Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 84F. Winds light and variable..

Mostly clear. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.

Amber Babb, a Cove City native, will bring the unique art of fire performance to this year’s Pitt County American Legion Agricultural Fair. “I’ve always been the type of person, my personality’s different,” she said. “My goal in life was always to be different and not fit in with everybody else.”

Amber Babb of Ember Fire Arts is making her Pitt County Fair debut next week.

Amber Babb, 27, uses numerous props in her fire arts performances.

Amber Babb, a Cove City native, will bring the unique art of fire performance to this year’s Pitt County American Legion Agricultural Fair. “I’ve always been the type of person, my personality’s different,” she said. “My goal in life was always to be different and not fit in with everybody else.”

Amber Babb of Ember Fire Arts is making her Pitt County Fair debut next week.

Amber Babb, 27, uses numerous props in her fire arts performances.

Amber Babb was the kind of kid who was determined to set the world on fire, if only her mom could keep her from burning down the house in the process.

From her early years growing up in Cove City, Babb had a fascination with flames. But after nearly a decade of playing with fire, she is aiming to be one of the hottest acts in eastern North Carolina.

Babb’s Ember Fire Arts is set to make its fair debut next week at the 102nd annual Pitt County American Legion Agricultural Fair. After her six-day run in Greenville, the fire performer will take her one-woman show to Wayne County Fair on Sept. 29 and the North Carolina State Fair on Oct. 13.

“Later on down the road, I’d like to have more performers,” Babb, 27, said in an interview. “As of right now, it’s just me. It’s very hard finding people doing what I do.”

Sometimes referred to as fire manipulation, what she does is perform with more than half a dozen props that showcase her ability to handle fire, spin fire, eat and breathe fire.

“I’ve always loved fire,” the Goldsboro resident said. “Growing up, I was always a ‘pyro’ (pyromaniac). I would take aerosol cans, light them on fire or take Germ-X put it on my hands, light it on fire. I was just an adrenaline junkie, I guess.

“I’ve never had a fear of fire,” Babb said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that worried my mom. It doesn’t faze me, I guess.”

Babb’s mother, Shannon Gisman, was not always a fan of her daughter’s early stunts.

“She caught my porch on fire,” Gisman said, laughing. “I don’t even remember what she was playing with.”

Then 13-year-old Amber and her younger brother, Alex, who later went on to join the volunteer fire department, used salt to extinguish the blaze and then covered the evidence with a welcome mat.

“It was funny because my brother was actually a firefighter, and then I was the one that was starting fires,” Babb said. “(My mom) always had a joke, ‘How do I have two polar opposite kids? One’s putting them out and one’s starting them.’”

Babb’s teen antics became a more serious undertaking after she saw a show in Raleigh that featured a poi performer, who swung tethered LED lights in a rhythmical pattern. Babb went home and ordered a similar set, teaching herself how to use it. It wasn’t long before she realized she could do the same thing with fire, although it’s more dangerous.

“I’ve been injured plenty of times, actually. I have multiple scars,” she said, matter-of-factly. “During the performances, the most asked question is: ‘How often do you get burned? And truthfully, I get burned almost every time that I perform. (It’s) not always bad. But there are metal pieces on my props, and when they get hot and they touch your skin, they do tend to burn you. So it is something that I deal with quite often.”

Crazy as it may sound, getting burned is not Babb’s chief concern as a fire performer.

“The most dangerous thing that kind of falls into place with fire performing is the fire eating that I do,” she said, adding that she trained with a professional before adding this element to her act. “With fire eating, you’re actually extinguishing that torch in your mouth. When you do that, it can put toxins in your body. The same thing with the fire breathing. ... It’s all the toxins and fuels and stuff that I may ingest accidentally.”

For safety reasons, fire performance is a weather-sensitive art form. Windy conditions can force shows to be postponed due to the risk of flames being blown back in Babb’s face. Because fire props put off a great deal of heat, she also avoids performing during the hottest times of the day.

“Performing 20, 30 minutes straight with fire, it’s exhausting,” she said. “I don’t want to give the crowd a show that they don’t want to see by me passing out or something.”

Helping safeguard Babb at performances is her husband, Michael, a U.S. Army serviceman. He often accompanies his wife to shows, helps fuel her props and keeps an eye on her from behind the scenes.

Another of her biggest supporters is her mother. While Gisman may have been reluctant at first, she has come along.

“She’s a lot more supportive of it than she was in the beginning because I have gotten a lot better and I have recognized a lot of risks,” Babb said. “I think she’s pretty cool with it, honestly.”

Not only did her mother accompany Babb to her first paid gig, Gisman is having her daughter perform at her wedding this fall.

“When she’s out there and she’s happy and she’s in her element,” Gisman said. “I’m proud of her. It’s not something anybody would think I want to grow up and so something like this, but she’s never been one to follow the crowd at all.

“She’s always been more of a leader than a follower. I absolutely love that about her.”

The 102nd annual Pitt County American Legion Agricultural Fair will be held Sept. 20-25 at the fairgrounds, 3910 Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. Admission is $8, with children ages 4 and younger admitted free. Free parking is available. Visit pittfair.org.

Contact Kim Grizzard at kgrizzard@reflector.com or call 329-9578.

www.Reflector.com 1150 Sugg Pkwy Greenville, NC 27834 Main Phone: 252-329-9500 Customer Care Phone: 252-329-9505

Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.

Check your email for details.

Invalid password or account does not exist

Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.

Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.

A receipt was sent to your email.