable, and might be explored as an alternative, but to my knowledge, no one's tried it.

The bottom line is that it's going to hurt you, even if it's just a litlle bit. Fire eaing and -blowing ARE causing petroleum distillates to accumulate in your body, and they are there to stay, of course the human body IS the divine machine, and can deal with some pretty rough !@#?. It's up to you if you want to risk your health for a hackneyed act. I do.

[firegirl]

did you see kevin lepine go up like a pine tree in jackson square in 2001? it was in october or such - right before i met him... it was pretty hideous, so i hear. he was using coleman to do a blow.

reconfirms my theory (along with yours, i'm sure) that kevin is an idiot. (sorry - but, it's true.)

eating before shows and after shows (carb heavy foods) to help absorb some of the toxins will help you avoid the immediate effects of putting fuel in your body. so will flushing your body with water (every show - drink one gallon of water.) eric is right, though, nothing will ever take away the eventual effects of putting poision into your body day after day... some say you build a tollerance to it - an immunity, so to speak - but, this is another psuedo-myth. it will dull you to the sideeffects - but, you're still putting posion in your body - coroding it away bit by bit...

blasts/blows/fireballs are not worth the risk. perhaps i would reconsider if i could pull off charging $1,000/blast... but, i haven't been able to as of yet & don't anticipate it in the near future.

anyhow.
i've got chickens cooking.

[martin ewen]

If I may...

Small fire-breathing disaster interlude....

A street festival on a closed off street facing the beach in a bay in Wellington (the windy city)NZ.
I've got a good view via my stilts and pass a reasonable sized family crowd watching a middle aged guy juggling torches.
The winds gusting and strong, the juggler compensates but my first unsettling impression comes when, as the wind drops momentarily, he throws a spinning torch that lands amongst his crowd. This happens a couple more times and I just settle in to observe it all knowing that one day pnet would exist and I would be writing this.
He finishes off with juggling and prepares to do a blast/blow. He had that type of energy that a street act can have where its all going disastrously and so there's nothing left but to increase the pace until its just a blur of nervous energy and rudimentary structure.
He hunkers down a little to use the crowd as a windbreak but he can't help himself he arches himself up to blow. The fuel gets blown out in one blast in a gap between gusts but just as it ignites a wicked wind catches it and flings the fireball back in his face where it sticks.
So he's standing there paralyzed with shock, his head evenly lit like a candle, mothers are screaming and covering their children's eyes and dragging them as best they can backwards, instinctively away from the horror.
After a couple of seconds an audience member steps against the flow forward and throws his leather jacket over the guys head to put him out.
I can see over the heads of the crowd in the distance two saint johns ambulance-men jogging with their little suitcases towards the hysteria.
The performers still on auto and as soon as he's out continues with his last lines as if nothing has happened. He's on his own in that regard, there's nothing normal left.
I wander off thinking, "Gosh life's just an immense rich tapestry really, that was as close as I've got to seeing a performance skidmark." (It was early days early 20's)
The next day the jugglers smiling, ointment smeared face was in the paper. He was quoted as saying he was giving up on fire and going back to his old job of having people throw darts into his back in pubs.
I laughed