You're looking at a one-person Faraday cage, called the Dalek Cage, that allows a person to get close and personal to, oh, like tens of thousands of volts.
It is constructed from fencing wire and a hanging basket planter. It is earthed and should be safe as long as you don't stick your fingers out. I am standing on the earthed section. Somehow the 3 foot sparks in the left photo look better than the 6 foot sparks on the right. The sparkles are from some steel wool on the cage. It is not really as impressive as you might think as the sparks are largely end on. I have high efficiency earmuffs on and my glasses have a UV filter. The brim of the hat lets me know when my head is getting too close to the cage and also keeps the iron sparkles out of my eyes. There is a slight tickle of high voltage if you touch the cage lightly due to the voltage drop over the full height of the cage which is part resistive at the high currents and part inductive. There is only minimal sensation when using the glove which has two separate earths to the cage. I also lean on the cage as well with the glove.
This shenanigans (and many more!) with electricity can be found at one of my favorite websites: Telsa Downunder.
Link - Thanks Tesladownunder!
He puts on an awesome show.
someone figured out how to control the sounds of these things...
so awesome
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=23904