Fire Performance – the how, the what, the who the why!
As promised I’m back with the second instalment of the very exciting FUEL GIRLS BLOG! Last month we reached out to you guys to see what you wanted us to talk about, so this time we’re covering off that thing we actually do for a living – fire performance!
Now it’s not easy to answer a lot of the questions we get regarding our shows because quite frankly SO much goes into them behind the scenes it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start. Now, you also have to take into consideration the fact that we’ve all been doing this for at least ten years, so honestly, our girls make things that are technically REALLY hard, look crazy EASY!
Truth be told, you can’t just ‘become a fuel girl’ overnight, our girls all have a set of really unique skills that a. take a really long time to learn and master, and b. often aren’t learnt – for example, stage presence and performance, you sort of have it- or you don’t, and that is really, in my opinion, the thing that sets our girls apart from ALL other performance groups out there.
I thought I’d break down some of the most pertinent questions we get asked all the time, from Von’s perspective (that’s me writing this in case you were wondering) and I cleverly I named this ‘The How, the What, the Who, The Why’ because we get asked the below questions ALL THE TIME:
- How did you all get into fire performance?
- What props do you all use/like using?
- Who comes up with your show concepts and costumes?
- Why do you do such a dangerous job?
That really fun question we get asked MORE than anything…
You can feel it coming even before the words have excitedly left the persons eager mouth, their eyes wide in anticipation, still in shock and awe from you telling them that you perform with fire, it’s coming, here it comes…..’SO HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT!’
AND YOU WANT TO SCREAM A LITTLE BIT INSIDE BECAUSE FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, YOU’VE HEARD THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER! I sometimes make up lies, I told someone in South Africa last week that my mum taught me and I grew up in the circus, and we lived with a bear named Tobias.
I didn’t.
I wish that was true.
For me, I was one of the founding Fuel members (yes I am incredibly old now) and about 14 years ago when Fuel was a record label and we used to dance around with our tits out on boy racers cars, where we dangerously dabbled with a bit of fire breathing to draw in the crowds.
Things got more serious when we hired the infamous Masumi Max for a photoshoot for the classic lad’s mag ‘Max Power’ as she was a ‘proper’ performer and taught Vanessa and I how to actually do some tricks with fire.
Back then we were much more known for our wild antics and party lifestyle, we didn’t really do a lot of actual fire performance, I really learnt over the years from all the pros we now work with. I actually had to get a lot more serious with my ‘skills’ when we were hired to do a TV show where we had to teach Claire Richards from Steps how to spin, breathe and eat fire.
It transpired that most of the girls we were working with (including Claire) all had dance backgrounds and could move in a totally different way to me, most of my ‘skill’ was heavily based around crowd participation, being quite interactive and weird (I once did a show where I cut a Barbie up on stage that I kept in a metal lunch box. lol).
It really helps if you have a dance background when it comes to learning the sorts of routines we now do, so you can quickly pick up choreo but it’s not essential. Performance is more important, if you have both, and have a cool look, are good with costumes, and a total badass then YOU’RE ONTO A WINNING FUEL GIRL FORMULA! (not a lot to ask right haha)
I then went on to try and train as many skill-based workshops as possible, my advice would be to go learn poi if you want to get into spinning, or train in martial arts that use weapons – staff for example, as they form the basis of all movement with fire props.
FIRE PROPS: so you want to drag a 30KG bag across the world and have constant backache?
You see us looking all sexy and glam on Instagram, but really we’re just carrying bags around, moaning about how much we have to fit in our cases and trying to sweet-talk airport staff into letting us through check-ins.
We use a LOT of props, and we all like using different things, for example – Charlotte is a master with fire transfers and eating, Teta loves the non-collapsible spinny fans, Hayley is epic with double staff and rope poi, and Kat can do dangerously sexual things with a fire sword.
The staple equipment that we all use however are:
- Collapsable fire fans from Gora – 5 or 6 prongs, small and large for indoor and arena use
- Short fire swords – great for spinning and posing! Also from Gora
- Dragon canes – now they’re also called vulcanes, you can buy them pre-made (also Gora) or if you’re in the UK from Oddballs. We, however, make all of our own lyco canes so they fit easily in our cases!
- Fire eating sticks – we use them for eating, body burning and fire breathing (which we don’t do a huge amount of these days) The best ones are made by (in my opinion) Home Of Poi
- Lycopodium – this goes inside the vulcane and is now crazy expensive and hard to find as demand is so high. Lycopodium, or Lyco is a tree spore, but some people are highly allergic to it so be careful!
- Long Swords -These are epic for super slow movements, and shows that require lots of posing! Gora makes a really nice fire sword that’s weighted perfectly
- Staff – we all use double and single staffs, tons of companies make them – again Home Of Poi I think have the best selection of these
- Pyro – this is all fairly specialist stuff, but we buy ours from Pyroterra Lighttoys and they’re called ‘Boom Poi’ we also use the ‘Boom fans’
Why are all our shows so awesome I hear you say?
Coming up with new shows ALL THE TIME is probably the hardest part of our job. We are often given briefs by clients and we have to work to them, sometimes they’re easy…sometimes they’re…not so easy hahaha.
In terms of creativity, we have a really strong group of women who work really well together, each with a different set of skills to bring to the table. Some of us do social, some photography or music, and others costume and choreography.
Sometimes we have free rein over creativity, which is great as we have a set of themed shows we can roll out, costumes we can adapt and once a year we work on two brand new themes for the London Tattoo Convention that get rolled out across the year.
Why would anyone want to be in constant fear of self-combustion you ask?
Honestly, I think we’re all adrenaline junkies, who have done far too much too soon and need the excitement in our lives! The thrill of being on stage, combined with pulling off shows that literary blow peoples minds is addictive, there is NO better feeling than seeing a crowd roar with excitement. Another question we’re asked ALL THE TIME, is does It hurt?
Yes.
It hurts.
Just this weekend, I have come away with blisters on my fingers, bruises on my knees and burns on my mouth.
Well why do you do it then?!!!
Because we love it, and we’re also kinda used to the pain 😉 We’re all crazy tattooed and I think we are all a bit addicted to it if I’m honest. The biggest takeaway from this entire piece, however, is that above all else you have to do this job SAFELY.
We make it look easy, it isn’t, it REALLY isn’t. I said it before, but we’ve all been doing this 10+ years and know exactly how the other girls perform and move together, we are all trained and insured for 10M+, and work with the best stage manager who is also heavily trained and watches us like a hawk at all times.
Despite our extreme professionalism, we still have accidents – fire burns and things can and will go wrong. Always have wet towels with you when performing and a fire spotter, if not a stage manager too. Never perform if you’re uncomfortable with the weather conditions or environment either.
OVER AND OUT!
That’s enough for today I think, as always I’ll be doing polls across Instagram to work out what you want to hear from us <3
Keep in touch on Facebook and Instagram, I’ve been Von and I can’t wait to talk with you more! Please get involved with comments and questions and as always stay safe when playing with fire!
XX
