haha levi that was pretty funny. it seems real enough to me, when I saw the beginning of the video I assumed it was ethanol as it burns relatively cool, and really you're only touching the underside of the ball.
This question has actually already been answered in "The Ultimate Book of Notes and Queries" by Joseph Harker. It's an extract of all the best questions asked of the guardian newspaper. I don't remember the answer exactly, but basically you would have to be super-humanly fat to have any protection.