From NFL Mascot to Zoo Advocate: The Wild Journey of Curtis Dvorak

Welcome to Hometown Jax, where hosts Aaron Bacus and Jason Kindler explore the inspiring stories of Jacksonville’s most interesting leaders, entrepreneurs, and personalities. Each episode dives into the personal journeys, challenges, and passions that drive the local legends shaping our community—whether they’re building businesses, leading movements, or redefining what it means to call Jacksonville home.

In this episode, Aaron sits down with Curtis Dvorak, a name that might not ring a bell until you realize he spent 19 years as Jaxson de Ville, the iconic mascot of the Jacksonville Jaguars. But that was just the beginning. Curtis shares how he went from college mascot to NFL performer, local TV host, entrepreneur, and now a passionate ambassador for the Jacksonville Zoo. Packed with hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, powerful career pivots, and a surprising connection to Michael Jackson’s elephant, this episode is equal parts entertaining and inspiring.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;29;03
Unknown
Curtis voice I thank you for coming on Hometown Jacks. I really appreciate that. Thank you. It was great to meet you. I appreciate you having me on. You know, we were making the joke earlier. I asked you for your resume and you were polite in your response, but what did you really want to say?

00;00;29;04 - 00;00;44;16
Unknown
I mean, no, I'd say, why would you ever ask me for the resume? Nobody needs a resume for me or no. What were you thinking? I'm, I'm, I'm in the middle of the last ten years of my life reading the Stoics. Okay, so I would never say that. I would never say it. I've never uttered the words.

00;00;44;16 - 00;01;01;28
Unknown
Do you know who I am? I've never said that. I would punch me in the face if I ever said that. Well, I, honestly, I didn't really know how well known you. I was kind of embarrassed because I did my homework before this. Did a lot of research on you, and, like, you're you're kind of a big deal.

00;01;01;28 - 00;01;18;08
Unknown
Although you wore uniform for a long time, so people really probably don't know what you look like. It's the uniform you wrote, right? Yeah, yeah. The character, you wear a life size stuffed animal costume here and here in town or any town, actually. And, you meet a lot of people and you get a lot of really cool opportunities.

00;01;18;11 - 00;01;34;10
Unknown
Well, I want to go through your history really quick. Sure. What you've done. And then I want to get into the zoo, because that's kind of the main reason. Honestly, I was attracted to to talk about that. I mean, I haven't been to the zoo in a while, but I love animals. We hear that too much. We hear that too much.

00;01;34;10 - 00;01;51;25
Unknown
But I think you're solving that problem. We're trying. You're you're really putting the publicity out because, honestly, that you made me think about the zoo. So let's go back to. Where were you born? Where? Where did you start? Oh, boy. Journey of yours, camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Okay. Right across the river from Harrisburg. And then how did you.

00;01;51;26 - 00;02;03;21
Unknown
Well, I guess that's kind of closed. Virginia Tech, like. Is that right? Yeah, but there was a lot of stops before that. There was a lot of stuff. My dad and I'll tell you the stops and you can guess what my dad did. And I know you're good. I know what you're going to guess. But you're probably wrong.

00;02;03;21 - 00;02;26;14
Unknown
He, So I'm born in Pennsylvania, then moved, I think Virginia for a little bit, North Carolina over to Egypt, back from Egypt to North Carolina, right, right to Jersey, and then from Jersey. Jersey was second grade. So all of that moving happened from birth to second grade. Okay. And then once I got to Jersey, second grade through high school before I went to Virginia Tech, I was in Jersey.

00;02;26;14 - 00;02;45;23
Unknown
Okay. You mentioned Egypt. I gotta ask you about Egypt. It doesn't fit into everybody. Everybody always goes, oh, your dad was in the military, Was like, no, no, AT&T. Oh, interesting. Yeah. He sold. He was part of the team that sold, sold the first, like, real phone lines to, the Egyptian government. Sadat. Sadat. And then back in 1979 or so.

00;02;45;26 - 00;03;01;02
Unknown
Wow. So the interest had gone. He had been, traveling over there back and forth, for a year. And then my mom told him, hey, if you're going to keep going back and forth over there, we're either going over there or like, something's got to give here. And so we all moved over there for a year. You don't many, many, many people that lived in Egypt.

00;03;01;09 - 00;03;21;08
Unknown
No it was it was Cairo. Hey, shout out to anybody listening who went to Cairo American College kindergarten through high school. Love that place. So you in kindergarten, did you remembered fondly. So you ended up at Virginia Tech? Yes. And did you know, like from day one, that you wanted to be a mascot or how did that thought process materialize?

00;03;21;08 - 00;03;35;25
Unknown
You were the mascot, the Hokie bird at Virginia Tech? Yeah, for Virginia Tech. My brother had gone to Virginia Tech before me. He's an architect. We're different. I'm an entertainer. He's an architect. Yeah, right. But he had gone to Virginia Tech first, so I'd gotten to know Blacksburg, and it was one of the schools I applied to.

00;03;35;25 - 00;03;55;07
Unknown
And, and I love Blacksburg is amazing. If you've if you've been there, it's it's just a classic, amazing college town up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And so I went there and, the mascot part of it came about, I, I did it in high school twice. I didn't do it like, repeatedly. I literally in high school, I did the gym.

00;03;55;07 - 00;04;15;27
Unknown
I two games, okay. I did the semifinals, maybe I did one basketball game. I think I only did a couple, but I only did the semifinals, the state championship for football and the state championship. And the only reason it happened was because, I happened to be standing there talking to the cheerleaders and the children. Coach came over and said, hey, we need somebody to get in the wolf costume.

00;04;16;00 - 00;04;34;21
Unknown
And it was November in New Jersey, and I was like, pretty cold out here. Another layer of fur might be pretty cool. And I was also, at the time, a diehard Notre Dame football fan because, like, my dad went to Notre Dame and so I grew up loving Notre Dame. And so, you know, college football, I've been watching that.

00;04;34;21 - 00;04;48;20
Unknown
And I, you know, it's I'm watching these different characters and stuff. And so I was like, yeah, I could do this. And I Florida State, you know, they're running out. So I grabbed the only thing I knew from watching college football, I was like, all right, what does the mascot do? He he leaves the team out, throw a flag in the middle of the field like Florida State does.

00;04;48;20 - 00;05;00;07
Unknown
You know, I'd seen that. So I was like, cause I did that. And then I just started acting up and running around. I was like, this is amazing. All this stuff I get in trouble for in school and get sent to the principal's office for they want me to do it out here on the, at the football game.

00;05;00;07 - 00;05;20;04
Unknown
So I did it twice. Loved it. Whatever. No big deal. Didn't think anything of it. Got to tech. And, me and my buddies in the dorm, we were the rowdy group at all the games. We were the ones camping out for tickets. Okay, you know, to those we camped out for tickets because, you know, the student, you get your student tickets, but whoever's there first is going to get their pick of that seat, probably when they were really.

00;05;20;07 - 00;05;36;00
Unknown
That was a good run. It was right as they were starting. Okay. Right. Right as they were starting to take off. But it's actually my freshman year. We're two eight and one. They were two eight and one. I sat through every one of those games. But anyway, our crew, our dorm crew was the rowdy guys at the games.

00;05;36;10 - 00;05;55;26
Unknown
We once our our our dorm once, won a contest for a free six foot sub because the athletic department offered, the rowdiest fans at the the next women's basketball game because it was a big rival coming up. They said the Rowdiest group of fans at the next, women's basketball game is going to get, a free six foot sub.

00;05;55;26 - 00;06;14;04
Unknown
And when you're a freshman in college back in 1992, a free six foot sub is like, go, right? It's not. I mean, so so we painted our chests, okay. We went like full out, like, I mean, totally painted up and stuff. And so we won that. And so people in the crowd, we started at the basketball games, we started leading the cheers.

00;06;14;07 - 00;06;33;27
Unknown
We were the Cameron Crazies. But it was castle craziness because Castle Coliseum and we were doing all the same stuff. They're doing it. Cameron. We just had a terrible basketball team. And, and my buddy started telling me, you know, the bird walk by and we're just we're just all ringleaders. And I'm usually standing on seats leading the crowd, and they said, you should try out for the Hokie Bird.

00;06;33;29 - 00;06;47;26
Unknown
And I kind of like, whatever. It was just like a joke, like, all right, I mean, I'd be pretty cool. And then you see the hokey birdy gets to be on the field. I was like, and then we we honestly, me and my buddies were like, wait a minute. If you get that gig, we don't have to camp out for tickets.

00;06;47;28 - 00;07;02;08
Unknown
You could get us better tickets. And I was like, I don't know about that, but it's worth a shot. So that's why I tried out. And this was junior year freshman. This was at the end of my freshman year. I called about tryouts and they said, sorry, we got the two guys we have are, are coming back next year.

00;07;02;08 - 00;07;17;20
Unknown
So we're not doing tryouts. And so that my sophomore year, I called, halfway through the athletic department and they said, yeah, we're losing one guy. We're going to doing tryouts. And so I went to the tryout and then about ten, ten people. And what do you what do you do in a mascot tryout? Well, in college, a mascot trial.

