Flamethrowers! (not really)

[Admer456]

So, some time ago, I made a fire thingy. It was pretty fun and my cousins, who were all younger than me, laughed a lot and they couldn't believe their eyes.
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Notes:

1. I almost burnt my left hand. The first time I tried it, I placed the lighter too far away from the can. The fire reached my left hand and WOW, it felt so warm. Burnt off some of the arm hair though.
2. One of the neighbours told me she'd tell my mum about it.
3. I only did it in short bursts, never a long stream.
4. It feels way different than it does in games. You actually feel the warmth in front of you, and the sound is so deep and wide, makes in-game sounds sound like mono without any filters.

Either way, folks, stay safe. This was just one more completed item from my bucket list.

[MadGypsy]

Well as long as you are playing with fire here's a safer thing you can do.

1) turn off the lights
2) close one of your hands leaving a little bit of space between the fingers and the palm but still creating a seal with your overall hand
3) turn a lighter upside down and press just the gas where you are filling that little space in your hand with some gas
4) light the gas and open your hand right after.

If you do it right it will look like a little fireball is leaving your hand. Don't try to put a lot of gas in your hand. Not because it becomes more dangerous or anything, but because you will just be wasting gas. Holding the gas release valve for like 4 seconds (maybe even less) is plenty. If you have tough hands don't open your hand after lighting it and the flame will sit in the pocket you made. If it starts to burn simply open your hand.

Here's a painful idea and I don't recommend it at all unless your hands are very tough.

1) put rubbing alcohol on your hands (a thin coat)
2) light your hands on fire
3) keep waving them around
4) keep a little bucket of water around just in case

When I used to have my flame juggling show I would get tennis balls wet with rubbing alcohol, light them on fire and juggle them with my bare hands. As long as I didn't use an excessive amount of rubbing alcohol and I made sure to keep my hands moving it was just an uncomfortable feeling even though my hands would also be on fire. I never truly burned myself as long as I kept the fuel in moderation and kept my hands moving. However, practicing this and trying to get everything right I burned myself a lot. My hands are really hard though. Burning a bunch of calluses is not the same as burning tender flesh. The audience would freak out . As soon as my hands caught on fire you would hear half the women gasp. There would be mini flames dripping all over the place. The stage would have little alcohol fires burning on it. My shoes and pants legs would have little alcohol fires on them. It was definitely something to see. That entire part of the show lasted about a minute and all the little alcohol fires never burned for more than a few seconds. I never hurt myself on stage but after watching my show you would think that I must live in a burn unit. I am not at all implying that this is safe. It's probably a whole lot of unsafe. I practiced a lot.

PBS did an entire episode regarding that show and I'm gonna say that I stole all the thunder. The Newspaper did an article and I stole the thunder for that too. The overall show was Johnny Angel and The Swingin' Demons. It was a 30's/40's swing vaudeville show. There were magicians, tap-dancers, cross dressers, burlesque acts, comedians and I was the sole juggler and fire act. Everybody was an excellent performer but I was the only guy literally lighting himself on fire on stage. I did that show for the entire 36 weeks that it existed except the very first week. Towards the end I was trying to figure out a way to have my clothes sparsely on fire for the entire act. I never came up with a good method. In tests it always wound up with my clothes really catching on fire.

The entire reason I wound up doing this is because I worked at the bar that the show was being held at. I also had roommates that were always juggling devil sticks. I wanted to be on stage so I lied and told "Johnny Angel" (Walter Whitman) that I juggle flaming devil sticks. I then proceeded to go make some of those (which I still have and can take a picture of), followed by learning how to do it in the first place and concurrently doing it for the next 35 weeks. As my show went on I added more fire stuff to the act. My show was very different than everyone elses in 2 regards. 1) I did not stay on the stage. I would walk through the audience flipping flaming sticks inches from peoples faces. 2) Even when I was on stage I would let audience members dance with each other around me doing fire acts. One performer told me "It is very unprofessional to lose control of the stage". I replied "It's very boring to be boring, Act 3." It's not like I was doing a show in a damn Amphitheater. I was in a sizable bar on a stage that was maybe a foot off the floor.

All of this stuff was well before the internet was a big deal and certainly long before youTube. I have searched and searched numerous times to see if I could find some post-mortem upload of some old footage and there seems to be nothing. BUT, I did find this commercial that Johnny Angel was in ... and yes he is a complete douche bag. This dude is "Johnny Angel" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I remember it would be like a Wednesday at like 2:00 pm in the middle of the summer and this dude would be walking around in his full gear, stage makeup and all just to go buy groceries. LOL! He did put on one hell of a show though.

[Admer456]

Sounds really fun.
But yeah, I did this for my cousins, and myself. Man, it was quite some experience. Can't wait to show some photos to Mum one day. I don't want her to worry, though. :/