Yup. Never held one (nor seen one with my own eyes), but I’ve heard quite a number of interesting stories about it. Also, venom probably will not kill ya, but you may wish it had (and it will definitely destroy whatever finger/digit was hit). BTW, I remember an interesting article some years back of some tests they did on over a thousand species of lizard, and most of them came back as venomous. Come across it? Remember when the only venomous lizards were the Gila and the Beaded Lizard, then slowly some scientists started saying that Komodos have venom glands and venom in their lower jaw (and not just loads of crazy bacteria in their bloody carrior filled mouths causing septicemia when they bite their prey), and then suddenly other monitors had venom glands, and then there were many lizards with venom (of some sort, even if not as complex as the protein mixes of venomous snakes). It was quite intriguing.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicofera
but also,
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100626165747AARQ7a2
Dr. Fry theorizes that a large number of snakes and lizards considered non-venomous are indeed venomous.
Dr. Kenneth Kardong takes issue with that theory, noting, that by Dr. Fry’s definition of venomous, human beings are venomous.
Having been bitten by numerous “non-venomous” snakes and lizards, I don’t take Fry’s ideas about venomosity serious but think hios research is interesting from a pharmcological and possibly systematic perspective.