As one of the newest brothers in the primary group. Sundance and I both met at a rave called Snowstorm, which was kind of the final tryout to join for us. I had seen and done some performances with Vertigo and Vortex at a few of the previous parties we’d frequent at Asylum in Austin.
As a kid I got into playing with staffs by watching TMNT. Since I was usually considered the smart one of my friends (aka the nerd), I always got last choice when role-playing, and thus got Donatello. But that was okay cause Donatello could wield a staff and kick butt while doing advanced scientific stuph. Thanks to him I learned how to twirl a staff, although not to the point that a true staffer can.
While I admit I was a pyro at a young age (caught myself on fire at the age of eight DON’T DO THIS KIDS!) I never really thought of adding fire to my staff play, especially not for entertaining others. Back in the early part of 2000 my roommate and I were selling glowsticks (well he was, I was funding) and we sat around with glowsticks on the end of lanyards one night. We kept trying to do two at once but failed miserably, but we played with half a set and enjoyed ourselves. Another one of my friends mentioned to us that lots of kids at “raves” would twirl a set of glowsticks on strings, my interest piqued. A few weeks later I found some stuph online about twirling fire and incorporated it into glowsticks.
Then while I was hanging out at Kerrville Folk Festival later that year I heard about this girl, Aurora, that was twirling fire on chains, I was enthralled. Finally on the last night I was there as I was going to bed I saw her out of the corner of my eye and ran over to watch. It was a beautiful performance, and i swore to myself that I would learn how to do the art well.
Another few months passed and after lots of practice and finally sitting down to order my fire poi I was ready to go. So for my birthday at a friend’s house I took my equipment and twirled fire most of the night. It was great. Since then I’ve been twirling at various parties, clubs, political functions, and other activities. First by myself, but for the last decade as a member of the Brothers of the Flame.