Magic smoke balls

I believe those are the classic piece of fireworks. You light the fuse, some flame comes out the top then for 20 seconds or so this horrendous smelling colored smoke comes out. Popular with kids at 4th of July. Not anything that would be useful in theatrical setting because of the open flame, terrible smoke, and the lack of safety control.
 
I believe those are the classic piece of fireworks. You light the fuse, some flame comes out the top then for 20 seconds or so this horrendous smelling colored smoke comes out. Popular with kids at 4th of July. Not anything that would be useful in theatrical setting because of the open flame, terrible smoke, and the lack of safety control.

Ultratec does make a similar smoke effect that is triggered using an e-match. Comes in a few different colors and is at least not horrendously bad to breath in. We always demoed it to the Fire Marshal with all other pyrotechnic effects, but one could certainly argue that there are other more dangerous sources of heat in use in most theaters.
 
First of all I bet you a dollar that YouTube video is edited to make the effect look real or they are using one of the effects below and it only looks like the guy through something that explodes in smoke.

Unless you have a huge budget, the best solution is to call your local fire extinguisher/ industrial safety/medical supplies store and rent a C02 fire extinguisher. Cheap and safe plus a great effect.

There is a Pyro solution. But the restrictions on Pyro have increased significantly in the last 15 years. With the device I'm thinking of it's easy to get electrocuted if you do anything wrong, plus there is real flame on stage. So you need to get proper training, get the thing approved by the fire marshall and your building authorities (school?). You may even need a Pyro license depending on the state plus there are issues getting the device and materials in some states. No insult intended, but getting all those is unlikely if you don't currently have the knowledge to know what the device is called. This is NOT the kind of thing to ignore the warnings and do anyway as people can die.

So go with the C02 fire extinguisher. It's safe and spectacular. I used it for the beauty and the beast transformation a few years ago and it was perfect. I plan to use it for when Jonny comes back from the dead in Zombie Prom in a few weeks.

You could also use a well placed fog machine hose. Note you can't control the time and amount of smoke from the Pyro solutions, but fog machines and fire extinguishers are easy to control.
 
Pretty much anything out there that says it is a "smoke effect" is going to be Pyro, unfortunately The OLD school way of making that kind of smoke involved heating Sal Amoniac It was noxious and dangerous. There are ways to create "Ninja Bombs" like you describe but they all involve creation of an actual ignition source for a chemical reaction between Potassium Nitrate and Sugar, typically, and all are totally proscribed for theatrical use. Total no no's.
Sometimes, as technicians, TDs, SPFX folks, it is our job to say, "No, I understand what you want but there is no safe way to do that"
 

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