Torches Are For Sissies

 

By Bill Giduz

 

Ray Wold's act at the Hilton Hotel in Reno is "The Hottest Act in Show Business," and he's got the singed skin to prove it! For 14 minutes as part of the "Spellbound" show on the Hilton stage he presents a flaming spectacular.

 

He joined the show in September and will be performing at least through April. The Hilton features the world's largest showroom stage, and a full-sized jet fighter left over backstage from a previous show testifies to the size of the space a performer must fill in trying to entertain the 2,000 patrons seated in the hall.

 

"Spellbound" fills the space with 28 dancers, pyrotechnic wizardry, two Bengal tigers and the large scale illusions of the headline magic troupe, The Pendragons. It's quite a challenge for a single performer on stage to hold the audience's attention in a cavern that size, but Wold says fire - and lots of it - can carry the day where ordinary juggling props would not.

 

He comes on stage with flaming wands, announces "I'm a professional who knows how to handle this stuff," and promptly "accidentally" catches the lapel of his coat on fire. As he comically beats out that blaze, his tie catches on fire. In putting that out, a pant leg blazes up, and then his pants at the crotch. After those "body burns," which are done with small amounts of fuel on wick patches in his clothes, he proceeds with some standard fire eating - transfers and extinguishing the wand in his mouth.

 

He next lights a "Molotov Cocktail," which he sets atop a stack of eight cigar boxes laid flat on top of each other. He holds a ninth box in the other hand and balances the stack on top of it. With a swift blow from the free hand, he knocks the bottom box of the stack out, catching the remaining ones and their blazing top piece in a balance again. He repeats the move until just one box remains, tosses the flaming bottle up high, pirouettes and catches it. The audience doesn't know that most of the bottle is filled with water. Careful measurement of fuel for his tricks is essential in doing them safely. Still, he goes through a gallon of Coleman fuel every show for seven shows a week (once a day for five days and twice on Saturday)!

 

His wife and assistant, Chrissie, lights his three flaming cigar boxes next while Ray pulls on heavy leather gloves. The boxes have wick material on their ends, and they blaze fiercely right in front of his face as he executes some takeouts and pirouettes. Made of aluminum, they get hot in a hurry, and he finishes with a pirouette catch following no more than 20 seconds of manipulation. "My hands are cooking by the end," he said. "I have to replace the gloves all the time because the leather melts. The flames are coming up right in front of my face, so my hair has been burned way back on my forehead. I don't have any eyebrows or lashes left, either!"

 

The dangerous becomes comically absurd as he mounts a unicycle and jumps a flaming jump rope. After a few rounds he picks up and lights a straight-back chair and balances it on his chin. No problem, the flame is above him. Easy trick, right?! Well, try the next part. He sets the flaming chair down on stage and sits on it for several long seconds. Then he does a hand stand on it, seemingly right in the middle of the flames. "I burn my face a lot on the handstand because that huge theatre generates highly variable wind currents," he said. "I always hope when I do the handstand it's blowing toward the back of the stage so it'll keep the flames away from my head, but it doesn't always work that way."