Steven Ho's Blog – Deconstructing Fighting and Stunts for your enjoyment

A serious O.G., Chuck Norris turns 70 today. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Norris a handful of times at tournaments and even got to play a co-starring part on Walker Texas Ranger way back when. 

As anyone who has ever met him will tell you, he is nothing less than a gentleman and class act in all aspects of his life…a true martial artists.  Happy Birthday Mr. Norris!

Here’s an early and now historical clip from Return of The Dragon where Chuck fights Bruce Lee at the Colosseum.

Thanks to Jae Greene for the reminder.

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Great seeing Andy Richter this morning on Live! with Regis and Kelly, where Andy was subbing for Regis Philbin who was on vacation.

Kelly didn’t beat around the bush with questions about NBC and Jay Leno…and Andy certainly did not hesitate to give straight answers.  Here’s a clip if you missed it:

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It’s pretty amazing to see how far martial arts has come in just the past decade. We’re all familiar with the evolution of MMA by now, but you may not be aware of the evolution of  “tricking“, which is basically a combination of aerial martial art kicks, gymnastics, and street acrobatics.

When I was pre-black belt, machine gun roundhouse kicks and triple kicks were all the rage.  George Chung, Simon Rheee, Hee Il Cho, and Stuart Quan are on my O.G. list for innovators in the kicking arts.  But I feel it was the definitive influence of Ernie Reyes and Ernie Reyes, jr. and their West Coast Demo Team that started this movement back in the eighties.

Working hard to establish myself as a young black belt without a sponsor on the tournament circuit, a 540 kick was the advanced “trick”  at that time and was what helped me stand out.  Those early trick kicks helped me break into the business because there were really only a handful of us that threw them.  When I first entered form competitions, there was just “hard” and “soft” divisions.  Now a 540 is considered a basic staple the way we used to consider a jump spin hook kick to be, and Tricking is it’s own division.

The next generation of incredibly talented Tricksters took the baton and RAN WITH IT.  With the likes of Jon Valera, Carmichael Simon (my Godson), Steve Terada, Matt Mullins, Mike Chatt, etc… I feel that these guys really put the game on the map. 

Sorry if I’m leaving names out, there’s certainly a lot of players in the game that deserve recognition.

Now our current force of Uber Tricksters have taken it to the next INSANE level…

Last night at the Oscars dance performance (introducing nominees for “best soundtrack”) tricking was really introduced for the first time on a worldwide scope.  Congratulations to Jeremy Marinas,  Anis Cheurfa, and Danny Graham for their amazing representation of the martial arts last night (they’re the three kicking in unison throughout the performance).  I was elated to see their performance and grateful for what they are doing to promote the arts.

I wish them all an incredible journey with this…

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I AM CONAN Facebook Contest Rules:

Post a picture of yourself (or friend or family member) as Conan on www.facebook.com/IlikeStevenHo. The image doesn’t have to be a direct impersonation, it can also be your personal version of CoCo.  So in other words, don’t stress about looking like Conan…focus on capturing the spirit of #imwithcoco.

It’s as important is to be creative with your location and scenario.  Photoshopping is not prohibited, but keep in mind that a “grassroots” spirit is encouraged and will be rewarded in the Finals.

ROUND ONE:

All posted photos will be stored under “fan photos” of www.facebook.com/IlikeStevenHo. The top 3 images that have the most “likes” by April 1st, 5pm Pacific time will be entered into the Finals. So it’s best to post your pic up as soon as you can to give yourselves time to get those “like” votes.

THE FINALS:

Later that month (date TBD, based on judges availabilities) a panel of Conan-insider judges will subjectively deem one winner. We’ll do our best to put up a vid of the process and results.

THE PRIZE:

The winner will get a sword from this Conan stunt segment:

Thank you in advance for playing nicely – we reserve the right to disqualify mean people and inappropriate submissions at our sole discretion.

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If you were a fan of Six Feet Under or Dirty, Sexy, Money, then I’m sure you’re familiar with Peter Krause’s new show Parenthood.

Peter is a good friend, an extremely talented actor, and an all-around nice guy, so it’s always an honor to keep you updated on his new projects. Maura Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard (btw…if you haven’t seen Dax in Let’s go to Prison, put it on your Netflix list), Mae Whitman, and Sarah Ramos round out this adaptation of the 1989 Steve Martin film.

NBC Tuesdays 10/9c

You Conan fans have been incredible during this blackout period.  If you’re interested in winning Conan’s shinai sword from one of our episodes, deets are on my Facebook Page.

And if you weren’t aware, Conan is now on Twitter.

More fun and fan giveways on Mike Mitchell’s I’m with CoCo Facebook page.

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In case you’re not up to date on events with the Asian Baby raffle, put down the phone…you don’t have to call child services.  It’s not a real baby (kinda). The Asian Baby (“AB”) was first seen on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, where COCO dove through a window to save him from a huge pyro explosion.

Since then, AB has developed a little following.  Through my Facebook page, we held a free raffle to 4,800 contestants and announced the winner on March 1st.  Thanks so much to Suzanne Marques, Aaron Bleyaert, and Mike Mitchell for being such a big part of this.

Here are the result of the raffle…

A little about the winner:

Linda is a creative geek with a passion for web design and helping companies create a Social Media strategy to grow their business and network. Professionally, she leads a team of experts with her company, Social Media Works. She helps Networkers, Bloggers and Entreprenuers both locally or remotely. In her spare time, she loves using the web to share wacky & tacky stuff and just have a good time.

“I love wacky and tacky things, Conan O’Brien and Social Media. I’ve been posting weird stuff online since 1997 so I guess it totally makes sense that my name got picked from fans on a Facebook page and then posted on a video on YouTube.  If I were on the Lost island, my storyline would be one of fate.” – Linda

(The raffle Gods were really with us on this selection – I couldn’t imagine a better babymomma to run with the ball on this)

Linda has already launched a website dedicated to Asian Baby and should be receiving him via UPS in the next few days!  Congratulations Linda!

Check out Linda’s new webpage for our lil guy (with links to AB’s new FB and Twitter): www.conansasianbaby.com

Check out Linda’s company Social Media Works: www.socialmediaworks.net

Here’s a rare rehearsal picture from TMNT 2.  We got fitted at Jim Henson’s famed Creature Shop in London and had a few weeks to practice on our own with some parts they lent us, but this was really our first day of official rehearsal in the entire costume with stunt coordinator Mr. Pat Johnson.  The trickest part (other than the obvious lack of vision) was getting used to the shell.  Most of the weight was distributed on our backs, so our “core” (I hate that I justed used that word) was thrown off.  It definitely took a minute to get used to these things.

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Here’s the full HD stunt segment where Conan kicks ass, then saves the Asian Baby from a pyro explosion.  I dare any other late night host to try this.

More Conan stunt clips filed under COCO HD STUNT FOOTAGE on this blog.

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This was the first “big stunt” (usually the closing act of our segment) I did with Conan.  All our banter is ad-lib and I can’t even begin to explain how much fun this was.

More Conan stunt clips filed under COCO HD STUNT FOOTAGE on this blog.

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