JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you think you have a unique job, it’s probably not as unusual as the one Tokyo Moreno has. She’s a professional fire performer and even “eats” fire during her performances.
Moreno started her career a few years ago, and it has taken off. She performs every Friday night at Norikase Modern Japanese Omakase & Sushi on Deer Lake Court, right next door to the Movie Theater in Tinseltown.
And her performances have become so popular that she’s regularly on the road around the country.
“Now, I get offers to go to Atlanta, out to California,” said Moreno, who will also be performing soon in the Chicago area.
Moreno’s heritage is Filipino, and there is a strong cultural tradition in the Philippines of fire eating that really took hold in the nearby Pacific Islands.
“Micronesia, Maori have a strong lineage of fire performing in their culture. And there’s part of the Philippines close to Austronesia and Asia,” she said.
And while Moreno may be the first to monetize the tradition into her business Florida Fire Flow, there are a number of performers in Jacksonville who also practice the art form.
“There are a lot of actual fire performers in Jacksonville that do it, they’re called flow artists,” she said.
Moreno said she’s regularly asked about her job, and the most common question involves how she doesn’t get burned. She explained that she’ll rub fire on her skin and even put flames into her mouth, saying it comes from a lot of practice and mentally being able to briefly deal with the heat.
“We call this fleshing, where you can drag it across your skin. In this stage, I also call the liquid stage, and can put it into my mouth, and also transfer the fire. So, I’ll do a tongue touch transfer,” she said.
Moreno said she started practicing in her garage when she was first introduced to fire performing. “We just like to train in my garage,” she said. “Doing fire in the house is interesting, roommates [have] asked not to do it in the house.
Moreno’s weekly show is at Norikase on Friday nights, starting at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.