00;07;17;20 - 00;07;34;09
Unknown
And actually, most mascot tryouts would be the same. You teach, they teach you for a few days the character because they want to teach you the walk. They want to teach you the personality, the mannerisms. Because, you know, when you're in a mascot costume and you have multiple people doing it, you don't want anybody in the crowd looking and seeing.

00;07;34;09 - 00;07;49;16
Unknown
It's knowing, hey, that's Joe, right? Hey, that's Susie, you know, like the walk has to look the same. The expressions have to be the same. Everybody has to be identical. So you learn that you got some stuff and then they then they teach you or they tell you, hey, I come up with a skit. You know, and do whatever you want.

00;07;49;21 - 00;08;02;03
Unknown
And, and then they just kind of pick you up. They have a crowd kind of in there when you put the suit on and go out there and, they kind of just base it off of who can, who can own the crowd. So you ended up doing it for junior and senior year? I did, I did, yeah.

00;08;02;10 - 00;08;20;08
Unknown
I got at the end of my sophomore year. And did you know that whole summer and then, all the way junior and senior year. So leading on further, you graduate and you moved to Jacksonville. Did you move to Jacksonville with the intention of trying out for the mascot? I was a late pick in the supplemental mascot draft.

00;08;20;08 - 00;08;41;05
Unknown
Yeah. And I didn't work out. No. Yeah. It was no, I actually And the Jags brought me here. The Jags found me, which is it's a crazy, crazy story. We have time now. I wanted to be a mascot, so I realized I want to be a mascot. At the end of my junior year, halfway through my senior year, I was watching these guys on on ESPN.

00;08;41;07 - 00;08;57;01
Unknown
Guys like Billy, Billy and Marlon, and bunch of NBA guys, the gorilla Bob Wolfe, who's, I can say these names. Nobody will know who they are. John, Ruth, Billy the Marlin, Bob Wolfe, the gorilla, the original. But I'm seeing these guys on Sportscenter, and I'm watching. And I'm a mascot at the time, and I'm like, why?

00;08;57;03 - 00;09;13;09
Unknown
Yeah, that's what I do. I was like, I can do that. It's like, call a team. You know? It's 94, 95. I call a team and, you know, some answer like, hey, what do you tell me about your mascot program? I call a few teams and I call a few of them. Someone said part time, another one goes, no, that's a full time, full time gig.

00;09;13;10 - 00;09;32;07
Unknown
And I was like, full time gig, right? I was like, I don't have no numbers. Can you tell me like that salary? And they start, tell me, oh yeah, salary when it's full time. And I'm like, So I call my parents halfway through senior year, partway through the first semester, and I'm like, hey, so get this.

00;09;32;10 - 00;09;47;10
Unknown
I know I'm graduating this year, and my focus is communications and public relations, but I'm not going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be a freshman mascot. And they're like, very long pause on the phone with both of them. And I was like, what do you mean? I was like, no, no, no, you can literally get paid to do this.

00;09;47;12 - 00;10;05;02
Unknown
Like. Like what? I'm like, no, they pay guys like full time salary, not just to do two shows up on game day and get paid a hundred bucks. And, and so they're like, all right, go for it. So I, we made some calls trying to get, you know, trying to find your way in, you know, and one as easy as it is now, you know, no internet.

00;10;05;02 - 00;10;26;01
Unknown
Well, yeah. Right. I mean, I just think AOL but no way to to so I just through connections and stuff, I end up getting a meeting with John, Ruth, Billy the Marlin, down in Miami. We happened to be going down there to see our cousins, for holiday. And so I got a chance in January, like, right around New Year's, to go meet with Billy the Marlin in 1996.

00;10;26;05 - 00;10;45;24
Unknown
January 96th. And he talks me through the whole game. This is how it works. He had been the ibis. He had been, Sebastian the ibis at at University of Miami. And he had been cocky at South Carolina before that. Interesting. And, I think a minor league mascot. So he's telling me all you got to do some minor league stuff first, you're going to have to wait for a pro gig to open because they just don't open up.

00;10;45;24 - 00;11;00;26
Unknown
There's not that many teams doing it. At the time, there was only six NFL teams or five NFL teams using a mascot. Interesting. And so like NFL only had like 5 or 6 spots. NBA had like 15 to 20 spots. Now there's obviously a lot more. But he said, oh you're gonna have to go through the minors is not.

00;11;00;26 - 00;11;16;21
Unknown
And I said, all right, well so how does that work? I'm costume right and stuff down. And he goes, actually, he goes because you know what? After walking around the the stadium there for 3 or 4 hours, he goes, you know what? Our minor league team, the Charlotte Knights, is actually having tryouts in February. And I was like, no way.

00;11;16;28 - 00;11;35;05
Unknown
Charlotte Knights is two hours down the road from Virginia Tech. I was like, how great is that? This is perfect. Universe is putting this right in front of me. So he goes, yeah, I set you up. He's he connects me to a woman named Lisa Chico at the Charlotte Knights. And I, this is February of 96, so we're getting I'm getting ready to try out, in February.

00;11;35;05 - 00;11;47;29
Unknown
I call a few days before just to get the, you know, the what I need to bring. What's going to happen, what's it going to look like, you know, and they sent some stuff, but, so I'm talking to her and I said, hey, when does the person, you know, whoever wins this, when do they have to start?

00;11;48;02 - 00;12;03;21
Unknown
And she said, oh, I mean, like yesterday she goes, we have spring training starting in like couple weeks. And I was like, oh, and I'm on the phone and I'm on the phone with her and I'm like, oh man. I was like, well, I was like, I'm still in college. I was like, I graduate in May. And she goes, oh, wow.

00;12;04;17 - 00;12;21;12
Unknown
Yeah. She goes, I, we have to hire somebody right away. So I she's like, I totally understand if you want to just, you know, just pass on or whatever, right? I pause for a second on the phone because I'm sitting there going, oh, shoot, I can't, I'm going to miss this tryout. And then I go, you know what?

00;12;21;12 - 00;12;35;27
Unknown
I was like, I know you got to hire somebody, and I know I got no shot, but I can, I can I please come to the tryout just so I can go through one and see what. Yeah, what it's like, because all I've done is a college tryout. Let me see what a professional mascot tryouts like. Let me go through the process because I know I'm going to do this.

00;12;36;00 - 00;12;50;29
Unknown
So I need to have some reps and I go I drive down there, two hour drive down there, show up at the, the interview and the whole tryout. And I did great. And I ended up finishing second. And Lisa Chico called me and she said, we would love to hire you, but we know you have to graduate, right.

00;12;51;15 - 00;13;09;03
Unknown
And but, you know, she jokingly said, if this guy I still remember, she's like, if this guy fails his drug test in a month, I think, you know, we'll give you a shout, which apparently is a thing mascots do. So I was so I moved on. I was like, okay, whatever. It was cool. Great experience.

00;13;09;03 - 00;13;27;16
Unknown
I learned a bunch of things at the tryout. I can do in any interview. I learned a couple things that I end up taking to the next one. And the next one comes in May I graduate, and it's like a week after graduation or like a few days, right after I get a phone call. Am I at my house in Blacksburg, where I just graduated?

00;13;27;16 - 00;13;41;00
Unknown
And my, you know, I'm looking at I told my buddies I'm going to be a professional mascot, but I don't have anything lined up. But there's you're committed to that. You can do it. You want to do it? Oh, yeah. No, no. Once I once I say I'm going to do it. Yeah. It's either going to happen or I'm gonna die.

00;13;42;02 - 00;14;02;13
Unknown
And so I said, I'm gonna do this. So I told my buddies that I was going to be a professional mascot. So I get this phone call and the guy goes, hey, this is Roddy White from the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I'm like, Jaguars who like Texas Jaguars. I'm like, I'd been in Jacksonville the year before. We played the Gator Bowl in 94 and 95 when the Gator Bowl was played in Gainesville.

00;14;02;19 - 00;14;17;02
Unknown
But we stayed in Jacksonville. So I went to the landing, went to Fat Tuesdays, did all that stuff. So I think I know Jacksonville I've been there. But the Jaguars and I was like, oh that's right. The Panthers and the Jaguars are the two new NFL teams. I hadn't even thought to call them. And he goes yeah.

00;14;17;07 - 00;14;32;28
Unknown
And but I'm like, no, this is this is I'm looking at the phone and I'm like, I know this is one of my buddies. He puts a roommate on. They put they put their friend on the phone and they're totally messing with me. Right. I'll watch my language. And I literally almost was like, about to like, screw you.

00;14;33;05 - 00;14;51;13
Unknown
Whatever. Stop messing with, you know, because why would the Jaguars call me? How did you get my number? There's no reason in my head that I could possibly think that they would have. How do they get Ahold of me? Yeah. This ain't again the internet age where you can just pull up, right? And I go real quick, tell me again, I want to get more information.

