Ice sculptures are usually created behind closed doors by meticulous master chefs for formal gatherings. But in the fleet hands of Fear No Ice, founded by Scott Rella, Kevin Roscoe, and Peter Slavin in 1989, ice sculpting has been transformed into a rock 'n' roll extravaganza. Wielding smoking chainsaws, these cutters create one-of-a-kind spectaculars as they blast through a ton of ice in about 15 minutes. And their finished pieces are often just as amazing as their shows -- whether they're artful sculptures or functional ice bars. Here, Rella divulges the tricks of the performance ice-sculpting trade.

What is a Fear No Ice performance like?
We've been described as Michelangelo meets Blue Man Group -- with chainsaws. There's a lot of eye candy in our shows -- what we're wearing, what we're doing with the audience. The sculpture's almost the least of it until we're actually finished.

How did your group get started?
We were all chefs -- we created sculptures for Sunday brunches and special events inside hotels. When we met, I was at the Waldorf, Peter was at the Hyatt, and Kevin was at the Plaza in New York City. So we all have that chef's mentality -- clean, organized, fast, attention to detail. And after you're a chef in some of the top kitchens in New York, where do you go from there? You quit, start an ice sculpting company, and five years later you're performing at the Olympics.

How did you come up with the idea to make ice sculpting a performance art?
Everywhere we went to sculpt, people really enjoyed watching us. We were entertaining without even trying to be -- just having a lot of fun with it. I don't know exactly when the moment was, but we started saying, "You know what? Instead of just sculpting, why don't we put on a little show for them while we're out there?" Then it turned into, "What can we wear? How can we look cool? What kind of music do we need?" Now we have our own soundtrack, our own video art, and really cool costumes.

How much ice do you use in a big show?
We use about a ton in the usual show, but we've done several 20-ton sculptures. In one year, we sculpt enough ice to fill Madison Square Garden.

What's your most unusual sculpture?
We did a 35-foot Santa Claus in the heart of Vienna. It took 54 tons of ice.

But you also do functional pieces, right?
We do ice bars. They're fun, and they're serviceable. The bartenders can pour drinks behind them all night. We also do set design. And we produced a stage for Ricky Martin that he performed on in front of 20,000 people. And, no, he didn't slip.