Life to the Max Podcast
"Living in a Circus!" Ft Nick Johnson
They say nostalgia is a seductive liar, but when Max reconnected with his high school comrade Nick Johnson, the only fibs were the ones that made the stories even funnier. From the mischief in Mr. Butcher's auto class to the shenanigans in the neighborhood, we shared a hearty laugh reliving the moments that solidify lifelong friendships. As the tales unfolded, the episode turned a corner, revealing the unexpected twists Nick's life took—from BMX tricks to circus flips.
Taking to the rails, Nick traveled with a group of performers who could turn a train car into a home and a parking lot into a playground. We discussed the intricacies of circus life, from the compact living quarters on the train, complete with their own culinary delights, to the thrill of executing the perfect stunt under the big top. It's a life of perpetual motion, where the bonds of a shared journey create a family in motion, and where I learned that the biggest adventures often come with the smallest living spaces.
The final act of our conversation was a heartfelt nod to the evolution of personal narratives. Life, like a circus, keeps moving, and I've gone from the dazzle of the spotlight to the warmth of home where family and music now take center stage. With a chuckle and a strum on my guitar, I looked back at the ride with Manjok and the troop, and ahead to gigs with my band, Side Rail. So, step right up to this episode, relive the laughter, the leaps, and the life lessons learned from a world that's always under the big top.
They say nostalgia is a seductive liar, but when Max reconnected with his high school comrade Nick Johnson, the only fibs were the ones that made the stories even funnier. From the mischief in Mr. Butcher's auto class to the shenanigans in the neighborhood, we shared a hearty laugh reliving the moments that solidify lifelong friendships. As the tales unfolded, the episode turned a corner, revealing the unexpected twists Nick's life took—from BMX tricks to circus flips.
Taking to the rails, Nick traveled with a group of performers who could turn a train car into a home and a parking lot into a playground. We discussed the intricacies of circus life, from the compact living quarters on the train, complete with their own culinary delights, to the thrill of executing the perfect stunt under the big top. It's a life of perpetual motion, where the bonds of a shared journey create a family in motion, and where I learned that the biggest adventures often come with the smallest living spaces.
The final act of our conversation was a heartfelt nod to the evolution of personal narratives. Life, like a circus, keeps moving, and I've gone from the dazzle of the spotlight to the warmth of home where family and music now take center stage. With a chuckle and a strum on my guitar, I looked back at the ride with Manjok and the troop, and ahead to gigs with my band, Side Rail. So, step right up to this episode, relive the laughter, the leaps, and the life lessons learned from a world that's always under the big top.
You hit that, though. Is that me and Max In the cut?
Speaker 2:We don't give two shits and we don't give a fuck. It's what we do. And shit to prove we livin' life To the max. Livin' life To the max, just like my bad guess.
Speaker 1:Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Bye, just like my podcast. All right South Elgin High School gang.
Speaker 3:At the table. I guess what the fuck was that? It sounded like a weather app.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, it was an airdrop from Hannah.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, right during the podcast. Way to go, hannah. What the? I definitely got the podcast with my ass and closed the door.
Speaker 1:Sneak peek into the reality of Life to the Max. There's nurses harassing him. Jesus, nurses walk all over him. They just take advantage of the handicapped man I won't stand for it.
Speaker 3:We're not going to take it. I just got here and what I've seen is fucking ridiculous.
Speaker 1:We got Nick Johnson on our side today. Fellas, welcome back to another episode of Life to the Max. And we got Max's childhood friend back at the table and we're going to dive right into Nick's interview right after the intro friend back at the table and we're gonna dive right into nick's interview right after the intro.
Speaker 2:You know I'm a veteran disabled, paralyzed for a neck down, breathing through a machine, but that doesn't stop me from following my dreams and doing what I love to do. I don't got an excuse, and neither should you. Let's get into my buddy, nick johnson's episode.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me sir. Yeah, man, we established just a few minutes ago that it has been 16 years since you and I have seen each other, I believe, so, yeah, 16 years Give or take a year right.
Speaker 2:Maybe like 13. 13? 16 years. Yeah, dude, because high school was 10 years ago, that was 14. Senior year I didn't see you. Senior year.
Speaker 3:We did actually. We had autos together, Did we really?
Speaker 2:With a bunch of freshmen.
Speaker 1:What was your last memory of Max? Tell a story about Max.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the last memory would have been in autos class because you and I were the two seniors I was swole as fuck too.
Speaker 2:I got strong right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That was when I went to Lake Park. Yo Nick needs to tell the goddamn story man, it's too fucked up.
Speaker 3:It's not much of a story. We just had autos and it was a couple of dumb seniors and he's like, yeah, I was jacked right and I had two bitches around me right.
Speaker 1:And they were sitting in the front seat while I worked under the hood in Otto's class right, I'm like damn right, absolutely, that's what happens.
Speaker 3:And I was back there studying.
Speaker 2:I was a good boy. I was a good boy, that's what I was going for.
Speaker 3:No, no, it was Otto's. We had Otto's together and it was Otto's 1-1-2, or whatever they called it, 1-1.
Speaker 1:It was all freshmen.
Speaker 3:And Max. And yeah, mr Butcher.
Speaker 2:I think yeah, yeah yeah, I do remember that.
Speaker 3:So that's my last memory was hanging out in that class for that first semester. I mean, I was always late, though I was always late and that man didn't give a shit about you and I. He didn't give a shit about us.
Speaker 2:No, because we were seniors. He was like all right, whatever, this is a fuck-off class.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were on the way out, I actually remember, in front of Mr Butcher. We were out in the shop and he had the whole class out there. He had everybody lined up and he was trying to explain something and one of the freshmen was standing in front of you and I just fucking talking and talking and talking and talking and I finally fucking shut the fuck up when he's talking. Man, have some respect for this man. You know, I remember you and I giggling about that, after that, just because.
Speaker 3:Mr Butcher kind of gave me this look like all right carry on.
Speaker 2:The teacher didn't say shit. No, he didn't. He literally just shut the fuck up dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure the teacher wants to say shut the fuck up, but he can't say shut the fuck up. So if a senior is saying it for him. He's going to be like they're right.
Speaker 2:That guy was awesome. He would let you bring your car into the garage and literally do anything Like literally do anything. That's what class is for right. No, like after school, it's kind of like biology, though. You bring your body in there. It's kind of like that. I was in anatomy I did like you know, like a fetus pig. That's the closest I've gotten to dissecting like that.
Speaker 1:I don't know about a human body. When I was in biology in college, bro, like we were learning under microscopes and shit, and they're like, yeah, you can bring anything to look under the microscopes. And I wish I nutted on that piece. I wish I could see my little guy swimming. I should have done it.
Speaker 2:I didn't have the courage to do it.
Speaker 1:But I really should have done it Right.
Speaker 3:I don't think you were living life to the max.
Speaker 1:I was not living life to the max. You.
Speaker 3:You would have fucking sent it.
Speaker 1:I should have just said hey, I got this. What is that?
Speaker 3:Nothing, lotions Bloogie.
Speaker 2:No, but a good memory, a really funny memory actually, with me, when I first moved from Elgin to South Elgin, nick was right down the street from me, literally three houses away from me, and we were on the bus together and we were pretty cool together, you know. And then, uh, then one day, I guess, we got angry with each other. Was it over football or something?
Speaker 3:I can't I can't remember, I couldn't tell you yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 2:Well, one day it was like a sequence of fights. All right Me, I don't throw hands, okay, I sit on people. When I was in fifth grade. Right, that was my defense mechanism Effective defense mechanism. It worked very well the next day, Nick.
Speaker 3:The next day. Obviously I wasn't happy from getting sit on and, basically you know, having to tell him I gave up right as soon as we got off the bus. So, god dude, this is so long ago we got off the bus. I don't remember any of the lead up. I just remember bopping you once in the face and breaking your glasses. Fucking decked me Nice as soon as we got off Just like the day before. As soon as we got off the bus.
Speaker 2:It was fucking on Straight doctor. Did he swing?
Speaker 3:back.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, I think that was it, man. I don't remember it being a real fight. Turned around and cried on the way home. I think he collected his glasses and I'm going to see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2:All right, I taped them.
