Club Obi Wan

I just put up a couple new videos of me whipcracking on You Tube; one is a firewhip video and the other is footage from one of my renaissance faire shows. The ren faire video includes firewhips and cutting a full soda can in half with a whip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZFJ5w83mNM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UeK-2M2Als

Thinking about Paul Stenhouse's post about whip work in the new Indy movie, maybe it'd be super cool to see flaming whip vs flaming sword in the whip/sword fight.

-Adam

Awesome videos! Last ren faire I was at, some guy was using a chain mail whip. Cracked -very- easily! Have you seen those?

pschtyckque,

I've seen chainmail whips for sale on Ebay, though I've never handled one. Sounds like a great gimick for a ren faire, though.

Aeris_Canon,

Thanks for the compliments! Glad you liked the videos. I'm sending a copy of the ren fair video to the people at the Arizona ren fair as I'd really like to perform there next year.

-Adam

Look into the chain mail. Could be a nice addition.

How far west do you perform at Faire? I used to work for a Northern California faire, and there are many gearheads in Southern California and a great faire season. Any thoughts of making it out this far? I'd love to watch you perform in person.

I've talked with the southern California faire entertaiment directors about coming out to California next year. I worked for them at the Bristol Renaissance faire this past year, they liked my show. I'm hoping to hear from them within the next month or so to work things out for the California faire.

Yeah, if I do make it to California, and any gear heads want to meet up during the week for some whipcracking, that'd be great!

-Adam

Hi Adam,

I see you've been practicing a bit in your spare time!

Why not wear the 'puffy shirt' from Seinfeld at the rennaissance fairs?

Nicely done. You should be getting calls from Hollywood as a choreographer. Every movie needs a whip in it. And I do mean every movie!

Regards,

Paul

What can someone say but WOW. thanks for sharing.

Awesome! Its pretty clear to see why your one of the best Adam I would have liked to have meet up with you at Silverleaf last August, everyone there said you did a fantastic job with your shows.

For your next stunt i want to see you light a candle with a firewhip!

Dan

Hey Dan,

About lighting stuff with a firewhip, I did buy some flash paper, thinking it'd be cool to light a flash paper target out of someone's hand. It'd probably be a piece of flash paper on the end of a stick.

If the rain in Wisconsin ever stops, I'll break out the fire whips and see if I can't light a candle

Paul,

The puffy shirt is on it's way, believe you me, it's on it's way Actually, some of the people I worked for last year wanted me to invest in some fancier costuming, so I hope to meet up with a costume designer after I get back from Australia. I might just end up with a puffy shirt

-Adam

It would be really cool if you had a fire whip and a standard whip at the same time, and after you light the candle with one, snuff it with the other.


I dare ya!!

Holy Smokes!!!! That was awesome!

I'm glad I got to see that Fire Whip video. Kinda reminds me of this old game I used to play called Castelvania. The character in it had a flame whip.

How do you keep the whips from just quickly burning up or catching anything else around them on fire....like yourself???

Are you going to Tasmania to meet up with Simon?

pschtyckque,

I think it might just be possible to both light a candle and put it out with a fire whip. The candle would have to be lit with the first fire ball, and then after that, with no more fuel coming off the end of the cracker, the whip could put out the candle. The hard part would be finding a night were there is no wind and no dew on the grass so I could try this trick.

Pitfall,

The whips are made from kevlar wicking, which soaks up the fuel. The fuel burns without burning the kevlar. The fuel is Coleman camp stove fuel, which is a light-weight fuel that doesn't transfer easily from the whips, so that's how I avoid lighting myself on fire.

Paul,

I'm actually flying into Brisbane, and as far as I know Simon will meet me up there. The place we're going is Glen Innes, which is about 2 hours south of Brisbane.

-Adam

Your video clips are always fun to watch! Is the entire whip made of Kevlar or just the overlay?

They have the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale, CA which is about 15 min from me if that’s the one you’re talking about and is scheduled to be sometime in the spring of ’08. Here is the link if anyone is interested http://www.renfair.com/socal/. If you hear of anything be sure to keep us posted. It would be great to meet you if you get the chance to perform down here.

What I wanna see you do is pull a handkerchief out of your back pocket. I've been trying it but the trick doesn't work out real well. I also want to see you do the trick where you throw the whip basically and it rolls along the back of your neck and then you catch it with your other hand. Hopefully that makes sense.

Awesome videos btw. Very entertaining.

I've done the handkerchief trick before. Basically I do a slightly modified circus crack, and stick my butt out so the whip hits the kerchief and snags it. That trick usually takes a couple of tries.

I think the other trick you're talking about is Wilk's Wonder. The whip is thrown around the neck and caught with the same hand that threw it. If you watch the ren faire show video, I actually do that trick once, with the pair of red and black whips, at the end of a routine.

I finally got a digital camera that takes video with sound, so I hope to be able to post short videos of tricks onto You Tube.

-Adam

You did? I didn't even see the trick it must have happened so fast. What time was it performed exactly on the video? Thanks

Oh, I dunno. I have dial-up so I haven't watched the video on You Tube yet. The trick is in the first third of the video, I did it at the end of a routine called the 'Death March' (which is doing the snake killer in one hand and fast figure 8's and volleys in the other hand). It comes right after I jump over one of the whips.

-Adam

GREAT stuff, Adam! !!

I just now got around to watching those videos and WOW were they cool! I agree about getting a chainwhip. Maybe something like this...

If you (or any other whip artists, for that matter) ever come across one, please let me know!

Hey Pitfall, I played that game. Huge fan! I'm pretty sure he had a chainwhip, too.