Whipping up a career change

Well, it looks like Mahty Walsh, Boston's former mayor, is leaving his job as Secretary of Labor and moving on to become head of the National Hockey League Players Association. This is something of a career change for someone who has been in political office - or, as Secretary of Labor, political office adjacent - since the late 1990's. 

It's a natural for Marty, of course. He's a union guy (before running for state rep, he was an official with the building trades union), and a sports guy. (This is Boston.)

Still, it's a pretty significant career change. If there's nothing else career-change-y about what Marty's doing, his pay will be going up by $3M a year. Not bad for a guy from Savin Hill in Dorchester, whose parents were native Irish speakers. 

So, congratulations to Marty Walsh. Don't forget to wear a helmet, and don't let any one of those big guys check you into the boards. 

Jack Lepiarz is also whipping up a career change. Like Marty's, at first glance, it looks like a radical departure. But when you take a closer look, it's a pretty logical extension. (I don't imagine Jack will be making the big bucks Marty's scored.)

Anyway, Jack has spent the last decade or so delivering the news on WBUR radio - a seemingly ideal gig for an Emerson grad in his 30's. But Jack also has long had another job, working as Jack the Whipper entertaining audiences with his whip skills, performing on weekends at the King Richard's Faire (a local Renaissance fair that I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever).

Other than having watched - and laughed at - Lash LaRue's swinging a bullwhip on the low-budget kiddie Western's that populated Saturday morning children's entertainment during the 1950's, I wasn't all that familiar with whipping as an art form.

Are they whippersnappers? Whip crackers? Something else?

I have a vague memory of seeing someone on TV - probably on Ed Sullivan - using a whip to cut paper into snowflake designs. Or something. 

The whole idea of whipping seems pretty kinky, but apparently the practice does have its fans, who enjoy whip tricks, rhythmic whipping, and slightly risqué jokes. (C.f., whipping as kinky.) 

Whatever you call it, Jack Lepiarz is leaving WBUR to ply his trade full time as Jack the Whipper. 

When it comes to whippery, Jack Lepiarz is no slouch, and his renown extends well beyond King Richard's Faire. 

His TikTok account has blown up since he first created it a couple of years ago, with 2.5 million followers watching him perform stunts, rate his props, and rehearse for shows. His national profile was boosted after appearing on “America’s Got Talent” last summer and wowing all three judges.

He also holds the Guinness World Record for the most bullwhip cracks in one minute: 298 as of 2020. He beat his own previous record of 289. (Source: Boston Globe)

I am reminded of something my father always asked when someone appeared on TV - most likely on the aforementioned Ed Sullivan Show - showing off some obscure skill, like balancing spinning plates or whipping up snowflake designs. "How do you find out you have a talent like this?"

Because it's easy to see how someone becomes a singer, dancer, or accordion player. But plate spinner? I was with my father on this.

In Lepiarz's case, he was born to it. He was a circus kid, son of a performer with the Big Apple Circus. "At 7, he learned how to crack a whip with speed and force."

At 7, I think I learned how to make my bed, and how to fake piety when I received my First Holy Communion. 

By the time he was in high school, being a circus kid was no longer as much fun as it had been when he was just a little guy. By high school, it was a bit too weirdball.

But when Jack got to Emerson, he found he could help pay his way through by working as a street performer. (I live near Emerson College, and all the downtown tourist attractions, so I'm amazed that I never caught his act. Maybe I'm just blocking it out.)

Jack Lepiarz was also embracing his weirdness. Because, whatever way you look at it, being a professional whipper is kinda sorta weird.

“When I was younger, I tried as much as I could to be normal. I think as you get older, realizing that what makes you weird is what makes you unique and different. It’s what makes you — you,” Lepiarz said.

And now, Lepiarz is quite literally running away to join the circus. He'll be launching his new career in Florida, but he'll be making his way up the coast and back to Boston.

I hope Jack Lepiarz has a lot of fun whipping his audiences up. 

As for Marty Walsh, may he avert any strikes and get the guys on ice the most lucrative and wonderful of contracts.