Warning
Paraffin is a laxative, and swallowing too much can cause toilet problems. Breathing in paraffin or allowing it to go into the lungs can cause permanent damage to the point of destroying them. If this occurs, contact paramedics and go to hospital immediately!!
Also understand that it strips the enamel off of your teeth, which may have long term effects. Holding paraffin in your mouth will allow toxins to seep into your bloodstream.
Sudden changes in the wind can cause blowback of the fire into you or other peoples face. Many people consider fire breathing to be of an unacceptable risk and I do not indorse or encourage the practice of the skill without professional supervision and training. You have been warned!
How I learned
A colleague at University worked in a fancy pub and he offered me to go and juggle outside for an evening in exchange of free drinks and a meal. With me was another performer in devil sticks and fire breathing. I found out later he wasn't using the best fuel (White spirit), but he taught me and I started to entertain customers with my first beginnings.
I then got advice from the club I belonged to called 'Circus Wurx' in Crawley, West Sussex, who taught me some more advice. I remember hunting through the Internet to find it impossible at the time to find help of how to learn, except for hundreds of warning messages, stories of it going wrong by professionals and writings by people who couldn't do it. Nowadays there are more and more writings by fire breathers (See the links section below).
After a club juggling performance on stage I then met a performer who had a bad day in the past and had destroyed part of his lung through fire breathing. It does happen.
Equipment
It is very widely accepted that paraffin is the fuel to use for fire breathing, as well as most other fire related circus manipulation tricks. Paraffin is a colder flame compared to other flammable liquids and when your skin is covered with paraffin it will not catch alight (Unless you're really coated with it maybe). My chin and neck gets coated with paraffin when fire breathing and never catches alight. I wouldn't use any other flammable liquids, that could be disastrous.
You will need a fire juggling club, or even a designated special fire breathing stick to set light to. These have Kevlar cloth with which you soak the material in paraffin. The aim is that just the paraffin and not the material will burn. I have done it with a tree stick with newspaper tied round, but that really doesn't last long and isn't as effective.
If you do make your own firebreathing stick, make sure that it is long enough to not burn what is holding the other end of it. I have heard of someone using a cigarette lighter as their fire breathing stick, and therefore seriously burning their hand. I recommend you buy or make a stick with Kevlar cloth.
You will need a container to hold the paraffin, which is wide enough for your fire breathing stick to be dunked in fully. A good jamjar is perfect, especially if it has a good top you can screw up to avoid drips of paraffin in transporting. I prefer to have this separate to my duty-made fuel container to hold several litres of paraffin.
Matches or lighters (I like to have both) are a must. Clean up material is helpful, for you always end up performing in places which have queues or limited supplies or water. I find that an old dog towel is useful (Including during performance to wipe excess paraffin from your chin and neck). A good ol tub of baby-wipes are really effective to clean up too.
Finally, make sure you have a fire-blanket, bucket of sand, or a powder/C02/HalonGas fire extinguisher to hand. I've found my fire-blanket more useful for putting out random things my fire-clubs have caught fire to, more than anything else; and for helping officials to allow me to perform, by showing them I am being sensible.
Technique
Fire breathing is basically spitting paraffin onto a flame so that the fuel catches alight into a ball or column of flames.
First (and discipline yourself to do this!) practice spitting with water many many times (Half an hour practice is a good time) to develop the technique. Spit while blowing out to produce a high pressured and fine spray of liquid. A cloud of liquid heading 'away' from your lips and face is what we are looking for.
Take in a small quantity of liquid. About the size of one and a half tablespoons of liquid will do. You may want to increase the quantity when you are improving for a larger flame. Hold it in your mouth in a natural position, not forcing the liquid anywhere, especially not at the back of the throat.
Aim to spit at an angle upwards (Not straight up). At first try horizontally and work up for changing the angle. The flame (obviously) likes to travel upwards, so an angle upwards will give the best results. An angle aimed downwards may cause blowback.
The spitting of the paraffin is done with a prolonged spray. A fine spray will catch alight well. You do this by blowing out air at the same time through your mouth. Adjust your mouth so that the paraffin comes out between your two top front teeth and your tongue.
You need to spit onto the fire breathing stick (When it's alight) to get to paraffin to ignite. The distance of this from your mouth should not be very far. Practice getting it closer to your mouth, for generally the closer it is the better. One bad habit is to spit too high above the fire and so not catching alight as effectively.
When you first try paraffin, concentrate hard to avoid breathing it in and thus avoid the urgent need to rush to hospital. Swallowing a little paraffin into your digestive system should do no harm - they use paraffin orally in medicine anyway. Do not face the wind. In fact if there is much wind at all: REFUSE TO PERFORM! In windy conditions the risk is trebled and it is not worth it!! People will understand you're refusal, and if they don't....throw rocks at them or something!
Improving: The more you practice the better you will be. For me I found this, even though it felt like I was doing just the same thing again and again. The flame just got bigger and better. From 1 foot to 5 feet and black smoke rings at the end. When you have got the initial technique I find that a bit more paraffin in the mouth helps it work for longer, but not too much more or you won't be able to spit. It can work well to increase the spitting/blowing when near the end to create a final rush, which can create the smoke rings.
Fire breathing is one of the most dangerous circus skills, and can cause permanent and irrevocable damage. However it can be fairly easily learned and captivates audiences of all ages.
How Fire breathing Looks.
Except of course for the paraffin catching alight!
Try not to catch alight when firebreathing!
Juggling, unicycling, fire juggling, ball juggling, club juggilng, fire breathing, poi, staff, balls, clubs, fire...
Proud and confident little man, ready for fire breathing safely.
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