Mordechai Schulgasser is a fire performer and the owner of Emes Aish in Jerusalem, Israel,Day in the Life of Mordechai Schulgasser,Mordechai Schulgasser is a fire performer and the owner of Emes Aish in Jerusalem, Israel
Fire shows — fire aesthetics and performances. What we don’t do: we aren’t a circus, nor do we do some kind of entertainment that includes fire tricks. It’s just all fire.
We do performances. They can run from one minute to one hour, and they include an array of fire crafts: juggling, war, fun, with exciting music and coordinating uniforms. We also design and build custom creations out of fire — decorate event grounds with fire bowls, lamps, torches, and so on. Some are freestanding, some operated by staff.
When someone just wants an in-and-out — usually at a wedding, where I wait around for two hours just to get the perfect two minutes — it’s just me. Same with a low-budget shorter show. But the longer the show and the larger the budget, the larger the staff. When I need assistants, I call on friends from yeshivah or elsewhere, people familiar with fire and my systems, to be anything from security to performers to aesthetic staff.
It was actually my first, a desert wedding, we had a seven-man crew on site for eight hours. People ask, “What can you be doing already?!” Well, lamps on the property, multiple light performances throughout the crowd during reception, uniformed soldiers bearing eight-foot torches on the aisle, a flaming chuppah, post-yichud, a full performance between dancing sets, including a human torch — that gives you an idea. The client mentioned in the prep meetings that he wanted his chutznik relatives to have their jaws on the ground — we succeeded!
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