00;14;51;13 - 00;15;04;00
Unknown
Let me see him keep talking because maybe I'll fumble over and say something different. He says all the same stuff again. And I'm like, okay, this is weird. This seems like shit. But like, this makes no sense. So I just got, I got how did you get my number like that? I don't mean to ask that, but like, this is weird.

00;15;04;00 - 00;15;22;28
Unknown
Like how he goes. Oh, yeah, we, We got all your information from Lisa Chico at the Charlotte and Chico. I know there's going to be a reason it with Lisa. I go, what? She goes, they go, yeah, I go, but why? Why would the again they go. Oh, well, in our due diligence to start a mascot program, we called around to some of the best programs in sports.

00;15;22;28 - 00;15;39;09
Unknown
And. And Hugo the Hornet in Charlotte was one of the best mascots in the NBA going. So they were calling different programs to see, hey, what? What do you do? Great, because you have a great program. We want to do that. And, and they talked to the Charlotte Hornets. And the Hornets said, hey, yeah. No we don't have any information for you.

00;15;39;09 - 00;16;01;05
Unknown
Hugo's been here. You know, we haven't had a tryout in forever. But you know what? We also own the Charlotte Knights and the Charlotte Knights. Our baseball team is actually having tryouts, or had tryouts a few months ago, so they probably give you a bunch of information. Boom. Rowdy calls Charlotte Knights talks. So you said you wouldn't have gone down knowing that you weren't going to get it for the experience.

00;16;01;05 - 00;16;16;09
Unknown
You would have never been Jackson to 100%. And that's what I, when I go story, when I go and speak to like high school or college kids, it's what I tell them all the time. I was like, my, my message is take advantage. Go through every open door. Go through any door that opens in front of you. Go through it.

00;16;16;11 - 00;16;32;02
Unknown
Right. Go through it. You don't know what's on the other side, but it might be something great. And if it isn't, turn around. You come back through, but go through the open door. Because again, had I hung that phone up, there's no I'm not here. Interesting. Well, what's interesting to me, too, is that you were you knew that you were going to be a mascot.

00;16;32;03 - 00;16;47;03
Unknown
Like, it's like. I mean, that's not a normal thing. I would think that a lot of people like, yeah, I'm going to be a mascot and I'm going to figure out who needs one. Yeah. You know, it was it was, it was, it really started in my junior year. Once I got the mascot, I thought I was just getting it to get my buddies better tickets.

00;16;47;03 - 00;17;02;03
Unknown
Right? And to have fun and, you know, be on the on the field and on the court entertaining people, which I've always done and my whole life for free. And, you can get in trouble. Whatever. You know, as I, as I told people for 19 years in the NFL, I got paid to do everything. I got sent to the principal's office.

00;17;02;03 - 00;17;21;12
Unknown
They were back in school. Does this job, did it pay benefits? Like, oh, yeah, I got a pension coming in four years. Oh my gosh. Yes, that is awesome. Yeah I got a pension coming in. Well for I'm almost 51 so four years for God is amazing. So obviously your claim to fame an amazing story. You were 20 years into that, right?

00;17;21;13 - 00;17;41;03
Unknown
19 years with the Jags, two and a half years. And your two plus years in college, 19 years with the Jags. Did the Jags have tryouts every year? No, no, they started the program. And again when they call me in 96 they were starting it. They started the cheerleading program in 95. Luckily for me. And then the mascot program in 96, just budget wise, they decided to do one first and then their first season was 95.

00;17;41;03 - 00;17;59;17
Unknown
And, and so I, I got down here just, you know, right, as they, you know, as they were starting that program and I got to create the entire program. And then once I started, once I got the one, the tryout, you know, it was it was just resign contracts. It wasn't like a new tryout or anything.

00;17;59;17 - 00;18;18;05
Unknown
Yeah. Because they were happy with what I was doing. Right. We were growing the program. But what do you do in during the week? Oh. Is mascot oh there's more is like community ambassador. Yeah. When I was, when I was the mascot for the Jags, I did average 350 to 400 appearances a year. Wow. All over the place.

00;18;18;05 - 00;18;36;04
Unknown
All over the place. Always in your uniform. Always in costume. Yeah, yeah. Was it what was your. You know. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. So tell how I kept this girlish figure. Yeah. Right. So the technology didn't develop a little bit to make that uniform a little bit. Yeah. There's nothing you can do. You just have to be in shape and you have to to not be bothered by sweat.

00;18;36;04 - 00;18;54;23
Unknown
Yeah. Interesting. So being at that before I go through everything else, like, what's your most memorable moment or 1 or 2, being being the mascot, I know I saw an interview online with you. I feel like it was maybe that a Denver game or something or whatever, but what what are the what are some moments that come to your mind?

00;18;54;27 - 00;19;20;28
Unknown
Oh, man. It's 200. I did about 200 games. Wow. Total count and everything. Pro Bowls and then preseason and playoffs and regular season. Because when I was there, we went to the playoffs, quite often because quite, quite often. Yeah. But no, I, yeah, it was, it was 350 to 400 appearances a year.

00;19;20;28 - 00;19;42;07
Unknown
It was, I ran the program. I booked all the appearances. I billed for all the appearances I collected for all the appearances. I designed all the merchandise. You know, I, I planned basically built the school program for the character, but didn't you feel like you kind of changed the way that, Jacksonville looked, right?

00;19;42;07 - 00;20;01;10
Unknown
Like the. Oh, yeah thing right now, you're like, no, that was big. That was big. Yeah. The first day I get there July 1st. So I the tryouts in early June, of 96, I start July 1st, I come down here, I get to work and like my second day of work, they go, all right, you ready? Are you ready to see the character is being is being, you know, made right now.

00;20;02;11 - 00;20;23;19
Unknown
And they show me they open up this, you know, artist's sketches of the official. I still have them. Yeah. And I look at it, and I was like, you and I go, well, I knew I was gonna be a fat character, which I'm totally cool with because they're fun. But I look at it, and it was orange with black spots, and I looked at it and I said, this is uncomfortable for me.

00;20;23;22 - 00;20;48;20
Unknown
I'm 21. I'm turning 22. And like, I had to have some hood spot sign. Yeah, I literally I literally on my second day, I'm 21 years old and I go, the costume was not finished yet, right? And they go, no, no, no. I go, okay, good. Like why? I'm like, The colors just aren't right. I was like, he's going to be confused for Chester Cheetah, right?

00;20;48;21 - 00;21;01;28
Unknown
And if I showed you the picture, if you see it in that thing, I remember I was very close to Chester Cheetah, and I was like, it's going to be confused with Chester Cheetah and branding wise, you know, because I was a PR major and stuff. And I said, branding wise, we don't want to have any confusion with any other characters.

00;21;01;28 - 00;21;22;00
Unknown
This character has to be like, when you see it. I know it's that one. There's nobody else it could possibly be. And they said, all right, well, what do you suggest? And I said, I said, let's make it more cartoonish. I was like, I know you're because they were struggling between what they wanted. You know, the lot of people in town wanted a, you know, a muscle jaguar trying to rip things apart, you know?

00;21;22;18 - 00;21;41;24
Unknown
But that's not entertaining. And so they were they were struggling with that. They wanted the fat character that was made by this company, Harrison Erickson, who made, the Philly Phanatic and the Muppets and a bunch of other, you know, top tier characters. And they were struggling with the the mean football, Jaguar realist, real looking Jaguar to cartoon fantasy character Jaguar.

00;21;41;27 - 00;21;56;29
Unknown
And so they kept the they tried to keep the natural colors of a jaguar but they missed on it was more orange. And I said I said all right. I was like, let's do this. Let's make it something that nobody else will have. There's no animal on the planet that will look like this. Make it bright yellow, which sticks in kind of the gold.

00;21;57;05 - 00;22;12;04
Unknown
But take the gold of your main colors and let's go with a yellow because he's a cartoon. And go yellow and make those spots teal. And I said, I need to put shorts on and they were like, well, that's a that's the weirdest of the things you want to change. Why? I said, because we never had shorts on.

00;22;12;04 - 00;22;28;00
Unknown
I can't streak. And again, this is like my first week and I'm like, what you mean, streak? I was like, I'm going to do a streaking bit at some point and it's only going to be funny. It's only going to be funny if he's always worn pants and stuff. Yeah, of course, because some masks got you see, they don't have pants.

00;22;28;02 - 00;22;45;20
Unknown
They just have a shirt. No I'm getting it. And I was like, so I and they're like, all right. It's funny I agreed all the changes, which is really cool. And it looks the same today. I mean, yeah, a handful of years in, he used to look out the neck. I would look at the neck, similar to to Big Bird so that the he would be taller.

00;22;45;23 - 00;23;00;23
Unknown
And I got tired of that because I started doing stunts. And the problem was that they're looking out the neck of the costume. Sorry, kids. Turn it off right now. Don't listen to this part of the podcast ruining the illusion. But when you look out the neck and the heads up here, you know, I got a helmet on.

