I just took a look at his light, and I stand corrected, he has a ballast very high up and kind of concealed with some sort of connector for more than one plug, looks like a surge protector of sorts. Not sure how that works but that's whats going on. You were right khy, you do need a ballast.

I officially feel like an ass now. Damn eyes, always playing tricks.

I was there when he was hooking it all up and he connected the wire from an extension cord right to the fixture, from there he plugged it in to a socket type deal, but like I said, his ballast was very high up and concealed, So I didn't think anything of it.