(upbeat techno music)
- Three, two, one!
(exploding device booming)
(men yelling)
- We're blowing stuff up!
(men cheering)
- Explosions, bang!
- Boom!
(flames roaring)
- Oh my God! Oh!
- Did you see that?
- Pyrotechnics, explosions!
(man imitating gunfire)
(guns sputtering)
(man imitating explosion)
- We're excited.
- Metal.
Heavy metal.
(bouncy rock music)
(booming explosion sound)
(burning fuse crackling)
(fuse crackling sound)
- [Keith Habersberger] Starting to get a little nervous.
- [Ned Fulmer] I'm getting a little nervous!
(bubbling sound)
(device exploding)
- Woo!
- Oh!
- Hey guys, I'm Matt Varley.
I work for the company FFP Effects
and I blow stuff up for a living, and burn stuff.
- Little story about this, we actually
first met Matt, who we're working with today,
on the Legends of the Internet tour.
- [Ned Fulmer] So, we've been talking to Matt
for two years now.
- Mmmhmm.
- And we said, "Let's do it bigger."
- [Matt Varley] We're gonna, you know, burn stuff.
Basically bring in all the stuff that we can use
on different stadium sized shows,
arena shows, theater shows, any of that.
And have more fun with it.
- [Keith Habersberger] At the end of the video
we're gonna do a slow-motion explosion
action movie montage.
- [Ned Fulmer] The grand finale.
- [Keith Habersberger] We brought suits.
- [Ned Fulmer] Yeah.
This is a serious activity.
Please don't try this at home.
- We're here with trained professionals, experts -
- We are not trained.
- We had a safety meeting.
- Yeah.
- So, you know. Be careful.
With what you're doing at home.
And what you're doing at home shouldn't be this.
(upbeat music)
- All right, so what we got first?
- So we're gonna start with some colored smoke.
Ned, you're red.
Keith, blue.
- Love it.
- So basically, there is a match
inside there. That is a pull-latch match.
- Oh, cool.
- So basically the way it works,
is it's going to ignite on the top
and then slowly burn its way down.
- Kinda looks like an energy drink.
- Don't drink it.
- I love fire, love fireworks.
You may know that I studied chemistry,
but what you may not know is
I was a pyromaniac as a teenager.
- It will get hot, but as long as you're keeping it
at the bottom you'll be good.
And if you start feeling a little bit toasty,
don't worry about just dropping it on the ground.
- Whoa! Hey, yeah!
- [Keith Habersberger] This is cool! Wow, it's beautiful!
- It's beautiful!
- Oh, Mom, it's beautiful!
- Oh it's red and orange!
- My Dad, I know, used to make fireworks.
He was a mining engineer
so he had to help with explosives
to explode rocks before they get taken away.
So I feel like I'll connect with my father
a little bit today.
I can't see anything!
- I can't-
- I can't see anything!
- [Matt Varley] Sports teams use them,
you know, you can do them with photographs.
This is only for stadiums.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- If there's open air we'll do these
but if it's indoors we're not gonna mess with these.
- That was a lot more color than I expected,
if I'm being honest!
- That was beautiful!
- It was gorgeous.
- It was so much!
(laughing)
- Luminous!
- But it seems like a lot of times
you get to use this just to make really cool montages
in a video.
- Absolutely!
- Shall we make a really cool montage
in this video?
- Oh I think we should.
- Let's hit it.
(energetic dubstep music)
- Explosions! Bang!
- Let's hit it.
- Bang!
- That was sick.
- Bang!
- Hit it.
- Bang!
- Hit it.
- Greatest day of my life.
- I couldn't see either of you at one point.
I was like running through a fully filled-out coloring book.
- Yeah!
(laughing)
- How did you get to this - how you do this?
How do you become this?
- How do you do this?
- It was a long road that started off
with me putting lighter fluid on the ground
as a kid and going "Yeah!"
But thinking that's not a career.
So ah, now we're gonna start moving it
on to ah, your body.
And we got these gloves with gerbs.
But then ah, I was like well music's kinda cool.
Got my degree in playing music
and all that stuff.
These big tours I was on kept having pyro
and I was like, that's way cooler.
That is way cooler.
- Wee!
- Ahh!
(laughing)
- Yah!
- Yeah! Woo!
- Woo!
(laughing)
- Yeah!
(laughing)
- Yeah!