Speaker 3:I think I taped them. I do remember that because I remember everybody kind of come up to me and half of them were like nice, you fucking hit him in the face.
Speaker 1:You know it's fifth grade and the other half, like the girls and shit, are like you're a dick.
Speaker 3:I'm like you didn't see what happened the day before.
Speaker 2:Dude, nick, and you know this too. Don't fucking be modest. This kid would have girls running. He would have to run away from girls at recess, literally at Willard, like in elementary school. It was crazy. Everyone was crushing on you. Yeah, no.
Speaker 3:I disagree with that I was friends with Brittany Becerra no Silikowski.
Speaker 2:Silikowski, brianna Brewer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, no silikowski, silikowski her brianna brewer um, yeah, so the the two of them and me were like real close and we would play tag and shit at recess, a lot like.
Speaker 1:I hung out with them primarily so different perspectives.
Speaker 3:He saw it like I was.
Speaker 2:I remember a vivid fucking memory of like every girl in our class running after you yeah, maybe, yeah, our class running after you, yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah, not, not anymore. Let me give you your flowers, bro thanks bud I appreciate it yeah, but uh, yeah, that's what happened. That uh, we went our separate ways. You know, uh, he, uh, he's you're, uh, you, uh, you played baseball right then you, you got into BMX and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:I did. Yeah, I played baseball most of my childhood. Then my last year of baseball was freshman year of high school. I actually played for the high school team, but I had been playing travel ball before that. Yeah you were good, I was. I was a pitcher For my age. I was a pretty damn good pitcher. I remember it didn't feel like I was at the time, but thinking back on how my games went and the comments I remember from umpires and other coaches Talking about high school, Even before high school.
Speaker 3:Like 12 to 15. Basically those three or four years.
Speaker 2:What did you pitch? Like fastball.
Speaker 3:Like what kind of pitches or how fast, how fast?
Speaker 2:did you pitch a fastball, like what kind of pitches? Or how fast? How fast did you pitch a?
Speaker 3:fastball. I don't remember exactly, I think towards the end before I quit. I didn't have that hard of a throw. I threw a really good breaking ball and I was really accurate, which, when you're playing baseball against 13-year-olds, a couple good, accurate pitches is all you need. You don't have to throw it real hard. I was probably mid-70s back then Wait, mid-70s.
Speaker 2:I think Maybe that's crazy, I don't know. I think I was.
Speaker 3:That's fucking crazy. I remember throwing over 70, like a little bit before I quit.
Speaker 2:Why did you quit?
Speaker 3:Well, I had a combination of I had already started riding bikes and it felt like everything else in my life was getting in the way of doing that.
Speaker 2:Did you skate before or did you ride bikes A little bit A?
Speaker 3:little bit. Do you remember Ben Romano, of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so him and.
Speaker 3:I started riding together. I think him and I skated when we were probably around the time you moved in by me fourth grade or whatever. I don't know. I just fucking sucked at it. I couldn't go as high as I wanted. There was at it and it wasn't I couldn't go as high as I want like there was something more I wanted out of the skate park experience than just, you know, eating shit going two miles an hour because, of rocks uh, so him and I started started riding and that's, that's just really where it took off you guys own smerry.
Speaker 2:And then crazy dave. Do you remember crazy dave, the guy with the rollerblader? Yes, yeah, of course I do he was insane.
Speaker 3:Do you remember kevin? There was crazy dave and then there was kevin. Kevin was a little short blonde dude no he also would do backflips and shit okay, so dave was. Kevin was just like dave, um, you know, older than us and really good at rollerblading. Kevin actually was coming to the st charles park that we were going to when we got older.
Speaker 2:He was going there for years, so it was cool to have that little connection with sperry, because Dude, I was so jealous of Crazy Dave and how he could just literally do a run at Sperry and balance on the fence. He would balance on the fence and then go straight down the half pipe Like it's nothing.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean? He was crazy. That's why he was Crazy Dave. He was Crazy Dave. Yeah, that's funny. What a nickname. I don't remember calling him Crazy Dave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I called him Crazy Dave Was it just you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was probably me, because I did.
Speaker 2:So you got into BMXing. When Is this with Brandon Warren? Is this when Did?
Speaker 3:you just Brandon Warren BMX. No, no, um. Is this what the 2000 Brandon Warren.
Speaker 2:Is this? When did just Brandon?
Speaker 3:Warren be the ex no, no, no, he never did. It was really. It was really when Ben and I started hanging out and I want to say I want to say it was the summer between 6th and 7th grade, which should have been somewhere around 2008.
Speaker 2:9 is that when you had your first fight at Kenwoods.
Speaker 1:Oh, no In eighth grade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll remain that guy nameless. Yeah, we'll keep that name.
Speaker 3:Honestly, that's really the only full-on fight that I've ever been in Why'd you fight him? Myspace comments.
Speaker 2:Myspace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, man, you're being 14, talking up shit on my space at least, at least you walk the walk.
Speaker 2:You know, you didn't. You didn't just sit there with you, put your money where your mouth is. That's what I like to hear, you know, I mean. But uh, so you got into bmx right, and you started uh feeling a groove. When, like when did you start like knowing that, like okay, like I'm getting pretty good at this?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, I mean, it's hard to obviously staple it down, but, um, I was really lucky to have, um, you know, like the skate park that that I was able to go to. So there was a skate park in um, saint charles, um called circuit. It was actually called circus, ironically, um, and so I started going there, bugging my parents, you know, at least once a week to take there's a skate park in St Charles called Circus it was actually called Circus, ironically and so I started going there, bugging my parents, you know, at least once a week to take me there. And this was around the time where I had my last year of baseball. So I had to reconcile that with my parents, as far as you know. Hey, listen, I know I'm good at baseball and you guys think I'm going to be able to go to college and all this wonderful shit and all these wonderful opportunities, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. You know, the last year I had, I wasn't, wasn't into it.
Speaker 3:So, um, you know, being able to have to, that skate park was was big, big, big ass ramps and going there, um, I was just lucky enough to make friends with all the guys that were able to touch the, the goddamn ceiling. Um, you know, and being super young, you go in there super intimidating, just like anybody going to going to skate parks. You know you take a kid to a skate park, they're going to be intimidated. They don't understand the etiquette. Um, it's, the noises are loud and scary and um, but at some point, you know, in that 14, 15, 16 year old range, um, I just the the park style of riding and jumping as high as I can. I just got addicted to that. You know, I really wanted that. I don't really care what tricks I learn, I want to learn tricks, but whatever I do, I want it as high as I can go dude that was.
Speaker 2:You were in the air, like all your pictures were there. It was crazy, it was insane. I was like this dude's gonna fucking get paralyzed, like honestly, literally like you're, you're doing all this crazy. And then you got like these shots on facebook of you like doing it, then like probably girls drooling all over you and shit, whatever you know how high school is, that's, that's, that's awesome. Uh, what was uh so? How like uh did uh so you and Ben, you guys used to BMX a lot, so how did the circus approach you?
Speaker 3:Ringling Brothers yeah, so I had. We're going to skip over, we can bounce around so. I'd actually done shows. It was a rider that called me one of my buddies that puts on shows. His name is Backflip Billy. Shout out to Backflip Billy.
Speaker 1:Crazy Dan Backflip Billy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I have a crazy Dan as well, but, yeah, backflip Billy. So I had done shows with him when I was, I think, 15. I don't think I had my license at that time, maybe 15 or 16. Because he maybe 15 or 16, uh, because he had his own show company and so did some, you know, uh, some weekends doing festivals in in wisconsin or whatever, um, just doing box jump shows. So what ended up happening was he had ended up getting the contract, um, and was asked to find another rider. It's kind of how it worked.
Speaker 3:So, um, my experiences with him when I was younger just going to the skate park and then obviously me working for him doing shows, I, I mean, he paid. Well, you know, for being 15 years old, I was making $600 on the weekend, which is like, yeah, I'll skip Friday school. You kidding me, you know, that's actual money, um. So I think I just handled myself well when I was younger and I was respectful, and so I was his. His first thought. So, uh, he ended up calling me, um, you know, and the funny part is and you know, we'll probably end up getting a little bit more into it, um, a little bit here and there, but I I really wasn't planning on doing it.
