Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Prologue: I met Geoff Cobb at the 2002 Edmonton Street Performer’s Festival where I was performing as part of “The Executives.” Geoff seemed to approve of the fact that we were using the original Japanese version of the Speed Racer Theme song in our show which I believe is where the conversation started… We see the world through much different eyes Geoff and I, but on some weird gut level we connect. Geoff was one of the first performers to be involved in the Street Stars Program at the PNE when I took over as manager of the program back in 2005 and in 2006 we performed together as “The Juggling Sherpas” an experience that just about killed our friendship, but like the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I know I’ve got a lot to be thankful for in our friendship.

Stats

Name: Geoff Cobb
Birthday: March 11, 1968
Place of Birth: Highland Park, Illinois, USA
Started Performing/Working in the Industry: Started performing at the Michigan Renaissance Festival in 1992, but my first professional work was as a clown on the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus in 1987.
Discipline: Sword Swallower
Website: www.swordswallowing.com
Video Link: http://www.swordswallowing.com/video%20files/Thom%20Sellectomy%20Promotional%20Video%20Med.wmv
Venues Worked: Festivals, Colleges and Corporate Events

Hot 10 Questions:

1. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • Vanilla because it is full of possibilities. I love it with a tiny bit of ground coffee sprinkled on top.
2. Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films • Star Wars (And I mean the real one and I don’t feel I should have to say which episode that is.)
3. What was your favorite toy from childhood? • Playmobile, I had a cavalry set and to this day I can remember clearly one specific day of play and the story that I created with the little figures. It involved a lieutenant that had to prove himself after a big mistake. Good stuff.
4. Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • The Flaming Idiots, a juggling trio from Texas. I first meet them in 1985 they made me think that I could make a living as a performer. Good thing that I met them when I did as I had just begun the process of enlisting in the United States Marine Corps.
5. From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • Goofy; long and tall and not very sophisticated and often flustered by the obvious.
6. Name something that scares you. • This would be a shorter list if I tried to name things that don’t scare me. But let’s go with birds; I was attacked by a goose as a child and have a full blown phobia of any kind of bird. They fly, they can come at you from any direction, they are like sharks in the air.
7. Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Because my wife was tired of me sitting around the house, I spent on winter working as a grease monkey at a Jiffy Lube and really enjoyed it, and so did my wife.
8. What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • I would like to learn to sail and then take a trip that would involve being far enough at sea that I couldn’t see land for more than a day.
9. What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • The tedium of travel. Seeing new places is always nice and having favorite restaurants all around the world is nice. But being with my children home and sleeping next to my wife is the greatest thing in the world.
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • I am sorry I had you take the long route. (I have had a pretty rocky life.)

The Nugget:

Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.

“I am blessed to have never worked a day in my life in the sense that I love what I do. I do not have everything that a 41 year old man “should” have. But I am so rich in personal happiness. I think people should strive be much less concerned with the things think they need to have, and that would allow more people to spend their life’s energy doing things they love instead of something that will just “pay the bills.” There is no need to work the extra time to have the microwave that saves you the time so you can work the extra time to afford the microwave.”

–Geoff Cobb

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