Any accredited oral surgeon knows that the first rule is never put fire in your mouth.
Well, it may not be an official rule, but it darn well should be.
It doesn’t matter to Travis Hughes, because he’s going to break that rule anyway. He soaks the swabs of his sticks in Coleman white gas, sets them ablaze and puts the burning ends into this mouth.
He’s funny that way.
“Suffering physical pain for the entertainment of others: I’m all for it,” he says with a grin.
The 21-year-old Montana Tech
student has been practicing the macabre art of fire eating for the past few years. The practice goes back to the early days of the circus when the performers — known then as “circus geeks” — did bizarre acts of physical endurance such as eating glass or lying on a bed of nails.
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Hughes said he first learned about fire eating from his mentor, Jason Parish of Butte. He said he noticed a slight burn on Parish’s face and asked how he got it. Parish told him he was performing a fire eating routine, when someone opened a window and the flame quickly expanded.
Hughes wasn’t discouraged; he wanted to learn.
“My first assignment was to go on-line and research burns,” Hughes said.
Fire eating can cause plenty of burns. Burns to the face, the mouth, airways, it can get pretty bad.
Still, Hughes wasn’t discouraged.
He practiced. Became comfortable with the equipment and got to know the fire. “Every flame has a different
personality,” he noted.
He familiarizes himself with the fire before every act by rubbing the burning sticks across his forearms, leaving a small trail of fire along his skin. He doesn’t even wince.
“You can always tell a fire eater walking down the street, because they have no arm hair,” Hughes said.
Tilting his head back and opening his mouth wide, Hughes eases the fire into his mouth. With a quick puff of air, he sends a fast-burning fireball out of his mouth.
Despite the danger — and fire eating certainly is very dangerous — Hughes says he feels completely at ease and tranquil while doing it. It’s spiritual to him.
“In that moment when you put that ball of fire in your head, you have to be highly focused, you have to be in a trance-like state, or you could get hurt. It’s
meditative,” he explained.
Hughes says fire eating combines science and mysticism. Using Qi, or life energy, Hughes says he concentrates on making his mouth colder before inserting the fire. But, sometimes, the science is just too powerful.
Hughes recalls a time during an act when he accidentally set his armpit on fire for a few seconds. He was able to put out the fire before being too badly burned, but it definitely hurt.
Hughes performs his act with a local group called Butte Magic. Using the stage name Eric the Excellent, Hughes does fire eating along with other circus geek tricks and feats. Butte Magic also has a magician who performs slight-of-hand tricks and juggling, and an escape artist.
Hughes says they design their shows for both adult and children audiences.
People can learn more about Butte Magic at www.buttemagic.com
