I don't know how these parlor tricks persist in the age of the internet. I remember hearing about firewalking when I was a kid. Maybe if I was smart I could have come up with a couple of theories about how it works. If really motivated I could've asked friend, parent, science teacher. With a little luck one of these people might have had a definitive answer, but there's a pretty good chance they also would have just had some theories unless they'd actually put some effort into studying the issue.
This is the kind of thing the internet excels at. I can just type in firewalking into a search engine and get a pretty convincing explanation.
