Tell about yourself and your background! *
I'm a nineteen year old originally from Wisconsin, but most of my life has been spent in Nebraska. Growing up, which I'm still doing, I've always been more interested in anything physical rather than academic, especially with my huge love of professional wrestling growing up. My friends have always been the same, but I've usually been the first to try anything on the more dangerous side. I always loved being a daredevil, though as I grow up I still want to be that daredevil that tries the dangerous things first, I just know to be more safe about it now. Despite being bored enough to do anything dangerous I could get my hands on, I've never broken a bone or gotten seriously injured in any way. As much as people may have called me insane, I always had enough semblance of self-preservation instincts to keep myself alive when getting thrown off a moving longboard or jumping off of small cliffs into tiny icy rivers.
What inspired you to become a stunt performer?
One year at Disney, I went to the live stunt show, 'Water World.' I was loving every moment of it, but one moment that always stuck with me vividly was when one of the characters on top of this giant wall was shot, then came careening down however many feet to the water. I watched him land perfectly in it, clearly not hurting himself, and I was so amazed at what I had just seen. Then, at the very end, an announcer came on to say we could meet all the actors now that the show was over. It was only then that it clicked in my mind: "Wait, this is an actual job?" And from then on I wanted to do every bit of research I could to find out how exactly to get into this business.
What is your greatest skill as a stunt performer, is there a stunt behind it?
While I wouldn't say I'm the absolute best at anything, especially with my lack of real experience compared to many other people, I think one of the skills that I am more comfortable with, and can thus make it look better, is falls. I love most parts of the stunt world, but there's something about the falls and wrecks I do that I love. Maybe it's my love of pro wrestling where I learned to take bumps that taught me to just give my all and just go for it. At least, that's what a lot of my peers told me when they saw my falls, they were the ones pointing out how much I just go for it and how good it looked. It's not exactly human instinct to let yourself fall flat on the ground, but it's nothing but fun for me.
What is the best part about being a stunt performer?
Growing up in a place that was boring if not for constantly taking physical risks, stunts was an end-goal that got me through the waiting to leave Nebraska. Mostly everything that I learned about the basics of stunt work was so incredibly fun. From the running to keep us in shape to the full-fledged fight sequences, there's simply nothing quite as purely fun as stunts have been for me.
Tell your all-time favorite stunt story!
While not exactly officially 'stunts' in a way, one of my favorite stories that taught me a lot about stunts was when I was fifteen or sixteen years old. Me and my oldest brother were always huge, huge pro wrestling fans, and he had gotten an email about a 90 minute, free training course for pro wrestling start-ups to go to. In Philadelphia. So, that Friday after school, we flew from Nebraska to Philly, and slept in an airport, since a football game was going on at the same time, unbeknownst to us, which meant all the nearby hotels were booked. But, the next day, we went to this little garage in front of a street of cars with no tires. We got in the building eventually where we had three people to teach us, one of them was a masked wrestler, then a man with long hair, and a woman with tons of makeup on, since she either had or would compete that day. While everybody was still coming in for the lesson, the masked wrestler pulled me and my brother aside, telling us that I couldn't actually be a part of this course, as it was for eighteen year-olds and up. But, that if the form didn't say I wasn't eighteen, then there would be no problem. That always stuck with me, as he clearly saw how much pure love we had for wrestling already, as we had been talking to him nonstop about the sport as soon as we walked in. So, we finally started working, where I first learned to 'lock-up,' a standard move in wrestling that was easy, but I had to learn to be more physical than I had ever really been with anybody but my brothers. It was a strange feeling to roughly slap this female wrestler's arms then look like I was struggling to beat her up. And she cracked a few jokes during it, seeing how uncomfortable I was, but it was a good start to the lesson that this is physicality, and stunts would be no different sometimes. But the part that sticks with me the most is actually getting in the ring. The closest I had been to a wrestling ring before was twenty seats back in a stadium, and while that's still a lot closer than other people, I could barely contain myself when I stepped inside that ring for the first time. Our first lesson was taking 'bumps,' the basic one being landing on our flat back with our hands over our chest and our feet straight up in the air. Me and my brother did it together, and the masked wrestler immediately commented on it, joking that we were backyard wrestlers after seeing how willing we were to immediately throw ourselves on the ground. I was definitely proud that day for that. After that we took a jumping bump. We take a couple steps forward, jump into the air, then take the same bump. This time, in our groups of half the people there, we did the bump one at a time. When I did it, I just told myself, "Screw it," and jumped high into the air, hit the ring with my back, and felt my head snap back and into the ring. Something people might not know is that those rings are just wooden panels. That's how they sound so loud. Of course, no amount of loud wooden rings could silence the "Oooooh," everybody gave when my head hit the mat. The masked wrestler immediately asked if I was okay as I got up, completely dazed and wondering where exactly I was. I told him I was fine with a big smile and got back on the outside of the ring with my group. Good thing for me, there was no more bumps after that for anybody, but I learned another lesson that I hadn't taken seriously. And that was neck strength. I can fall all I want, but the next day, I was feeling that whiplash real bad in my neck, and my brain definitely felt a bit jarred. It was a good wake-up call that this was not easy stuff to do, but I'll still say I loved absolutely every second of it, concussion or not!
What advice would you give other stunt performers?
The best piece of advice I got was to take it slow. Especially for fight scenes, the slower you take it the better you understand it. There was always a very clear difference between rushing a fight I was doing and making sure everybody in the fight knew exactly what they were doing and had the moves set in their muscle memory before the cameras roll.
Anything else you'd like to tell the community about?
You have to be real tough for a job this, but if it's a job that suits you, it's worth the hurt. There's nothing like stunts, and the joy I've gotten from it is worth any aches and pains I've gotten as a result. If love it, go for it. And if you want something bad enough, it will happen.
Please share your social media handles and how we can follow you!
@shaun_dart on Instagram
Please include any links to stunt reels or videos you'd like to share!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ciKtzoaJkAQ30JN9oRPTyMcwYAc92XlW/view?ts=61539cc2