Speaker 3:When, when he offered it you know what I mean like when he called me to do it, I'm like I want to go run contests. That's really what I'm where. That's where my head was going towards with bmx. Was I gotta go get sponsored? I gotta go to go ride contests and if it kills me, it kills me. This is what I'm choosing to do and I think I could do it. I think I could do it like all the other guys do. But I ended up knowing what turned out to be our boss in the circus. He was the main guy that was in charge of hiring us and organizing all the logistics of getting a BMX act put together.
Speaker 1:I'd actually done shows with him previously already out in vegas for monster jam. If you guys know what that is, obviously explain it. Explain to the people who don't know monster jam.
Speaker 3:Uh well, monster truck shows, right? Um, so the same company that owns ringling brothers is, uh, feld entertainment. They own, uh, they own, monster jam. As far as I know, yeah, they own monster jam and I think they own or operate amas the supercross. I think I could be wrong on that, but so through my friends, because I lived in California for a few months right after high school, a few of my friends out there obviously had show connections and there was a lot of pros that were just in the house, coming in and out of the house, so there's a lot of opportunities to go and do shows, and so that arose and so we ended up going and doing shows for three or four days and it was the world championship of Monster Jam out in Vegas Basically a parking lot show, and we had motocross jumping over us. They had like a drift truck, like one of the monster drift trucks. There was street bike stunters.
Speaker 1:You're talking super fast. Tell the people like a detailed stunt.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Take it slow. Let the people dream of this show Dream of it.
Speaker 3:I don't remember much from those shows. Shows are different. That's the interesting part I guess people probably don't know that about riding bikes when guys are going out and they're doing shows. Nitro Circus has stepped it up. That's why Nitro Circus is as big as it is, because they're able to go out there and fall in front of the audience and it's okay. That's kind of part of the show that really pushed the limit as far as what people are doing. But you know like. You learn how to do backflip variation tricks. You learn how to do backflip no-handers. You learn how to do backflip.
Speaker 3:You know bar spins and and I mean crazy, uh crazy dad everybody's got their own bag of tricks that they do and they all look different doing it. Everybody goes higher than other people, so it's a really subjective thing. But for the people that don't know, first off, this is one of those things I was talking about earlier. Bmx in the circus is not the motocross motorcycles in the ball. A lot of people thought that's what we did. It's not. It was a box jump show basically. So we had two quarter pipes and a box jump. It was pretty much just all airing out quarters, doing tricks up there and then doing tricks over the box.
Speaker 3:So, taking it in stride, doing the shows in Vegas and then all the other shows that we did. You want to push it as far as you can, obviously, because you want to have a good show, but obviously you don't want to get broke off in front of these people. There's a lot of kids, um, so it's not stuff I was thinking about. But after the circus now it's like, okay, those are things to think about. You know, if I ever go and have my own company doing shows, uh, you don't want a bunch of people getting bloody and getting hurt in front of kids, right, you're gonna push them away from the sport a little bit um, or their parents, um, so you, so you went to vegas and then, uh, that that was like the defining factor, like to where you were, like, okay, we're joining the ringling no, that was, that was beforehand.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, what had happened was, um, I moved out to california right after high school. Um, there's a house out there, um, it's not there anymore and unfortunately, uh, burned down a couple years ago, uh, but it was called ben's backyard, um, and it was a full skate park. The whole backyard was, and it was in santa ana, california, um, and several of my friends had moved there. Basically, this was a house that for the last 15 years or whatever, a lot of bmx riders had come and come and gone, stayed there periodically.
Speaker 3:Um, it's kind of a hub for that southern california bmx scene right um, so I moved down there, um, did some shows you know, made friends with, with a couple guys that you know I couldn't imagine I would ever meet, you know, as a kid um, just the pros and stuff like that. Um, and then I came back because we had to graduate high school, so I actually skipped out on the second semester of senior year, at my request to my counselor, which allowed me to move to california. Um, so now what happened was I came back from california and then, you know, my whole plan was to go back, but I didn't have any money because I didn't have a job when I was out there you know I was.
Speaker 3:I was living, living off the land which are the roommates.
Speaker 1:How were you staying?
Speaker 3:I actually had an RV that was parked a non-working RV that was parked in the driveway.
Speaker 1:That was my room, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I was there for a little over three months and I was planning on getting a job, but I knew I had to come back to graduate. So it made it hard because I you know, I graduated.
Speaker 2:So I made it hard it sounds exciting for an 18-year-old.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:It was incredibly, man 18 or 17?. I turned Shit. That's a good question. I would have turned 18 in December, basically right before I left, I turned 18.
Speaker 1:So you started as a minor.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, dude. That's living life to the max, as a kid, as a kid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I sent it out there and obviously I wouldn't have even been able to move in there if my friends hadn't already moved there, obviously. So I had that connection. But yeah, I mean the opportunities, man, and honestly that's something that I definitely want to dig into at some point is just how grateful and how blessed I've felt from just being given opportunities like that, even if it is just my homies.
Speaker 2:So you're on a dirt bike.
Speaker 1:Bicycle. Bicycle, yes, and I didn't. He's doing flips off bicycle yeah, and I meant to prepare. You confused me because you said motocross, say BMX, I think of a bicycle, and then you say motocross and I think of a motorcycle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was me saying it's not motorcycles.
Speaker 1:He went from like okay, either college baseball he's a badass, he can pitch 70 miles per hour when he's 10, or do backflips on bicycles in front of fucking monster trucks and shit, he's living life to the max. As a kid, bro, I'm 28. I just started living life to the max, jesus.
Speaker 2:Christ man, this was a long time ago, man, we're all getting loaded over here it's crazy that when I saw this shit on Facebook, it looked like you were living a second life.
Speaker 3:What did your parents say? My parents were actually the ones that convinced me to take the circus contract, because I still had it in my head that I wanted to go ride contests and that was the route I had to take to make a career out of it or be able to do this full time and not have to worry about bills and all this other shit in life that we have to worry about. You know, um, so obviously, shout out to them, because I don't think I would have taken that, that contract if, um, you know, they didn't sit me down one day and go hey man, you've been stewing on this for two months, like, what are you doing? You're 18 years old, I'm gonna pay you pretty good money and what are you gonna travel and do bmx show? Like, go do that. If you don't like it, you can leave. You know, then you can go play your little game with contests and all that, like you guys are.
Speaker 3:You guys are right I should just take it and you know I'm glad I did, because it took zero time for me to be there and meet some people and go. Holy shit, you know what the fuck did I just get myself into? What is it?
Speaker 2:like the circus, Like all right, Like like first day, Like what was it like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it was crazy. So I actually went down there before.
Speaker 2:So basically I left Where's down there, Florida's yeah before.
Speaker 3:Um, so basically I left. Where's the other? Uh, florida's? Yeah, yeah, palmetto, florida. Uh, palmetto area is where feld has their, like their, their headquarters for, where they build their shows and all that good stuff, so, and I believe it's the second biggest building in the united states. I could be wrong on that, but I believe it's.
Speaker 3:It's a massive, massive like multi-unit warehouse that are all connected um so we actually went down there and we we did a little show for them, um, with uh I think it was rob, nollie and uh because the all the executives were making the show wanted to see in person what they were, you know, signing up for uh, and they wanted to meet us as well.
Speaker 3:So, um, we actually went down there with all the guys that ended up signing on with it. But, yeah, going back to the California thing, I came back and graduated and I ended up getting I had to get a job. I couldn't afford to go back to California and that was during that was the summer where I was basically offered that contract and I stood on it, like I said, for a couple months while I was working and just kind of being a bum at home. We were working 60 hour weeks getting paid $10 an hour, $10.99. We weren't really able to do anything else. Later that year, that was 2014, that's when I actually flew down there and we started building the show, which is why it's creeping up on 10 years this year, which is crazy for me to think about 2014.
Speaker 2:So you're only 18 years old and you're going to join a circus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that I know nothing about. I remember seeing it when I was a kid and I knew there was elephants. I kind of got the spiel of it when we did our little show. So I was like, okay, at least I know we're gonna have a box jump right. Because there's a lot of times where you're asked to do shows but it's just on the concrete or it's little tiny kicker ramps and it's like, you know, as a bmx guy that can jump high on bigger ramps, it's like, ah, it's not you know. Um, so it was really good.
Speaker 3:It kind of solidified it for me going down there and then actually really seeing, you know, meeting all these executives of that massive corporation and having them show interest in not only us as writers and like what we can do, and just you know, them wanting to learn a little bit more about it. You know, with shows like that, they usually have strict rules on how people look, people's appearance, all that, and obviously we're all, we're all tattoos. Crazy Dan had gauges that were about that big. We're going to have to wear makeup every damn show to cover our stuff. That's the culture, it's your culture, it's the BMX culture. We want to keep that. I really appreciate it I know the other guys did as well because it's important to us.
Speaker 1:This is is what we look like we should look like what we look like right yeah, you ain't gotta be all corporate professional when you're doing flips on a bike yeah, for real, I gotta put makeup on and do a back flip, I mean yeah, the dancer a lot.
Speaker 3:There's a handful of dancers that were tatted up, and every day they either had sleeves or they had to put makeup on to cover it tell us about a core memory you experienced in the circus, good or bad in the circus?
Speaker 3:yeah, I've obviously, um, I have a handful of them, um, a good one was, um, our uh I won't name his title in the circus, um, but his name was. His name was david. Uh, he had recently gotten a shiba inu puppy and, uh, he lived on the train, so he didn't want to leave the puppy on the train.
Speaker 2:What's the trains?
Speaker 3:The train is where everybody, most of the people, lived. We can dig into that. The train's cool.
Speaker 2:What is it?
Speaker 1:It's a train, a literal train, so a non-moving train. So instead of trailers, you're living in a train.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it moves, though we traveled the whole country.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, it was the longest privately owned train. That's cool, yeah All right, tell us about the Shibu.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Shiba Inu.
Speaker 1:Shiba Inu A little shithead of a puppy.
Speaker 3:He was adorable Dogecoin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember the dog's name too.
Speaker 3:Look at my memory Harper in the dress in you know david's dressing room and we're doing our act one night, um, and right as soon as our act is about to end, um, we're waiting for two other riders to come in, because we ended our act with them coming in from backstage and doing flips, and that was how it ended.
Speaker 3:Instead of a rider coming out, there was a delay and there was never a delay. Our shit was down, it was choreographed, um, and then harper comes running up and I, if my memory serves correctly, I think harper tried to get up on the ramp, like and we're talking in this arena, you know there's whatever four or three, four or five thousand people and the spotlights are only on our ramp and this fucking dog just comes running out and just starts doing laps around the arena yeah, and so unplanned, unplanned man, he's performing, yeah and so when, when billy was back for billy, when he came out for his front flip or whatever he was going to do, he kind of just came rolling in laughing and that was the end of our show.
Speaker 3:The fireworks went off and like that was the end of our act.
Speaker 3:5 000 people thought that was the script right like yeah, yeah and we were the last act, so like they had already seen the dog act, because there was a poodle act in there, you know, and this was not a poodle, it was a Shiba Inu. But you know, that was one of the funny memories, because then, for finale, for the next four or five minutes of the show coming to a close, the rest of the performers come out. Everybody comes out onto the floor, song and dance, show ends, everybody's chasingper around trying to get him, uh, and get him back.
Speaker 2:So that was how does how does the show go? Like I mean, I like I'm not asking, like go straight down the wire, but like, is it riders? And then, uh, the aerialists, and then like, uh, like, like, who are all the performers?
Speaker 3:and you said there's animals involved as well elephants yeah, yeah, elephants, tigers, um, there were camels, um, there were a couple horses that we had. There was a dog act, um, yeah, so a lot of animals, uh, yeah, I was thinking about it on the way here. I could probably list off all of the acts, but the way that the show was set up, um, you know, we had a pre-show, um, that was about an hour before the show. That was everybody who showed up early. You're able to go down actually onto the floor and interact with all the performers, basically. So that was part of our job was, you know, in rotations, to go out there. And we had a little BMX act that we would do and, you know, announce it, and I did that a few times. That was fun.
Speaker 3:It was more of a way to just be personable with the crowd, and it's cool that it's before the show too, you know. So it was pre-show and then basically, I mean, our show was set up. A lot of it was act, you know, musical interlude, because you have to transition a lot of the equipment, and these are all the details that I just had never even considered with the scale of a show. There's reasons for all that. Obviously you have tons of equipment, even just the animals moving in and out. You have to have time for them to transition in and out of wherever you're at. So that's kind of why most of the show was set up basically an act, musical interlude of some kind.
Speaker 3:They had a whole narrative for the show as well. It was like a whole story about exploring the world and looking for the best act. That was like a whole story about exploring the world and looking for the best act. That was like our Ringmaster's narrative, because it's a show for kids. It doesn't seem like it is. I didn't realize it was. It really is. It was a show for kids. We were the last act, though Dead last. It was about a two-hour show plus pre-show, so all in all it was about three hours total.
Speaker 2:So three hours. So what do you do on tour? How many places do you go for a tour?
Speaker 3:A lot. I actually asked my mom on the way here because I was ill-prepared to look up the schedule of it in 15 and 16 to see. I used to know the numbers. I want to say 18 or 20 states each year. Like the first year we probably went to 18 or 20 different states. The next year was a lot of duplicates, but in a lot of the states we did three to five different cities in each state, Like we were in California the first year for three months straight.
Speaker 1:What does it feel like to live out of a book bag? What does it feel like to live out of a suitcase?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had more than a book bag. My room on the train was I was actually lucky because I got one of the bigger rooms on my car.
Speaker 1:You gave the kid the big room.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had to choose between two of them and they were both decent rooms, so I don't know how we ended up with that. My boss probably hooked us up with that, I don't know, but no, it was probably 10 by 10, 12 by 12, something like that. But I had a sink. I had burners for cooking. That really Wow on the train.
Speaker 3:On the train yeah, not many other people did. In the public, cars were, there were, um, there were larger cars that were private, meaning there wasn't a hallway, right? So what that means was, when the train was moving um, each car had a hallway that you could transition and I could basically walk. You know, I was in car 31 and pie car, which was the restaurant car, was 43. So that's how many train cars you'd have to walk for me to go all the way down to the restaurant car while it's moving. There's a restaurant on this street. It was a restaurant car, yeah, yeah. So let me set the stage a little bit.
Speaker 1:This is a community of people.
Speaker 3:There was around 300 total people that were part of this whole show. A fair amount of them had RVs. They were long-term circus families and acts, lifetime people. So they have their nice RVs that they've got and all that good stuff. I mean, we're talking 300 people that pick up, take everything to a different city every week.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:So we had a preacher priest, whatever you want to call him Wow.
Speaker 1:So there was mass basically.
Speaker 3:A traveling society of people. We had a school teacher for all the kids. No way, and I don't remember how many kids there were, but there was at least 15 kids.
Speaker 1:What kind of Hollywood movie set up there? This reminds me of that movie, snowpiercer. Oh yeah, the train movie. If you ever follow that on Netflix, I'm not about to explain it. No, indeed, the train movie. I'm not about to explain it.
Speaker 3:Yeah exactly no, but yeah, it's a traveling society basically. And so, yeah, the pie car. You know, we had a restaurant car on the train, which is nice. Movies are playing and they had two different movies going on.
Speaker 1:Was there a strip club on the train? No, strip club.
Speaker 3:Sometimes Was there a mini casino. There was gambling, wasn't there? Yeah, well, I wasn't old enough at the time, but was there? No, no, there's nothing like that. What about?
Speaker 2:the girls I know you're married and I want to respect your marriage, but let's act like you're not married for a second just by the appearance of the girls like the aerialists, Because I can't imagine a girl that can basically bend like a pretzel. That's pretty fucking odd.
Speaker 3:I guess the best way to put it would be for the most part, everybody was in damn good shape, and most people that are in damn good shape are attractive. That's a good way to put it. Obviously, I was in a relationship the whole time I was in the circus, basically with somebody in the circus. So you know I picked one pretty early on, like most people did.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of marriages, so hold on. He's 18. Young and driven and he got a big room on the train and he has a fit and flexible girlfriend traveling with him state to state. Bro, I'm surprised you didn't have kids when you were 19.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That would have been something. That's crazy man.
Speaker 1:I mean, you could put him in kindergarten while you're traveling the country. Yeah, you got the school Yep.
Speaker 2:The next train over. It's literally like a society, yeah, like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so the the pie car. Um, you know, the chefs, that we had what we actually had a mobile pie car. So when we were set up in all the arenas I mean that's where we got most of our food on um, I think on the three show days we all got meals for free but you basically had to pay for it. It was super, super cheap food, but that's kind of how we ate.
Speaker 2:Was it good though?
Speaker 3:It was yeah, it was pretty good.
Speaker 1:We had a handful of different chefs that were on there, some of them nicer than other ones, but we're all.
Speaker 3:The funny part is it's not like.
Speaker 2:And the train is moving.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think about how it was for you maybe being in boot camp where, like you know, the guy that you get served your food from like he's not your homie usually right like he might be but most of the time you probably don't know that guy.
Speaker 2:No, no, exactly.
Speaker 3:So I'm like hanging out with the chefs, like, because what do you do when you're not doing? Shows, especially on the train, runs, everybody lives on it. So what's everybody doing when you're not working?
Speaker 2:you're just wandering around knocking on doors seeing what everybody's doing is the train moving like while you're like going to all these cars?
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, yeah, so that the train traveled, um, I mean, you know, uh, state to state, city to city, um, then we we called them train runs, basically. So, uh, most in most cities our last show every week was on Sunday, uh, and then there was a load in which um, I never did it. Um, it was, it was optional to make a little bit of extra money and help with load in, load out. Um, I never did it. So I would imagine that probably took 24 hours, something like that, for them to load in or get everything loaded out. Um, load the train up and then they lock it up and if you're not on there it's a problem.
Speaker 1:So you've got to find a way to get to the next state.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean they would lock it up early. For obvious reasons. There were a lot of strict rules, so our trains were parked in train yards in every city and sometimes train yards weren't busy. We were the only track, so it's not a big deal to be out wandering around, but a lot of the times we're in busy train yards where it's dangerous to be out wandering around and they were very strict about that. So they would lock the train up before the train run, like at midnight on Sunday.
Speaker 3:And then they would have to let people into it, basically, that were coming. You know, busloads of people from the loadout, but yeah, and then you're locked into the train until you get to the next place and then they come and actually unlock the doors and shit for you so you can get off, which sounds like you know prison or whatever. But that's actually the most. That was the most liberating part about it. It was definitely my favorite part about the whole experience was just the. We have three days of travel basically on this train and there's nothing to do but drink some beers, cook some food, watch some movies, play some video games. You know what I mean. There's no responsibilities and you have a half a mile of people that you can just walk up and down and see what they're up to. The best times were train run times.
Speaker 2:That's wild bro. That sounds like a fair.
Speaker 1:Maybe you want to go join a circus. Let's go join a circus.
Speaker 3:That's the last.
Speaker 2:It's not like you're on the Polar Express, bro, Like Jesus.
Speaker 1:Christ, it's not like a fantasy For real.
Speaker 3:That movie hits different when I watch it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like did you? Did you like think that that was how it was going to be when you were out on the train?
Speaker 3:No, no, to be honest, I don't know what the fuck I thought before I joined it, except for what I told you guys before about what my vision was before I accepted the contract. I had an idea of what it was going to be like, but I don't even remember knowing that it was going to be in the arenas that it was going to be in, and I'm sure I did.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you're crazy. He's like yeah, we performed at the United Center. I think there was like 5,000 people. I'm like dude, there's 22,000 people at the United Center.
Speaker 1:If it's fully booked. If it's fully booked. If it's fully booked, Okay it's probably 5,000.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we booked up Chicago shows, new York shows. We would book those up for sure, and we'd have like how does that feel Like as an 18-year-old kid?
Speaker 2:you're going into this arena and you have a job to do, basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a little nerve-wracking. There was a lot of lead up into, you know, doing our, our first show, our opening night, basically because we had built the show, um, and so there was. I mean, it was just non-stop choreographic, you know, learning choreography and trying to figure out what kind of choreography we can do, because we're all weirdo, bmx guys that I'm not gonna dance, I'm not gonna learn to dance, figure out what to do where I can be on my bike. That was kind of our attitude. So, you know, the choreographers had to work with us. So, honestly, you know, opening night was a little nerve wracking, but it was almost like maybe getting out of boot camp a little bit. I guess it was kind of like let's just, on the basis of um, knowing that I'm gonna have to do this like eight times a week for the next year at least. You know it was like I want to make sure I figure out a way to enjoy this and not be nervous or not hate parts of it or whatever of the actual doing the show because, um, you know, our act was three minutes long. It's the last act of the show. We were in and out of the show throughout the other two hours, though, doing other random shit, wearing different costumes, dancing kind of here and there.
Speaker 3:But no, I had done one show before that and this is the most people that I ever did a show for. It was at Lambeau Field and it was a. I think I ever did a show for. It was at lambeau field, um, and it was a. It was a. I think it wasn't a packers game, but they had a family game night at lambeau field, uh, and I think they packed the field. There was, I think, 77 000 people and we did like a three minute um show in front for that and I mean, that was like. I think I put blinders on, I think I had tunnel vision the whole time that happened. That was I think that was two years before the circus, so I had that experience.
Speaker 3:And then it was like when I got into the circus, it's like it's a wall of people, it's kind of all it looks like, and it probably took two weeks before it was like you almost don't. It looks like wallpaper, you know what I mean, and the sound sounds like it's just pre-recorded eventually gets to the point where you're not looking at faces, you're looking at sections of the crowd. You just don't even notice, you know, and like we all knew what we were doing with our act too. Um, so it's like, yeah, we feel silly half the time being out there with dancing and all that crap, but like, again, it's for kids, like that was really what we, we had kind of remembered. I remember us all telling it's for kids. Let's, let's remember, this is for kids because it makes you feel better about it when you're being silly.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, you're like I'm kind of a cool bmx guy I like to do cool shit, but um no, it didn't take very long and it turned into work just like any other work how many years did you keep this up for? Uh, so 15, uh, 2015 and 2016 were the two full years that I toured oh man, how many places did you go? Yeah, I don't know. Off the top of my head, roughly 18 to 20 different cities, I'm sorry states Probably 40-something. Yeah, because we only had a couple weeks off.
Speaker 2:We had maybe three weeks off, I think the whole year what?
Speaker 3:Yeah, two of them were in December, if I'm getting my numbers right.
Speaker 2:Did you feel like a slave, Like Jesus?
Speaker 3:Not a little bit. And we were in Brooklyn for two weeks straight in the middle of winter and the train froze and that arena the Barclays Center is way low underground so you have to basically use elevators or really inconvenient stairs to go outside. So for two weeks most of us slept in our dressing rooms in that arena and didn't really get sunlight. Then it started to turn into. Well, this feels like I'm in fucking prison, you know, and it's just never going to end. But no, honestly, I mean, the amount of traveling that we did was really what did it right? I mean, life is interesting when you're in a different place. Pretty much every week you got to find out where the nearest stores are. What's the arena like? What's our week going to look like? How's our dressing room? Some of them are really shitty. They just haven't updated over the years and there's no service, there's no Wi-Fi and all the first world problems pop up a little bit.
Speaker 2:You're speaking a different language man I've never heard this.
Speaker 1:Have you heard this? Yeah? I'm trying to imagine it too so you said you did it for two years two years yeah, two years and then the show actually closed in May of 2017.
Speaker 3:So even if I had stuck on, I would have shut down. They put a mix on it and just this year they came back. What was the circus called again circus? It was.
Speaker 1:Ringling Brothers obviously Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey mix on it.
Speaker 3:And just this year they came back. What was the circus called again? It was Ringling Brothers. Obviously Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey. Circus Extreme is what the show was called, and what year did they stop?
Speaker 1:It was like 2017. I was born premature. The doctor was telling my mom like your son's not going to survive. And when I was born they also thought I was gonna.
