This guy’s name is Brian. He looks like a regular guy with a regular job. Turns out he does have a day job. He is a wrestling coach in a local high school. On a Friday evening at Inner Harbor, he shouted at passers by to stop and wait to see what he can show them. So they did.

Then he talked through his act like a Buddhist. A zen practitioner with attitude. And a sense of humor. When he made jokes that were not suitable for kids, he added a caveat that was even more inconvenient to his spectators. He said that if the kids understood what he was talking about, it was their parents’ fault. The he asked people if they wanted to see something terribly dangerous and when they hesitated, he laughed at them and asked them why they had stopped. He smirked, and said, “You think you would have stopped if you didn’t want to see me do something stupid?”

I couldn’t walk away. Before I knew it, I was watching him light his tongue on fire. Then he had this 14 year old light a couple of torches from that flame. Then he juggled lit torches. Then he lit a jumping rope on fire. Then he stood on a 2-foot ball and jumped rope. While he balanced himself on the ball. And the rope was still on fire.

In a bit, he had a couple of people lock him in 2 straight jackets. Then he stood on that ball. He had someone time him. And he got out of both straight jackets in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. He had claimed that he could do it in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. He was still on that bloody 2-foot ball.

Brian. At the Harbor. He was on fire.