Post #391395 by Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid! on Thu, Jul 3, 2008 7:40 AM

On 2008-07-02 12:25, GatorRob wrote:

On 2008-07-02 11:49, bigbrotiki wrote:
And "fire swallowing" by putting a torch in your mouth is not really ingesting the fluid, either...(This is a serious inquiry)

Actually, I once heard an interview with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) where he said one of the main hazards of fire swallowing was that you do ingest a small amount of the fluid, so that you can only do so many shows in a given time span or you will get ill.

I think Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid should weigh in on this question!

Ia orana, folks.

Indeed, some ingestion is inevitable with fire eating or fire blowing performances- For example: To do fire eating or tongue fire transfers (As in the picture below), a small amount of fuel must remain on the tongue to keep the flame going- some of which gets swallowed. Taking a mouthful of fuel before fire spitting (fire breathing) will definitely leave some fuel in the mouth- no matter how hard one tries to spit it all out. Even manipulation (lighting up your arm or other body part briefly) results in some absorption as fuel comes in contact with skin.

I do tend to get a bit queasy after a busy weekend of shows.

Marina