00;23;00;25 - 00;23;15;03
Unknown
You know, it's a kind of a lacrosse helmet. Batting helmet with the chin strap so the head stays. So when you turn, it goes with you. But I got a helmet on, but I got nothing covering my face. So I'm right here with you. And there's this first thing that you can kind of. If you sit too long, you sit still too long.

00;23;15;03 - 00;23;33;04
Unknown
Kids can see and they're like, that's where it looks at you. You kind of stay moving. But that wasn't the bad part. The bad part is when a football player goes to grab the character by the neck and he's, that's my face and that's what happened. It happened one time a football player came up and he thought he again, the football players, yes.

00;23;33;04 - 00;23;53;00
Unknown
They're not exactly the brightest of them. Some of them some. Yeah. Right. But anyway he thinks he's grabbing the neck of the character and he grabs the neck of the character to take like this angle, you know, look up. So I go, you know what? This has to change. So I opened the mouth, okay. Because the mouth had been closed until then.

00;23;53;00 - 00;24;07;02
Unknown
So I opened the mouse, I could see out the mouth. And now I have a a face shield protecting me so nothing can like that. Makes sense. And I had a couple nose stinger. You know, those ones where it stings real bad and water, eyes, water and a couple of those and I go, this is not fun. Like it's going to get one of these is going to break my nose.

00;24;07;02 - 00;24;22;21
Unknown
And then blood's just gonna start coming out of a tracheotomy of Jackson's neck. She's gonna it's gonna scare some kid terribly. Now, did you ride in the plane with the team? No, no, you don't do away games. Okay. I rode with the team a couple times when I wanted to go on a weight trip. But not to perform because.

00;24;22;28 - 00;24;41;13
Unknown
Yeah, you don't. It's not like college. College. You get to bring your character. Well, is cheerleaders, I guess that's. I never thought about that, but I would think that would be fun banter. You know, it could be fun banter, but could also be, deadly when you go to Philly or you go to New York Jets, right? Right.

00;24;41;15 - 00;24;58;14
Unknown
Or you go to Oakland back in the day, I mean, they threw batteries at our players. And I had already been had ice and batteries thrown at me at the University of Miami. We went down there and played. Oh, man. So yeah, you know, go on the road. That is so interesting, man. That is Wow. Are you do a whole podcast on that.

00;24;58;19 - 00;25;19;25
Unknown
How cool is that? I just that there's, there's 10,000 stories. Well, I would hope your statue is somewhere in the stadium. Oh, no, no, they removed all that stuff. Everything's everything's changed over there. So going through. I mean, you're just, like, the most diverse person. Like, you know, we're going to get into the zoo. Wildlife wanderer promotion.

00;25;19;25 - 00;25;35;09
Unknown
Like, I can't wait to get into that. But tell me that you did a stint as a as a talk show host. Is that right after Jacksonville? Yeah. You said that was five years. Five, five. Five and a half years. And when was it on? I remember it's a show called First Coast Living. Right. It's on NBC.

00;25;35;10 - 00;25;57;22
Unknown
Still here in Jax? Yep. Still on. Shout out to the current hosts, David and Jordan. And, yeah, I hosted that, with a, you might know her, for the first three years, my co-host, I mean, you might not know it. Casey DeSantis. Yeah, I've heard of it. Yeah, she was my co-host for the first three years, man.

00;25;57;22 - 00;26;13;10
Unknown
So, yeah, that was my course. So that was before she was married? Before? Well, she was married to run at the time. He was a second term when I, when I started in 2015, I think he was a first or second term congressman and was heading towards the second term, then his third term and then governor. And once he ran for governor, that's when she left.

00;26;13;10 - 00;26;30;28
Unknown
Right. And was she in news before that or. That's pretty much what she is. She had been in channel four long before that. And then she was with PGA tour. She was she was the PGA tour. On air person for their, their web. Interesting. And then went to four and then came to, to her for PGA tour then at 12.

00;26;30;28 - 00;26;53;19
Unknown
Okay. But yeah so I co co-hosted with her did that. But yeah the Jags I was 19 years she had bought the team in 2012 and I had already been close to quitting and close to moving on because I just I get I, I felt I had gotten everything out of 19 years. I mean that well I'm talking this is two years before I retired.

00;26;53;19 - 00;27;09;00
Unknown
Okay. I had already been looking, going, I think I'm done right. I just don't there's there's nothing else for me to prove here. There's nothing else for me to do here because I it's it's all the same stuff over again. I don't like doing the same stuff over again. And so I was looking and then the team was so bad.

00;27;09;00 - 00;27;26;11
Unknown
We had our worst year ever in 2012. And I honestly, I talked to I was talking to my friends at the time and I was like, I, I can't leave. I was like, I feel guilty if I leave right now, right? Like if I walk out the door after the worst season in franchise history, I was like, I just don't like our our fans.

00;27;26;13 - 00;27;49;24
Unknown
And at that time here in Jacksonville, those who are Jaguar fans and remember, like it was a tough time to be a Jaguar fan. We were getting criticized all over the country. Everybody saying we're losing our team. They're going to London. We'd been dealing with that forever and I took it personally. As Michael Jordan says, I took it personally and I from my Twitter account and stuff, I would go at National media, which is, you know, frowned upon these.

00;27;49;24 - 00;28;07;23
Unknown
You can't and you could still pull up Jackson's old Twitter and you can find some of the like I, I completely destroyed Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk, because he, he got into it with me on there and didn't realize he was talking to somebody who's wittier than he is. Right? Right. And it's still out there. And it was fantastic.

00;28;07;23 - 00;28;22;04
Unknown
The our fans were going nuts because he Florio was a punk and he he loved to take jabs at Jacksonville all the time. Right. So I went back and forth with him and and I used to do that and I was taking it seriously personally because I was like, no, screw you guys. I love this city. This city is amazing.

00;28;22;04 - 00;28;38;17
Unknown
I thought I was going to come to the city for a few years and go on to the NBA, because NBA mascots are more featured, right? And it's a more of a stage and you really get to you get multiple skits, you know, and I, I was, you know, really taking it personally as far as like for our fans, I was like, I'm not quitting yet.

00;28;38;17 - 00;29;01;18
Unknown
No way. I'm, I'm gonna stick this out. So I kept going for a few more years, and then it was just the creativity aspect. I was it was kind of like the new regime was coming in, and they were they wanted to do their thing the way they wanted to do it. And it was very different. We were moving into a much different, sensitivity world right there where my comedy.

00;29;01;19 - 00;29;19;18
Unknown
Right. Wasn't appreciated as much by some. Yeah. This was right before cancel culture. Like I got out before cancel culture. But it was it was just I had a sense of humor that, push the boundaries, cause the NFL to change all of the mascot rules. But they didn't name them after me. I'm still bothered by that.

00;29;20;20 - 00;29;42;08
Unknown
So I was pushing the boundaries. I was pushing the envelope, and it was like I said this when I retired, it was like I got to for 19 years. And Wayne Weaver was the best, for the 17 years I was with him or 16. I got to drive the car at 100 miles an hour on any road I wanted, as the character.

00;29;42;10 - 00;30;03;03
Unknown
And it was kind of turning into. Hey, you can still drive the car, but you got to go 60, and you got to stay on these roads, right? And at that point, I was like, here's the keys. Right? Right. You drive right? Because I know one way to do this. I know one way to do this. And so I started looking, and that's when TV came calling and First Coast, first Coast news, a connection there.

00;30;03;11 - 00;30;28;03
Unknown
Network connection there hit me up and they said they're looking for a new male host, and and I was like, how much that pay? And I was it was May, early May of 19. I'm sorry, 2015. And it was ripe for the schedules coming out. And in the NFL world, once the schedule comes out as a mascot, then it's like, okay, now I know the dates of the home games.

00;30;28;06 - 00;30;45;17
Unknown
I know. And so then you start planning your skits, start planning what you're doing for that intro, what you know, if this and game off starts, you know, all those things. And then the summer starts up. My workout, program to get in shape for the season, which is running sprints out there on the practice fields after the team finishes and like all that stuff.

00;30;45;17 - 00;31;02;18
Unknown
And it is. I was also turned 15. I was just I just turned 40. So I'm 40 going to turn 41. And I was eating pears. I was I'm sorry, I was eating Advil like it was coming out of a Pez dispenser. And it was like, I can't keep doing this. I'm having back spasms every every few months.

00;31;02;18 - 00;31;18;06
Unknown
I'm wearing a back brace to appearances. You know, there's times I'm literally in a back brace in the van, lifting my leg to put it in the costume. Never think about that and then go get on a scooter. And I'm going around, like, hoping that I don't, you know, a kid doesn't grab me. And I it was just like something.

00;31;18;14 - 00;31;36;21
Unknown
There has to be another way to make money. Yeah. And I had been I had been working on it because I knew I wanted to get into local media. Yeah. Back in like year five, I mean, I came from communications. Well, you probably made a ton of great connections doing that. And what was, what was the premise of the show?

