Forums > Technical Discussion > Indoor Shows & Fuel Splashes

Posted: 21st Dec 2008
You'll have to put something down on the floor.

Cover the floor, this will catch the bits that fall off, and then it can be quickly removed for the dancers to have a nice clean stage afterwards.

Careful the covering isn't too flammable, though.

Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.

Posted: 21st Dec 2008
yup unfortunatly thats pretty much the only thing you can do.

I {Heart} hand me downs and spinning in the snow.<br /><br />

Posted: 21st Dec 2008
Well spin off buckets are your best friend when performing indoors. Before you start your act though let them burn for a few seconds first. This helps get ride of that first layer of fuel that tends to fly off. Me and some of the people I spin with have done roof top partys and we have to be vary careful about fuel because it eats the roofing seal that holds the water out.

Posted: 22nd Dec 2008
thanks for replies- i thought those were my options!! the second gig is an event i have organised so i'll put an interval after the fire act & do the floor cover thing!
cheers

Posted: 22nd Dec 2008
Aye - even with the most vigorous of spinning-off and pre-burning, you're still not guaranteed to prevent fuel splash.

When using a floor covering, make sure it's got a non-slip base (i.e. an upside carpet is a terrible idea) or it just means you'll slip rather than the dancers.
Rubber matting is pretty good, but not cheap - and can become very slippery with fuel on it - so you'll need to take care of this.

Cheap office carpeting is pretty good - rubber based for grip and tight knit/tog so not very flammable (and still nice to move on)
For ease of use get one big patch you can roll-up rather than the squares.

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude

Posted: 23rd Dec 2008
as well as all of the above squeezing the wick with a towel or absorbent cloth can get rid of the excess fuel but durbs is right there is no garauntee you wont have a few drops of fuel
good luck with the gigs!

Posted: 23rd Dec 2008
as well as all of the above squeezing the wick with a towel or absorbent cloth can get rid of the excess fuel but durbs is right there is no garauntee you wont have a few drops of fuel
good luck with the gigs!

Posted: 26th Dec 2008
Make it a point not to spin them the first 20-30 seconds they're lit at all, and not fast till at least after the first minute. If the area is small and the audience very close by, I always started off with a gilligan sequence with my poi. It makes a really big difference considering nearly all drips occur right at the beginning.

'There are two mantras in life, yum and yuk. I choose yum.'

Posted: 1st Jan 2009
gilligan sequence????????

Posted: 2nd Jan 2009
A gilligan is just the poi hanging dead. Gilligans and pendulums can be combined to make for some interesting interactions that I'm sure you've seen before.

Posted: 11th Jan 2009
Heavy canvass painting tarp. Make sure to get the kind that is only canvass, they sell some that have a plastic lining on the bottom for spillage, stay away from this. The plastic lining creates a fire hazard, and no one wants melting plastic stuck to their skin.

The heavy canvass material is fire-resistant, due to the tight weave (the clothes I wear when I spin are military-grade canvass material).

Note** Fire-resistant is NOT fireproof. It will still burn, it just takes longer.

The bigger the tarp, the more effective it is, and the size makes it less likely to slide around on the stage. Something that has worked for me in the past is to anchor it with a few sandbags in the back and one on each of the front corners.

The bigger tarps can get pricier, but another fringe benefit is that you can double it as a fire blanket IF and ONLY IF you are not using it as a floor covering to spin on. If you are spinning on it, you leave fuel residue randomly all over it and trying to use it as a fire blanket then will result in catastrophe.

As for fuel spray from the poi end of the question, two things work well for me indoors:
Fuel Type: Ultra Pure Lamp Oil - non-citronella type.
my partner that I spin with is deathly allergic to citronella, and for an indoor environment, members of the audience may share that allergy. The lamp oil burns well enough indoors, without a lot of smell or smoke.

Blotting Process: Use two terry-cloth towels (or very absorbant rags of choice - absorbant is key here) and squeeze them tight around the poi-heads for a few seconds. Repeat twice.

With that type of fuel and a good blotting procedure, I've never had a spray problem with an indoors performance.

Regards
-Kith

Posted: 17th Jan 2009
bit late for your gigs ,and I don't do poi but since I started doing mutiple wicks excess fuel has been an issue -my solution-put less fuel on ,using a small nozzle on the fuel bottle and slowly filling up the wick -dunking/soaking the wick in the fluid always results in excess

JUMBLYMAMBA-THE SHOW THEY CANNOT BUY