Don't Try Breathing Fire Until You Watch This Video
After a 70-year career, Ward Hall's claim to the title "King of the Sideshows" is undisputed.
However, his seven-decade career almost went up in smoke before it began.
When Hall was 14, he ran off to join a circus and was hired after he convinced the carnival owners he knew how to breathe fire.
The second day on the job, he had an epiphany.
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"I told these people I can eat fire, I better see what I can do about learning to do it," he tells Huffington Post in a video documentary.
Hall went over to where the trucks were kept and got a can of high-test gasoline, which he points out, "is not what you use to eat fire."
He then set about making torches and dipping them into the gas.
"I probably even put a little bit of the gas into my mouth," Hall said. "I don't know what I expected to do, but what I did do is burn the hell out of my face."
Not only that, but he set the building on fire.
Things turned out OK. Not only did he own his own sideshow within 11 years, but his life story has just been turned into a new book, "Ward Hall: King Of The Sideshows" (Casa Flamingo).
To see Ward Hall's amazing story check out our full documentary Ward Hall:King Of The Sideshow
Video by Emily Kassie of Huffington Post.
Ward Hall: King Of The Sideshows
Stella, The Bearded Lady
Two-Headed Baby
Ward Hall: Ventriloquist
Gaylon Twins
Bob Melvin: Two-faced Man
Ward Hall and Little Peter Terhune who Traveled with Ward for more than 50 years
Pete Terhune
Percilla The Monkey Girl And Her Husband Emmett The Aligator Skin Man
Ward Hall and Author Tim O'Brien
Ward Hall: King Of The Sideshows
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.