Last night I saw a man eat fire, extinguish one torch with his mouth, breathing a steady bunsen burner of flame, and using that to light another torch.
He also shattered a light bulb and ate the glass shards.
He licked a red-hot electrical heating element.
He shattered several wine bottles to make a good field of broken glass and proceeded to walk on the glass, jumping up and down a few times. He also laid on the glass and had an audience member stand on his chest.
He laid on a bed of nails and had four people stand on his chest.
He laid across four swords and had someone break a cinder block on his chest with a sledge hammer.
He pushed metal skewers through the middle of his forearm, through his bicep, and from under his tongue down through the underside of his jaw.
And he did all of this in a tiny little theater of 20 people, where everyone could see the action really up close.
And perhaps the most amazing feat of the night, I asked a total stranger to go see the show with me. And even more bewildering, she said “yes”!
The performer was Zamore, the Torture King.
The theater was the Climate Theater, south of Market in SF.
The one-time total stranger was phoebek.
I learned fire-eating at summer camp when I was 14-15. The hard part is psyching yourself up to do it; it’s not hard to actually do.
You tilt your head back, lower the torch in, and close your teeth around the stem of the torch. It isn’t painful if you do it properly – the hot part of the flame points straight up at your teeth, which don’t have surface nerve endings, and when you close your teeth the oxygen becomes less than that which fire needs to stay aflame.
I never know whether I like this type of performance or not. It is virtuostic, for sure.
btw, did you get my *latest installment* email? thoughts?
sounds scary. fire eating and self torture isnt my thing