Lighter tricks

Lighter tricks are tricks (Trick: a difficult, dexterous, or clever act designed to amuse or impress) performed using Zippo lighters. As a result, you have a Zippo lighter being flicked, flipped, flown, flung, snapped, slammed, squeezed, swung, spun and tossed in ways that appear impossible. Tricks can be done in one hand or in both and sometimes involve multiple lighters.

Other names: Zippo tricks, lighter spinning, lighter manipulation, etc.

History

During World War II, American military personnel were the sole customers of Zippo Lighters, because they were available only at military PX’s. To the GI’s the lighter was a tool that served many purposes: lighting cigarettes, warming hands, cooking food, illuminating dark nights or underground passages, signaling friendly troops, lighting fuses.... etc. With so much time to spend with their lighters, the GI’s are certainly the purveyors of the Zippo trick. The lighters offered the GI’s both fun and function.

Zippotricks.com

In 1996, Norwegian native Morten Kjølberg started Zippotricks.com, more for fun than anything else. Site traffic was minimal until early 2000 when he added video footage to the site, then things began to take off. Zippo found out about the site in 2001. Rather than shut the site down for using their registered trademarked, Zippo bought the rights to the site, keeping Morten as the site administrator. The site was relaunched and ignited a world wide Zippo craze.

Some statistics from the ZT.com site:
*572 tricks were featured
*90% of the audience was male
*73% of the users didn’t smoke
*Users were mainly between 18-30 years old
*Largest audience is USA at 50%
*68% of the users were confident that women fall for tricks.

Hot Tour & Shut Down

In 2003, the idea for the Zippo Hot Tour was hatched. Two skilled lighter trickers from the U.S. under aliases Booty and Mr. Twistyneck, were hired by Zippo to perform tricks in nightclubs around the U.S. Pressure started in June 2003 by the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) after a gig in Flint, MI. Zippo had created 30 second commercials from the ZT.com and aired it on local cable the week leading up to the show.

A fire chief in Flint saw the commercials and contacted the NFPA in an attempt to force Zippo to cease the Hot Tour campaign. Early that year, pyrotechnics in a Rhode Island nightclub featuring rock band Great White had burned to the ground. This (along with a number of politicians) put further pressure on Zippo.

After a lengthy discussion between Zippo and the NFPA the popular ZippoTricks.com website was closed down on the 27th of August, 2003.

From the traffic seen on the site (peaking at over 6,000 hits/day) and the comments that readers left, there was a real desire to learn tricks with Zippo's and people felt patronized that a decision not to 'expose' them to the danger of fire had been made on their behalf. A lot of people from the collector's clubs also disagreed on the shut down.

A part of the ZippoTricks.com community went underground on a message board, but Morten decided that it wasn't the end.

Game Over Message

Dear Fellow TrickHeads:

I have some very bad news for you all. For the past couple of months ZippoTricks.com has been under tremendous scrutiny from various US groups, organizations and even political figures concerning the potential dangers involved with tricking.

Although I personally don't agree with these concerns, we have reached a point where we are left with no other alternative other than to shut ZippoTricks.com down, effective immediately.

Ever since I started ZippoTricks.com back in 1996 the site has experienced a massive growth both in content, volume and traffic. None of this would have been possible without your help and contribution. We sure had some good times!

I appreciate all of the friends I've made over the years and look forward to our paths crossing once again.

All the best, Morten Kjølberg Founder.

Lightertricks.com

On January 9 2004, was launched. There was an IP block for the US and EU countries, but there was a back door to the site. The US and EU countries had to type index1.html after the address in order to access the site. On the 4th of July 2004 the block was lifted and the site was open world wide.

Over the years the site saw many changes with the addition of more tricks, maintenance/collector guides, downloadable content, major site overhauls, new members, and of course the release of the DVD. But due to server difficulties and some unfortunate attacks the site went down on a number of occasions, the final one being so bad that Morten didn't put the site back online. Instead he spent his time on revamping it and making it into what it is today.

Morten's welcome message

Game On!

"Ever since the decision was made in August 27th to shut down ZippoTricks.com after months of pressure from various US groups, organizations and even senators with too much spare time on their hands, people all over the World have e-mailed and called me expressing their anger and support. Within the first two days after the news broke - first in Washington Post and then later in newspapers and television networks pretty much all over the world - my inbox counted more than 10,000 e-mails. Reading through them all I discovered that all but one was from people outraged by the scrutiny and pressure that eventually lead to the shutdown. The only exception was an e-mail from a concerned mom that wanted to thank me for closing down the site.
Needless to say these acts of support have meant a great deal to me and inspired me to continue my work establishing the new site. Without such overwhelming support from you guys I am not sure I would have made the decision to carry on. Thank you all!"

The DVD

In January 2005 Lightertricks.com released its first ever instructional DVD entitled starring Alexander Aarvik and co-starring Julius Holtet.

On the DVD Aarvik teaches viewers 50 different tricks from the Lightertricks.com collection. Each trick is presented in two different angles plus and slow motion. In addition to the tricks the DVD includes a Basic Skills section with 24 basic techniques and a Maintenance section detailing 6 different skills necessary to keep your lighter in tip top tricking condition.

LT.com Now

The LighterTricks.com website that exists now was launched in January 2007.

The Tricks

There are almost unlimited possibilities in which one can move a Zippo through ones hand(s), so the amount of tricks (well into the hundreds) on the site is not surprising.

The Basics

Every aspiring lighter tricker should learn these before attempting to learn any real tricks.

*Break - The act of opening the lighter by "breaking" it between two, or more fingers.

*Case Smack - The act of opening or closing the case of the lighter by smacking it against a surface or smacking something against the case.

*Case Swing - The act of opening or closing the lighter by holding the lid, and swinging the case open with a flick of the wrist.

*Flick - This is the opposite of a Snap. Place the tip of your index or middle finger behind the tip of your thumb and "flick", causing your index or middle finger to shoot straight out - similar to how you would "flick" a speck of dirt of the top of a table. This basic move can be used to open or shut the lid, light the flint wheel etc.

*Lid Smack - The act of opening or closing the lid of the lighter by smacking it against a surface or smacking something against the lid.

*Lid Swing - The act of opening or closing the lid by holding the case in any manner, and then flicking the wrist, causing the lid to swing open or shut.

*Roll - The act of lighting the lighter by rolling the Flint Wheel along a surface, causing it to spark.

*Slide - The act of lighting the lighter by sliding a surface against the flint wheel, such as the palm of your hand.

*Snap - This means snapping your fingers in order to perform a function. If you snap with your middle finger and thumb, then as your middle finger comes off your thumb, it can easily do several things: Open the lid, strike the flint wheel, close the lid, etc.

*Squeeze - In your dominant hand, with your palm up, hold the lighter with index and middle fingers on the lid and thumb on the case, hinge towards your pinkie. Squeeze the lighter so that your index and middle fingers slide down the reverse case, and thumb falls on the front of case. If you do this quick enough, the lighter will open itself. Bear in mind that the regular squeeze is only one out of many possible squeezes.

The Categories

The tricks on LT.com are organized into 7 categories based on the movements involved in them.

*Aerials - Tricks involving the lighter being tossed into the air.
*Breaks - Tricks using breaks (usually to open with).
*Concepts - Tricks involving a new style or movement.
*Finger Flickers - Tricks with movements not covered in the other categories.
*Smacks - Tricks involving smacks.
*Spins - Tricks where the lighter is "walked" through the fingers.
*Squeezes - Tricks using squeezes (usually to open with).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu