I’ve gotten to do a lot of things in my life. Been around a while now as I enter my 77th year. One of the things that people always get a kick out of is seeing me in my youth starring in a BMX video.
You can watch the whole thing here. It was really fun working with Dave Parrick and Taj and shooting everything in super 8 film. I really prefer working with film. Its so superior to digital.
I also used to have a line of signature shoes. I never had much use for shoes myself, but, you gotta make the money you know? Etnies was always pretty cool anyway and I was really glad to get to design them. Of course I made them 100% vegetarian…. more cows for me! In my contract it was actually agreed that I should get raw hide bones equal to exactly how much cow hide they saved by using synthetics for my shoe.
Anyway, back to my video. Although I really wanted to do all the stunts myself union regulations kept me from doing most of the work. In hindsight it was probably for the best, but at the time I was so pissed at that dummy version of me… Out there having a blast while I spent hours in a stupid make up chair doing nothing. I did get really good at riding the cart though during the less dangerous shots. It might look easy, but really it takes a lot of body english to keep that thing on track.
At the end of filming the crew let me destroy my stunt double dummy. It was a huge release. Kind of one of those Office Space printer beat down scenes in real life. Not to get all metaphysical but I kind of felt like I was taking my life back with my lifeless clone out of the way.
I would have to say that film work isn’t for me (long hours and sitting around to racing around in seconds flat), but I am glad to have gotten the experience. As you travel through life its the one off things like this that lead to good stories later on.
