“Don’t play with fire” is a popular warning, especially among parents with unruly kids. However, junior Nick Turpin frequently does the opposite, and with his parents’ support. Since the Falcon last interviewed Turpin last spring, he has learned many new tricks.

Turpin said he once lit his back on fire for a Spanish project. This was accomplished by pouring gasoline on his jacket and lighting it.

Turpin said he learned the trick by reading it in a magazine.

“[The magazine] said ‘don’t try this at home,’” he said with a smile. “You just have to know how to do it right so you won’t get hurt.”

He has also built a combustion-powered potato cannon. The cannon uses diethyl ether, a combustible liquid, for propulsion, which is loaded in one end. The projectile, most likely a potato or a lemon, is loaded into the other end, and a barbecue spark plug in the back is used to ignite the liquid. The result is a large “foom” and the projectile flying off into the distance, Turpin said.

“The potato, or lemon if I’m firing that, goes so far that I can’t see it after a couple seconds,” he said.

Turpin recounted a hilarious encounter when he went to purchase diethyl ether. He said purchasers of the liquid have to be 18 years old and the clerk eyed him suspiciously when he placed eight cans of it on the counter.

Turpin said the man asked if his accompanying mother was purchasing it for him. His mother replied yes, but the clerk still stared at them awkwardly.

“[My mother] then told him I was just going to burn the ether. That totally didn’t calm his nerves,” he said with a laugh.

Turpin said he is not allowed to fire the cannon in his neighborhood for obvious safety reasons. He usually goes to an abandoned area in the mountains to fire it, he said.

Turpin said he usually only fires the cannon whenever friends are at his house and they want to see it.

In the future, Turpin said he plans to learn how to juggle balls lit on fire without gloves.

“The key is to try not to hold [the balls] for very long,” he said.

Whatever the trick may be, Turpin said he always makes it a priority to perform safely.

“A little bit of fire doesn’t hurt,” Turpin said. “You just may have less hair on one arm than the other.”