00;31;36;29 - 00;31;54;24
Unknown
First Coast Living is a pay for play, lifestyle show where businesses can come on and do a segment and they pay to come on and have a segment. But then there's also, you know, foodie segments and, comedian segments and, you know, concerts coming up and all the lifestyle stuff around town. And that was in the morning.

00;31;54;26 - 00;32;22;08
Unknown
It was 11. It's on 11 and noon every day, 11 to noon every day. Did that take a lot of prep work? No. Before? No, it was it was fun. It was, yeah, it was really cool and fun to do TV again. It was like, wow, this is neat. I never thought, you know, not many people get handed a anchor position on a on a show, an hour long show every day after never having your face out there at all.

00;32;22;08 - 00;32;41;10
Unknown
Well, that's what I was thinking. Did they expect you to show up in the mask? No, no, no, because like I said, I, I had I had no about 15 years earlier, you know, 10 or 15 years earlier I had said, I'm going to get into local media here. Yeah. And I started on WRP 95.1 with Eden Kennel, Amadeus Hoyle and and Steve.

00;32;41;13 - 00;32;57;28
Unknown
Yeah. And they had me come on. And I would do, cat chat on Fridays talking about what's coming up for that game, because I knew I wanted to get reps and you got to get reps talking on a microphone. I, you know, to get to get familiar with it. And so I started doing it then, and I just was doing that because I knew one day I want to get into local media.

00;32;57;28 - 00;33;18;01
Unknown
So let me just keep practicing. My reps keep doing this, keep meeting these folks. And then I did silly things in the costume. Like I made sure that as Jacksonville, I went into every TV station in town in costume when I happened to be near that station. And I would roll in during news hour, right. And just in the costume, and I roll into the newsroom back when they're, well, I'm sure they love to have loved.

00;33;18;01 - 00;33;36;13
Unknown
Yeah, right. But I'm in there. They're loving that I'm there. I'm loving that I'm there because I'm meeting the producers. I'm meeting this, you know? So, and so I just built that network. Yeah. And until. And then all sudden, it worked. 2015 First Coast, First Coast Living called and said, hey, we're looking for new host and we want to put you on GMG and have you do lifestyle around town.

00;33;36;13 - 00;33;59;28
Unknown
And I was like, and I sat I had to I had to literally I had to sneak into First Coast News for the meeting. So this is May of 2015 because I didn't know you were. Well. No, because our partner station was channel four right at the time, and I'd already been told by our team when they asked me if I could guest host First Coast Living, I'd already been told by our team, no, they're not our partner station.

00;33;59;28 - 00;34;21;02
Unknown
We can't put one of our people on their air. And I was like, well, that stinks. I was like, I really want to do, you know, media. And so they, I did subscription for. But anyway, so I talked to the executive producer at First Coast News who was recruiting me, and I said, listen, I was like, this is very delicate because, like, we can't have anybody know that I'm meeting with you to talk about a job.

00;34;21;02 - 00;34;40;29
Unknown
We can't have this get out that I'm possibly leaving because it'll. And so I go to the side door and I go in there with the GM and this executive producer, and we meet and I said, listen, first I just want to say, like, y'all understand what you're getting, right? Like, this is going to be raw. This is going to be very un unfiltered.

00;34;40;29 - 00;34;58;14
Unknown
And I mean, I'm not going to swear on air, which I never did, luckily. But I'm not like I have no training. I didn't even take a journalism class, which was never a major failing. Yeah for sure. And they were like, no. As James Gladstone says, we're hiring you to be you. Yeah. And when I heard that, it was music to my ears.

00;34;58;15 - 00;35;16;20
Unknown
That's awesome. That's awesome. So you did that for five years and you know the shark coatings you're doing that. Are you an owner in that or. No. No shark coatings I did for a few years. I helped them build that brand. But they were on the show. They were kind of First Coast living in it, because I feel like that's where I remembered your face.

00;35;16;20 - 00;35;32;19
Unknown
Like, as I started research. And you like. Yeah, a lot of commercials. Yeah, a lot of commercials. Well, I mean, I love shark coatings. I did it in my garage. I absolutely love it. So something with Hampton Golf and RV rentals. You do RV rentals? I got a couple bars at the beach. Okay. You have a couple bars you own a couple bars?

00;35;33;00 - 00;35;51;11
Unknown
Lucky's and Hop Tanger and Jax Beach. We've heard of those for sure. They're fantastic. So I can namedrop there next time. I'm a silent partner, so. And the staff have changed. Never been a silent anything crew, but in this one, the managing partners, my partners out there, if they hear this, we'll know. Yeah, they they made it very clear at the beginning.

00;35;51;11 - 00;36;10;01
Unknown
Like Curtis you know. Yeah. So I have no managing. That's funny job duties with that. That's just a mailbox money. So. So you're married with three kids. How old are your kids? Six. Four and one. Okay. Because I saw started late. That's, That's awesome. Because I saw in one an interview you did about how you prioritize your life.

00;36;10;01 - 00;36;30;20
Unknown
And they are priority number one, 100%. As far as how you. Yeah, a lot of your hands and all this other stuff, it's what made me leave TV. Yeah. So it made me leave TV. Was my second child coming? We had some medical stuff with my first child that was challenging. And then my second child arrived and was coming in 2020, and I just.

00;36;30;22 - 00;36;49;17
Unknown
I didn't want to be on stage anymore. Right? You know, I'd been I'd been the mascot on stage for 19 years in this town. And then I was. You're the TV fun guy for five and a half years. And when you're in those positions and when, especially on the TV, one like you have to be, if you're going to be the Jacksonville Fun guy, you have to know everything that's happening in Jacksonville.

00;36;49;17 - 00;37;15;01
Unknown
And my second child was coming and I just didn't care about anything else. I didn't want to go to concerts. I didn't want to go. I wasn't going to the bars anymore. I was even going to my own bars. Right, right. You know, and I didn't I just didn't want to be on stage anymore. And I one of the things that that really kicked it for me was, made me stop doing Twitter as well, was I looked at the battery, you know, the battery, thing on your phone or iPhone.

00;37;15;01 - 00;37;34;22
Unknown
We can show you how much time you spent on every single app of the last 24 hours. Yeah. And I started looking at that, and I was looking at the time I was spending on Twitter, talking with some cool people and a lot of morons. And I was like, I got a second child coming. I can't be doing an hour a day, but you have to in TV.

00;37;34;22 - 00;37;47;17
Unknown
You have to be commenting on everything. You have to have an opinion about everything. And if you don't say thoughts and prayers, you don't say this or that. You're going to get killed by everybody. And I was like, no, I'm not like, you can look at my social media. I barely ever post. No you don't. I was looking at your social.

00;37;47;18 - 00;38;01;14
Unknown
Yeah. So and so I just, I just wanted to get out. I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. So I, jumped in to do spokes spokesperson stuff and, and kind of where I've been the last seven years. People ask me what I do for a living, and I was like, I hang with my three kids and my wife and like, no, no, no, what do you what do you do?

00;38;01;14 - 00;38;14;04
Unknown
As like, what do I do to pay bills? I tell people to go to Lucky's and hop on Jax Beach. I tell people to go to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. I tell people to rent my bus and I tell people to call me if they want me to do a speaking gig for them. That's fun. That's awesome.

00;38;14;06 - 00;38;35;22
Unknown
So how did you get into the zoo? Yeah. So how did you get involved with the zoo? I mean, what were you always an animal lover since the beginning or. Well, developer. I was the original big cat here in Jacksonville, so. Well, yeah. Big cat maybe. No, but I got to go out to the zoo, as the character bunch, because obviously, you know, doing events out there, and I got to go see the zoo.

00;38;35;22 - 00;38;50;20
Unknown
And starting in 96 and watching it change and watching Dolores and Wayne sink a bunch of money into it, and really change the how it looked and how amazing it was. And it just got better and better and better. So I was I've been going there. And then you start as we're talking, like I hadn't been out there in a while.

00;38;50;22 - 00;39;07;29
Unknown
And that is such a common thing. We hear from people is like, oh, I haven't been there in forever. If I don't have my little kids anymore, I don't have my grandkids. And I keep telling people I'm like, it's not just for little kids. If you want to go see the most biodiverse hundred and 20 acres on the First Coast and breathe the best oxygen, maybe not near the elephant.

00;39;08;18 - 00;39;32;12
Unknown
But it's it's such an amazing walk through nature. Yeah. And I got to see all this stuff change. I said, I promise you, you haven't been in five years. You haven't been in ten years. It has changed dramatically. You'll be you'll be turned around. Oh, I can't wait to get out. Is the research that I did I mean, the zoos got pretty amazing history open in 1914 and spring in Springfield, where I lived for three and a half years.

00;39;32;12 - 00;39;51;03
Unknown
Yeah. It's interesting, I mean, because that's a residential area now. I can't it was it was in the park. Interesting. It was in the park and it was the first when it first opened, it had one deer. That's a red deer. I think it was when I read one and then and then moved tonight in 1925 to where it is now on the trout River.

