TRIPLE-DOG-DAREVILLE — I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food. I prefer to both taste my food and keep my sweating to a minimum while eating.
But there are those who enjoy having fluids stream out of every pore and every facial orifice as they eat their meals: the spice lovers, the whole chili pepper eaters, the hot sauce connoisseurs. (You know who you are.)
Then, oh, then, are the professional masochists — those who cannot rest until they’ve tested their spicy limits seeking out hotter and hotter peppers.
Enter Chili Klaus, a self-described chili pepper enthusiast from Denmark. He somehow convinced the Danish National Orchestra to eat the hottest of the hot chili peppers while playing “Tango Jalousie” by Danish composer Jacob Gade as some sort of sick experiment.
According to Klaus’ Facebook page, the orchestra members each ate one of the three hottest chili peppers currently known to man: the Carolina Reaper, the Ghost Pepper and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Blend.
In the first part of video, Klaus directs the orchestra sans chili peppers, likely for a comparison and contrast effect. At about the 1:30 mark, each member pops a chili into his or her mouth, chews like mad then continues on with the piece for another 3.5 minutes.
Pure muscle memory and staunch professionalism hold the musicians together as they cry, sweat, grimace and excessively wriggle in their seats as they play. It is equal parts painful and amazing to watch.
The collective groan at the end of the piece coupled with intense and desperate body language really brings home the pain these musicians endured while maintaining a professional sound to their music.