Fire breathing vs Eating

Fire Breathing has been capturing my curiosity lately, and so like anyone should, I've started off just reading about it. I noticed though in a lot of the HoP articles about breathing and eating they say Fire Breathing is the most dangerous. I was curious as to why, I was talking with a veteran fire breather/eater and he says eating is more dangerous than breathing, and that he would never teach anyone to eat fire... His name was Jeff Colins, maybe some of you have seen/heard of him.

This isn't a really important thread, just seeing these contradictions sparked my interest. (Ah ha ha ha, bad pun.) Does anyone agree/disagree, or have an opinion on this? At this point, I'm all ears.

There both dangerous. Doesnt really matter which is worse than the other. The long term effects are probably worse with breathin but I used to work in a club fire eatin and I had to stop coz it was killin my teath.

Presumably, as you're so interested in the subject, you asked Jeff why he considered fire-eating to be more dangerous than fire-breathing?

What did he say?

Well, he didn't really tell me much about the breathing at the time, he said that there were somethings he wouldn't do. For example he praised himself on being able to produce and extremely huge fire ball. He did one for the International Buskers Festival finale, and he was facing me when he did it, I was far away but man the heat was, well, hot...

He didn't go into great detail comparing the two, but he said one breath in while heating, you're likely to drop dead. He did tell us stories of bad fire eating accidents. Remember, when he was telling me this, this was before all my research on Fire Breathing...

It's funny though, he said he's never been burnt by the fire when eating, only by the wick, which apparently gets just as hot.

And as I said, I'm posting this thread 'cause I was interested in what other people think, not to boast my knowledge, or lack their of. This is all hear-say! Have you guys done fire eating before?

I have actually done fire-eating before, many years ago. I don't do it these days as its basically a relatively easy skill that, to me, only seems of value in a performance context; whereas I spin because I like the skill acquisition aspects, and I spin pretty much for myself.

Also of course, with fire eating there are the health issues- even without a mishap you're basically putting a highly toxic substance (fuel) into your mouth.

I've never fire-breathed, and never will- i know too much about what can, and does, go wrong. I've read too many accounts of accidents on the net, and i've met too many people in real life who've come to grief with fire-breathing.

Like eating, I see fire-breathing as a relatively unskilled activity in comparison to the juggling and spinning I do.

In terms of which is most hazardous in eating and breathing, I'd go for breathing, by quite a long way.

Apparently fire eating wrecks your teeth, and I guess that if you breathed in while doing it you'd get badly hurt.

But personally, i've not heard of any serious injuries from eating, whereas I've heard of lots from breathing.

Also, accidents aside, i'm sure that a lot more toxic fuel ends up in the body of a Fire Breathing than it does in an eater- so you've got the long term problems of lung ailments and cancer.

Sorry man, I'm just bringing this up for discussion. It's not like I'm saying Fire Breathing's fun and dandy...without consequence. But you are blowing the fire ball out and away, while eating you're stuffing into your mouth. I'm asking 'cause I want more info, not to create debate! Sheesh!

Post deleted by Red Hot

On my risk assessment forms for performing / teaching of fire arts, fire eating / breathing are both classified as very high risk, for different reasons, mainly performer health and safety with eating and breathing, and performer health & audience safety more with breathing. Hope that makes sense.

A lot of the resources / materials I make use of are peer reviewed articles from this site and others, and thus can be found without too much difficulty and therefore I won't reproduce them here. As well as direct input from other professional performers.

In terms of actual hazards to performer, it's not quite so simple to directly compare, since both 'skills' have similar and different specific performer risks associated, and long term health consequences, I would say do your own research, and be very critical of everything you read.

In aggreement with onewheedave on this though, based on extensive literature reviews, there seems to be more health consequences and accidents associated with Fire Breathing.

mark










eating - breathing

FOR SOME REASON< I CAN"T GET MY SHIFT KEY TO TURN OFF< PLEASE EXCUSE THE CAPS AND WEIRD GRAMMER>>>

DAVE< I HOPE TO SAY THIS IN AN ENLIGHTENING YET NON_OFFENSICE WAY< YOU"RE IMPOSSIBLE!

P>S> IF SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO SOLVE MY PROBLEM< PLEASE TELL ME HOW< FILTER KEYS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS RIGHT?

They might do, press and hold shift for 10-15 seconds and see if turns itself off. Dave's not impossible, he just does what he thinks is right to make this place more pleasant for everyone. He's entitled to his opinions of Fire Breathing/eating. I think anyone who breathes and doesn't expect people to be fairly wary of discussions which portray it in a way which seems to suggest it's not as dangerous as it obviously is, are being farily naive. At the same time I understand that you're just looking for clarification - but both are extremely dangerous if not done properly.

*breathes*

(pardon the pun )

I stopped eating fire because my teeth are bad enough without it. I still breathe fire but I consider it to be much more dangerous. I just want to keep my teeth around as long as possible.

Cheers nearly_all_gone

Munkustrap- what's with the 'impossible' stuff?

You posted a question- 'is fire eating more dangerous than eating' .

The HOP FAQ which preceeds reading Peles article on Fire Breathing clearly states

Written by: HOP article

---

Fire Breathing is THE MOST DANGEROUS OF THE FIRE ARTS .

---

url here-

http://www.homeofpoi.com/articles/FireBreathing.php

Fire eating is a fire art, so, according to HOP, the answer to your question is that no, fire eating is not more dangerous than breathing.

I asked you for your friends reasoning as to why fire eating may be more dangerous, and, having read what you said, IMO, his reasoning was not valid.

You, for whatever reason, seemed to get a little annoyed by this- I don't know why.

My opinion, and the opinion of most fire people I know is that Fire Breathing is considerably more dangerous than fire eating.

You asked a question, and I gave you an answer.

My friend. **laughs** Acquantaince, please, as I said this is hear-say, and he does have a couple decades of experience... I'm on his site now, though it kind of sucks, he needs a web designer. Stop criticizing me here. And by impossible, I was just trying to have a little conversation, to possibly educate myself, bring up the points I remember and not get penalized for them. You know!

Check it out:

http://www.jeffcollins.net/

You've not been penalised, and I've not critisised you.

If it's conversation you want, you're dealing with the wrong person- I'm in this thread purely to help establish the truth about the issue you posted (the relative dangers of Fire Breathing and fire eating); personally, I tend to restrict conversation to people who possess a modicum of respect, a few manners and some capacity for basic reason.



We do have a 'social chat' forum here- there's lots of conversation going on there and I'm sure you'll be made most welcome.

I'm too drunk right now. Ok, lets both of us stand on different feet and find each other newly in a different thread? Cool?

Why not just say they're both bloody dangerous, and you shouldn't really do either?

Cheers!