00;39;51;04 - 00;40;12;12
Unknown
It's just really interesting, the people that had the vision to do these things at that point, and then 1992 went through a huge redevelopment, raised a bunch of money, and kind of leading where it is today that there's a lot going on as far as changing the entrance exhibits. So let's talk about that. We got a brand new $70 million entrance being built right now.

00;40;12;12 - 00;40;33;24
Unknown
$70 million, 70 million. It started. It started much less than that. But construction costs went up right. As you know, in your business, you probably hear it a lot. The cost has changed. And so it's gone up, but, we it's a brand new entrance that has a, a skyscape the vystar skyscape. And then right as you, the first thing you're going to see is the Wayne and Dolores bar Weaver, Manatee River.

00;40;33;26 - 00;41;08;21
Unknown
And it's a manatee river that can house that can hold about 15 manatee. Interesting. Which will be, used in conjunction with our critical care center that we have for manatees that opened in 2017 that we use, along with Tampa, SeaWorld Miami, as the only places in the state to rehabilitate and rescue manatees. So when a manatee gets caught from cold distress or gets caught from a boat strike, somewhere before we had this in 2017, if it was found up here, which we have a bunch of them, it had to be trucked all the way to SeaWorld or all the way to Tampa, or all the way to Miami for that.

00;41;08;21 - 00;41;25;03
Unknown
For there. And that is stressful for the animal. So we really that Manatee Critical Care Center kind of changed the game for the manatees in the state of Florida and made, you know, made their chances a lot better, especially the ones in Northeast Florida. So now this new this Manatee River, this is going to enhance that.

00;41;25;04 - 00;41;42;07
Unknown
We can only hold five in our critical care center. Now we're going to build 15. So now our critical care center is going to be truly the critical care ones. Because sometimes we have some in there that are they're good. They just got to fatten up. Right. And these gotta eat a bunch of lettuce, which is very expensive, which is why we need people to donate.

00;41;42;07 - 00;42;04;00
Unknown
Right. But yeah, that'll just be for the ones that are critical. And then the ones that are fattening up will be swimming around right as you come into the zoo. And there's gonna have other I mean, everybody brings manatees. Every loves to see them. So that was another question. I, I'm assuming that the zoo, rescues distress animals or is that part of it or that is a different function.

00;42;05;13 - 00;42;24;24
Unknown
We're not the we're not the place to call if there's an animal out there. But, you know, Florida Fish and Wildlife, FWC or whatever they, there's, there's groups that do that. There are plenty of animals at the zoo that have been rescued. One buddy, our, our giant otter, out of South America.

00;42;24;26 - 00;42;46;23
Unknown
He is blind. It's really completely blind. And we got him because he was rescued from the wild in South America. He was abandoned by his family because he's blind. And they they'll hit it off, and he's blind. So literally, these villagers rescued this animal, and we're having that. And then we got it from there. And which is really cool, because that animal would have perished.

00;42;46;23 - 00;43;12;03
Unknown
Yeah, without human intervention. And now that animal in human care has sired, I think he has three daughters in the water with him now, and I think he's had a couple of litters, but he's sired other animals. And his genetics are pure, you know, and there's something called the Species Survival Program that that our zoo as an, as accredited zoo is part of, along with a bunch of others.

00;43;12;17 - 00;43;36;22
Unknown
And they are managing basically, for lack of a better explanation and really easy explanation. Current zoos and aquariums and everything are modern day Noah's Ark. They are they are keeping the genetics through this species survival program very clean and making sure that you don't have dad breed with daughter, you know, stuff like that. And so that's why animals will move around the country like we currently.

00;43;36;22 - 00;44;03;07
Unknown
You might have seen our social media. We're losing my explanation. I have always wondered that because they are always moving animals around. That makes perfect sense. We just lost banks to a zoo in Texas. A few months ago, and banks was our jaguar that was born a year and a half ago. About two years ago. And we lost him at about two years because as a male, at two years, he can't be with his mom anymore because he's starting to get too aggressive.

00;44;03;09 - 00;44;17;06
Unknown
And we already had hairy, his dad there. So we already have a male, and we had the mom. We can't have another male because we only have the two. And there's another. Is that like, I don't have a jack like between all the zoos? Is that kind of like a trading thing? Like, hey, you know, I just gave you a Jaguar.

00;44;17;08 - 00;44;37;25
Unknown
Do you have anything back? What's really great about it is to keep it from having to be managed by the zoos and aquariums. There's a there's a group that handles it. All of the data is in one central place in the species survival program. Looks at it. And like when you have babies, like we just had a new bongo was born just the other day that three bongos.

00;44;37;25 - 00;44;59;22
Unknown
In the last three months, we have three baby bongos, out there if you want to go see them. But they they they monitor that and they look and go, okay, Jacksonville has a Jaguar that was is almost two and has these genetics. This zoo in Texas has a female jaguar with these genetics and they're clean. They can be together.

00;44;59;24 - 00;45;17;08
Unknown
Let's get this one over there. Wow. And like, we just got a warthog last year that is now in with our warthog. Mateo, who was born here. But, yeah, it's really cool. There's somebody else that handles it. And so it's sad because, like, you might have just seen the post that came out, we're losing. Molly Markley is one of the three Malayan tigers that was born two years ago.

00;45;17;10 - 00;45;37;15
Unknown
Wow. And or almost two years ago. You're gonna have a pretty rare animal. There's only 150 of them left in the wild. Wow. And so he is going to another zoo to help have more, Malayan tigers. Because they are doing things we're not. We're not at the point yet. And doctor, doctor at Ling at the zoo has had these conversations.

00;45;37;15 - 00;45;55;20
Unknown
He told me this. He's like, we're rereleasing small species, like, I think it's the. And I hope they're going to get mad at me. I say it wrong, but there's a there's a newt and there's a Puerto Rican frog or newt or we're doing some with the Jackson, the zoo. I'm sorry. I'm blanking on it, but you can look it up.

00;45;55;22 - 00;46;21;15
Unknown
But we do these things with these tadpoles and we send them down to Puerto Rico. And so we're rereleasing these tadpoles into the wild, to, to rebuild this population that has been decimated down there. And so they're doing stuff on small animals. And obviously everybody knows the greatest success story, the gray wolf in Yellowstone when they brought that back at, you know, but that is the long term goal of a lot of these places going, listen.

00;46;21;22 - 00;46;46;06
Unknown
And that's why you'll also see zoos not doing like you won't see our at our, at our zoo. You won't see a specialist touching, you know, petting the tiger or holding. So you know they do medical training with them too so that the the medical treatment is voluntary. But it's hands off because yes, the long term goal is eventually we could possibly be able to to put these animals, you know, put animals back in the wild.

00;46;46;06 - 00;47;09;28
Unknown
But that is a a way. You're obviously very big. You can tell with all the like. So I read online over 2000 animals and a thousand plant plant species. I mean that's like that's incredible. And you talked about the new entrants. I just want to rapid fire really quick because there was the on the website is amazing because it goes through every single animal.

00;47;09;28 - 00;47;29;01
Unknown
But I wanted to rapid fire the ones that they kind of stood out to me like African elephant, like, do you know the three of them? Yeah. We got, Ali Sina and Tonda Sina Anton are the females. Ali is the male elephant and Ali was Michael Jackson's elephant. We got him. We got him from Neverland Ranch. What a bit of trivia there.

00;47;29;01 - 00;47;45;13
Unknown
We got Ali from never. You'll hear it on the train. Every time you ride the train. They tell you as you go by the elephants. But yeah, we got Ali from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch back in, like, 1997 or 98. Yeah. African lion. Yeah. African lion. Oh, what is his name? Is it Kevin? Ray is another one you can't remember.

00;47;45;13 - 00;48;00;28
Unknown
I don't expect you to remember. I will tell you though, there are people there. I mean specialist definitely, but there are. There are people at the zoo that know all of the I'm sure any of that. And, you know, we had the rock python, the otters you mentioned Otter otters are my favorite. I mean, they just looked like they're having fun the whole time.

00;48;00;28 - 00;48;17;00
Unknown
The giant otters, the little otters that you see over in Asia, those are the cute ones, the giant otter. If you see that in the water, I wouldn't go near it. Right. They're vicious. It's is. I mean, buddy, if he were to stand up is I mean, he's a good four and a half. Four and a half. Oh yeah.

00;48;17;00 - 00;48;32;13
Unknown
They're I mean, I watch National Geographic all the time and they're, they're serious. Predator claws are nasty. Oh yeah. I wouldn't want to get in the water. And you had a ball. There's a ball. You know, there's they're a couple balls. We got a couple. Yeah. Those. And those are also rescues and those are rescues because both of the eagles you'll see at our zoo have broken wings.

00;48;32;16 - 00;48;54;15
Unknown
And so again they they'd be they would have perished. And so you can see them in wild Florida a lemur. Lemur. Funny. That's got a bunch of lemurs. Got a bunch of lemurs. Yeah, yeah, we got a few different, types of the lemurs. Yeah, a Bono bone. Bonobos. That's, bonobos are. That's a that's a that's right, that's right.