- Clap! Clap with me man, clap with me!
- That eventually led to meeting someone
needing help on a gig, and being like
"can you just come be my second guy?"
But then pushing that button,
it was like, "ahh!"
This is the coolest thing I've ever done!
- Yeah!
(laughing)
- You're glowing! You're on fire!
(laughing)
- Oh.
(laughing)
(Keith blowing out flames)
- [Matt Varley] Now we're gonna get to just a rack of pyro.
- [Keith Habersberger] So what's the first piece?
- First piece is going to be a blue 35-foot mine.
We got a red one for you, too.
(Ned whistling)
- So there's three different kinds of fire,
there's gas fire, there's powder fire
and there's liquid fire.
- [Ned Fulmer] So you basically have some sort of a fuel
and then you direct it somewhere
and then you light it up-
- [Matt Varley] Exactly.
- In the process.
- [Matt Varley] Yep.
There's maybe 14 different kinds of effects
in our whirl.
And inside each of them is a different chemical compound
to make a different effect.
- Huh.
- But the trick is combining them.
- I see something called 'comet' there.
- Yeah, so we have a comet, which basically means
there's a single star inside of it.
And then we also have mines.
There's like, ten stars in this.
- How do you-
(Keith breathing fast)
- Are you shaking? Are your hands shaking?
- Do you want me to hold the first one?
- Um no, I- I got this. I just need to be ready.
OK, yeah.
- OK boys, we're firing in three, two, one.
(device exploding gently)
- Wow!
- Ohh! So delicate!
- Yes!
- But we also can put gerbs,
which is basically spark fountains,
into a mine to make it have like a big spark shot.
- Gerb mine firing!
In three, two, one!
(gerb mine exploding)
- Whoa! Gosh! Oh God!
(laughing)
(gerb mine exploding)
- Oh my God!
- And then this guy is called a sparkle cannon,
- Cute!
- But it's an-
- That's also my gamer tag, yeah.
- Here you go, sparkle cannon!
This is gonna be the widest one.
- OK.
- Ned is definitely the widest one.
- OK, all right.
- Someone had to say it!
- Sparkle cannon firing!
In three, two, one.
(cannon exploding loudly)
- Ahh! Hoh yeah!
This kinda stuff turns you into Kramer from Seinfeld.
- Wow!
- Woo, Jerry!
- Whoa!
- Well when you're talking about some things
that make big loud noises-
How do you make big booms?
- Well, so, they're already pre-made
for the sake of today
so we're not dealing with live chemicals.
- Cool.
- Um- (laughing)
- Yeah, cool.
- This will be loud.
If you want ear protection
this is the time to put it on.
Back here we have cannon simulators,
what we used on your tour.
- Boom.
- I remember those.
- They were loud.
(cannon simulators booming)
(laughing)
- Holy mother of China!
(beep)
- Shit, my God!
(laughing)
- Fireworks which you see like, that
go really high in the air,
that's all 1.3 classified
which is an explosive classification.
Everything we're doing here is 1.4,
which is what you would do on a concert.
- We're just doing 1.4s
- It's just 1.4s!
- It's just a little 1.4.
- It's nothing. It's nothing, don't worry about it guys!
- OK. Firing the cannon sound, big boom incoming
in three, two, one!
(cannon exploding loudly)
- Ahh!
Ahh.
Ah-ha-ha-ha.
Ha.
Ow.
- Somebody's gonna call the cops.
- But there is a bigger bang.
- No. That can't be a bigger bang.
- Is it-?
- So the entire cage can hold up to 20 concussions,
what we call a concussion.
- Holy shit.
- And its sole purpose -
it will let off a little bit of spark or whatever -
but it's all sound.
- This is a big bang.
This is what started the universe.
- Whoa.
- Are you ready?
- I'm- here- you trade places with me
get closer to that.
- Yes, I'm ready, I'm ready.
- All right, so key is not turned yet.
- OK. Oh, it's heavy, it's heavy.
- In a rock show,
you're normally not going to do it
during a ballad.
We have, but you're normally not going to.
- This is the loudest one!
- I'm doing a little double ear cover.
- All right. Concussion, count it down.
(Ned exhaling sharply)
- Oh God.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Oh God.
(Ned exhaling sharply)
- [Ned Fulmer] Look at that big red button.
- The suspense is killing me.
