Fire-eater extraordinaire

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 1

Fire-eater extraordinaire

Five years ago, Jon Zealando, magician and ventriloquist extraordinaire, belched a flame 24 feet and six inches across a crowded Auckland shopping mall to claim a world record. It got him into the “Guinness Book of Records” and also an invitation to appear on the American television show, "That’s Incredible.” But today he says his world best was a fluke. In Christchurch for a series of shows, Mr Zealando said yesterday that he could only manage a 20ft flame for the “That’s Incredible” producer when he was flown to Hollywood last November. Being ever resourceful, however, the

American promoters still managed to laud his flame as a 30-footer — “in American feet, that is.” Mr Zealando performs the flame-throwing stunt rarely. When he was trying for the world record he restricted himself to one attempt a day because of the highly toxic fuel he needed to hold in his mouth. Flame-throwing and fireeating are only a minor part of bis repertoire. A man of many talents, he is also an accomplished ventriloquist; he performs straitjacket escapes; he holds the unofficial record of having 15 cigars in his mouth — and being able to

whistle at the same time; and he can lie on a bed of nails supporting a 10001 b weight. While in the “That’s Incredible” studio, Mr Zealando was invited to perform another of his stunts, the human dartboard. But he doubts it will appear on viewers’ screens when the ninety-ninth episode is televised in New Zealand in December. It went awry. Normally his wife blows the high-tensile needle darts on to his bare back, as he demonstrates self-hypnosis and control of pain. A routine performance, the gruesome part for the audience comes when the darts are pulled out.

Because of union problems, however, Mrs Zealando was forbidden to take part. So an American stuntman had to practise blowing the darts on to various handy walls, before trying it out on Mr Zealando. All went according to plan until the time came for the dart-heads to be pulled out. One of the walltoughened darts got stuck, and although a pair of pliers was called for, Mr Zealando had to be rushed to hospital where it was eventually extracted. It sounds more like an episode for “T.V. Bloopers” than “That’s Incredible.”