Booterblog

If you have heard this story, enjoy the retelling.

If you have not been to San Francisco right around Pier 39 or Fisherman's Wharf there are a lot of people who's job is to do nothing more than entertain the tourist and get lots of people to tip them. Talent or no talent they find something that they can do. One guy (who is my favorite) sits on the edge of the sidewalk with a bunch of branchs still covered in leaves. His "act" is to hide behind said leaves and scare people as they unknowingly walk by this man. People gather around and watch the man scare people to death and it is quite funny. Anyway a few days before my wedding me and Colette flew into Oakland rented a car and drove throught San Francisco and stopped to meet my brother for a little trip around Pier 39. On the way back to the car we encountered one such street performer who was just getting set up to do some fire juggling. Colette wanted to see so we walked over and did just that. After about two minutes of us being there, the performer decided that I needed to be his assistant and handed me the flaming sticks (which in hindsight I think he was testing me). Soon after that I was in the middle of the circle with him, and very soon after that i found myself lying on the sidewalk as he continued his show now centered around me. Of course many people see where this is going: man juggling fire, me lying on the ground. But this is this man's bread and butter. He has perfected his show and he could just jump to finale. Not yet anyway. Along the way to the finale, a ring of lighter fluid was sprayed around me and then asked if I knew any Johnny Cash songs. (ha ha very funny) And because we were in San Francisco it was then made into a peace sign, with the center lines sprayed up to me (not over me thankfully). Another one of his oh so exciting moments for the people watching was when he had me cross my legs to hold one of his flaming torches between my legs as close as possible to a certain area for a few minutes. When this torch burned out, that was not a problem he could easily relight it and place it back between my legs. I don't remember there being a reason for this other than the comedy of the situation. In preparation for juggling fire over me, he decided to use knives as practice. And of course before he got to me he dropped a knife, picked it up and continued toward me, tripped over my feet and continued on. When he reached my face he stood over me a while making jokes about the "view" and then decided to squat over me for a few seconds. Anyway the trip was made successfully, now it was time for fire. The fire is less exciting to tell about since he just walked over me up from my feet till he had walked up my body. For me this looked really cool...the fire juggling part nothing more. And then the act was over, and he spilled his secret that the ring of lighter fluid was actually a ring of water. All in all the act was about 20 minutes long but fun for those watching.