Speaker 1:If I was survived, I had no arms and legs type shit like this is 95 right yeah and when I was born I was like in the newspaper, it was like a miracle baby, right, and I got a letter wishing me longevity from the president at the time, right with a lifetime pass to, I think, the ringling circus. But what I'm getting at is my mom and dad never took me to the circus that I had the lifetime pass to. And we lost the fucking letter and we lost the lifetime pass you know what I'm saying, but I can say I got it.
Speaker 1:And for the people who don't believe me fuck them yeah, yeah fuck them no yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 3:So our show ended and you know they have Disney on ice still. That's still going. Three of the riders are actually doing Disney on ice and they're riding their bikes on ice. They've been doing it. Rubber on ice, rubber on ice. Yeah, kenny Short. Shout out to Kenny Short. He figured out a way to basically stud BMX tires.
Speaker 2:Is this the guy in?
Speaker 3:Japan, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we talked to him. Yeah, we talked about it. You and I talked about that. Shout out to that guy. I mean that's dangerous as fuck man.
Speaker 3:Kenny's the man, so he found a way, and he's an ice skater too. He's a hockey player, so he really wanted, I think, a good solid reason for them to get him on so we could do some ice skating too. That's my theory. But yeah, he figured out a way. He presented it Cause we obviously had contact info for a couple of the executive guys that build those shows and they liked Kenny and yeah. So they actually never stopped touring. So you know, maybe at some point so was it?
Speaker 2:was it just like a dance, basically like choreography, like?
Speaker 3:you just have to like do the same thing every single event for for the shows. Um, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, yeah. So we made the show. Um, you know, it took us a couple months, like, yeah, it's about two full months. Um got everybody to know where they're going every single show, which, how we're gonna ride our bikes and not hit anybody and get hurt. That's all the shit we had to figure out. We got hurt a little bit trying to figure that shit out, but it's a full production. We had a full band, live band, every show that played. We had a fluidity obviously because certain acts, especially ours, if something goes wrong, the music doesn't line up perfectly with everything.
Speaker 3:So it's a live band, fair amount of dancing. I mean, I was dating one of the dancers at the time, one of the Australian dancers.
Speaker 2:Of course you are.
Speaker 3:So we had Australians the first year they all left. And then we had Brazilians the second year, oh shit.
Speaker 1:I was just about to ask you you related to your relationship in the circus. You know what. What's that like? Like I'm over here trying to picture myself as an 80 year old kid, trying to like be in the circus, whatever, but like, what's it like fighting with your girlfriend on the train? Or what's it like having that support from the girlfriend that's in the same fucking crazy world as you like what yeah, it was a, it was a crazy.
Speaker 3:Um, intense is a good word, I guess. Um, it was an intense time. It felt like, you know, in the relationship, in the relationship and I mean life too right, um, you know, there's just so much, so much shit going on every week and there's so much shit to do. You know, some cities you get to a million things you, you want to go. Do you know those are the weeks that, like, we might argue about what we want to go do or whatever the case is.
Speaker 2:So you do get free time, so you have free time.
Speaker 3:We had free time. Yeah, yeah, it was the train runs. Right, we did the train runs from city to city. I bought a car, like five months into touring, which alleviated that. So instead of actually going on the train runs, I was just popping in my car and then we had anywhere from two to four full days of nothing Like we just had to make sure we were there for the first rehearsal of the opening day at that next city. So we did a lot of camping.
Speaker 3:We called those overlands sightseeing, really whatever we wanted to do, and that was also one of the other things. Between the train run and then the overlands, those are the two things that were really made that experience, you know, phenomenal because we, you know, we're getting paid, so we actually have the money to go and do shit and drive our car across the country. But it's like some, some of the times we go, we can go 12 hours out of the way. We can go up to Canada, you know, go up to Toronto, going from you know illinois to new york or whatever. We can just shoot up there, and so there's a lot of that shit going on where it's kind of like what do?
Speaker 2:you want to do this. You're like living on the run. Like did you? How many, how many? Like pair of shoes? Did you ever close? Like were you I?
Speaker 1:imagine he didn't have a lot of clothes because, you know, a lot of storage yeah, yeah, we didn't have.
Speaker 3:uh, I had a dresser that was actually my nightstand. It was a little cheap ones from Walmart that actually fit in my room, which was fucking key Because otherwise I would have been living out of a little backpack or whatever. But yeah, man it was. I had more room than other people.
Speaker 2:That's another thing I'm grateful for I have to ask you like, can people like point you out, like in the, in the public, like if, if you're like at a, like a gas station, could they say like what dude you?
Speaker 3:you're the guy who's in the circus with somebody with a keen eye that showed up to pre-show and chatted with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there's like 500 people wait. Yeah, we had 100 around, about 100 performers 100 performers, about 200 stage crew.
Speaker 3:It's kind of hard to remember a performer in the circus. Yeah, we had about 100 performers 100 performers, about 200 stage crew.
Speaker 1:It's kind of hard to remember a performer in a circus. There's so much going on your mind can't keep up with it. Exactly how many people were on the train? 500?.
Speaker 3:No, I don't know how many were on the train. It was everybody except the people that had their RVs, basically, it was a whole society, you're probably talking around 200, something like that.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask you you're in a circus, right, so what's some of the strangest weirdos that were in the circus? What are some impressively strange people that you remember?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there were a handful of people, obviously. So Feld's got concessions employees that they hire for all the arenas and they were kind of separated and they had their own little part of the train, um, and there were a couple of those dudes that, um, unfortunately two two of the guys I'm thinking of right now had passed away in the last two years, which is very unfortunate, um, but I mean they're decades into the circus, into traveling.
Speaker 3:so, like you know, you're asking about more, probably more carny people right yeah uh, there really wasn't honestly anything, anything, yeah, yeah, there really wasn't any experience yeah, and the carny thing is funny because we got there and and you know, all the australians are tagging hashtag carny life and all this shit our gm comes up one day and he goes we're not fucking carnies you guys are performers, you're professionals, you're all talented.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Set the stage for everybody. But you know, talking to one of the guys his name was Nixon and God only knows he was probably in his 70s. He was, I want to say, 30 years or so, 40 years into living in the circus. So he didn't have a life you outside of that. He had family and shit. But talking to that sitting down and smoking cigarettes, talking to that guy about what the fuck he's seen in the last 30, 30 years or whatever, being on and off the train, all part of all these different shows and living out of hotels and one of those characters that always have a good story to tell that motherfucker is a book he is a human book, you know.
Speaker 1:So there was a lot of those it was.
Speaker 3:It was really a lot of that. Um, and honestly, we also, like americans, we were the minority 100 of minority. Um, there was. It was mainly ukrainians, a lot of ukrainians, romanians, russians, um, so some of the older guys, like the older ukrainian or older russian guys, um, you know, get friendly with those guys and you start hearing some stories as well about where they're from and obviously very different you know, from, from how I grew up or whatever. You know a lot of these guys were military or, you know, kgb military, whatever you want to call it. You know, back in the 80s and 90s, um, there's a couple of those guys on there. We're like that guy fucking gonna kill people, man, it's like oh interesting, all right like I can just imagine the culture shock you get in that melting pot on the train.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you start BMXing in eighth grade and then you get this job when you graduate high school to be in the Ringling Brothers, right. And you do it for two years to all these places. Did you get tired?
Speaker 3:no, no, I didn't. Um, I had the opportunity. We, we only had a year-long contract. I had the opportunity to, um, you know, to leave basically, um, once that second year rolled around, um, and you know, my girlfriend at the time had none of those. The australians had re-signed, as far as I know, one of one or two of them did, but she didn't.
Speaker 3:And so, uh, you know, I made the decision that I had fell in love with that lifestyle, I think, more than I had fallen in love with her, which is a good way to put it took me a long time to reflect on that, figure out why, what you know why I made. I made the decisions I did. I was young, you know, um, that's really what happened is, I think I fell in love with that lifestyle a lot. And, um, you know, I'll be honest, I, this previous year, um, I still made a bit less than I made back then as far as salary is concerned. So it's not like I was making a million dollars, right, cause I'm not making a million dollars right now, but it was. It was adult wages for an 18 year old and I didn't have any bills, and that was also part of it. I had saved fucking zero dollars the first year, because I didn't need to save money and it was you're just making it and blowing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and my thoughts were like all these people have been doing this for 30 fucking years, you know what I mean. Like the band guy you's, he's been here, he's got his own car set up Like he's not going anywhere. He's got a house and a family. You know that. That he goes back to when he's not touring. And I'm like I could save a lot of money doing what I'm doing currently and still enjoy, you know, being was eating healthy. I was cooking most of my meals. I just had fallen into a good spot where I'm like I could, I could exist like this fucking happy for a long time um that was kind of my that's.
Speaker 2:That's, that's fucking crazy man. Yeah, it's so like uh, just just like uh, so you can like do a backflip and all that stuff. Like it was easy. You never really had trouble with doing your performance.
Speaker 3:Not at that point. No, Obviously everybody's got to learn how to do that stuff and there's trials and tribulations to learning. Obviously We've gotten hurt. We got hurt a lot growing up riding, but at that point, getting to that point, I'd already done enough shows, so it wasn't like I was shitting my pants every time I'm out there in front of people um, you know, and then I you have fun with it. There were times I I knocked myself out one of the shows fucking around trying something yeah, not saying I shouldn't have tried it because it's a trick that I was capable of doing, but one time right, you fuck it up.
Speaker 2:So you uh, so you go to 2017. Right and uh, why did you leave so?
Speaker 3:you go to 2017, right, and why did you leave? Yeah, so I had a weird situation. I had a knee injury that had kind of happened in and out of the circus and we had contract issues going on with some of the other guys and one of them wasn't going to be able to come back. He wasn't going to be offered a contract, there wasn't a slot for him. So I was already thinking about bringing it up to my boss to maybe have the circus take care of my knee. My doctor was telling me me doing shows is making it worse, and then I needed to fix it. I had a torn ACL. How?
Speaker 3:did you tear it when I was younger, riding a contest, I partially tore it. It was extremely painful. It went away after like two weeks, though when I was young enough, I just didn't give a shit to follow up with. Why did my knee hurt that bad? Um? And then actually what? During one of the breaks in the circus I was riding at home and I felt the rest of it snap, but I didn't feel any pain, so that's actually why I drove. Yeah, it was. It was weird, um, but I you know I can't describe what a ligament snapping feels like, but I felt it. You know, I knew something was up with zero pain zero pain, zero pain, um.
Speaker 3:So I went and got checked out and then immediately basically got my car after my appointment, uh, and drove straight to Miami, uh. So I drove 24 hours straight by myself, got there, uh, yeah, that was a, that was a mission, um. But I got there and I go to sleep and I'm asleep for like a fucking hour, you know, and my doctor calls Shit's torn, you got to come back, blah, blah, blah. So I already had this plan in my head. All right, if I'm trying to make this a long term thing, I think I'm going to have to listen to this guy Obviously he's a doctor. Get this taken care of.
Speaker 3:So I talked to my boss and then the director of the show as well, saying it's getting worse. I think it'll be fine with the insurance and everything. Like I got you know what I mean like it is making it worse. It's not like we're trying to lie, but I said I also want to make sure that in the time that I'm gone, you know, my spot isn't taken from me, because it happened to a lot of other performers. Um, you know, and it's no one's fault when you get hurt, no one wants that. Um, you know, the show has to go on, obviously, so you have to fill spots. So it's like, get that. We're talking about six to eight months. Um, you know, I kind of want my spot back and so that was kind of the thing is. I was like I'm gonna have this other dude who can't stay here because there's no room. Slide in. You can take my room, all this shit.
Speaker 3:I'll go get fixed and we can figure out contracts next year, because it's going to take almost a year for recovery um and yeah, in that time I, you know, I basically went home and started fighting an insurance company that didn't want to cover anything, and then that's when they announced the show was ending, and then it was like, all right, well, I guess I did my last show already.
Speaker 1:There's no chance, so did the insurance company end up holding.
Speaker 3:They would have if I would have followed through in court. Maybe if I would have followed through in court, I had gotten. There was an event that happened that actually ended up making me go to the doctor because of my knee getting tweaked. I had partially torn my meniscus in one of the shows, and so that was kind of wrapped up in it as well. But the problem was is that was in Michigan and so I went to through a Florida attorney because that's where we're felt is based out of, and it didn't work like that. If it's workman's comp, the state you got injured in, that's the state you have to get an attorney in.
Speaker 3:You got to go see a judge in that state. I get all that going. My mom gets me an attorney and all this shit. That guy's like it's two years to see a judge, bro. He's like we can do it. He's like you will get no compensation until we get it squared away. I'm like, okay, so I'm presented with an opportunity, a backwards opportunity to sit at home and do fucking nothing. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, so that was the end of my circus career. So, like we were talking on the phone about the circus and you told me some dark sides about the circus and we're not going to throw shade at Ringling, but we are going to talk about the dark side, right? So you said most are like immigrants, right? Romanian, brazilian, serbian, all this stuff, and they're not treated as well as you are.
Speaker 3:Well, interestingly enough, it was less of a hierarchy based on what you're saying, right, americans first. It wasn't really like that. It felt like there was more of a hierarchy with what position you had If you're a performer, if you're a stage person. I remember talking to people when we first got in there and we're trying to, you know, learn from the people that have been there for long enough, like what is this, what the fuck can we expect when we start touring?
Speaker 3:You know, um, and it was, there was a vibe from some of like even just the stage crew people, right, they're not performing that like we're put on a pedestal a little bit, you know, because we have an act in the show, you know, and it didn't really feel like that. But as far as the people that were, like I said, we were the minority. So, you know, nobody and honestly, melting pot's an incredible way to put it, because that was really one of the most profound aspects of it, you know, was the community aspect of it. We're all from different countries, you know, we, we, none of us be, there's like 15 different languages or whatever going on.
Speaker 1:There's so many people that have different morals and culture, beliefs in life and you know, when you guys are all just hanging out and seeing each other as equal, you learn from so many different people that believe in so many different things. You know what I'm saying. Like that's a huge way to grow mentally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and it was crazy. I mean, you know, think about that many people. I mean, we had a Mongolian troop as well and I was rather tight with them, if you want to put it that way. I loved them, dude. He was with the Mongols yeah, I learned a lot from them. Their yeah, I learned a lot from them. Their culture is interesting.
Speaker 2:Genghis Khan? Huh, genghis Khan, genghis Khan, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:What's the percentage of their population that's supposedly descendant of Genghis Khan? Most of it, I think. I think it's most of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's most of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had a buddy. I'll show you Manjok. When we're done with this, I'll show you some pictures of mon jock. He was my, my mongolian homie. That dude was a fucking superhero. I've never met a human that is a superhero. That dude was a superhero. So you know hanging out with those people and seeing even him, seeing him switch from hanging out drinking beers, you know smoking some joints with us. Whatever he's doing, getting fucking loose.
Speaker 3:Mon jock was crazy, he would get loose as fuck dude and then you see him at work the next day, bro Straight face, straight face. It's fucking game time. Those people don't fuck around. It really made me feel like I'm down.
Speaker 1:This is time to play, and this is time to work it really made a little bit of reflection.
Speaker 3:You know, being around, just how disciplined they were. You know all the trampoline guys, the free running guys like a lot of them. I mean, we're talking about people that are stretching every day, like they're working out constantly, they're on top of their shit and we're rolling in. You know, dan, smoking joints before shows, like just stupid shit like that, where we're just kind of showing up and doing whatever we do and it just seemed like, oh, we're the black sheep of this and you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, well, I mean dude, this, and you know, yeah, I mean, yeah, well, I mean dude, like that's fucking awesome, like your, your circus story and you probably just that was probably just the tip of the iceberg and I and I hope to have you back on and talk about the circus more, uh, but there is uh one thing I do want to talk about. Like, uh, you, uh, you decided, okay, I'm gonna get out of the circus. You started, uh, working, you settled down, you got a wife, uh, shout out, page right shout out to page.
Speaker 2:You got a wife, you settled down, um, and now you're uh focusing on like band and stuff. And I remember back then when we were kids like you know, do a full circle like back to when we were kids uh, I was in your house and you were playing guitar. I was like so are you a guitarist? You're like no, I'm a drummer. So why don't you like shout out your band and tell me, uh, how you guys came together?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely. First off, shout out to my wife, because I do have the best wife in the world. Every day feels like I'm the luckiest guy ever, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to get brownie points. We don't even have that. We don't do that bullshit.
Speaker 2:I'm honest, I do.
Speaker 3:I have the best wife in the world. She's bummed, she couldn't be here. She really wanted to see you Next. She really wanted to see you Next time. Yeah, next time We'll be back. But yeah, no, I actually had a band. When I came back from the circus, I started a band with Max Aldred. Do you remember him? Yeah, you did me.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, oh dude, bring Max in. He had resting bitch face. Do you remember? Did you know Max? The name is very familiar to me.
Speaker 2:I think I've seen him supporting me. Did he have Chinese eyes? Kind of yeah, they called him Goldstein.
Speaker 3:I think A lot of high school. Sorry, Max, if no one called you Goldstein, it was just us. My bad. Max, I love you, Sorry, so I started a band playing guitar and singing for a little while. That was fun and, yeah, just being around a drum set. I played a little bit when I was younger and wanted to pick it up this is one of the coolest friends I ever met.
Speaker 1:This motherfucker can pitch 90 miles per hour when he's nine. Okay, this motherfucker gets on a bike and starts doing backflips when he's 17. He travels for two years on a train with all types of different walks of life and kills it until the circus evaporates. And then he gets out and he's like fuck it, let's rock out, fucking, playing, fucking guitar, drum setting. And then he gets out and he's like fuck it, let's rock out, fucking, playing, fucking guitar, drum setting, and god. And then he gets the best wife on earth you're living life to the max, bro.
Speaker 2:You live fucking life to the max and hopefully, uh like, show your band real quick. What's your band say?
Speaker 3:yeah, so uh band is called side rail. Um, it's a one word. We are actually in um in the studio for the second time. Uh, we don't have anything released yet. We've been slacking. We all have full-time jobs and you know how it goes. I'm sure you can use your imaginations.
Speaker 1:You've never had a full-time job. You've been killing it in very unorthodox ways. Oh, I've had a full-time job for almost a decade now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, I'm a car, I'm working fucking tomorrow I'm going to go finish building the deck that I'm building.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you pulled up in the New York carpeter. I am yeah.
Speaker 3:But no, the band's been going awesome. Man, honestly, it's kind of the same thing. It's a good group of dudes. That's really what it's about. We all enjoy music. We want to write some shit that other people enjoy Same reason. I'm sure most people like making music, but we've had fun with that. We've, you know, done a little bit of traveling. We played um a Minnesota show this year.
Speaker 1:Oh, it sounds like you got your next episode already ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, I just want to ask, like are you happy with how everything turned out, with, like, are you happy you did everything you did?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and it's honestly a good point to. It's a good point to ask that question because those thoughts have been floating around. Like I said, it's almost been 10 years since I joined the circus and it was a bit of a life-changing experience. But, no, honestly I am, I had issues with coming home and just the way that it ended and me just ending up at home, no money again. After that experience I was like fuck, that sucks. You know I have all these contacts but like what can I get on another show? It won't be like that, you know, um, so, uh, no, honestly, I'm lucky to to have, you know, the boss. I work for a small company. I'm lucky to have the boss that I have. I've been with him for almost a decade now. Same thing, um, you know he's, he's kept me around, kept me happy and I feel like I have independence and freedom and, um, you know, and, uh, yeah, honestly, you know, page and I are um, married for two years next month we've been together seven years in october, so holy fuck man.
Speaker 2:I thought you got married like two years ago.
Speaker 1:I didn't know seven we got married together, yeah together.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so you did get married two years ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, march 30th, march 30th After a five-year run.
Speaker 1:He's like all right, let's do it. Let's do it yeah, we weren't going to do it either.
Speaker 2:You're like one of the craziest guys we've had on the podcast. You're a fucking character man and I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg. Fucking character man and I feel like it's just tip of the iceberg and uh, you know, I I appreciate you sharing uh the little you could about the circus. I mean like the choreography, uh, the nationalities you have to like, uh not deal with, but like learn learn like, yeah, navigate with like there's probably different religions too, right?
Speaker 2:like? And uh, yeah, man, I you've been living life to the max, for sure. And you said you didn't regret anything you did, so that's good. No regrets, right no, I have.
Speaker 3:I will say I have one. I'm sure I have a lot if I think about it. There's's one and he's probably never going to listen to this but there's something I did one time that is not me right, kind of like punching you in the face. That's not me. That's not the kind of person I am. No way to circle around. Spit it out, let's get it, Spit it out. Yeah, Hammered one night arguing with my girlfriend on the Uh well, that's what I was trying to do.
Speaker 3:I know one of her but one of one of our best friends. He was one of my best friends at the time too. He's sitting on the other fucking on the other side of the train yard and he's we're all fucking like hammered and he's just like Nick, you're a fucking asshole and I'm like the fuck. Did you just say Nate, it's not me, I'm not this kind of person.
Speaker 1:Alcohol.
Speaker 3:Alcohol do it. So I fucking walk up to him and I get in his face.
Speaker 1:I'm like the fuck did you just say to me, man? You got the squad full of Mongols behind you. Yeah right, you got the fucking sword ready to back you up. Yeah, no, I headbutted.
Speaker 3:I'm a dick. I headbutted this motherfucker what the fuck and I fucked his nose up a little bit. What happened?
Speaker 1:Is that when everyone got up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we all kind of just I mean, that was it.
Speaker 1:I head-butted him and I remember going in, probably told my girlfriend fuck off or something at the time he's like, yeah, I head-butted him and next thing, you know, I woke up and had a well rest. I don't know how I went to sleep.
Speaker 2:Kind of.
Speaker 3:Nate came out and he's like my nose hurts.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh fuck, I remember that's my regret.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry for headbutting you, Nate.
Speaker 2:Wow, of all things, that's your regret. I mean, dude, you're a fucking, amazing, amazing episode. Thank you for going on. Thank you for fucking reading my message, you know, because I, I, I, we weren't that cool back then, but now it seems like you know, we're cool as fuck and I like that. You know, I like that and I really appreciate you supporting the podcast. You know listening and and if you ever want to put a guest on, you know, like the guy at Disney on Ice, if he wants to be on, let us know we will. We're ready. Honestly, like we need more people like you seriously.
Speaker 3:I got a small list. I'm sure we can, we can no man, it's been.
Speaker 3:Um, you know I'll make it quick and we're wrapping up here a little bit. Um, it's been great, obviously, talking to you again, um, because I mean, we weren't the best of the best of friends. You know, high school went on like that little tiff we had or whatever. It wasn't a thing. I don't remember it being a thing.
Speaker 3:Um, I have fond memories of playing football and shit with you and you know, going over your house and I remember your brother being a little little shithead back then too, bothering you. I remember that, um, but um, no, you know, and you know, in the world of extreme sports, um, you know, there are several people I know that um are, are in similar situations to you, or you know, life, lifelong injuries and it's something that is part of extreme sports and um, it's hard to fucking deal with, man, you know it is Um, so you know I I just want to thank you for messaging me whenever you did or I did, whatever happened to where I'm here now today, um, from the last 15 years or whatever. Um, it's been, it's been, it's been good and uh, I'd like to, yeah, I'd like to continue being part, part of it definitely come in, look into that camera right there and, uh, tell everybody you live in life, you've been living life to the max, living life to the max and tell the people a message, if you want.
Speaker 3:Well, my name is Nick Johnson and I was living life to the max. I'm still trying to live life to the max and my inspiration has been max and it will continue to be max.
Speaker 3:Because every day, when I get up, especially since we've reconnected man you know you said it on one of the recent podcasts as well Like it's hard to fucking walk around and bitch about what Right? What the fuck are we bitching about, you know? And so, in a weird way, that is really a big part of that inspiration for me, Because even like today, stressful fucking day at work and I'm driving out here like fucking snowing you know what I mean. Blah, blah, blah, blah. What is there to bitch about? I get to go be on a podcast with max. And what is max doing?
Speaker 2:living his best fucking life, living it to the max. That's what this is about, man. So thank you, thank you for having me on here. Yeah, it's been life to the max. Uh, please like, comment and subscribe on our youtube channel. Like to the next podcast and uh, we're out. Peace Outro Music.