Performer drapes, lights firecrackers on body

COOPERSVILLE, Mich. - John Fletcher gets a bang out of firecrackers - especially those he wraps around himself.

The Detroit News reports (http://bit.ly/VrI3fO ) Saturday that the 51-year-old performer's act includes setting off 10,500 firecrackers attached to his body.

Fletcher goes by the name Ghengis John the Human Firecracker. He performed last weekend before 300 people and four firefighters at a motorcycle rally in western Michigan's Coopersville.

Fletcher says that over 16 years he has set off 600,000 firecrackers attached to his body. His ribs have been fractured 17 times and once Fletcher says he was knocked unconscious.

The gravel pit scale operator from Pinckney doesn't get paid for his performances and asks audiences to donate to charities.

Though threatening retirement, Fletcher likes the attention and has yet to stop donning his firecracker suit.