I seem to remember as a young child being told that it is safe to touch a Van de Graff generator (for the hair demonstration), but that if you let go before it is safe you will get a nasty shock. I know a bit more about electricity now, and I’m a little skeptical now. Is it possible to get a shock from letting go of something?
Yeah, if you move your hand around on those things you’ll get a static shock, it’s going to hurt, but it won’t kill you. If you watch those demonstrations they have a pole they ground the generator out with.