- Whenever you're ready.
- Concussion firing!
In three, two, one!
(concussion explosion booming)
(screaming)
(concussion explosion booming)
(screaming)
(concussion explosion booming)
(whining buzzing sound effect)
- Oh my God. Oh my God, I felt it.
I felt it.
Oh my God, I felt it.
- Oh my God!
- Car alarms are going off!
- Oh my God!
(car alarms honking)
- Oh my God!
- The car alarms are going off!
- Ohh. Ohh.
- We're (beep) with people now.
- There was like-
(concussion explosion booming)
a blast of air!
- A blast of air!
- It was so big!
- You know in action movies
where they get blown backwards?
I felt that!
- I felt it. I felt it.
- It was like-
(Ned puffing)
- Thank you so much.
(laughing)
- One of the things I'm looking
forward to the most,
because we can almost never do this on a tour
is ah, we've taken some ah, toy guns
from a toy store.
Mounted a lot of pyro on them.
- What?
- Unbelievable.
Omicron? More like
"Oh my God he's got a gun!"
(sparks flaring)
(explosive booming)
- Whoa!
- Oh my goodness!
- Whoa.
- Wow.
- That was wild! Did you see that?
What did we think about the line though?
(laughing)
Really good? Really good?
Maybe we'll stitch it together.
So we're having fun with these,
but are there ever any practical times
where someone would make something
like this for something else?
- Um, there is a couple of acts that we have
that would either mount this piece
to the headstock of their guitar.
- Ah, oh what?
- Oh ho ho, yeah.
- So that you can shoot the rig
with your guitar.
(Ned imitating gun sounds)
- You nicknamed my baby
after the Loch Ness monster?
(sparks flaring)
- Ahh!
(device exploding)
- Whoa!
- Dang!
- Cool!
- Roasted that vampire!
- Roasted.
- Say hello to my little gun.
(fireworks popping)
God. Oh, God.
- Clear.
It's just, you know, it's rare
that we get to do those fun things,
'cause you got to be a little crazy
to put this in your hand, right?
- Oh yeah!
- I think so.
- Ride together, try together, Try Guys for life!
- Ahh!
(fireworks banging)
(laughing)
- That was sick! That was sick as (beep)!
That was dope!
(upbeat percussive music)
- We have basically three different kinds of flame heads.
- Mm!
- So this is our most standard on-stage.
Shoots, 25, 30 feet.
The benefit to liquid flames is
you can make it much more of a directional.
Whereas gas, it's gonna be beautiful,
but it's a little bit more here, there...
- You can't control it.
- Exactly.
- It's just (Ned poofing)
- If we move up to like outdoor festivals, stadiums
you can get this guy.
Which is at least double the height.
Three, two, one!
(flames bursting)
(Ned laughing)
(Keith screaming)
(flames bursting)
- Yeah!
(flames bursting)
(Keith screaming)
- Yes. Yah!
(flames bursting)
- Ah. I'm spent.
(Ned groaning)
- You know, the little ones are fun
but wouldn't it be more fun
if you guys were holding them?
- [Ned Fulmer] Wait, what?
- Holding them?
- I mean, it's only safe if you keep it
down here.
- You gonna give us flame dicks?
- Flame dicks.
- This is the best video ever, guys.
- Best day ever!
(exploding sound effects)
(momentous trumpet music)
- OK.
- Whoa there.
- How about- you guys should go back to back.
As any true, you know, friends would.
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- This is terrifying.
- This is the greatest day of my life.
I'm so scared.
I think my dick is actually
in the safest spot, though.
- Hey.
- Hey man, what's up?
- Hey, what's up brother?
- How you feeling up there?
- Yeah.
- You doing OK?
- Yeah. How that thing hanging?
- All right, we are ready.
We're gonna start with some slow shots, OK.
You know, just- just some squirts.
- OK!
(flames bursting)
- Oh my god! Oh!
(laughing)
(flames bursting)
(Keith screaming)
(Ned laughing)
(flames bursting)
- Woo!
Hot dicks!
- Oh, hot dicks!
- It's a little toasty, right?
- That is one of my favorite phrases!
- I feel the heat!
- Hot dicks, baby!
- Yeah!
- You guys want it a little longer?
- OK!
- Yeah!
(flames bursting)
- Woo!
(Keith screaming)
(Ned laughing)
- Ahh! It's so hot. It's so hot.
