Chewing hot coals, licking a red-hot knife, breathing fire, or extinguishing a 3,482 C cutting torch with his tongue are just some of the acts performed by Doug “The Demon” Thompson.

His social media presence, which has gained millions of views, is dominated with disbelief in the comment sections; people claim it's an act, an illusion … but for Doug, it's all real.

“I'm terrified,” said Doug’s wife, Susan. 

“You can see photos of me when he is performing on stage, and I'm on the side with my fire extinguisher that I know probably won't do much.

“This is extremely dangerous; this is the top level,” she said, noting that her husband does his research and it has taken him over a decade to build up to this level of stunts. 

Doug is a 49-year-old welder, but with his mohawk, the punk rock band patches on his pants and his big boots, many instantly recognize that he is unlike most of his peers. What they may not know is his love of fire.

Doug’s grandfather was a deputy fire chief in Winnipeg and wanted his grandson to follow in his footsteps and be a firefighter. 

“I had to tell him on his dying days, ‘I couldn't be a firefighter, Grandpa, 'cause I liked starting them too much.’”

He says his fascination with fire led him to his nearly 30-year career as a welder.

Before becoming a welder, Doug was fascinated by fire and its power, wanting to become a blacksmith. He first began melting lead and casting it, learning the art of blacksmithing where he could. 

“It's a constant evolution and a constant desire to learn, create and from all of that welding and fire performing, you get more creative ideas, you see more things that you can possibly do,” he said. 

Doug’s fire acts started because of his wife’s own fire performances. 

Susan wanted to add fire to her belly dancing routine, and Doug acted as her firewatch, fuel tech, and even built her props. 

He then began playing with fire for an audience, starting with the basics of fire eating and fire breathing, eventually putting out a 1,482 C propane torch on his tongue. 

“That’s when I got the idea to do oxyacetylene,” Doug said. “If anybody's going to do it, a welder's going to do it, and I consulted several sideshow experts.” 

Many of those same experts didn’t believe it could be done. 

He first extinguished a 3,482 C oxyacetylene torch on his tongue about nine years ago. 

“There is absolutely no way I would do it, and I set myself on fire regularly,” said Keziah Arsenault, who performs as Phoenix FireStar and has been fire performing for more than 15 years.

“It's very unique what he does, and it is probably as extreme of fire art as you can get aside from like full body burns.” 

“I really wanted to make fire eating scary again, and evolve it, because it hasn't evolved in several hundred years, if not longer,” said Doug.

While many fire performers still use a rag on a stick, Doug uses pressurized gases. 

“There are a couple of really, really big differences between what Doug does and what most fire eaters do,” said Arsenault, noting Doug will also do fire breathing with the pressurized gas. 

Training

Susan said Doug practices the movements before attempting the stunt to get used to how it should feel. 

A single mistake could cause serious harm. 

“Everything about fire eating is technique, and it is knowledge of what fuel you're using and what props you're using,” said Arsenault, noting it takes hundreds of hours of practice.

“It is down to deeply intimate knowledge of the tools that we're using and the fuel that we're using.”

Doug’s experience as a welder has given him insight into the tools of his stunt and the gases he is using. 

“When I do my extinguish, I have to hold it on my tongue for a whole second, so it doesn't reignite in my mouth,” explains Doug, noting that although he is branding his tongue, even a flinch could cause serious injury. 

He said he has trained his mind to override the natural fears and reflexes most people would experience with a torch so close to their face.

Arsenault says that fire performers generally do everything they can to protect themselves, especially from metal. 

“Metal is actually going to give us the worst burns if we come in contact with it, but Doug puts a bare metal barrel, that is his cutting torch, out on his tongue and even when he's doing vapour stuff with propane, he's still wrapping his lips around a bare metal.”

Still, accidents can occur.

“If you're going to play with fire, you will get burns,” said Susan, who has also been burned from her own stunts.  

Doug is aware of someone who attempted his stunt of extinguishing a pressurized torch on their tongue, which resulted in their tongue being split. 

He says it's something that could happen to him; he recalls a time when he blew a crater in his tongue during a performance.  

“When I put the torch in my mouth, I thought it broke a tooth, but no, it was a piece of my tongue flying out.”

Doug and Susan stress that no one should attempt the stunts without professional instruction, noting that it took years of research and consultation with other sideshow experts to perform them properly. 

Doug says he is unaware of anyone successfully extinguishing a cutting torch with their tongue. 

 After a successful stunt, Doug enjoys a swig of port and a blue-rare steak. 

One social media commenter noted that Doug chugging port was more disturbing than the stunt itself. 

Doug has retired the oxyacetylene extinguishing stunt due to the gas's flammability. 

“It's explosive from 2 per cent to 98 per cent in the atmosphere, so it's very explosive,” said Doug, noting that historically the use of acetylene in sideshows has had fatal consequences. 

Now he uses a 2,621 C propane-and-oxygen torch that allows him to breathe fire as well.

The next stunt

Doug is continuing to push the barriers of what is possible in fire performances.

“He has some plans for a bigger stunt, too, that's even scarier; I don't want him to do it,” said his wife.

Doug wants to bring back a stunt performed nearly 200 years ago by Ivan Chabert - the King of Fire or Human Salamander - who entered an oven with a rack of lamb and emerged with a cooked rack of lamb, which he then ate. The stunt is said to have been performed in London in 1826.

“My rendition of this act is I want to build an incinerator the size of a porta-potty, and stick four tiger torches inside. Get locked inside and take it to 999 degrees for six minutes and 66 seconds.”

He says it could be part of his 50th birthday celebration next year. 

“I still just don't know whether I'll come out with clothes on or off.”

Doug said that, beyond the stunts, it’s the pursuit of determining a human’s limits.

One commenter on Doug’s YouTube channel shared the sentiment, “We as humans wouldn't know what our bodies are capable of if it wasn't for people like yourself.”

Doug said he is like Icarus and wants to know how close he can get to the sun. 

Are you scared of getting too close to the sun?

“Well, of course, eventually it could happen; I've had some pretty close calls before,” he said.

After a lifelong devotion to fire, maybe the sun doesn’t scare Doug.

“I devoted my life to fire and creativity, whether physical form in welding, or in art, or a metaphysical form in fire eating and breathing, and becoming one with it.”

Doug will be appearing on the History Channel’s The Proof is Out There on Nov. 21 for his performances and feats with fire.