00;48;54;18 - 00;49;11;03
Unknown
Bernie's difference. Do you know the difference between apes and monkeys? Oh, man, I should know this. No, I learned it. It's it's going to be an easy one from now on. Whenever you go to a zoo or anywhere and you see them, you're going to know, oh, that's an ape. That's a monkey. Monkeys have tails. I would know apes do not have tails.

00;49;11;03 - 00;49;30;27
Unknown
Well, I know about it. I think about it. That makes sense. Bonobos, gorillas, orangutans. Interesting. Got plenty of snakes and other pythons. Burmese python, capybara, I think have always kind of been funny. And then, of course, you got the emu. There's famous with all the commercials you talked about manatees, zebras. Did you. Have you ever held a sloth?

00;49;30;29 - 00;49;47;10
Unknown
I have not got. I've got to feed this. They don't let they'll let you in the behind the scenes experience with the slaves. They'll let you hold food and let them take it from you. Okay. Which is really cool. Yeah. And they literally move that slow. They do that. Is this. They do. Craziest animal. Like, how did they ever survive?

00;49;47;10 - 00;50;01;12
Unknown
Like it? Just like mind blowing. We just opened Sloth Crossing, a month and a half ago. They drive by the kids play park, and, it's called Sloth Crossing because one of the things we do at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens and the whole point of what we do there, is to connect people with wildlife in wild places.

00;50;01;15 - 00;50;18;18
Unknown
And it's all about conservation and education. And sloth crossings comes from down in Costa Rica. There's a program we support at the Jacksonville Zoo in Gardens with your dollars that you when you come to the zoo, any time you buy a ticket, $1 from that ticket goes straight to conservation efforts around the world. And $4 every membership goes to conservation efforts around the world.

00;50;18;18 - 00;50;37;18
Unknown
So when you come and help us, we are funding programs like the Sloth Crossing in Costa Rica, where they install ropes above highways so that you can get from one side of the road to the other without coming to the ground. Because when a sloth comes to the ground, that's when they die. Cars hit them or predators get them.

00;50;37;21 - 00;50;55;06
Unknown
Mandrill. Black bear bears are always my, one of my favorite giraffe. I mean, you've got to love giraffe. Giraffe. Have you ever fed one? Absolutely. The Jurassic the one of the coolest parts of of our zoo everybody comments about is you can feed giraffes at our zoo with the total experience ticket. You can walk up and feed a giraffe.

00;50;55;08 - 00;51;10;10
Unknown
And our giraffe overlook is really cool because you're at head height. So as they walk up to the railing to their head is right here and you're handing food like that and that's, you know, that. Oh man. The coolest thing I got to do, though with the giraffes when I was on news again, they said, oh, you want to cover the zoo?

00;51;10;10 - 00;51;24;22
Unknown
I'm like, yeah. So you show up with a camera and you tell the zoo you're going to do fun stories, and I'll let you do anything. And I got to hold the head of a three day old giraffe. Oh my gosh. For it's, well, awesome is that they're going to do the first one. That was probably pretty big at that point.

00;51;24;22 - 00;51;40;14
Unknown
It is my height. So they go, I'm coming to the news and I go, what do I have to do? And I had already done a one week old tiger cub, Malayan tiger. I got to hold the tiger and help with its first wellness check. Or maybe a second. But the the giraffe, it was the first wellness check for this giraffe.

00;51;40;16 - 00;51;52;15
Unknown
So I've been with mom for a few days and they're like, okay, we're going to do a wellness check. They separated mom, but you don't go in there now. They had separated mom and they're like, okay. And I go, what am I doing? Like, I don't do needles, I don't I can't do that. But I said, what am I doing?

00;51;52;18 - 00;52;08;21
Unknown
And they said, they said, what you gotta do is the most important. We are going to put a towel over the head. One of our specials will put a towel over the giraffe's head, and then we need you to just grab both sides of the head and just hold it and just keep it still. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, it's a three day old giraffe.

00;52;08;21 - 00;52;28;25
Unknown
Okay. Come on. Oh goodness me. I walk around the corner and I look and I'm eye to eye with this thing. And I'm like, okay, it's my height already. That's weird. Oh my gosh, it's a baby, right? Yeah. See, Bambi is going to be wild, right? They put that towel over, they go, okay, come here. And I come up and I go and I'm holding like this.

00;52;28;25 - 00;52;46;27
Unknown
And all of a sudden I'm like, oh my God. They're like, yes, hold it, hold it. We told you I'm like, okay, okay. Holy cow. It's like really strong. It probably has teeth. The whole that whole thing, that whole neck is just one big muscle. And three day old. And I'm like, I mean, I'm not the biggest guy.

00;52;46;27 - 00;53;05;27
Unknown
I'm not saying I'm, I'm. But I'm not the smallest guy either. But I was like, Holy cow, that is amazing. Three days, three days old. And that thing would trample me if I if that. It just shows you how the wild is, man. You got to be ready to go day one. Rhino. I've always loved rhinos. Warthogs are hilarious to me.

00;53;05;27 - 00;53;27;04
Unknown
We talked about the best, the apes and the gorillas. Pretty incredible. It's it's so interesting to go through there. I mean, there's so many more species out there. Do all of them get named? Yes, all of them get names. And then they were most of them respond by their names. You know, the specialist. What's funny is specialists have other names, for some of the animals, too.

00;53;27;04 - 00;53;43;08
Unknown
But there are names for every animal because some some names were, paid for by a donor. A donor donated to get to name the animal. So we do that from time to time. You'll see that pop up. It's a cool one thing you mention, too, that I definitely want to get out to the people listening is there's different experiences with different tickets.

00;53;43;08 - 00;54;02;28
Unknown
Sure. So talk about that. Like how does that work? Yeah. So there's a total experience ticket. There's your there's your regular ticket get you in. There's total experience ticket. And the total experience ticket gets you you ride the train, you feed the giraffes, you feed the the stingrays, you feed the lorikeets. You get to go in the 4D theater, and you get to ride the carousel.

00;54;03;00 - 00;54;20;14
Unknown
So there's a bunch of stuff, and there's no decision between those tickets. Right? It's a little more, but you get to do all the stuff is there. If you just do the regular ticket, you go see all the animals, but you can't ride the train. Can't do the carousel. Yeah. But, and then there's obviously the membership, which I will tell you, the membership, two different types of memberships.

00;54;20;14 - 00;54;42;23
Unknown
There's a regular membership, which I think is the best deal going. And the way I, I tell everybody is you pay for two and a half visits and you'll get 360 for free. Wow. Because we're only closed two days a year, and so you the cost of it is the cost of coming to the zoo two and a half times, right?

00;54;42;29 - 00;55;04;25
Unknown
So if you go three times to the zoo, you've paid for your membership in a year, and then you get all you get invited to a bunch of stuff. But the one I've been a member of, before I even worked there, was the heart of the Zoo Society. And that is a, higher tier membership donation. It starts at $500, versus I think the regular membership is like 75 for adults, 65 for kids.

00;55;05;05 - 00;55;26;11
Unknown
But it's $500 the first level. And then there's like a thousand and a 5000 or 2000, and that gets you invited to, more events first. Than, than members. But it is also a great way, to donate to the zoo. And if you're going to anyway, you know, I'm like, I might as well get because you get a gold card to win the heart of the Zoo Society.

00;55;26;11 - 00;55;42;16
Unknown
When you show up, it's a gold card. Okay. Yeah. For your membership card. So, lots of different ways to donate and a lot of corporate sponsorships I read. Have you ever thought about a TV show at the zoo? Like a Jack Hanna type thing? Zoo TV? Yeah, that way we're trying. That would be, an interesting thing.

00;55;42;17 - 00;55;57;02
Unknown
We've talked about it. We would love to do. We want to do a podcast. But you've been an animal. And on TV, I mean, it's a perfect combination. The only thing we're lacking is, like everything else in life, time and money. Right. Well, we're A501 C3. And so it's one of those projects where it's like, we should do a podcast.

00;55;57;02 - 00;56;13;03
Unknown
And I'm like, we should do that. And you know how much this cost? Yeah, you know how much that cost. You know how much that cost. Yeah. And it's like, okay, we can't do that. Yeah. Right. Right. So that's why my I keep my I'm philanthropy I'm marketing. And so I keep trying to, to go out and tell people like, listen, our zoo is world class.

00;56;13;03 - 00;56;29;03
Unknown
Our zoo is amazing, but it can't survive without the time, talent and treasure of our community. Right. And because people donate their time out there all the time. That was two times in one sentence. But people, people do that all the time. And that's so there is there is a mechanism to donate your time to go out.

