One more for the books

This is something that happened at a Tattoo Festival in Texas last weekend. The story is related by one of the performers who was there, who also happens to be a very good friend of mine.

I guess there was this guy doing things in the style of Jack@ss, calling it the "What the Hell" show. Needless to say he lacked showmanship and professionalism, but the account that I am pasting in is also something I simply can not wrap my brain around, no matter how many times I read it.
He was pulling in unsuspecting audience volunteers when my friend told the promoter how dangerous that was and the promoter told they guy to use only people he knew with a prearrangement as "volunteers". Good thing my friend did that the day before this incident happened, or the promoter could be in a worse place than where he is right now.

*from Bennie's email*

"They asked
for a volunteer from the audience to come up and help with a stunt. A
guy who I later found out was 'a friend of a friend and was a tattoo
artist working the convention, went up to help. The stunts went
like this. What The Hell wanted to know if he could stick a hot dog
in the guy's ass crack and set it on fire. The Artist said he would do
it if What The Hell would eat the hot dog after they were done. A
bargain was struck and the act was underway.
What the
Hell had Artist drop his pants and sit on the floor and a hot dog was
inserted. They then doused the hot dog and some of the bared ass crack
in rubbing alcohol and lit it. The Artist had been told not to jump
around when it was burning but the flames freaked him out and up he
leaped. Flames spread.
When I do my
fire eating act, I have a fire extinguisher right beside me at all
times. They had a bucket of water, which they throw on the Artist after
he had dropped and rolled. Water doesn't douse alcohol. It spreads it.
The flames were now pretty much covering the lower half of his
body
By now
Artist is in serious trouble as he rolls offstage into a curtain. The
curtain that separated the Tattoo Directory booth, where Cindy and David
were, and the stage. Fortunately the curtain didn't ignite and Pete, the
promoter, managed to get an extinguisher and put out the
flames.
Before the
ambulance left, the EMT said it looked like 2nd and 3rd degree burns
over 30% of his body.

It turns out that the
'volunteer' will be in the burn unit for at least 5 days and then in bed
for at least 3 month. He has 2nd and 3rd degree burns from his nut sack
to his ankles. The word I got from Jacob (the What the Hell kid) was that he is laughing about
it and says he is not going to sue but I am sure that is just the
morphine talking at this point. "

My friend had done some fire eating earlier that night, and he is safety nuts so it was fine. That idiot tried to blame him, or rather his "residual fuel on the stage" to which my friend promptly and firmly responded with all of his safety mindedness and the fact that he laid down a drop cloth on the stage so there was none.

The vendor who backed up to the stage also lost over $400 in merchandise due to either the fire smoke/soot and the chemical vapor from the extinguisher.

The kid told my friend that he had an anxiety attack thinking about the entire ordeal and was going to retire from the business.
Don't let the door hit ya... I say.

Just thought I would share.
Be safe with *any* fire.

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

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