Tony Robbins' hot coal catastrophe

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Hot coal catastrophe

Tony Robbins under fire for 'firewalk' at event that led to 21 people burned

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 23, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So in San Jose, California, over 20 people were treated for burns on their feet after walking on hot coals during a seminar run by self-help guru Tony Robbins. There he is. Giant man.

At least three people ended up in the hospital. It was the first night of Unleash the Power Within, a four-day thingy with 6,000 attendees.

But why do I suspect the power within that Robbins was unleashing was coming from their wallets? Here's the key question, did he himself walk on hot coals?

I think we might know that answer, making the adults with charred feet clogging the ER, the bigger dolts. That's what Robbins to me is a genius, for he makes millions proving that people who fall for this shtick are morons.

There's no magic potion for achievement other than a decade of hard work. If you look at anyone who has done anything, they hit their stride magically after 10 years. It's that simple. I bet it took Robbins 10 years of grinning before he landed his first big fish.

But whether it's Robbins or Deepak Chopra, gurus capitalize on need, which is really smart, because Lord knows there's a lot of it to go around.

But the only way out of a rut is glorious hard work. But if you think self help seminars are your path to riches, you're going to get burned in more ways than one.

I think we have tape from "Fox & Friends". There was a young woman that went through it that was pretty telling. She described it. Do we have that here? Why not play it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He kind of coached us on how to do it. And there were pretty much three things we have to really do. One was to walk at a normal pace and direct. Second, to keep repeating, "Cool moss, cool moss, cool moss." (ph) And the third was to look away from the fire so we had to look up. And then at the end, we had to celebrate.

So that was pretty much what I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: If ever I get mad at you or Bob again, I'm just going to keep repeating, "Cool moss, cool moss, cool moss." (ph)

GUTFELD: Amazing. Does this work, Andrea? I know you've been involved in a number of cults.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: Could this possibly work just by the fact people weren't paying attention or -- did they fail Tony Robbins?

ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: It's hard to believe, "Cool moss, cool moss" (ph) on a thousand degree temperature coals doesn't work. I'm not going to try it, though, Greg, I know you're disappointed to prove you wrong.

But this should be called "release the stupidity within." I mean, I blame them for doing that. It's akin -- you know, the saying is you walk on hot coals for something -- well, if someone said I would give you an arm and leg for that, if someone asked you, Greg, to give me your arm and your leg, would you do it? Probably not.

GUTFELD: Yes.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: This guy is one of the greatest hype artist, Tony Robbins, of all time. He's been ripping people off for years.

Now here, ask yourself this, though, who is going to be a Tony Robbins seminar and walk on coals after this. This little gig of his is out.

And the thing we talked about at 10:00 this morning is, if you're the 15th person in line and there are 15 people in front of you getting their feet burned, what the hell are you doing!? I mean, after the second one, you say, no, but 21?

(LAUGHTER)

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Did you hear what the girl said when she said, "Cool moss" (ph)?

She said the reason why I burned my feet is I wasn't concentrating enough.

Wow.

GUTFELD: Yes, it's your fault. It is your fault.

BOLLING: Can I just point something out, does this work you ask? Does this work? Well, it certainly does because 6,000 people at 250 bucks a pop, 1.5 million bucks for the weekend.

GUTFELD: That's why I admire Tony Robbins.

PERINO: The problem is they tried to do the stunt on the first night rather than the third night. If they waited until everybody had more power within, they wouldn't have had this it PR disaster.

GUTFELD: That's a great point. Have you ever -- are you into self help? Every now and then, I see you carry --

PERINO: Remember last week I did a tribute to Steven Covey, the author who passed away? He wrote "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," which you clearly did not read. I actually think there's a lot of things these people could have been doing with their 250 bucks over a weekend than trying to improve themselves. There are a lot of other things they could have been doing.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: Tony Robbins has done this shtick before. There's question about whether the things he put down before were phony things that light up, coals like in a fireplace. This guy actually put real coals down there. And again I repeat, 21 people -- I mean, come on!

TANTAROS: Greg, I have a question for you. So many people tell you they'd walk on hot coals for you. Are you going to rethink having them do that from now on?

GUTFELD: You know what? I think if I can get, how much that?

BECKEL: Two fifty.

BOLLING: Million and a half.

GUTFELD: I could do that in my apartment for like, 10 grand.

PERINO: Will you try to make Andy Levy and Bill Shultz do that on "Red Eye" tonight?

GUTFELD: I will, definitely. Then have Jasper come over.

PERINO: "Red Eye Coals."

BOLLING: Dana made the best point of all, this is all a ploy. Here's what he's going to do, Dana. You're 100 percent right. He's going to say we didn't work hard enough, have you waited until the third day. Next time we'll bring back the same 21 people that burned their feet, they're not going to burn their feet. Then they're going to charge them

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Double next time.

GUTFELD: Very good point.

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