00;56;29;03 - 00;56;50;22
Unknown
Yes, absolutely. It's on our website. You volunteer. Can you do like jobs where you like just clean up minimal mess like stuff? You can, you can, but it's more fun stuff than that. It's it's it's actually, some of the volunteer stuff is helping with, you know, spooktacular handing out candy, right. Some of it is carrying an iPad around and going and observing some of the animals.

00;56;50;27 - 00;57;10;11
Unknown
And you'll see you'll see volunteers, you'll see their t shirt on and they're standing there. And this allows our specialists to have data on the animals. Right. And how they're behaving, because they can't watch them all day long. They're doing other stuff. Right. And so we have volunteers walking around with an iPad, and they basically watch for a solid like continuous amount of time, 15, 20 minutes.

00;57;10;13 - 00;57;31;25
Unknown
And then they mark what's happening. They got the animals moving, they mark the animal move. And so now the animals eating, animals eating okay. And they do that. So the specialists have all this data they can look at and you'll see. And that's how they see when an animal's starting to, you know, maybe not feel well or something like, hey, the data showing this animal has a move much in the last few days and that helps them go, hey, we should we should look at this one.

00;57;31;25 - 00;57;49;23
Unknown
You know what I mean? So it's it's really helpful. Our volunteers, our volunteers make us go and you know, we the donations again this this new entrance. We're still raising money for it. We can't do what we do at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens without this community. Yeah, but let me qualify that by telling people I don't want anybody to think we don't have the money to take care of the animals.

00;57;49;23 - 00;58;02;14
Unknown
We always have the money to take care of the animals. They get the first money. Right. So when the money comes in, good point. The animals are first in line, right? They get all the money first, right? This extra money. And why I keep pushing people to donate and just show up. If you just show up, we make a lot more money.

00;58;02;14 - 00;58;18;29
Unknown
We get more people through the turnstile. This zoo will go through the roof, right? And I tell people, the animals get the money first. But this extra money, when we get more money, we're able to build new things. We're able to make this, this zoo even more world class, and we're able to do the conservation and education program.

00;58;18;29 - 00;58;33;19
Unknown
Because the things that get cut when we don't hit budget like we did last year, like a lot of people did last year, the things that get cut are those outreach programs, right? And some of the outreach programs we do is going to schools. We go into nursing homes, we go into jails, we take the zoo to places where people can't get medical.

00;58;33;22 - 00;59;06;22
Unknown
And so that's the type of stuff you're helping fund. Yeah. Never worry about the animals. They're getting the highest quality care. They're getting treated better than most of us. You said lettuce are costs are high. So I get that. And a big component of the zoo is the gardens, which I didn't really, understand, but I was on the website like so many different garden, botanical garden, Savannah blooms, garden at trout River, River gardens, garden range of Jaguar, Asian bamboo, river of color.

00;59;06;22 - 00;59;28;25
Unknown
Garden like river of color. Rainbow color. Sorry, I didn't know what that is. So that's awesome. What's really cool is. So we have. We're a rare thing. Botanical gardens, the Jacksonville Zoo and botanical gardens. Not every zoo has botanical gardens, and even the zoos that do have a garden area and say they're a garden, it's usually like, oh, it's over there, and it's a building.

00;59;28;25 - 00;59;50;09
Unknown
It's a greenhouse, like a giant greenhouse. And there's a bunch of stuff there. The gardens at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens start as soon as your car drives through the entrance and heads into the parking lot, because every plant, everything that you see along every walkway from the entrance of the of the driving in all the way through the zoo, around the parking, every plant was place there.

00;59;50;13 - 01;00;10;29
Unknown
Nothing is by accident. Wow. Even when it looks like there's all kind of stuff grown through there, they go through and meticulously plan out everything through there. So the River of color garden is referring to the connection between all the gardens. Because when somebody comes in and goes a new person where the gardens know, I'll go turn around, right?

01;00;11;01 - 01;00;30;01
Unknown
Like we mean, I'm on the main path. I'm like, that's part of the gardens, that's part every plant you see as part of the garden. So it is it is world class. Our horticulture team is like, yeah, that's one of the best in the country, a pretty skilled team to keep that going, I can imagine. And then obviously one of the best things for zoos is kids.

01;00;30;01 - 01;00;48;09
Unknown
Tons of great program. Yeah. Home school, zoo, academy. I thought that was really cool. My kid goes, yeah, we homeschool our kids. And so. Oh, man, as you said, a great thing about new school. It's it's amazing. Lots of people homeschool. I didn't even know about that. I think that's amazing. Zoo camps. I'm assuming a lot of stuff going on this summer.

01;00;48;09 - 01;01;09;08
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Wild family guided tours. I mean, the YMCA just amazing with information like, did a lot of looking and research on that. Yeah. So good. No, there's so much to do. There's so many ways to experience the zoo. One of them. I don't know when you're going to post this, this podcast. When's this? When's is going live?

01;01;09;22 - 01;01;31;08
Unknown
Not sure. Before this Saturday. What's on that won't be that quick. We're not that quick. Not that quick. All right, well, when you see this, one of the things, that, hopefully you went to and people went to was our exuberant, party, which is May 3rd, and was May 3rd. We'll talk in past tense, but, it's coming up this Saturday is a few days away, and it's one of our largest fundraisers of the year.

01;01;31;15 - 01;01;48;00
Unknown
And it's a sip and stroll and sample party with local restaurants and bars serving drinks. Great idea. And it's 21 and up, so leave the kids at home for that one, right? My wife and I are going. It's date night is the first time, we're leaving the 18 month old with somebody else. Okay, so this is a big step.

01;01;48;02 - 01;02;02;07
Unknown
That is a big, big step that I'm proud of. You. Okay, I'll come back and I'll come back in the comments after this post to let you know how it goes. But yeah, so it's you can go to those events. We have we have conservation on draft, which is, a beer and wine festival in the fall.

01;02;02;09 - 01;02;22;03
Unknown
We have colors, the wild. We have, toast conservation. We have, there's wine and pigments. You can do a painting thing, and they have classes like that they offer all the time. And there's so many different programs that you can go have a great time at the zoo. Spooktacular, obviously. And you're supporting the zoo just by going to those.

01;02;22;03 - 01;02;35;28
Unknown
Right as well. So we're trying to hit everybody like, yes, the kids love going, but we're trying to throw parties that 21 and up want to come to two because the sip and stroll on the South Bank I love downtown is a really great event. It's a lot of fun, sip and strolls everywhere else you like to really fun.

01;02;35;28 - 01;02;56;06
Unknown
I've been the Tom and Jay Fun does one of the best wine and food events in town has has for 20 years. This one in my opinion is the best environment for a sip and look at the you get to look. It's night time. The lights are on, the plants are there. You'll hear some animals. Most of the animals are away, but you'll see some animals.

01;02;56;09 - 01;03;11;16
Unknown
But it's just I mean, it's an amazing place to go walk through and have a cocktail and eat some food from some of the best restaurants around town. Incredible. Well, Curtis, this was amazing. I mean, I can't wait to see what you do next. What a. I got a business. I'm getting ready to start. I'll come back on and talk about that one.

01;03;11;16 - 01;03;31;29
Unknown
You can definitely do that. Are you a golfer? I, I try to be for sure. You'll love this one. Okay. With this golf course in the golf space. Yeah, well, hinted that, but. Yeah, man, what a what a cool history that you've had. I mean, you don't make me people that mascot TV now the zoo. I mean it's just as I.

01;03;32;00 - 01;03;56;28
Unknown
Life is very, very interesting sir. I cs get degrees. So I'll say that as we finish this up is a great. My dad's like why he's saying that. But I have always been, into entertainment and into having fun. Like I said, I got in trouble. I was I'm the youngest of four kids, so I've always been wanting to get people's attention and all that stuff, and I, I've, I've crafted myself into a decent and decent performer.

01;03;57;00 - 01;04;18;14
Unknown
But I tell people all the time, I was like, every, every job I've had, I'm just trying to make ten year old me stoked. And so I was like, dress up in a life size stuffed animal costume and get paid. Check. Be on TV, check. Do funny commercials? Check. Work at a zoo? Check on bars. That's not ten year old me, right?

01;04;18;14 - 01;04;37;23
Unknown
Right. That's 21 year old me. And then run your own businesses and stuff. I mean, it's like you had a resume together. It would look really cool. So I'm on LinkedIn, and that's the one part of LinkedIn that I have not put in yet. I'd like you to have a resume. And I'm like, now my dad even kidding me about that when I said, I want to get into media back in early 2000, he's like, we should go to UNF and get some broadcasting classes.

01;04;37;23 - 01;04;53;21
Unknown
I said, then I'm not going to get a media gig based off of what I know, right? Right, right. They're not going to hire me when they have tons of people who studied it just because I took a couple night classes, you know, I was like, I'm going to hopefully get hired because they're hoping to get to entertain their viewers.

01;04;53;23 - 01;05;00;19
Unknown
Well, Curtis, this is really fun. Thank you for your time. Really appreciate you coming in. Appreciate your support of the Jacksonville Zoo and Garden. Absolutely.

01;05;00;19 - 01;05;14;25
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.