Fireplay was born in the back alley of an East Village bar-restaurant where two disgruntled graveyard-shift waiters plotted. Fate decreed that these two (Stephanie of Eastern European circus family stock, Keith of western-pioneering medicine show descent) would return to their roots. Slow nights and liberal doses of whiskey sparked their lust for hot steel and Bacchian delights. While patrons nodded, more whiskey was poured and the first pyrotic licks were taken. A burned-out warehouse on the banks of the East River allowed for further transgressions. Fireplay then became the in-house fire eaters at the Blue Angel, an old style erotic caberet in Manhattan.

A desire for new experiences and a longing to create more toys lead Fireplay from fire safety shows for North Carolina Boyscouts to the leather and handcuff scenes of Manhattan's Vault: from the Rolanda show to a bachelor party at the Mayflower hotel; from Otters Trip and Go Naked To the stages of Avery Fisher Hall with Ornette Coleman; from the boardwalk of Coney Island to NYC's rock'n'roll clubs with those punk rock vixens, Thrust. In the mountains of Tennessee, Fireplay danced round Beltane fires, and in the streets of the Lower East Side danced with other Deviants in Charles Gatewood's Playground. They opened the censory borders of Austria's Wild Style convention, cruised the Hollywood strip, torched Jackson Square during Mardi Gras and set the Playa on Fire during Burning Man. Fireplay continues to get off by creating images of carnival, burlesque and vaudeville; the primal, the erotic, and plain old smut and trash.