Mr Ray Park

The event date was August 5th, 2017. Ian and I returned to Columbus along with Sean this time to attend the Wizard World Convention. After getting to meet Anthony Mackie in Cleveland and getting him to autograph a board, we came to Columbus prepared to try and get another signature. We would actually come away with two, but that also makes for a second story.

This story deals with a villain… not! While taking on roles from Edgar in Heroes, Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe, Toad in X-Men and in my eyes the greatest villain of the Star Wars Franchise, Darth Maul, Ray Park is in contrast the kindest gentleman you could ever hope to meet. Now maybe he’s such a nice guy because he could easily take out the average mortal without breaking a sweat, but I think he’s really just that nice a guy.

Star Wars a New Hope was the first movie I can remember with visuals that became etched in my mind. The opening credits have became standard but as that Star Destroyer entered the screen frame and continued on and on and on like it would never stop was a holy crap moment! The lightsaber dual between Obi-Wan and Vader, where can I buy one of those? Han Solo frozen in carbonite, “I know.” Jabba’s yacht may be the only cruise I’m interested in taking. The prequels and sequels trying so hard to match the original trilogy missed some of those moments except in Phantom Menace. When Darth Maul turns to face his Jedi opponents and ignites his lightsaber and then the saber extends to become a Bo staff. The entire theater gasped and in that brief moment many of us probably turned to the darkside and even began rooting for this Sith apprentice. Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes in movie history occurred when minutes later Obi-Wan prematurely dispatched our villain. Noooo! We want more Maul!

This wouldn’t be the only time one of Mr Park’s characters had his scene stealing moment seconds before his demise. In X-Men, I always love watching the cool athleticism of Mr Park, when as Toad he has just sent Storm to the bottom of the elevator shaft, nonchalantly he kicks free a pipe, twirls it as a makeshift Bo and strikes a pose. How cool are you Mr Toad. Of course this is right before Storm returns and blasts him from the top of Lady Liberty with a lightening bolt. Sigh…

Now the boys and I are standing before the man who brought these characters to life, greeting us with “Hey guys come on over, How’s it going?” Wait, it sounds like he wants to see us as much as we want to see him, and indeed it’s true. This man is a celebrity who appreciates his fans. No… I think he is a fan, sharing the love of his craft, he just gets to do it from both sides of the camera.

Sean takes out the board, and suddenly I go from being a fan to having a fan. Mr Park began asking questions, “Did you really do this yourself?”, “How do you do this?” “What’s the technique you use?” “What tools are involved?” and the question that blew me away, “What table is yours? I’d like to come over and see some more of your work.” I don’t know which of us was more shocked, me hearing a celebrity tell me my work was good enough to have a table and sell on Artists’ Alley, or him when I said I don’t have a table I’m just a high school teacher and do this for fun.

We probably spent a good twenty minutes talking. Learning that Mr Park’s career path started back when he was a kid watching Bruce Lee movies with his father. Watching led to doing as he studied Kung Fu , and competing in the martial arts led to eventually being in the movies. Ian had recently earned his junior black belt in Kwanmukan Karate and had actually competed at the WUKF Championship for All Ages in Dublin, Ireland. So the two of them got into a discussion of techniques comparing and contrasting the linear style of Karate to the more circular form of Kung Fu. Not once were we ever made to feel that we were taking up Mr Park’s time, if anything seemed a miss it was that this was happening on a convention room floor instead of at a dart board in the local pub with a couple of pints.

A few more fans came in and we said our goodbyes, but couldn’t leave before he asked permission and snapped a photo of the board with his cell phone. Sean walked away with a board signed to him, Ian had a new martial arts sparring partner and I had an ego boost being told, “You should think about getting a table, you’d be able to sell these.” Part of putting this website together is actually the result of Mr Parks encouraging words.

Sith Life? Count me in.