You know pivotal moments in life when you see them, especially in hind-sight, and for me the Class of 2005 at the Annie Oakley Western Showcase was one of them.  In the picture below, some of the best whip crackers, knife throwers and western performers in the world were gathered together in 2005 at the Darke County Fairgrounds in Ohio.  CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS LATEST YEAR.  Many of the people shown in that photograph are the people who mean the most to me.  I thought of that year while in Burbank, California not long after the picture was taken as I spoke with a stunt coordinator on a film production about whip work, and his fear of Anthony DeLongis discovering that he was working with me—who had taken over the whip work in Hollywood after the passing of Alex Green.  I didn’t understand the concern, even as the young actress I was teaching offered me a thousand dollar bill for our short half hour class on cracking a bullwhip.  I turned it away to her shock as she declared that Anthony would have never turned away money—who was a personal friend of hers.  As much as I loved bullwhip work, and the people in the business, there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that all was not right with the world.  I had just published the novel, The Symposium of Justice but for me it was not enough to write about the pursuit of justice, I had to carry out the traits of my characters in real life, and I expected myself to act and behave in much the same fashion of Fletcher Finnegan.  I didn’t want to be someone who just acted like a dynamic character from a writer’s imagination, I wanted to actually be one, and use my skills to that effect.  But that didn’t stop the need for people especially of the next generation from taking up the task and pushing the whip cracking sport to new limits.

I didn’t think much of it at the time because he was so young, not much older than my own kids, but Adam Winrich was one of those guys who worked out with bullwhips with the intention to become one of the best that the world has ever seen.  Adam can be seen in the picture between my wife and children in 2005.  I was very happy with that group, but always felt people like Anthony should have been a part of the festivities.  There just aren’t many of us out there in the world.  However, reflected in my discussion with the Hollywood stunt coordinator, there aren’t many films being done with bullwhips in them, so the competition is fierce on who will get the jobs when they do come about.  I had no plan, or desire to challenge Delongis for a film coordination job as a master whip handler when I knew that people like my friends Gery Deer, and Chris Camp worked much harder at the technical aspects of whip work than I and should be doing those types of jobs over me.  My interest was in actually doing some of the things I was writing about, so my destiny trailed off and away a bit into the realm of politics—where real threats are actually happening.  Without giving away too much, I have spent my time since that Class of 2005 living life in much the same fashion as Don Diego did in one of my favorite films, Zorro’s Fighting Legion.  I lost touch with some of those members of the Class of 2005 in the process, and one of them was Adam.

I feel I have accomplished many of the political tasks I intended, and recently announced that I was going to put more of my personal emphasis back on the bullwhip as it has been such a large part of my life for over thirty years.  The yearly Annie Oakley event still takes place, and some of those faces from the Class of 2005 still return every year, to meet up and tell stories of their previous year.  But some of those faces have found it difficult to return as they are continuously busy working in the business.  Adam is one of those guys, which isn’t a surprise to me.  Adam worked very hard, and it shows.  Since the Class of 2005 Adam has done shows everywhere from The Conan O’Brien Show, to football halftime demonstrations and everything in between and I think he is one of the most technically proficient bullwhip artists that there is anywhere.  Many of the whip masters who learned from people like Alex Green and Mark Allen felt they had taken whip work to unforeseen heights and they had.  Young guys like Adam then took the work several steps further breaking records and delighting audiences in ways that have never been done before.

I am very proud of Adam Winrich who has taken the sport of whip work to new levels.  I knew there was something special about him when he was cracking his 100’ whip in the main path in front of the Darke County Fairgrounds Coliseum, only to get a reprimand by Gery because the activity was going on outside of the yellow tape danger indicators.  Gery was right; the whip was very dangerous and could have removed the head of a person who wasn’t paying attention walking by.  But Adam’s custom made whip couldn’t have been cracked anywhere else because it was so big and I enjoyed his constant enthusiasm to try new innovative ways to advance the sport.  So Adam and I had the big whip in the crowd trying to crack it which was very reckless, and very fun.

One thing that is different with me from virtually everyone seen in the picture of the Class of 2005 is that I am not nearly as campy as everyone else, especially Adam Winrich.  I am a serious person almost all the time and have to work hard to crack jokes when performing in front of people.  That is why I don’t do shows in the way that Gery and Adam do.  I’m much happier in my back yard working with my whips in private than touring around the country doing stage acts.  That’s also why I had no desire to cut into Anthony DeLongis gig in Hollywood.  I’d rather write stories and have a creative influence on producing material that gave those guys work, than sitting around waiting for some producer to come up with the idea on their own.  But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying good work when I see it, and Adam is simply one of the best that there is.  He has done remarkable things with a bullwhip and that innovation continues.

I hope that in the future he can align his very busy schedule to returning to Annie Oakley as a new class of young whip crackers is emerging and could use his mentorship.  The kind of enthusiasm that Adam brings to the world of bullwhip art is the type of thing that makes legends out of raw talent.  I am very proud of the Class of 2005 because of people like Paul Nolan, my own children, and especially Adam Winrich.  It is wonderful to see that the fire that burns deep inside a mind can translate to the end of a whip with antics that have never been done before by anybody.  And it is my hope that such innovation and technical skill will continue to advance in subsequent Classes of Annie Oakley graduates.

Nice job Adam.  I learned to do this trick from you.  Nothing against Mark Allen, but he would have never considered such a thing before some of your technical experiments.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

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