but as the rain pours down, they need to make adjustments. because of the rain, we wanted to put a bit of extra fuel on the platform and on the rope. i knew the fire would burn through the rain as long as we had more fuel than we had rain. minutes away from the performance, jasen appears relaxed, even jovial. and they set the magician on fire too. just after 9:00 p.m., joe makes the announcement. it s showtime. ladies and gentlemen, the man of the hour! let s hear it. make some noise! a professional camera crew records the action as jasen gets strapped into the harness and joe lights the rope on fire. meanwhile, jasen s sister in the audience can barely watch.
there s not much runway. it s a lot of rock and brush. chris handly, a 15-year-old belt on local, is one of the teens. if you jump properly, you have no problems, you don t hit the bottom and bounce back up. and keep having fun. but if the jump falls short you land in water that s about this deep with jagged big rocks underneath. as the boys take turns launching themselves off the cliff and into the water below, a crowd begins to gather. i kind of felt obligated to do something, like put on for the party or whatever. so chris decides to take it up a notch. the plan was for chris jump, he was going to set this bush on fire. he was going to jump over it. so the insanity level of this jump was up there, for sure. you can t even see it. pour the lighter fluid. hell yeah!
as chris tries to light the bush on fire, cameras roll from above and below. jay jones is one of the teens filming. i was in between the bush and chris on top of the cliff filming. i guess mainly the only thing i was worried about was getting the bush lit on fire. i ve seen chris jump over that bush before. you can hear jay shouting to make the fire bigger. that s not enough. first we tried lighter fluid. and it wasn t making a dramatic enough effect on the bush. so then it turned to the gas. now you got to light it again. we struggle for awhile to get it lit. just before chris is about to jump, spectators on a boat offer up another challenge. somebody dared me to do it naked. so it just went to another level. chris is the kind of guy, i ve never seen him back down
so the insanity level of this jump was up there, for sure. do more, you can t even see it. pour the lighter fluid. hell yeah! as chris tries to light the bush on fire, cameras roll from above and below. power that all over there. jay jones is one of the teens filming. i was in between the bush and chris on top of the cliff filming. i guess mainly the only thing i was worried about was getting the bush lit on fire. i ve seen chris jump over that bush before. you can hear jay shouting to make the fire bigger. that s not enough. first we tried lighter fluid. and it wasn t making a dramatic enough effect on the bush. so then it turned to the gas. now you got to light it again. we struggle for awhile to get it lit. just before chris is about to jump, spectators on a boat offer up another challenge.
joe lights the rope on fire. meanwhile, jasen s sister in the audience can barely watch. oh, god be with you, jasen. i ve got the hugest lump in my throat. the crane lifts jasen up above the crowd 50 feet above the river. so jasen s job was to get out of the straight jacket, detach himself from the harness. he d be free and clear from the rope. and with any luck as he s being brought down the rope burns through showing a dramatic finish to a successful stunt. but things don t go as planned. immediately joe sees jasen struggling with the straight jacket. the canvas that these straight jackets are made from will shrink and tighten in the rain. it s just that much harder to get out of. jasen s sister is getting impatient. go, jasen. my god, go.