Oh my God. Oh my God.
- It's a dream come true.
- This is so funny.
- Wow.
- This is so funny!
(slowed down speech drawling)
- You guys ever felt closer?
- No!
- Yeah, no, no!
- This is something special that we can't do on tour.
But we're doing it for you guys.
- Hell yeah.
- This is a jar full of lycopodium.
- Lyco-what?
- Lycopodium. It is a spore.
- A spore?
- Harvested from a flower.
It's becoming one of the most expensive flames you can have
due to just its rarity.
So we try to save it for special moments.
We have a little bit of pyro around the top
just like what we just used,
and that will shoot to ignite the flame.
- Ooh.
- Whoa. It's like this is the softest powder I've ever felt.
- It's so soft.
- So we're gonna take this and slowly fill this guy.
- Get in there, buddy.
- Literally a powdered substance when vaporized
becomes flammable.
This tube we're gonna fill all the way
up to the very top.
- That's gonna make a lot of fire.
- Yeah.
- OK. It like, it's like a-
- It's wiggling.
- Like pudding.
- See how it moves like waves back there?
- It's so- it looks like liquid in the back.
- It looks like liquid.
- Like jello, like pudding.
- It's wacky tacky, I tell you what.
- Should- are we concerned about all the dust?
- Nope.
- Great.
- I'm gonna blow it off.
- This is something we can never do
on tour because it has to be done
within minutes of filling it.
- Lycopodium!
- Shall we see what it looks like, though?
- Yeah, let's see what it looks like!
- Let's see what it looks like!
- Let's fire it!
- Count down.
- Three, two, one.
(cracking explosion)
(both yelling)
- Oh my God!
- Oh. Oh my God!
(explosion booming)
- Oh!
- That was hot!
- Wow!
- That was wild!
- I felt the heat!
- I felt it.
- I felt the heat.
- I felt it.
- That was big.
- Ooh-wee.
- That was-
- Ooh-wee.
- That was explosive.
- Oh.
- So yeah, four of those are gonna be going off
behind you guys for the finale.
- Four of them?!
- Four?!
(dramatic music)
- So we're getting ready to do a lot of big stuff.
We're taking everything.
It's a grand finale.
It's just listed on our call sheet as grand finale.
- Yeah.
- So what's the total cost of this
last grand finale?
- If you had to guess.
- If you were to have to go get this all
on your own with no connections
and fire it yourself
you'd be in the six figures.
(Keith gasping)
(Ned laughing)
- Whoa, zowie!
- Wow!
- We gotta create a scene, right?
We're in an action movie.
- The building's about to explode
but we escaped.
- We escaped.
- Yeah.
- Evil factory. They make cancers there.
- Yeah.
- I like doing all the Try Guys videos we do.
Some of them are just a little more dope.
- Pretty cool.
(dramatic techno music)
(helicopter rotors beating)
(mechanical clacking)
(alarm sounding)
- [Robot Voice] Self-destruct activated.
(dramatic techno music)
- [Robot Voice] Self-destruct activated.
(dramatic techno music)
- [Robot Voice] Self-destruct activated.
(dramatic techno music)
(techno music intensity rising)
(techno music crescendo)
(techno music intensity rising)
(techno music crescendo)
- [Ned Fulmer] You nicknamed my baby
after the Loch Ness monster?!
- Do you think there's enough to do it twice?
(bouncy rock guitar)
- This is so cool, thanks for letting us come out
and see what you do, and-
- Of course, guys.
- The behind the scenes of how like concerts
become that much more epic.
How football games have that much more excitement.
It's cool to see all the stuff that goes on
behind the scenes.
- Cool, I mean you must feel like a little kid
every day when you come into work.
It's when it goes off
you feel this rush of adrenaline and power
but also like glee and delight.
- Yeah, I thought this was a career path
that like you had to be in a pyrotechnic family
or you know one of those weird trade things
like you have to apprentice under so-and-so,
and blah-blah-blah.
But no it's just- it's a very attainable job
if you just go after it.
I'm so happy I stumbled into it.
I wish I had known sooner
that I could just go for it.
- Hell yeah, brother.
(laughing)
(upbeat rock music)
- Thanks for watching!
- What will we try next?
- Woo!
(screaming)
(laughing)
- That was a little late, you guys wanna try again?
- Yeah!