1. The Human Chimney
class: opener | impressiveness: 4/5 | factors: danger, health, fire | requires: matches, disregard for safety | watch full episode
I love this trick, and there’s a reason we made it our very first episode of Scam School: it’s dead simple, and the effect is amazing. From nowhere, you produce billows of smoke out of your mouth… it’s like you’ve manufactured smoke in your lungs.
How it looks: You strike a match, shake the flame out, and pantomime grabbing a piece of smoke and tossing it into your mouth. After “swallowing” the invisible smoke, you seem to belch up insane amounts of smoke… from nowhere.
Watch Demonstration (External link)
The Work: Not gonna lie… this will probably kill you. You probably shouldn’t do it. I’m not any kind of doctor, but I can’t imagine any universe in which this is a good idea.
…But, if you are insane enough to try this, here’s how it works: Strike a match, let it burn, and then shake it out. Notice how when you strike a match, there’s an initial sulfur flash (during which there’s very little smoke), followed by a simple burn (during which there’s practically NO smoke)… and finally, when the match goes out, you see lots of smoke?
Good. That’s what your audience will see.
What they won’t see, is that when you first strike the match, that initial sulfur flash has some kind of vapor (read: “potential poison"), that, when inhaled, will (I kid you not)… become smoke in your freaking lungs. Read that last sentence again: If you inhale that probably-poisonous-sulfur-whatever-it-is at the exact moment you strike the match, it will become smoke in your lungs.
Right now you should be asking two things:
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How does it work?
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Why isn’t everyone doing this trick?
The answer to #1 is: “I don’t freaking know.” It’s wizardry as far as I’m concerned. All I know is that when you inhale that crazy sulfur-poison (at least I assume it’s poison. I don’t really know. In fact, let me reiterate that nobody should do this trick, ever), the invisible gasses somehow become smoke inside your lungs. From the different responses I’ve gotten in humid versus dry climates, I’ve actually begun to suspect that it has something to do with the water vapor in your lungs… like when your breath looks like smoke on a cold, dewy morning.
The answer to #2 is: because it burns like a Muthaf#$%a. The first time you try this trick, your eyes will water, your nose will sting, and you’ll want to freak out… be cool. Just act like nothing’s wrong and exhale slowly… voila! Smoke from nowhere. Once you’ve practiced this for a few weeks, you’ll have it down.
Remember: When you strike the match, make sure it’s just a couple inches directly under your nose, and strike right towards your face. Don’t worry about burning your face (that’ll happen sooner or later no matter what), and whatever you do, don’t react to the burning vapors. Just play it cool, relax… and exhale.
Oh, and for what it’s worth: I’ve noticed that different colored match heads produce different results. I’ve found that white or black match heads produce the most smoke, red is fine, and green match heads tend to be the worst. You’ll have to experiment yourself to find which ones burn the least for you.