Last week, magician Wayne Houchin was appearing on a TV show with other magicians in the Dominican Republic when a guest host poured a flammable liquid on his head. Houchin's head caught fire, and the guest host, Franklin Barazarte, and others tried to extinguish it. Now, Houchin says, "This was not a stunt or part of an act - this was a criminal attack," and there's a warrant for Barazarte's arrest.

The liquid poured onto Houchin's head was "Agua de Florida," which the AP says is a "a flammable cologne commonly used in Santeria rituals." It's unclear why Houchin was attacked, but Curiosidades, a magic group that appeared with Houchin, wrote on their Facebook page that Barazarte had offered to give them a blessing. A rough translation from Curiosidades's Facebook page adds that they had been "accused... of practising publicly VooDoo and Witchcraft and that the above mentioned attack was a divine justice for the nastiness of the practices of our artistic cast."

Houchin, who hails from Chico, told ABC News yesterday, "The doctors here are cautiously optimistic that I will heal with no scars on my face. Each day I look and feel better. My hand, however, is in a lot of pain and isn’t healing as well as my face." Magician David Copperfield threw his support and was amazed at the assault, "You try to present yourself as a performer that is creating wonder and amazement and occasionally somebody might misunderstand that and might think that you’re trying to foster belief in something supernatural."

The video was not broadcast on TV, but it was put on the Internet.